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

[miaba]

Rickenbacker, when i highlight record on all odd numbered tracks i get input from mic input one of firebox but not from any of the line inputs. I am new to logic and haven't had much time to "dig around under the hood" so maybe i have things routed incorrectly. As you said, I'd be happy to be proven wrong because I sure would like to get the most out of this hot little box

[homebilly]

thanks Grassbro

i was hoping that it was a 12v dc transformer

i have some help coming from Presonus.

BTW i have 2 boxes taliking to each other with SPDIF
wit no problems

digital performer one one mac triggering kontakt 2 on another
with K2 coming back into DP via SPDIF on an aux fader.

works great

just remember that outputs 7 & 8 are SPDIF
and inputs 5 & 6 are SPDIF

ron

[arvidtp]

Did i miss something - are u running them off computers with 4-pin firewire ports? Or do the firewire ports on iMac not give correct power? You know that the firebox is bus powered from any 6-pin firewire port (all the ones on macs to my knowledge have always been 6-pin - many PC laptops have 4-pin firewire), right?

best,

[johnnyboy]

I've had the firebox now for about 2 weeks, I've found it to be satisfactory for my needs. I have a IMac G5 512 RAM (going to upgrade to 1 Gig), I'm using to with a midi keyboard, guitar, and vocals. Some of the things on it were a little hard to get used to at first, but once I got the hang of it, it works pretty good. Mine came with the manual gitgeezer linked to, but it really isn't clear about the use of the software mixer. This program really allows you to get rid of the latency problems, once you get all the settings right. I'm using garage band right now, wanting to move up to logic, but it works fine with garage band. vocal and guitar pre amps are nice, the guitar preamp seems to be a little quiet, but better than the us 122 I had before. the wiring harness that comes with it is really handy, has a midi in and out, so you can chain, with s/pdif and all, it has all the basic stuff to just plug it in and play. I had one problem when I first connected with the syncing, I had to call tech support but they were really quick with the answer. I'm just an amateur at this, so I don't know if you're looking for a review that comes from a pro, but thats my input

[rickenbacker]

Miaba - so you want to record on tracks 1, 3 and 5, say. In Logic, each track has a channel strip, right? This is the vertical strip that appears at the bottom left-hand side of the Arrange page (the main view in Logic). Each time you select a track, this view should change to reflect the selected track. However, you can also click the Record buttons of a track using the R button on the track name itself - the numbered horizontal boxes that the wave form is associated with. If you did this, the channel strip sometimes doesn't change. One of Logic's little idyosyncracies…

Anyway, with the FireBox, input 1 and 2 are the mix inputs and inputs 3 and 4 are the line inputs. So if in any track's channel strip you select input 1 as the input, you'll be getting a signal from the FireBox's first mic preamp. If you select input 3, you'll be getting a signal from the FireBox's first line in jack.

If you want to select any input at any time (and this is true of any interface with Logic, not just the FireBox), you've got to do this from the relevant channel strip for the track you wish to record on. Recording on Audio Track 9? Click it's box so it goes light grey, head down to the channel strip and under the I/O legend, use the click+hold box to bring up a pop-up selection of all the inputs and outputs your interface offers.

In this case, you'll be offered six possibilities. 1 and 2 are the mic preamps, 3 and 4 the line ins and 5 and 6 the digital. Pick whichever one you want. Similarly, the box below contains your interface's output options - four stereo pairs with the FireBox. The Bus option in Output refers to Logic's internal mixer - you might, for instance, want to send all the drum tracks or vocal tracks to a single bus for group treatment or better overall level control.

That's all there is to it. Sincere apologies if any of this was blindingly obvious to you, but it seems to me that this is the answer you need. I just tested it myself and it worked - audio was recorded simultaneously from input 1 and input 3 in Logic.

[miaba]

rickenbacker- many thanks, this was just the info i've been searching for!
With a little more experimentaion I may have more answers than questions, but for now I will busy enjoying all of these new posssibilities.
To anyone else I'm happy to say for the price, compactibility, quality, and flexibility, the firebox is as hot as the name implies. Thanks again!

[homebilly]

i'm running them off of 6 pin FW from the back of the iMac. they are at best flakey and tempermental.
so run fine as long as i don't need to add any other FW device. if i do i have to unplug the firebox and
use that cable to run the HD. at that point it's a crap shoot whether the FB will work again without resetting the FW
ports on the iMac.


Grassbro is it you that built the battery pack for the Firebox?

other than that the boxes worrk GREAT! not like that POS Mbox.

ron

[johnnyboy]

yeah, I have some complaints with the Imac firewire port, I have the newest one too, and it can be tempermental with the firebox, sometimes I have to unplug and plug it back in to get it to sync with the Imac

[homebilly]

johnnyboy, this is what i found on the apple site for
resetting the FW ports

Shut down your computer, unplug everything

Let it rest for 15 mins.

Plug the powercord back in, monitor, USB keyboard/mouse.

Start up the computer.

When full booted, plug in all external devices.

[homebilly]

the FB plugged into a powered belkin FW hub has seemed to do the trick.
no more problems in about a week related to the iMac FW bus

This post has been edited by homebilly: Fri 9 Dec 2005, 11:17