Presonus Firebox Reviews?, Anyone actually use this yet? Options

[Yebot]

Any chance anyone has tested the Firebox on an older G4 Powermac such as a the Quicksilver/733 ?

Performance?

[paulnajar]

Hi All.

I've just joined. I found you guys via a google of Firebox reviews. I'm currently loking at getting one myself - mainly to play my 12" 1GHZ powerbook 768MB ram as a live synth rack running Logic Pro 7.1. And if I'm really lucky (read low enough latency) I'll be able to plug in a mic and do some live vocoding using Evoc20. I've read this thread all the way from the beginning and it all seems pretty doable. Just a few questions for the group.

About the most demanding thing I do is play an EXS24 full with about a gigabyte of VSL string samples through a space designer. Logic's CPU meter looks to run about 75% when I do this. I've been using the PB without an interface and have been happy playing Logic's instruments at 128 sample buffer. Is it reasonable to think I can still work at the same buffer using the FireBox?

Can Logic address the 10 FireBox physical outputs freely from within Logic itself?

Now a few Q's about the FireBox mixer.

I downloaded the mixer SW and it appears that there are only one stereo pair from the audio program (Logic in my case) to the FireBox mixer. Is this correct or have I missed something?

Does the FireBox mixer application allow me to set up different levels of it's physical inputs to it's different physical outputs?

Is the FireBox midi working well?

It's been very hard to find real world information on the FireBox. Thanks in advance for your help.

Kind regards

[arvidtp]

you might want to turn the buffer up a notch to 256 for that on the Firebox, cause it is a little less efficient than the built-in card - but that is understandable, as the computer is sending audio out at a higher bit-rate to more channels.

Yeah - you just set the output of a track to the output(s) u want it to come out of. But there are really only 8 - the two for the headphone will mirror another set of two (usually the main outs, you cant send stuff specifucally to the headphones out and not anywhere else) and two of the remaining 8 outs are SPDIF keep in mind. But that's still 3 pairs of analog outs.

The Mixer: The switch for the stero pair just allows you to send what would normally go to outs 1&2 to any other pair - for use with software like iTunes that has no way to configure which outputs to use and therefore just always sends to outs 1&2. Logic etc accesses the other outputs directly.

Yeah - the mixer will let you set levels for the near-zero latency monitoring that happens directly in the box. It will not let you attenuate input levels, however. This is done with knobs for inputs 1&2 and inside logic or whatever software for other inputs. Plus the firebox control panel software lets you boost any input by +12dB (within the hardware).

MIDI has been working great for me on my firebox. Never had any problems with it.

I think you will like the firebox. I also like the idea of buying from a smaller company like presonus, rather than some m-audio/digidesign/avid conglomerate. best of luck.

This post has been edited by arvidtp: Wed 7 Sep 2005, 03:25

[rickenbacker]

Yeah, what he said. Particularly the last bit about PreSonus. I think the little guys try harder, simply because they don't have the marketing millions to put a glossy spin on an otherwise pretty crappy product, like some companies I could mention. Instead, they have to make a knockout product and hope that its quality wins through. The FireBox is definitely a quality product.

[paulnajar]

Thanks for the replies chaps.

I actually got to try out the M-Audio Firewire 410 and the MOTU Traveller yeaterday. Both installed very easily. I booted logic and loadeds my live synth rack song with the audio buffer set to 128 and started to play my keyboard.

Well the MOTU Traveller performed beautifully and sounded great. No clicks or popos either. With my big string sample instrument through the Space designer that I mentioned in my original post the audio meter was at about 80% - a little bit higher than with the built in audio outputs.

The 410 did not do so well. It's sound was muddy and less defined and there wsere clicks and opos all ove rthe place. Even when I upped the buffer the 256 samples there were still a few clicks.

I'm yet to try the FireBox and I know the Traveller is significantly more expensive but it certinally did perform well. I don't need all the in's & outs of course. I can only hope the FireBox performs as well.

I'll keep you posted

Regards

[MoonDark]

Anyone using the FireBox with Mac oS tiger 10.4.2 ??? I would love to hear about that

[twits celso]

Anyone using the FireBox with Mac oS tiger 10.4.2 ??? I would love to hear about that

I am. And I've had a few problems. Sometimes it gets very crackly, even if recording at 44.1. I have to try changing settings back and forth in Audio/MIDI or even restarting to get rid of it. This didn't use to happen in 10.3.8.

Not sure what the deal is, but it's quite annoying at times. I have always managed to get it to go away, however--eventually.

[grassbro]

I have been using it (brand new one) for a week and only in Final Cut, it cracks a lot...

[arvidtp]

Thats weird.

what do you guys have your buffer sizes set to? Mine works great, but again, i'm not using tiger. But I used mine with Final Cut 4.5 on a computer running Panther and it worked just fine, except FCP (like some other software) only sees one mono output for the firebox, not stereo, in the prefernces. Despite that, it played back fine and in stereo.

[ArchivalAudio]

Hey
so anyone can you answer this?
sorry if any of these questions have been answered else where,or seem redundant.
I was recording a friend w 3 tracks and had 2 mics and one DI from a guitar.
one vocal, mic one guitar mic, and one Di guitar.
so it was very weird I got these strange digi buzzes and "devil"sounds (her words not mine) when trying to record and have the monitor selected in cubaseLe (bundled with it). I beleive these were similar sounds as tbirdwilson repported on July 10. once we turned off the monitor enable button it (mostly) recorded fine however we could not see the "actual" levels,just the wave form being written.
I am still vey new to OSX less than a year...
I have been a Mac OS 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 user for a while
and was using OS 9 for a few years....
I know we used to be abelto allocate more memory to a progam in OS 8 & 9 by using the get info command [apple]+ [I] but now in OSX there is now way to allocate the memory gain,or is there?

I alsohad this weird thing happen when I recorded Los Lobos in Albany OR
the samesortof glitchy noisesbut only in the right channel,digi noise,when I move the fire boxfromverticleto horizontal (fomin my back pack to on mu back pack) and also turned the gain down on channels 1& 2 (lower than I would have normally have my record levels set) the glitcheyness seemed to disapear???? may be?
pwer haps the hard drive in my ibook is too slow? (i think it'sonly 4500rpm,as opposed to my 7200rpm external firewire drive)
I have also notice when using the SPDIF in as the sync,I get some sort of strange digi noise too....

any ideas?


is there a better program?
is anyone using garage band withthe Firebox?
any luck?

thanx
again
you all are always so helpful!

I just wish I could select multiple outsin the mixer like NO radio buttons.
why can't I have outs 1 & 2 + the Spdif out going together,so I have two output feeds of the same mix or even alternative mixes? that would be super cool!

later
-- Ian