Monitoring doesnt work…
Hello all. First post in the new forum…
I got the Presonus Firepod monday. Installing went effortlessly
Everything I plug into it sounds extremely good via headphones whenever the mixer knob is turned completely down (direct monitoring). If I turn the knob up even a bit (to hear recorded tracks for example) my headphones are filled with hiss. The hiss is quite loud, it overpowers the signal coming from the PC into firepod.
It doesn’t matter which program I use, N-track or Cubase LE that came with the unit… Also the wav files I’ve recorded earlier doesn’t work.
However, the unit seems to be recording like it should. If I listen the recorded tracks thru my laptops own soundcard, it sounds like it should be. (Althou I must convert the tracks into 16 bits which I wouldn’t want to do until I’m mixing it down to single wav file.)
From
What I found strange is that there’s no software mixer for the hardware unit coming with the firepod… How I should control my monitor mix?
There’s the manual, but it doesn’t really say much
Thanks for the help!
I have the FireStation, not the FirePod, but they should be similar. The mix comes back from nTrack on my Firestation on the CR or Cue Return jacks(labeled Main out on the FireStation. Outputs 1-8 have signals present only if you assign groups to them in nTrack.Without looking at the back of it, I stronly suspect this is what’s happening.
Good luck,
Thanks, I try that.
What’s puzzling me is what should be coming out of phones output and how to acces them.
My money sez you’re simply stupid. Heh.
Bugger off Ted. Leave the adults alone.
varakeef, if you’ve made it as far as you have, YOU ARE NOT STUPID! I looked at the manual. One thing to try, can you connect the Cue outputs to another amplifier or something to drive your headphones? The manual says the Mix knob also varies the signal balance sent out the Cue outputs. Be interesting to see if the noise is present there also.
TG
Quote (gtr4him @ Sep. 22 2004,15:44) |
Yo thanks for that informed reply, Ted. The adults here are a bit crusty and seriously obsolete with regards to recording technology & tools. varakeef, if you've made it as far as you have, YOU ARE PRETTY DARNED STUPID! I looked at the manual and I couldn't figure the shite out either so I guess I'm a moron too. One thing to try, can you connect the Cue outputs to another 120 volt socket or something to drive your headphones? The manual says the Mix knob also varies the signal balance sent out the Cue outputs but my guess would be to really jack up the amperage. Be interesting to see if the noise is present there between yer ears also after you put those headphones on, m8. TG |
Ok, well no problemo....I'll do my best to help you old fools out from time to time.
Quote (gtr4him @ Sep. 22 2004,15:44) |
I looked at the manual. One thing to try, can you connect the Cue outputs to another amplifier or something to drive your headphones? The manual says the Mix knob also varies the signal balance sent out the Cue outputs. Be interesting to see if the noise is present there also. |
The manual is one of the saddest I've encountered. Positive side is it's short so it's easy to read thru, on the other hand because of it' s shortness it's quite useless.
Yeah, I'm going to my studio to plug every single output into a mixing board to see what's coming from the outputs. Thanks for the hint.
Allright.
Now I tried every single output the unit has and they all hiss.
This happens when I use 44.1 sample rate. If I use 48 sample rate they still hiss but the sound of it gets a tad lower in pitch.
If I use 96 sample rate the hiss magically disappears. But then everything else dissappears as well, the sound I should be monitoring.
You know, after messing with mine for about two years getting intermittant performance from Presonus, I finally have had enough. I even had to do a hardware repair that they couldn’t figure out. I’m very disappointed because I really felt that it had potential, and gave me good results when it worked.
I bought a Tascam MX2424 disk recorder with the IFAN24EH I/O option from Rougue Music in NYC for $1675.00. The A/D converters have been praised as being on a par with a Radar. and it has rock solid tracking and GUI. I’m gonna track on the Tascam and edit in nTrack. It will chase Ntrack in MTC if I want and even sync with myTSR-8. I want to record, not tweak my DAW!!!.
If you can take yours back I would. The guys here can help you find a more stable interface. Ntrack is a great program and plays nice with most hardware.
Here’s the discussion I have in the audiominds forum
I’m by no means not getting it back to store yet. I’m pretty sure I’m going to figure out how it should work.
I have three weeks to go with the trial period. No hurry really…
Varakeef,
I read the audiominds posts. Mac and the guys are real knowledgable.
Keeping it beacuse I got it going is the same kind of fuzzy thinking that got me stuck with mine. I had initial problems with the Presonus interface and and talked to Jeff (the interface guy at that time) enough so that he recognized my voice on the phone. After about 2 weeks of putzing around I go it to work as advertized.
Cool, I thought. Now I can get down to business.
Six months later I started having problems with clock sync.
Shipped it to Presomus, waited almost 9 weeks to get it back. Worked great out of the box. Continued working for another six months. Again clock syncing problems. Now it’s out of warranty. ugh.
Got another RMA, shipped it back 8 weeks later it was returned with a bill for $200.00 saying they couldn’t find anything wrong with it.
My point is this. Firewire is reliable. Personus firewire products are very hit and miss. I love the AD convertors. I love the preamps. I am losing hair over the reliablity. Others here may remember when I was going though all this on my last sweep of problems…
I finally benched it myself and found a flakey voltage regulator, but a device is only as good as it’s support. Think about it, one interface expert for the whole company? If I wasn’t a heavy duty electronics tech ( I repair medical imagers like CT scanners for a living) this thing would still be an expensive analog preamp.
Unless you are into self inflicted pain, I suggest that you ask around and find a more reliable interface. I got the Tascam for the more tape like interface, but am NOT suggesting you spend that kind of money. It’s sad that some M-Audio solutions are far more reliable and effective for less money. MOTU is also rock solid.
By all means do what you want, but keep in the back of your mind that there are long standing problems that presonus doesn’t seem to care about addressing.
Most importantly, good luck and have fun.
When your DAW works it’s all good.
Thanks for the inside info, Deadfingers!
Quote (deadfingers @ Sep. 25 2004,08:14) |
Unless you are into self inflicted pain, I suggest that you ask around and find a more reliable interface. … It’s sad that some M-Audio solutions are far more reliable and effective for less money. MOTU is also rock solid. |
Actually I’m looking at M-Audio 1814 firewire right now. It doesn’t have 8 xlr-inputs but at least it has a manual that seems to give some information about how to use it…
I have mixing boards so just two xlr-ins is not a problem. I should be able to record eight tracks simultaniously with that?
I wonder has anybody here have used it with N-track succesfully.
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Quote |
When your DAW works it’s all good |
And when it doesn’t life sucks.
The M-Audio 1814 is fairly new to the market. I have not heard of anyone using one. I HAVE heard great things about the MOTU units. If you go FireWire with an HD192 or 828MkII, check around the web and make sure your PC’s FireWire chipset is one of the MOTU approved designs.
TG
Quote (gtr4him @ Sep. 28 2004,08:50) |
The M-Audio 1814 is fairly new to the market. I have not heard of anyone using one. I HAVE heard great things about the MOTU units. If you go FireWire with an HD192 or 828MkII, check around the web and make sure your PC's FireWire chipset is one of the MOTU approved designs. TG |
Motu units are a bit pricey for my budget, I'm afraid (firepod was near the limit, 828 mkII would cost 250 €'s more). It looks good anyway and I've read good things about it..
I've heard about the chipset issues with Motu, but I didn't find any from their site. I e-mailed them thou.
I also remember reding in Future Music that some pc-users have got some driver issues with Motu. Makes me wonder...
I decided to return the Firepod back to shop. And ordered M-Audio Firefire 1814 instead.
There was a good review on it on Sound On Sound.
Another 30 days to try it out and consider.
Yes, I read that review, and thought it sounded a good piece of kit. Don't forget to post your own review of it here!
Maaszy
I will… takes 2-3 weeks to get the unit I suppose.