I hoped they would be a soft-saturating design, but signals are either very clean at normal levels or very clipped when too hot-and nothing in between. The one blind listener I had with me liked the FireStudio DIs better than the Fireface, but we both agreed the Fireface had more highs. The FireStudio preamps are certainly worthy of a shootout with anything and represent a flavor I don't have. Unfortunately, the FireStudio doesn't have enough gain for my vintage ribbon mics the Fireface does , and when I was testing this, I accidentally hit one of the phantom power buttons and flipped out.
There are two, controlling four channels each. Luckily, I hit the one not connected to my mic. My preference would be for individual software control of phantom power, like on the PreSonus Inspire, because six condensers and two ribbons is a typical set of eight mics for me. I plugged in phones and thought the unit was broken. There were steady rolling waves of white noise. I searched the net for others with this problem and was shocked to find this presonus.
What this means is that the Main Outs and Headphone jacks are fed directly by a digital chip-whether your 'pots' are turned all the way up or all the way down, you're still listening to the same amount of noise. Turning those knobs up simply increases the amount of audio in the signal. What this means to me is that the headphone and master knobs should be turned to max at all times, and I should use external attenuators.
I was so looking forward to a master volume knob too, because the Fireface doesn't have one. The master outputs are separate jacks on the back; you assign which pair of channel outs , , etc.
This is a nice touch; you can repatch as necessary and leave your speakers plugged in. I ran some tweakhead tests in Nuendo on the PC, relying on the Fireface as the benchmark.
I put one Reverb A on a group. Both the Fireface and the FireStudio handled this with a buffer size of 64 samples without pegging the performance meter. However, when playing back the recorded tracks, the FireStudio tracks were mangled even though the performance meter wasn't peaking. I was not able to record clean tracks with the FireStudio until I increased the buffer size to samples-no matter how small the session was.
This is still a respectable figure considering the age of my PC, but the Fireface could record cleanly even with a sample buffer of 48 samples. On the Mac, some existing 96 kHz sessions I had that are on the edge of the performance meter with the Fireface do not play back on the FireStudio.
The PreSonus is pretty new, so there may be room for driver improvements in the future. I made a two-bar track of 16th notes and assigned them to a hi-hat sound on an external synth and recorded the playback. I currently have 18 channels of outboard preamps and of course am always budgeting for more. The best thing is that more and more high end preamps are coming with good digital outputs as well.
One of my 8-packs feed the optical inputs of the FF. I was thinking of you buying the FF second-hand when I suggested it. As long as you buy from somebody reputable, and therein lies the rub, for most pro or semipro pieces of gear its worth buying second hand as they've already undergone most of the devaluation they are likely to and your money is safe.
I don't include mics in that as I don't feel comfortable buying condensor mics without a warranty. The FF gave the biggest "wow upgrade" factor I've ever had from a studio change. The other options feel a bit like "more of the same" to me although I know the TC Electronic is getting good reviews and they certainly seem to rate their own converters, FWIW.
As always thanks for the replys and what have you! Which i will be putting forth great measures to find this item at the price i want! It just makes sense to get the RME i can probably strech my budget to buying a used or open box item, i dont need drums now but i will later and by then i can load up the one of the ADATs with an 8 input preamp and have 12 mics for drums So, this is the route i should be going.
Also as i stated i am looking to 'upgrade' my recording quality and as jeemy says all the other units mentioned seem "more of the same" instead of an upgrade. Lets try and keep it less expensive! Though it does look amazing and would fit perfectly in my rack! I really appreciate all of your efforts and advice. I do believe that now the RME FF is def the unit i should have, next step is affording it haha but really thank you all!
I purchased one of my FF's off of auction for a low enough price that if it didn't work I could have RME fix it and still come in slightly under standard used pricing. My personal policy is never buy something I can't resell for what I paid and I do factor in possible repairs. How many input channels do you need? Do you need a full complement of output channels e. What's your price limit for a new interface?
Minimum of 2 L and R monitor outputs mixing and play back, 2 or more headphone outs for recording and listening during recording for mutiple people during a session, The only multi track recording i will need is for drums and i wont need anymore than 8 mics. I was upgrading for 2 reasons, for drums and for vocals. The Fast Track Pro only has 2 inputs so drums arent an option and I was told it isnt really the best unit to record vocals on. At this point and time i dont need to record drums but i will down the road 3 or so months after the completion of the studio construction and since i need to record vocals now and what to upgradei might as well get a unit that can handle both.
Myself and most semipro-to-pro members here will recommend the RME Fireface in this price range - 10 ins, 10 outs, direct monitoring, 4 good preamps and all the expandability and reliability you will need to have it last a long while and hold value on resale. You will need 4 more preamps to record drums, but don't let that trick you into buying a lesser interface with 8 preamps and USB. You'll probably be able to reuse just the preamps from the Fast Track pro - or borrow a mixing desk, or borrow preamps, or add them later.
I use the FF with Cubase 3, haha, have 4 and never used it, so not going to 5 and have done for 7 years now with no complaints. It will take me quite some time to save that amount of money unless I sacrafice my total studio budget in which case i will still be waiting and saving on a different item. I see you are interested in the Presonus Firestudio. I have been a user since and recently updated with a Digimax FS. I must say that I enjoy the firestudio despite the issues I've had in the past. I have never put it up against the FF, but I know that a member here, soapfloats has both units.
He may chime in and tell us the detail in the differences of the two. I've never used the m-audio either, I can only tell you that the Firestudio has worked well for me. This is an intended limitation set forth by the designers of Pro Tools. The only way to get a pure analog path of 32 analog inputs is to acquire an interface that has 32 continuous inputs with no configuration required. Currently the only product that PreSonus makes available that does this is the Studio Live 32Ai console and correctly Daisy-Chained There is a mention of this on the Pro Tools Feedback site requesting that this be changed.
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