• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Firepod and Firestudio dilemma

R

r05c03

Jul 21, 2005
403
1
Lafayette, IN
#1
Yeah so I have a Firestudio on the way. I was hoping to expand my DAW inputs, but come to find out, the Firestudio does not link to the Firepod (which is what I currently own). So now I will have two fire wire devices that do not link. My Intel Mac has two Firewire ports, can I plug in each separately? I am almost certain that this will make for own problem or another. Also, I run my external hard drive off of one of those ports, so if I get a hub, will I be shoving to much into the firewire capabilities at one time?

If, by chance, my new situation will no work to where I can use both at the same time, you will see the Firepod up for sale here, real soon, so that I can buy a Presonus Digimax...
 
#3
I'm glad you informed me on this one. I was thinking of adding the Firestudio to our current setup w/ a Firepod. I know you can daisy chain multiple Firepods. Presonus has some really strange habits in the way they design their gear.
BTW, I don't think they make a firewire hub.
 
#5
Your mac will 'see' both devices but your daw is only going to let you select one. You might be able to get the two working together by setting them up as an 'aggregate device' in audio-midi setup. This will require some futzing and I'm not sure what the presonus mixer software would have to say about it; I suspect you'd lose the use of the mixer software. There's lots of info on the net about setting up aggregate devices, and I've used this as a work-around in the past for a couple different 'unsupported' interfaces. Basically, it makes your mac see two or more devices as one device.

r05c03 said:
So now I will have two fire wire devices that do not link. My Intel Mac has two Firewire ports, can I plug in each separately? I am almost certain that this will make for own problem or another.
Click to expand...

I would think you would have to daisy chain one interface behind the other to get any sort of functionality, and I would try that before trying them on seperate ports. As far as firewire hard-drive hookup, you should have no problem in daisy-chaining your fw hard drive behind one of the interfaces. In fact, I've read that this is favourable over having the drive and interface on seperate fw ports. In my experience, though, pretty much any configuration of devices and ports is workable, but each different configuration will have it's own latency which needs accounting for.

I agree that it's frustrating that it's not easier to daisy-chain interfaces; I think this has as much (or more) to do with the OS as it does the device, and I believe that it works on the firepod via firmware which 'tricks' the OS into thinking it's looking at one device.

On the subject of firewire and Mac OS, there is some hope that the upcoming new version of OS X will improve firewire/audio support, so it might be worth holding out for that before making any big commitments on new firewire interfaces.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back