Presonus Firebox

FORMAT · Post by **FORMAT** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 9:57 pm

Thanks icedsushi for that very detailed opinion. Very much appreciated.

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 10:08 pm

FORMAT wrote: do you use Windows or Mac?

Windows

icedsushi · Post by **icedsushi** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 10:43 pm

FORMAT wrote:Thanks icedsushi for that very detailed opinion. Very much appreciated.

sure thing. that was my messed up thought process and reasoning about getting one.

FORMAT · Post by **FORMAT** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 6:29 am

ethios4 wrote:
FORMAT wrote: do you use Windows or Mac?
Windows

OK, so maybe I should be able to use my Firewire HD chained after the FIrebox on Mac? Did the support person give you any info on the Mac side?

FORMAT · Post by **FORMAT** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 6:34 am

icedsushi wrote:
FORMAT wrote:Thanks icedsushi for that very detailed opinion. Very much appreciated.
sure thing. that was my messed up thought process and reasoning about getting one.

Actually, yours is a very good concept --- one interface for studio, one for on the road..... I'm actually considering the Firebox for mobile and either a motu or a Fireface for studio use.

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 6:13 pm

FORMAT wrote:Did the support person give you any info on the Mac side?

I believe the info was not system specific. According to Presonus, you should be able to chain the harddrive after the Firebox without problem. I tested it out a bit, and Live started acting weird, but as I'm running Live5 that doesn't mean a whole lot. I'll try to test it today with Live4, and try some more extensive runs.
From what the Presonus guy said, the best way is to have the drive and the Firebox on separate firewire cards. The Firebox shouldn't be on an onboard firewire port, unless you are sure its not sharing resources with anything else. I have a tower, so he recommended getting a pci firewire card for the Firebox.
I played another show last night with the Firebox, and again it performed flawlessly.

FORMAT · Post by **FORMAT** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 7:31 pm

Hm, I only have one Firewire port and no expansion option as I only have this Powerbook.....

Thanks !

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:05 pm

According to Presonus, the only reason to not use onboard firewire would be if it was sharing resources with other devices. If firewire isn't sharing you would be fine.

FORMAT · Post by **FORMAT** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:19 pm

ethios4 wrote:According to Presonus, the only reason to not use onboard firewire would be if it was sharing resources with other devices. If firewire isn't sharing you would be fine.

The Firewire port will be shared between Firebox and FW HD, as it's now with the Motu 828. And , occasionally, I'll connect my iPod as well. So you reckon that could cause trouble....? I want this box for its size; otherwise, I might just get a Traveler (too expensive at this point though)

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:18 pm

Its ok for the HD to be chained to the Firebox, as in Computer > Firebox > HD. In fact, that's what they recommend. I have my firewire hardrive plugged into the Firebox, which is plugged into my computer, and it works great. I was testing it out by playing 8 different 5 minute clips at 48 kHz, at the same time, and taking the tempo from 20 up to 999, while tweaking and applying effects...no problems there.
In my case, the reason they recommended getting a pci firewire card is that my onboard firewire shares the same resources as my onboard USB and my onboard ethernet connection. All 3 are on IRQ 21.
If you go to the Presonus website here they tell you how to generate a file that shows you system's info. You can email that to them and have them predict if you will have any issues with the Firebox and your system. I got a response within a few hours of emailing them. I also got an autoreply that said the mailbox was full, but they got the email anyway. So far they've been very helpful and direct in addressing these issues for me.

FORMAT · Post by **FORMAT** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:38 pm

Thanks, that was very helpful.

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 5:28 am

The Presonus guy said they will be looking into the buffer size problem with Live5 as soon as they get their copy in. According to the email I got they "tried something new, which was to dynamically set the buffer based on latency and sample rate/bit depth, instead of dynamically set the latency based on buffer and sample rate/bit depth." For now there is not a good solution to the buffer size issue, but they seem very interested in working out any problems between the Firebox and Live, so that seems promising.

I experimented with some quad mixing effects in Live tonight....mmmm. Something I've dreamed of for so long!

FORMAT · Post by **FORMAT** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 7:39 am

ethios4 wrote:The Presonus guy said they will be looking into the buffer size problem with Live5 as soon as they get their copy in. According to the email I got they "tried something new, which was to dynamically set the buffer based on latency and sample rate/bit depth, instead of dynamically set the latency based on buffer and sample rate/bit depth." For now there is not a good solution to the buffer size issue, but they seem very interested in working out any problems between the Firebox and Live, so that seems promising.

I experimented with some quad mixing effects in Live tonight....mmmm. Something I've dreamed of for so long!

WOW! That sounds cool, that's something I daren't even dream of yet

But that comes next, definitely.