Firepod?

[yomchi247]

Anyone have any experience, good or bad, with a firepod? how user friendly are they, and are they worth the money?

 

[DubDubs]

Our drummer has one that we use to record with. It's a fairly nice unit. Not the best but a good deal for the price, and you don't have to wory about preamps or software. It's a good all in one starter interface.

 

[jokerjkny]

love mine! works flawlessly with my Dell laptop and copy of Sonar4. did countless demos, live field recordings, even a few recordings off the board for our church, and they all sounded great!

truth be told, the knobs are a little flimsy feeling, and not as substantial as the knobs on my Presonus Eureka pre, but still, its flexibility and options are great for the price. maybe if you can dig thru a few, you might find a more well built unit.

 

[yomchi247]

sweet thankks for the reply. Do you prefer Sonar 4 over Cubase then? If so why? I'm looking at starting a project studio and I'm just searching out options..thanks

 

[msquared]

I have Cubase SX and Sonar 4 and I almost never use Cubase. I find Sonar to be a lot easier to use and as far as I know there's nothing that Cubase does that Sonar can't (excluding some built in plugin stuff of course). I've done demos and tracking for live loops and a couple entire albums with it and it's always enabled me to focus on the music rather than on some dumb computer problems.

 

[yomchi247]

hmm interesting, thanks for the insight. Have you ever tried Cubase LE? It comes bundled free with the firepod, so I probably would end up using this for a while if I go with the firepod.

What about Sonar 4...does it come bundled with anything that you know of? I've seen it on places like Sweetwater for around $500. Is it really that much better? (edit*this was the Producer edition...what is the differece between this and Studio edition?)

I've never used a computer recording program, so I guess some of my questions could be pretty lame haha what are the major differences between the decent programs out there?

 

[groovking]

firepods rule, they have to be the easiest recording interface on the planet. great sounding recordings. i went thru quite a few interfaces then i got the firepod and im in love,..i use it with cubase le. presonus customer support is second to none.
i use the firepod to record several tracks of our practices , and for demo work. get one you wont regret it. the so called flimsy knobs are incremental and they do hold up fine. ive been agressively using the unit for a good 6 mos plus.

 

[jrug]

I've had one for a few weeks now and I love it. I prefer it to any stand-alone unit that I've ever worked with. As far as software goes, I didn't even bother opening the envelope that Cubase LE came in. It's THE most stripped down version of Cubase and won't even let you use half of the inputs on your Firepod. You can upgrade the software through Steinberger for $60 but I decided to use Cool Edit instead. The preamps in the unit are good and clean, and there is plenty of connectivity. The unit is super-simple to use, but I do agree that it doesn't feel like it's as rigid as it could be. The firewire concern. It's well worth the money though. Especially if you already have a computer that's up to the job.

 

[yomchi247]

that's sweet. What can Cubase be upgraded to? How is Cubase? Would it be worth getting the upgrade, or just to buy a different program?

 

[jrug]

The $60 upgrade gets you Cubase SE I believe, which is basically the same as LE except that you can take 8 tracks in instead of the 4 that LE is limited to. I have to admit a prejudice of mine towards Cubase in general. It's really not the most user friendly software and I take issue with the fact that they "give" you such a barebones version of their software and immediately hit you up for more cash. I much prefer Cool Edit for that reason. There are better programs out there, I know, but I like easy and it works. I've read a lot of great things about Sonar, though, so I might be interested in checking that out. I still have much to learn, grasshopper.

 

[msquared]

hmm interesting, thanks for the insight. Have you ever tried Cubase LE? It comes bundled free with the firepod, so I probably would end up using this for a while if I go with the firepod.

I've never used the Firepod but I've been happy with every piece of Presonus gear I've ever used and I think their customer service is amazing. There are some signal routing things that I don't like about the Firepod (which is why I don't have one) but I've never heard anything bad about them.

I haven't used Cubase LE but if you're new to something, free is always good. Cubase is a pain to use in my opinion, but you might end up being a bit more clever than me so at least give it a go if you end up buying the Firepod. Another option is a program called N-Track. I used it for a while and several people here swear by it.

What about Sonar 4...does it come bundled with anything that you know of? I've seen it on places like Sweetwater for around $500. Is it really that much better? (edit*this was the Producer edition...what is the differece between this and Studio edition?)

If you go to the Cakewalk website it tells you what the specific differences are. In a nutshell, the Producer edition comes with more plugins. Producer is what I have, and even though I have some Waves plugins I tend to use the ones bundled with Sonar quite a bit. IMO it's worth the price to go with Producer over Studio, especially if you don't have a plugin library built up. The one exception would be if you have a serious amount of money tied up in studio gear (offboard compressors, equalizers, etc). If that's the case, use your hardware stuff with Studio.

I've never used a computer recording program, so I guess some of my questions could be pretty lame haha what are the major differences between the decent programs out there?

The differences are almost entirely interface differences with a handful of stability and feature differences here and there.

By the way, the only lame question is the one that can be answered several times over by using the search function.

 

[groovking]

The $60 upgrade gets you Cubase SE I believe, which is basically the same as LE except that you can take 8 tracks in instead of the 4 that LE is limited to


there is no $60 upgrade, i called steinberg,the next upgrade is @399, and up. LE is not limited to 4 tracks. i currently record using all 10inputs of my firepod using LE. LE is capable of up to 48 simultainous tracks.

 

[lefty]

i also have firepod and sonar 4 it`s my first recording setup and i love it. i`m a total computer dummy and i`ve done fine with it.

 

[jokerjkny]

sweet thankks for the reply. Do you prefer Sonar 4 over Cubase then? If so why? I'm looking at starting a project studio and I'm just searching out options..thanks

like its been mentioned,

Sonar4 RAWKS. and FYI, the studio version doesnt have 5.1 surround capability, and something else, that honestly, i dont need. the studio version is plenty of software for me.

as for routing, i like the many outputs, which allow me to at least 4 independent stereo headphone mixes. i can mix in more guitar for the lead singer, while removing drum tracks entirely from another. quite handy. and with Sonar 4, its easier than ever vs. Cubase, which i had to use effects sends in a similar yet annoyingly difficult way.