any one familiar with it?
I had a chance to play with one for the past couple of days. I don’t know much about preamps beyond the ultra cheap range, but it sure made everything sound better.
What about the other things like compression, eq etc…what’s your thoughts?
I think PreSonus makes a fine product but I’m a little biased.
Quote (TomS @ June 10 2006,21:53) |
I had a chance to play with one for the past couple of days. I don't know much about preamps beyond the ultra cheap range, but it sure made everything sound better. ![]() |
I have a friend who has 2 of these.
He loves it.
KingFish
I thought that in terms of overall design it was very well thought out. The comp and eq both sounded great to me. The saturation knob did not seem to do much to my ears. Remember I don’t have much to compare it with, but given the relatively low price it seems to kick behind to me.
oh - also - the input impedence and eq together made it possible for me to get a very good sound out of my ribbon mic - and for the most part I have not thought that my ribbon was in the same league as the rode ntk.
The input impedence is the feature he likes the best. Also, he’s finding that his crappier mics sound better to him than his more expensive ones…although I don’t know what he’s using for mics.
KF
OK, I got out the plastic and bought one.
Hey, Stu, what makes you biased? You work for them?
Nope I have a firebox and I’m a brand loyal type.
My latests kicks are Presonus and Nomad Factory.
I alomst got the bluetube preamp or whatever it is called a while back, but I decided that I would save my money and get something a bit higher end. This thing is very very good.
The firebox - any observations?
It’s pefect for solo work. Well built and doesn’t take up much space. About 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" x 1 3/4", solid construction, knobs have same action as your eureka, and all inputs have a solid snug fit. 2 mic/instrument HiZ XLR inputs with pre-amps in the front and a 1/4inch headphone out. So ergonomics are perfect for what I do, mostly layered guitar work.
The pre-amps are pretty neautral and I can’t hear a coloring of the sound. My only dissapointment is that the pre-amps are a bit weak. Say playing acoustic with piezo I’m using 75% of the gain with the volume on my guitar at 100%, with electric it’s about 50-60% and that’s with a boost of +10db set through the software. The pre-amps are amazingly clean until they top out at about 90% than some distortion becomes audible. Overall though this has not caused problems for me.
In the back there are 2 line level 1/4" inputs, one midi, one S/PDIF inputs. All midi interfacing is through a breakout box so ergonomics make patching pretty easy. For output 6 analogue line out (1/4"), midi and S/PDIF out, headphone out and 2 monitor outs 1/4" (left and right).
The software mixer included is easy to use, and output routing is it’s strong point.
24bit at settings of 44.1, 48. 88.2, and 96K are selectable. The unit runs through firewire so no walwart needed.
Had this unit for 4 months with no hastles. Had some initial setup with the drivers. Price point was very good. Think I spent 340Cdn and ordered through Gigasonic.
Hey Tom,
I picked up a FireBox a while back. While I NEVER got the thing to work with my Compaq laptop due to some flaky chipset issue, it works great with my Dell laptop. I passed it to my son for use with his recording rig and I took over his Tascam US-122. The US-122 works great with my Compaq.
Anywho, the FireBox is a nice piece of gear. The specs on the converters are almost up to par with the EMU “M” series cards (got one of those in my main DAW… 1820M. It ROCKS!) and is well designed. Overall, I’m glad I snagged it. $299 at Guitar Sinner. It comes with some decent software as well.
TG
PS FYI… a lot of laptops do not supply FireWire buss power on their native ports. Presonus was kind enough to include a power supply though. More stuff to schlep around when traveling…
Thanks guys! good info!