It was time for something different.

I made the decision that it was worth quite a bit of coin for me to have an interface that worked day in and day out. I did the numbers on the amount of cash I was losing by fighting with an interface that was constantly giving me trouble. It ended being a whole lot more coins than I imagined!

For a guy like me who never has enough time in the day (or coins in my pocket!), this is simply unacceptable.

Is Firewire The Problem?

So, I did a little research. Okay, I did A LOT of research. A part of me wondered if the whole firewire thing was causing the problems. For whatever reason, I will often intentionally go the maybe-wrong route just to make sure it's the wrong route. "Yup, it's broke, alright" is a common phrase of mine. So, I decided to try firewire route one more time.

It was a tossup between the MR816CSX and the RME Fireface 800. Both interfaces received stellar reviews and were supposed to sound "amazing".

"Great Sounding" Interfaces

[Rant]Seriously, what a load of shit! I'm sick of people assuming that all you have to do to make an amazing sounding record is plug into to X piece of gear. If they say an interface sounds "great" it means their recordings made with them sound "great". I don't hear THAT many great recordings!

Neve preamps do not sound "amazing".

Yeah, you heard me.

They just don't suck at all, and lesser preamps do. PERIOD!....or EXCLAMATION!

When I think of an amazing experience, I imagine about 18 naked babes doing bad/good stuff to me while I catch money from the sky, watch monster trucks, and occassionally watch an IRS agent's head explode.. Switching from god's preamps back to cheapo pres is not nearly as bad of experience as using a portapody or going shopping.

So, when people tell me an interface jammed with 8 pres, 8 AD converters, 8 DA converters, and a bunch of other random features at X price point sounds "amazing", I'm more inclined to believe Oliver North........or a female. Yeah, I'm desparate!

The correct phrase would be, "This interface sounds dramatically less shitty than I thought". I'm paraphrasing here, but I seem to remember Garageband, our mean old uncle of the RecordingReview.com community, saying the pres in his Fireface 800 were "usable". Now we are talking! Are the damn pres "usable" for a guy who has better ones? That's what we want to hear.[/Rant]

Both the MR816 and Fireface800 are well known for their reliability. (Although, I know people who have dealt with the ol' firewire-blowing-up-the-gadget dilemma with the Fireface 800, this may be an issue with all Firewire devices)

In th end, The MR816CSX had this so-called "Cubase Intergration", built in DSP plugins, and was getting rave reviews. I jumped on it.

It was a very, very good interface. It just wasn't the right interface for me. When all the goodies were disabled due to me using S/PDIF, I couldn't keep based it on principal alone. Don't charge me for dessert just because I got steak. Only selling dessert to burger-eaters blows! (To clear up my vagaries, read my review of the MR816.) I needed more I/O and way better routing anyway.

Firewire Is Definitely Up To Par

I did learn that firewire can be reliable as hell with ultra-fast latency. The MR816 was like spending a month with Sophie Marceux in Braveheart when you are used to living with Kenny's mom from South Park. I'm not sure if that matters now that Steve Jobs has ditched his little persistent-connection connector in favor of the mass appeal of USB or not.

Back to the drawing board.

Over Rated Portability....For Me

A big draw of the USB and Firewire interfaces is their portability. It's a long story, but lets just say that anytime I have an excuse to turn down a gig, I should. I'm overloaded. I've given up on the idea of a portable studio for a million reasons. That'll probably be a future blog, I guess.

Are My Needs Crazy?

I had trouble finding an interface that met my needs. Really, all I needed was Firestudio features that worked as well as the MR816. That would have done the trick nicely. I just wasn't finding it no matter how much I researched. I was up for firewire, but really I was leaning on PCIe or good ol' PCI.

My (Hopefully) Final Interface

I ended up snagging a RME HDSP 9652 off of Ebay for about $350. This is just a PCI card. It's features are......well.....featureless. It has 3 ADAT I/O which means 24 ins and 24 outs, S/PDIF ins and outs, awesome routing, turbo low latency, MIDI and that's about it. Its best feature: It just freakin' works. I'm still in the honeymoon phase with it, but so far so great.

Being that it has NOTHING in the features department, I guess it's easy for nothing to go wrong with it. This I like! That's my style. I want a race car. We don't need carpet, air conditioning, or even the abilty to play Windows sounds. That's right. I couldn't play Youtube if I wanted to with the RME HDSP 9652. The manual basically says, "Grow Up! If you want to hear Windows sounds, by a NoiseBlaster card." I like that!) So far, my only gripe with the card is its name is a pain in the ass to type. I seem to type it often!

Being that it relies entirely on external converters, I had to go shopping. Before I say what I ended up getting, I want to go ahead and mention a certain thread of a certain recording forum where they did a blind comparison between a ultra-expensive Lynx 8 channel converter and a Behringer ADA8000 (converters only, for anyone "serious" I'm not advocating that these pres are up to usable in the high end setting). They tossed up a poll and NO ONE could pick the superior sounding unit. These are guys who've drank up all your kool aid and went out for another run to get more when it comes to gear hype. All of them desparately NEEDED the Lynx to smoke the Behringer. It didn't happen. You can see the results here.

I do feel obligated to explain any Behringer purchase. First off, I'm not sure if I would recommend a Behringer product to anyone (with one exception, the headphone amp I purchased in 2001 is still going strong and has been used literally every day). It's not so much that Behringer is a bad company, I'm just not willing to risk my reputation on them. Sometimes their stuff is great. Sometimes it ain't. The latter happens a little more than it should, unfortunately.

Secondly, when Behringer items suck, they usually really suck. I know based on personal usage that the ADA8000 sounds fine and if it holds up to a Lynx (which I've never used) than even better. I needed 16 ins and outs and going with the next step up from Behringer was going to get real expensive in a hurry.

So, I decided to take a chance. I found a deal on Ebay for $330 for 2 Behringer ADA8000s, 2 ADAT cables (worth $50 right there), and 2 8-channel snakes (worth 2 movies worth of soldiering to me + parts). So, for just over $700 I have a full blown RME setup with 18 in, 18 out (counting my Mytek converters via S/PDIF).

I've snagged a hardware reverb on the way that I can permanently setup in my RME routing matrix for zero latency vocal mixes so at the moment I can't think of one feature I'm missing in this setup.

I'm confident I've got an extremely reliable rig. I've got a gun on my holster in case the Behringers give me any trouble, but so far so good. (Note: My experience is that if Behringers aren't dead on arrival, they are pretty solid.) I've got zero latency monitoring when needed, ultra-flexible routing, and plenty of I/O. So far, they've sounded and performed just fine.

Future Scalability

I also love the fact that I can scale this setup as I want to. If I decide I want to go with super high end converters later, I have that option. It won't be happening anytime soon as I'm building a studio SOME TIME! However, I like having that option.

I also like the fact that if any piece of the puzzle dies on me, I don't have to throw out the interface.

I just need to make sure my future computers have 2 PCI slots. I'm not too worried about that right now.

Conclusion

It's taken some time, but it appears I finally figured out what I needed for my home recording needs. A modular setup based on a high-performance no-frills interface seems to have been the right way for me and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg.

If the Firestudio would have been more reliable, it would have been a fine interface and I probably would never have switched. The folks at Presonus who saw my review (and were THRILLED by it) believe I may have a fluke, dud interface and they will be sending me a new one. So, the Presonus will get a second chance. I don't feel that ANY product is perfect all the time so I think it is fair to give Presonus a second chance. I would have preferred the original have simply caught on fire so I wouldn't have had to dabble with intermittent problems.

Again, if you are eyeing the MR816, I do recommend it if you don't have any plans of blowing big cash on a couple little converters. It has features that are not-so-common in recording land and the thing was absolutely bulletproof in the reliability department.

I think I have shown that finding the right interface is a personal journey. No interface is perfect and all have features and limitations that may not work for your needs.

Good luck!

Secondly, it's worth noting that my rig is setup about as good as a person can get. My computer is totally optimized, dedicated for recording, and I didn't even use internet on it until a few months ago. (The amount of time needed to activate the numerous amounts of plugin and software I review became staggering so I decided to take a gamble and plug the thing into the web.) I've catered to all requirements from Presonus. I'd guess the average home recorder is not using such an ideal system.

Third, I record day in and day out for money. If my rig goes down, I lose cash. Period. I expect greater performance than most.

What Is It?

The Firestudio is an audio interface with 8 analog ins (with preamps), 8 analog outs, up to 16 total channels of ADAT ins and outs, and S/PDIF. It normally sells for a street price of $599-699, give or take.

For more details, check out the official Firestudio page.

What They Got Right

Tons of I/O
For those of you who don't get excited by military-grade acronyms, I/O stands for inputs and outputs. The Firestudio is well equipped for this task if you use ADAT ins such as the M-Audio Octane or Presonus Digimax D8 http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/mic-preamps/presonus-digimax-d8-review/ . There aren't many people who are going to need more than 26 simultaneous inputs and there aren't much more affordable solutions than the Firestudio in this department.

Sounds Alright
The preamps in the Firestudio 2626 do not compare to Neve, Great River, etc. No shit! I think this is a no brainer. Are they acceptable for a person who doesn't want to spend the price on a new car for 8 preamps? Definitely!

What you really want to know is how the preamps in the Firestudio 2626 compare to other interfaces out there. People rave and rave and rave about the sound of the Yamaha MR816. I've used that interface a ton in the past month and even made myself use it's preamps. I'd give a SLIGHT edge to the MR816, but those pres didn't blow my mind either. (For what it's worth, no preamp blows my mind! My Martech MSS-10 doesn't suck. End of story.) For a person wanting to get in at this price point, the Firestudio 2626 is not going to turn heads with it's sonics, but neither does the highest of high end systems either. So if the Firestudio's price makes sense, it's sonics are more than adequate.

I want to note that I use the S/PDIF input with my high end pres and Mytek converters for all my overdubs and the Firestudio 2626 sounds as good as anything in this situation.

If you are really worried about the sound of the Firestudio 2626, you may want to check out The Interrogator Sessions in Killer Home Recording. You'll hear it up against numerous other preamps ranging from Great River to Martech to Manley to an M-Audio Octane.

Excellent Routing
Without a doubt, the routing on the Firestudio 2626 is definitely one of its selling points. They got that right. Its DSP routing matrix (which does take a bit to get used to and does have some redundancy going on in not-so-intuitive areas) allows you to route any signal to any output you choose. I must admit that they've spoiled me in this department.

Routing the main outputs from Cubase to my 4-channel crusty/trusty Behringer headphone amp, my Mackie HR824 monitors which essentially serve as a miniature PA system, and to Focal monitors via S/PDIF out into a Mytek DA96 have made life easy. When I tried out the Yamaha MR816, it was very frustrating when I couldn't do this. In fact, I had to rethink my whole setup. I never quite got it where I wanted even with the Control Room features in Cubase 5. So I'd give the routing possibilities in the Presonus an A+.

Routing the stereo out to multiple sources is one thing, but I'd guess most people don't need this. Being able to route the individual stereo mixes for headphones is another. As a headphone mixer, this thing is extremely powerful and highly recommended. I generally don't need a bunch of specific mixes for individuals in live band situations, but when I have, the Firestudio has pulled it off extremely well. If they added reverb and maybe compression to their features list, I'd say they had this perfected.

What They Screwed Up

Again, these are my own experiences, for whatever they are worth. I'm not sugar coating this. If you can't handle the truth, YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH! (Sorry, I'm not good at typing good Jack Nicholson impressions.)

After using the Presonus Firestudio for 2.5 years, I can say that, without a doubt, my Firestudio has been totally unreliable. If it were a woman, the cops would have found her dead in a ditch a long time ago. (Don't ask me why I have a higher tolerance for audio interface problems than woman problems.) My most reliable era required me to leave my recording computer and Firestudio on indefinitely. Simply turning the computer off could cause problems. We'll get to that.

Loses Sync
I may have great luck with the Firestudio for a month. The, for no apparent reason, and with no obvious change in my system, the Firestudio would lose sync with the computer and the little red light would begin to flash. This phase of random working and not working would last between 3 days and 3 weeks and then the unit would work flawless for a while. For this period, I would be hijacked from my recording computer indefinitely. The solution?

This is where it gets interesting. There is no solution because there is no clear, obvious problem other than the damn thing simply going on strike. I wish I could have fed it $5 bills to work. I would have gladly done so on many occasions. It would be the extortion scam of the century, but maybe then Presonus could afford to build a product I can freakin' count on.

The solution is to restart the computer and see if that fixes it. When it failed, I'd turn off the Firestudio and restart the computer. I'd try turning the computer and Firestudio off for 30 seconds and firing them both up. I'd try turning the Firestudio on and then the computer. I'd try turning on the computer and then the Firestudio. Nothing.

Hell, just last night I had to end a session 2 hours early (lost time and lost money!) because the stupid thing wouldn't sync up. 4 hours later, nothing changed. NOTHING! I fired up a mix with no trouble.

A person may want to blame this on user error. Luckily, I've been doing this long enough to KNOW it's probably user error. That's why I've became pretty damn good at tracking down my screw ups. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I'm awesome at finding my screw ups. To this day, I can find no pattern and no trend. When the Firestudio 2626 wants to be a damn woman, it becomes a damn woman. (Note: A “damn woman” is opposed to a “nice woman” who deserves bunnies and chocolate.......and a bunch of wild screwing.)

I have noticed that if the power button gets pressed somehow (you'd be surprised how many times this has happened accidentally even though it's recessed in my rack) with Cubase running, all hell breaks lose. Trying to get it to sync up after that, even with 15 restarts is nearly impossible. The best solution I've found is not to care. Turn everything off, make a sandwich, and see if there is a Star Trek rerun on.

Just for the hell o f it, I killed the Yamaha MR816 with Cubase open. Cubase immediately says, “Hey! Where'd the interface go?” When I turned it back on and told Cubase to calm down (by re-selecting the Yamaha driver) all was well. This is clearly a Firestudio-specific situation. No doubt about it. I award Presonus minus a billion points for this one.

Chews Up CPU Power
I remember when my M-Audio Delta 1010s went to the audio interface dumpster in the sky and I switched to the Firestudio 2626. The first thing I noticed was the fact that I was suddenly out of CPU power on mixes that had plenty of headroom before. I got used to it, upgraded to a Quad Core, and never thought about it much. Now that I had a chance to use the Yamaha MR816 for a month, once again, I'm finding that the CPU meter FLYING up on mixes where it really shouldn't. The Presonus Firestudio is definitely a CPU hog.

Actually, not only is it a CPU hog, it's a ram hog as well. Okay, maybe not a HOG. Maybe I'm too geared towards 2001 RAM standards, but I can't accept an audio interface requiring 40MB of RAM. I can't figure out what it's doing that would require such RAM usage. While 40MB is not the end of the world in the an era when most of us have 4GB, the designers of the Firestudio clearly knew that audio a zero-tolerance, high performance kind of ballgame. The fact they pissed away 40MB of RAM when other interface companies do not says something and I don't think it's a good something.

Multiple Control Panels
This one ain't the end of the world, but it's always bugged me. I never understood why they chose to use two control panels. One control panel allows you to change latency, clock source, etc. Then if you make a few clicks in that control panel, you'll get to a new control panel that allows you to control routing, individual mixes, etc.

What I never understood was why they broke this up. They all should have been under one control panel with maybe a few tabs added. It's entirely unintuitive and I always feel like I waste 4 seconds every time I need to make a change.

I always mix at 2048 samples (high latency) and track and much lower latencies. I usually have 8 projects going on so it seems like I need to change the latency for every session. Pushing a bunch of buttons and going through a bunch of menus to do something super simple is annoying.

I'm shocked that this has not been addressed as they have released updated drivers. End of the world? No. Annoying? Definitely!

Okay Latency Settings
While maybe this one isn't a “screw up”, the Firestudio's latency is a bit slow compared to other Firewire interfaces on the market. On a good day I can get 128 samples without too many pops and clicks. I usually have to resort to 192 samples however. For vocals, this is flat out unusable. Latency As Vocal Producing A person can switch to direct monitoring, but then when you need reverb, you need an outboard reverb unit and you'll need to get a bit clever with your sends / returns. It can be done, and is probably worth the trouble. However, on most days it would be cheaper and easier if you could just turn the latency down low enough to make this a non-issue.

I had no problems getting the Yamaha MR816 reliably down to 64 samples as long as I wasn't pushing my rig too hard. The Firestudio was never able to get down lower than 128 samples even with zero CPU load on a Quad core, XP 32-bit rig. It was clear with my hardware and operating system that we had pushed the limits of the Firestudio.

Random Latency Permissions
On some days, I'll start mixing and realize that I still have my latency set to a super low setting and need to crank it up. When I open the menu, the latency may be grayed out, which is a nice way of Presonus to say, “Go F yourself, San Diego.” I then have to stop what I'm doing, kill Cubase to get my permissions back, and then restart the mix. I lose 45 seconds because of some Presonus error.

It wouldn't bother me if this was how it was all the time. I could live with being forced to set my latency before opening Cubase. The problem is half the time I CAN change the latency whenever I want with Cubase running. This glitch bugs the hell out of me.

Random Wordclock Changes
This won't affect you guys with simple setups, but it drives me nuts. I use my Mytek AD96 as a master clock. I run that clock into my M-Audio Octane and that feeds my Presonus Firestudio 2626. This is a very common setup. For no particular reason, the Firestudio will switch its inputs to the second ADAT input (which I'm not using). This causes it to lose sync. As long as they menu isn't grayed out I can quickly change this back to ADAT #1. Unfortunately, it is often grayed out. Why? Either way, this is another damn thing I have to think about when I have a billion other things on my plate.

Why Is That Light Blinking?
As a dude who has dabbled in web programming, I know that it's fairly straight forward to develop error codes. If something screws up, a window should pop up and say “Error #554”. Then I can look online and see what that means and actually fix it. I don't have to guess and I don't have to look like an idiot restarting a computer 15 times.

I don't know anything about interface drivers, but I suspect that displaying error codes would require one programmer to work one extra week. The fact that they haven't done this means that Presonus is willing to compromise in areas that I flat-out do not believe should be compromised.

It's clear I'm willing to pay more for an interface that makes my life easier. I've certainly paid by going with the Firestudio.

Is It My Fault?
I've really grown to like the eastern philosophy that says, “Everything is your own fault”. In this particular case, I've went round and round about what I (I want to emphasize “I” here) could be doing to make the Firestudio work better for me. Simply put, I've got nothing! Nada. Zip. The only thing I know to try is a Windows 7 rig with 8GB of RAM even though it's generally considered a much better idea to stick with the trusty ol' operating system. XP should be more stable than Windows 7 right now.

The fact that the MR816 never had a single issue with syncing up (or any other session stoppers) illustrates that my rig is stable.

As An Investment

For hobbyists, the purchase of an interface is rarely looked at as the kind of thing that can pay for itself. However, for those of us who are charging by the hour, when we lose 2 billable hours due to a shitty interface design, that's easily quantifiable cash that we'll never get back. In my opinion, it adds to the cost of the piece of gear causing the trouble. I wish I had only lost 2 billable hours per month. I'd say I've lost dramatically more than that. At 2.5 years, I could have have bought an interface that costs 3x as much as still came out ahead.......Or I could have went on a cruise or tw.

Conclusion

For anyone who is counting on an interface to work day in and day out, there is no way I can recommend the Firestudio 2626. When it works, it's a fine interface at a very good price. Maybe you'll have better luck with the reliability end. However, for me, I wish I would have had the balls to slap a fancy interface on the credit card long ago. 25% interest would have been cheaper than the hell it has put me through and the time it has wasted.

I also want to point out that I paid $700 for mine in early 2008. On Ebay these things are going for a fraction of the price. This poor resale value is semi-common with computer recording gear, but it's definitely common with gear that people want to get rid of. If you are looking for a “nice” interface, at this point, I'd recommend the MR816. It's not perfect, either, but it's a product that I would and have taken to battle.

Brandon

While I have vocal preamps galore in my Killer Home Recording shootouts, I haven't included any preamp shootouts here in free Recording Review member's area.

So, I've brought in the greatest singer of all time.

He sang through a Presonus Firestudio preamp (and converter), a Manley TNT Tube Channel preamp > Mytek AD96, and a Manley TNT solid state channel preamp > Mytek AD96.

So check it out now (Member's Only, you'll need to join first).

The Most Serious Mic Preamp Uhhdsf Thing EVER!

Brandon

In addition to adding native 64-bit compatibility, this release includes Universal Control software, which replaces older FireStudio control panels, providing access to the internal features of all FireStudio-family interfaces and the StudioLive 16.4.2 digital mixer.

Universal Control consists of two windows: the Launch window and the Device window.

In the Launch window, you can set the sample rate, clock source, safe mode, buffer size (PC only), and WDM routing (PC only) for all connected FireStudio-series interfaces. Each device is listed at the bottom of the window, along with Device Window buttons that open each interface’s Device window.

The Device window provides level and routing controls for each FireStudio-series interface’s internal mixer, enabling you to set up zero-latency monitor mixes. Input and output metering have been optimized for ultra-fast screen display and minimum CPU usage, and you can give each interface a custom name. You can use any device in the chain as the master clock source, or you can slave the entire chain to an external digital device using any of the available digital inputs in the chain.

In addition to 64-bit compatibility and the new control panel, the Universal Control installer includes the new firmware version 1.11 update for the PreSonus StudioLive 16.4.2 digital mixer. This firmware update adds several important new features, including a new graphic EQ and the abilities to daisy-chain multiple StudioLive 16.4.2 digital mixers and to daisy-chain a StudioLive mixer with any FireStudio-series interface. (More information about this firmware update is provided in a separate press release.)

Universal Control is now in public beta and can be downloaded from the PreSonus Web site at www.presonus.com/betaprogram. Universal Control is required for all FireStudio-series interface owners who are using a 64-bit Windows operating system, and we encourage them to participate in the open beta program. FireStudio-series owners who are using Mac or 32-bit Windows systems will also benefit significantly from the new Universal Control features. StudioLive 16.4.2 owners can update to take advantage of the new features in firmware version 1.11, in addition to the Universal Control features.

***

About PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc. - Founded in 1995, PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc. is a leading designer and manufacturer of audio-recording software, hardware, and related accessories. PreSonus's software, microphone preamps, signal processors, digital audio interfaces, mixers, control surfaces, and other products are used worldwide for recording, sound reinforcement, broadcast, sound design, and Internet audio.

In this quiz you can hear the following signal paths at work:
Royer R121 > Presonus Firestudio
Shure SM57 > Presonus Firestudio
Royer R121 > Vintech 1272 > Mytek AD96
Shure SM57 > Vintech 1272 > Mytek AD96
Royer R121 > Vintech 1272 > Mytek AD96 > Distressor EL-8X
Royer R121 > Trident S20 > Mytek AD96
Shure SM57 > Trident S20 > Mytek AD96
Royer R121 > M-Audio Octane
Shure SM57 > M-Audio Octane

You get the idea. Check it out.

The Recording Gear Quiz

Several years ago I dumped $2400 into 4 channels of analog to digital conversion and 2 channels of digital to analog conversion (for monitoring). I purchased 2 Mytek AD96s and one Mytek DA96. This past December I purchased a Presonus Firestudio for $700.

Mytek AD96
I want to make it clear that the Mytek AD96 does not contain preamps and does not contain any form of an audio interface. It simply converters the output of my preamps (2 channels) into digital and spits that into the S/PDIF inputs of my audio interface. If memory serves me well, these converters cost about $1,000 per AD96 but I got a discount for purchasing in bulk.

Presonus Firestudio
On the other hand, the Presonus Firestudio costs $700, has 8 AD converters and 8 DA converters built in not counting the 8 preamps, routing matrix, audio interface to the computer, ADAT ins and outs, etc. In other words, they crammed a bunch of stuff in there for a price that is still 30% cheaper than purchasing just the 2 channels of AD conversion.

The Shootout
I have included two tiny little, unscientific tests. One is myself speaking in a Audio Technica AT4050. Just in case you are wondering, I had a member who wanted to terminate his membership because I made a joke about my home recording book in the voiceover shootout. The AT4050 is ran into my Vintech 1272 and then into either the Mytek AD96 or input 6 of the Presonus Firestudio with the preamp volume on the stock Presonus preamp turned all the way down.

The electric guitar is my Jackson Kelly with EMG 81s ran into my Rivera Knucklehead through a THD Hotplate and a custom 1x12' cabinet with a Celestion G12H30 speaker. I mic'd the cabinet with a Sennheiser MD421 and ran that into a Vintech 1272 into either a Mytek AD96 or the stock Presonus input with the preamp turned all the way down.

Member's Only
This analog to digital converter is for RecordingReview.com members only. Check out here: AD Converter Shootout: Mytek AD96 vs Presonus Firestudio If you are not a member, join today. It's free! If you are a member, login and head here.

So, I've stolen the following data from Presonus. You can find all of this info on the Presonus Firestudio Hardware Compatibility page but if you are like me you won't find it until you've wasted an entire night diagnosing the problem. In fact, I almost found out that I needed an entirely different motherboard. (I have a GeForce3. The Firestudio will not function properly with a Geforce4.). When I finally found this page, I was scared to death that I needed to build a brand new computer. I was NOT happy!

What hardware is incompatible with my PreSonus Interface?
- ATI RADEON 9000/9001 IGP video chipset. Symptoms are consistent click and pops during audio playback. This video chipset is only found in PC laptops and is entirely integrated as the computer’s only video controller. We strongly recommend that you do not get a system with this chipset, as there is currently no workaround for this incompatibility.

-USB/firewire and s400/s800 combo cards are not compatible. Symptoms are usually no audio recording/playback but device will install and sync, erratic audio performance and rarely will not allow the device to install or sync. We recommend a firewire card that ONLY has s400 firewire connections and preferably with a Texas Instruments or VIA chipset.

-Firewire cards with NEC chipsets are not compatible. Symptoms are similar or the same as combo cards.

-Motherboards with nForce4 chipsets. Symptoms include reduced to very poor performance especially if using the onboard firewire connection. A PCIe (not PCI) FW400 only card with a Texas Instruments chipset is a known workaround, but may not allow full performance.

-SoundBlaster Audigy cards. Symprtoms include pops and clicks and loss of sync. If your PC has one of these cards installed, it is recommended to uninstall it before installing a PreSonus interface

As I mentioned in the previous M-Audio Delta 1010 article, I need the following features:

• Stereo headphone mixes
• Portability
• Less cables
• More simultaneous inputs

On top of that I want to add:

• Don't want to spend a zillion dollars

Finding The Right Audio Interfaces
I put quite a bit of research into finding the right audio interface for me. It was very important that I had the ability to fire up as many headphone mixes as necessary. I'm not big on giving out headphone mixes to each and every band member, but in the end the customer / client is always right. If they want fancy headphone mixes, I'm all for it. If I can make them feel more comfortable when they play, they will probably play better. They will probably end up coming out of my studio feeling happier about the entire experience. As outlined in my previous blog, it was very important for me to setup a stereo headphone mix(s) as I think it makes it easier to hear what is really going on. So my first goal was to find an audio interface that had a powerful headphone mixing system with zero latency. (That's another thing. I feel very strange sending drummers a mix from Cubase even if it is only 2ms behind. Then again, no one seems to complain.)

I was delighted to see that many manufacturers have powerful solutions for the headphone mixing thing. RME, MOTU, Presonus, M-Audio, and probably many others all had solutions.

After that, I had to make sure I found a Firewire unit. This really didn't knock the selection down too much. Most of the audio interfaces that had the headphone routing system also had Firewire. I'm not exactly sure why. I guess Firewire is more popular than PCI these days. (Forgive me, while I've helped a million trillion people select audio interfaces on the recording forum, I haven't bought one for myself in almost 7 years. Most of the people I help are usually going for simpler setups than I require.)

So from there, it was just an issue of price. I immediately ruled out any sound quality differences. When it comes to the sound quality of an audio interface, the main factors are the built in preamps (if applicable), the analog to digital conversion when sending signal into the audio interface, and the digital to analog conversion when sending signal out of the audio interface. That's pretty much it. There are guys who are big on modding power supplies and things of that sort, but I usually don't dig that far. I'm more worried about the plywood I have nailed up all over the place in my live room. I have my Mytek converters which are extremely expensive and the difference between them and my M-Audio Delta 1010s was very subtle. I'm positive that dumping the extra cash on RME wouldn't result in an improvement that would justify it's expense to my clients and therefor it doesn't justify it's expense to me either. Maybe the RME would last longer and be more durable, but you never really know with this stuff. The way my luck has been, anything I use is going to break!

I ended up selecting the Presonus Firestudio. It has just about everything I need for $700. I really wish it had dual S/PDIF inputs so I could use all four channels of Mytek conversion. I guess my second Mytek AD96 is going to be taking a break for a while.

I like the fact that I can add 16 additional channels via ADAT Lightpipe. I really don't have any need for 26 simultaneous inputs today, you never know what the future will hold. I like the idea that I can borrow an 8 channel preamp with ADAT outputs and immediately expand my rig when necessary.

Now the hard part: Finding an 8 channel ADAT converter.
Brandon