presonus faderport

neptoon · #1 01-11-2007, 10:57 AM

anyone tried one of these guys out? i'm buying a new house and i'm going to have an enourmous space to set up a small home studio...thing is, i know nothing of recording other than playing when the engineer says go

this looked like a cool little unit, and i was wondering if anyone has checked it out...i'm also looking at the presonus 1394 inspire as an interface...i'll be using sonar (not sure which revision) producer edition...i also don't have a computer yet, so this will be from the ground up...the reason for building my set up is this: i've got two bands in the seattle area, and i'm in the memphis area now (navy)...i would be getting tracks from the engineer in seattle, putting them on my computer, recording bass and sending it back...anyone else in this situation? i also think the m-audio projectmix is really cool, but i'm not sure i need that much interface for just doing a bass track or two here and there...also, i have no clue about going back and forth between sonar and pro-tools...yeah, i'm all jacked up...what do you think of this faderport? cool or crap?

http://www.presonus.com/faderport.html

i_got_a_mohawk · #2 01-11-2007, 11:35 AM

Never used one, but i recently bought a Presonus Firepod and Eureka, and, they are really really good quality!!

IIRC the fader port is all controls which can be done manually in most DAWs tho?

neptoon · #3 01-11-2007, 12:15 PM

yeah, it's a controller for the virtual stuff on your screen, but you don't have to use a mouse or keyboard to do all of your start, stop, punch in, punch out functions...that's why i'm attracted to it and the projectmix...playing around with a mouse and keyboard are just so irritating

emagdnim · #4 01-11-2007, 01:29 PM

If you will just record your parts and send them back to the engineer I don't think you'll need the faderport, since you won't mix the project you don't really need the help the faderport would give you writing the automation. I'd better get a firebox or a firepod instead of the inspire... but thats just what I think.

neptoon · #5 01-11-2007, 01:44 PM

i was looking at the 1394 as a recommendation, but after checking the website, i agree, the firebox would be a much better interface than the inspire...having never done any of this before, maybe i'm silly in thinking i need some sort of control surface? heck, i dunno...

emagdnim · #6 01-11-2007, 02:03 PM

Here's another recommendation: get the firebox! they are great and not too expensive, plus they're really easy to install and to work with.
You don't need the faderport, you can do everything with your keyboard. good luck.

Danimal00 · #7 01-12-2007, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neptoon

anyone tried one of these guys out? i'm buying a new house and i'm going to have an enourmous space to set up a small home studio...thing is, i know nothing of recording other than playing when the engineer says go

this looked like a cool little unit, and i was wondering if anyone has checked it out...i'm also looking at the presonus 1394 inspire as an interface...i'll be using sonar (not sure which revision) producer edition...i also don't have a computer yet, so this will be from the ground up...the reason for building my set up is this: i've got two bands in the seattle area, and i'm in the memphis area now (navy)...i would be getting tracks from the engineer in seattle, putting them on my computer, recording bass and sending it back...anyone else in this situation? i also think the m-audio projectmix is really cool, but i'm not sure i need that much interface for just doing a bass track or two here and there...also, i have no clue about going back and forth between sonar and pro-tools...yeah, i'm all jacked up...what do you think of this faderport? cool or crap?

http://www.presonus.com/faderport.html

PreSonus makes some great stuff. I highly recommend the Firebox, but I do have a question.

You mention Pro Tools. Is there a reason that you are not looking into a Pro Tools LE solution? If you are on the same software as the guys you are working with you can just pull up the entire session file, and not have to worry about importing and exporting files between two formats. An MBox2Mini comes with the Pro Tools LE software and the interface for about the same price as the Firebox. The MBox2Pro gives you more I/O and connects via Firewire. If you don't already own Sonar, the Mbox2Pro would be less expensive than the FireBox + Sonar6Pro, but more expensive than the FireBox + Sonar6Stu solution.

The FaderPort will work fine with either program, but if you are not really mixing, you probably would not need the Faderport.

Just something to consider.
Dan

emagdnim · #8 01-13-2007, 02:04 AM

I forgot to ask what program is your engineer recording your band. If he's recording everything in protools, it'll be easier to get a protools interface, but you can still use any other program.

neptoon · #9 01-13-2007, 07:45 AM

he's using sonar...but i think it's sonar 5 producer edition...hence looking at sonar interfaces

neptoon · #10 01-13-2007, 07:47 AM

i'm thinking that if i go with a fire 'whatever' i may end up going with a firepod or a firestudio, simply because i can rack it

WalterBush · #11 01-14-2007, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neptoon

he's using sonar...but i think it's sonar 5 producer edition...hence looking at sonar interfaces

The PreSonus faderport is a great little unit, although it feels a little flimsy (what do you expect at that price?) If you need the controls, get it. If you don't, don't. PreSonus gear works with all major DAWs, btw, not just Sonar.

Make sure that you get at least Sonar 5 PE if the engineer is using it. Better yet, get Sonar 6 PE. Sonar 5 PE has issues recognizing 32-bit drivers in 64-bit mode. Of course, either works in 32-bit mode anyway, so it may not come up for you. Point being, Sonar 4 won't read a Sonar 5 project file.

Any version of Sonar past version 3 will export to OMF format, which most ProTools setups will read, as well. It's been a little buggy in my experience, though, so be careful. Exporting your bass track to .wav and sending that is always a safe bet.

BTW, the only reason I don't own a Faderport is that I want more than one fader at a time. Until I can afford a quality fader bank with automation, I'm sticking to my non-automated Tascam.

neptoon · #12 01-14-2007, 03:30 PM

how 'bout projectmix?

WalterBush · #13 01-14-2007, 03:34 PM

Wow. I'll have to take a look at it at NAMM. It sure looks sweet!

adam on bass · #14 01-14-2007, 05:37 PM

<ProjectMix> I told you already!!!!

Frontier is releasing a new single fader unit as well called alphatrack, I demo'd it and it is pretty cool.

http://www.frontierdesign.com/