PreSonus FirePod

I'm no computer tech, but I really had no serious issues with start up. Vista gave me a couple of problems at first, but easily solved by downloading a new driver and re flashing the firmware. After that had no problems. I don't get real technical with my recording and the Firepod has done everything I've asked of it. Oh, I don't think I looked at the manual to tell you the truth.

I use the firepod to record mostly ecclectic metal. Usually 7 tracks on drums with a scratch track then overdub from there. It is also used to record live practice (guitar, drums, bass, vocals). No problems with noise. No pops, clicks, hiss or anything like that. Spent more money at a studio for a demo that sounded alot worse than what I get with the Firepod. Sounds not perfect but I don't expect it to be.

Had it about 3 years no problems ever. I turn it on, and it works. I don't use it in live situations because I usually have to many things to worry about as it is.

Only dealt with them when Vista was being rude, they were quick and efficient got it running quick.

I was going to get a newer Alesis unit but it would never ship so just said to hell with it and bought the Firepod, I don't regret it at all. I use the Firepod going into a Toshiba laptop (pentium dual core, 2 gig of ram) running Vista (I'd rather XP but...) and I use Reaper for multitracking. All in all a very cheap DAW and it works just fine. I've been playing, writing, gigging for about fifteen years. A recording engineer I'm not, but this little unit has been great and simple.

Depending on how technically savvy you are, you should be able to get this thing up and running/sounding good very soon. I bought it and installed the drivers and my computer recognized it, but I got many of the pops and things others have mentioned. I had to go into my DAW and adjust some things, and after I did, the unit sounded great and was very simple to use. So, if you know a little about DAW software/computers, you should be able to figure things out, but if you are a total newbie, you might have to consult some forums to figure out how to get it running like it's supposed to. Basically, the Firepod will likely not just "work" as soon as you install it. You'll have to adjust your system a bit, but when you figure it out, it will work great.

I use two Firepods and daisy-chain them to get 16 inputs. I record full bands remotely (drums, guitars, keys, and vox) and it really does sound good. I mean, it sounds great for the price you are likely going to pay. It's not noisy at all. The preamps are good quality. I do mobile recording, and these units are great for getting clean, quality signal to your hard disk. After that, it's really up to you to mix your recordings to get them to sound the specific way you want. By that I mean that you won't have to do tons of eq-ing to make up for a lack of quality in your recording interface. This one will give you a great sound to work with. After that, it's up to you.

One of my units stopped working after 2 years of use. Channel 1 had stopped working, and a month later, the whole unit just quit. I sent it in to Presonus to be repaired, and since I received it back from them almost two years ago, it's been fine. I travel to different locations, and every time I hook it up to my computer, it syncs up just fine. Works great.

When I first started having problems, I emailed Presonus right away. It took three days for them to respond, but they were very nice when they did. After I explained the problem, they told me I had to send it to them to fix for an $80 bench fee. From when I first emailed them, it was a week before I knew what I needed to do to get the problem fixed. They were pretty easy to work with, and within a month, I had my Firepod back, and working great. I mean, I don't expect their likely understaffed tech support to respond to my problem right away, I just want them to respond and help me figure the problem out in a reasonable amount of time. And they did just that. They were fine.

I record many genres, and the Firepod does a great job of capturing a good, clean signal. If my units were lost, I'd buy them again. I've only spent about $600 for 16 channels of good quality preamps, and I'm very satisfied. If I had several thousand dollars to spend, I'd probably buy something else, but these are great for a beginner or intermediate recording engineer on a budget. As I've said, a recording interface/preamp can only get you good quality signal. After that (mixing, etc..), the sound of the final CD is up to you. The Firepod will give you good sounds/recordings to work with, and that's what it's supposed to do.

The Firepod was dead simple to use - if anyone had problems with it they probably didn't read the manual or it could be that their computer has other problems. It has been a steady tried and true workhorse in my studio - line it up with an Avalon 737 and it's good to go!

My Firepod has been working perfectly - there's no noise and the extra head room is great!

I have used it ever since I bought it (roughly 2 yrs ago??) and i have had no problems whatsoever!

I have dealt with the company - I had a little problem with the upgraded software - but they helped me solve it quickly. No problems here!

I have been touring/recording for over 20 years and I play/record many different types/styles of music - I've used the Firepod in live recording and in other situations and it hasn't let me down yet - the only criticism i have is that i wish they came out with a 16 or 24 track version - they might have one out already - but i'll have to check it out. If it was lost i would buy another.

Ok recently i got a firepod and its been pretty good to me thus far. i really havent any problems that other newbies wouldnt have.

Comes with about a 3 ft. Firewire cord, which is kind of short BUT its free. so if you just want to have your pres all the way across the room you might need a longer cable. Also comes with Cubase LE, which like others ive read, i havent used very much because im already so accustomed to Reaper. but neverthe less again FREE software and DAW.

mainly thus far ive recorded a little bit of vocals, but mostly electric and acoustic guitars. In my recordings ive had no noise whatsoever. this is a HUGE step up from the fostex studio in a box i was using before. MUCH better sound quality.

its pretty easy, just watch your meters in your DAW and set the trim so nothing goes over about 12 db or so and youre good to roll.

its a rack unit so as long as youre kind to it, itll be kind to you. seems pretty tough and although i wouldnt throw it around or anything, it could pobably withstand some beating.

havent had to deal with Presonus

So far ive had this unit about 3 weeks or so and its been just as i expected. way better sound quality than i was used to recording with and is pretty easy to use once you get the drivers set up and sort of understand how a lot of things work.

i think thats the problem a lot of people will complain about a lot is not being able to function the unit correctly. TAKE TIME TO READ everything you possibly can BEFORE you try to push buttons and turn knobs. once you understand how everything works together its really not all that difficult.

Took it out of the box . . .Plugged it in to power. Took the cables out of my mixer, and plugged them into the firepod. Fired up my laptop installed the drivers, connected up my monitors . . .Done! The easiest piece of recording hardware I ever installed!

Sound quality is great, not professional, but then again neither am I. I'm still learning on the recording side of things. I was using a Tascam US-224 with a 16 track mixer. Could only get 2 seperate tracks to the computer that way. With the Firepod I can do 8 individual mono tracks or 4 stereo! With much better sound quality than the previous setup. I'm going to pick up another one. You can daisy chain 2 firepods together for 16 tracks simultaneously!

Had it for a month and no problems, yet, what so ever! No clicks, no pops, I'm using it with an Acer laptop, Windows Vista Home Premium, Core 2 Duo at 1.6ghz, and 3gigs of ram.

Never had to call them so a definite 10!

I've bought a lot different stuff in my 20yrs of playing music, and this is one of the best deals out there! I'm very happy I bought this and hope it continues to work flawlessly as it has so far! I've read some of the bad reviews, and I am surprised. I guess I should consider myself lucky. I'm definitely buying another one, we'll see how the daisy chaining goes . . . (The $699 price came with a whole package with 2 small monitors a couple mics, cables and stands.)

This is a recording interface with rack ears so therefore can be rackmounted or can be used sat on a desktop.
It has clip indicators for every channel.
A Sturdy metal case which seems very hard wearing.
Volume controls are also metal...very close together so slightly fiddly.

Its a firewire interface and works with MAC OS X Leopard and Tiger and Windows

The pre-amps are very good.
It has 2 dedicated instrument inputs which can also be coupled as mic inputs...8 inputs in total which can either be XLR or Jack.
1 midi in and 1 midi out
1 headphone out jack with independent volume.

The card is AC powered with an adaptor
It has phantom power on all channels

It came with a few other various bits of software...never used any of them.

It's a good all rounder but nothing particular special. It's worth its price if you are looking at spending around ??220 you wont be disspointed.

Was easy to use - WHEN IT WORKED!!! Driver/firmware updates took 2 years to release, and they crashed down all units, making them unusable. Computer won't even recognize they are connected anymore. 1000's of others have reported same issue, hunks of s**t, they don't work!

TONS of people have reported pops,crackles,drop outs, and MANY other sound quality issues. I saw LOTS of problems with mine, when it actually DID kind of work. It sounded like rice crispies most of the time, and spent more time resetting the unit then actually recording with it!

As explained previously, it RARELY worked AT ALL, and when it did, it worked like junk. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM PRESONUS. If you want ANY kind of reliability - GO ELSEWHERE.....

These people are nothing short of a complete joke! they took nearly a month to respond to the dozens of emails I sent, and then responded to some other person's question by accident. When I DID finally did get a response to MY question, their answer was: "send it in to us at $85.00 charge plus shipping, and we'll look at it". They caused the unit to go down with a bad driver/firmware update, and now they WANT ME TO PAY????

DO NOT buy ANYTHING from this company - BEWARE!!!!!!

Their products are HORRIBLE, drivers are a NIGHTMARE, support is USELESS, and they are just a bunch of crooked criminals that should be put OUT OF BUSINESS for their unethical and irresponsible business practices.

Setup was a snap. Only problem i had was my own fault (forgot to switch to ASIO drivers) Didnt bother updating because of a possible flaw in the newer driver so i just stayed with the one that came with the unit. If it aint broke....dont break it!

Only reason i gave it a six is compared to other higher end preamps there OK. But for the price range its in, its a TEN. You cant expect to much for only 500 bucks. Most people see 500 and freak, but they are the ones that have never seen (or dont even know) what boutique stuff is.

Never quit on me once. Had butter fingers one time and dropped it (pretty far, pretty fast), bent the rack flanges a tiiiiiiny bit. Plugged the unit in, worked fine.

Never had to deal with them with this unit, but with my Firestudio I've had nothing but good luck. Quick responses, no mess, no BSing me around.

If i were to want to downgrade my gear, i would buy another one. If anyone of my buddies were looking for a lower priced, 10 input pre, I would tell them to buy this unit. Prefer not to send my friends to the wolves and dont enjoy being made a fool of when something doesnt work for them, but i am confident in this unit and all other Presonus gear. Got a decent PC that isnt a hacked together P.O.S that you play WoW on and only do music, then this guy is for you!

I use the Firepod of multi track play back for a large theater production. There have been a couple times that I had to use my back up plan in the middle of a the show because I had to restart it. I need it to work every single time for what I use it for. If I was just recording, I'd give it a 10.

This is a rackmont. 8 preamps. 1 Clip indicator.
Generally the idea is a good one.. When the preamp work they sound good. But general overall there is so many problem with this thing. This is by far the worst piece of gear I have every owned.

connecting is through firewire.. They give a firewire cord. Which is to short and you have to buy an after market one that's longer. There is constant problems with communication from computer to firepod and vis versa..

Preamp quality is not bad. Only if you can get it working.

Power supply seems ok.

Tech specs seem good on the box.. and that's where it ends..
Shit. If you change the sample rit it does not work.

It comes with Cubase LE.. which I do not use and do not want to have to learn a whole new DAW to use.

This is the worse thing I ve ever bought.. Support is shit.. After 3 months of trying everything they mentioned. They finally said send it in. Well that's another 200.00 in shipping for something new that should work..For the love of God if you buy one of these you will regreat it.. I promise you that.