ART TubeFire8

388 · Post by **388** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:30 am

has anyone used this? i hope this isn't the wrong forum for this. wasn't sure if i should put it in "computer talk" or "gear talk". well anyway if someone has tried the ART TubeFire8 please let me know. i'm considering buying one but i can't figure out if pro-tools will recognize it or not. sometimes i get the feeling that companies are intentionally vague as to whether or not pro-tools will work with their hardware. either that or i just don't know what to look for, which is entirely possible.

Smitty · Post by **Smitty** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:03 am

to track directly into protools, you need to use their proprietary Digidesign hardware or something like the Mbox.

the Tubefire ain't gonna get you no ProTools love. but there's lots of very useful multi-tracking software out there that the Tubefire will work with (like, pretty much everything but ProTools).

388 · Post by **388** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:56 am

that's weak man. i'm starting to really hate pro tools or i guess i should say digidesign.

i have the mbox which i'm finding to be useless due to the it's minimal amount of inputs and outputs. is there any pro tools compatible option that will give me more ins and outs (8 preferably) that doesn't cost $1000+?

Smitty · Post by **Smitty** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 11:01 am

i'm a Cubase man myself so i'm not ultra-familiar with the digidesign stuff, but shooting from the hip i know some of their standalone converters have 8 analog ins, and some of the intermediate models might have an ADAT or SPDIF input that you could run 8 inputs into with something like the Digimax.

check out Digidesign's site and start checking specs... if it has good input options, they won't leave that out of the literature.

for my two cents, i just got an RME Fireface 800 and it sounds amazing and i'm swimming in input options... i'm very comfortable with my ability to expand with it.

analogcabin · Post by **analogcabin** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 12:02 pm

388 wrote:is there any pro tools compatible option that will give me more ins and outs (8 preferably) that doesn't cost $1000+?

A Metric Halo 2882 would be my call. ADAT out from the MH into the Pro Tools toy.

darjama · Post by **darjama** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 12:22 pm

m-audio profire:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6823143014

plus a digimax fs:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... c=3SOSWXXH

...or a behringer ada8000:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=182483

or there's the m-audio 1814
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=709201

Of course, these solutions require the m-powered version of protools, so you may need to drop $250 on that.

...or just track into a different program using the art tubefire (which I don't think is released yet), then import and mix in protools.

mrufino1 · Post by **mrufino1** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 9:43 am

Reaper. I no longer open protools except to get old projects into reaper. When I got reaper (so I could use non-digi hardware), my plan was to track into reaper and mix and edit in protools. But I wound up loving reaper and mix in it now as well. I am still getting the hang on editing, not as confortable yet as protools, but it has done everything I have needed to do so far. I'm just not as speedy on it yet.
As for the tubefire, I am a little skeptical about "tube" preamps at that price- the "tube" doesn't do much and well made tube gear is not supposed to "distort" or "warm" things intentionally. However, it may sound nice anyway, your ears will have to judge so I guess wait to try one out when it is released.
I bought 2 firepods to replace my firewire 1814 and ada8000 and am very, very happy with the sound quality I am getting. The thing I don't understand, as far as practical reasons go, is since m-powered is attached to an ilok, there is really no reason to disallow non-digi or m-audio hardware, because piracy will not be as much of a concern (yes, I know ilok stuff can get ripped off, but I guess it is harder? I don't know) aside from marketing. I really do like protools workflow but some of the digi policies finally got to me.

mrufino1 · Post by **mrufino1** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 9:44 am

I should add that I really liked my original mbox, I thought it was well designed and sounded good. I moved away from it to get more inputs and then I was disappointed.

388 · Post by **388** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 3:11 pm

mrufino1 wrote:Reaper. I no longer open protools except to get old projects into reaper. When I got reaper (so I could use non-digi hardware), my plan was to track into reaper and mix and edit in protools. But I wound up loving reaper and mix in it now as well. I am still getting the hang on editing, not as confortable yet as protools, but it has done everything I have needed to do so far. I'm just not as speedy on it yet.
As for the tubefire, I am a little skeptical about "tube" preamps at that price- the "tube" doesn't do much and well made tube gear is not supposed to "distort" or "warm" things intentionally. However, it may sound nice anyway, your ears will have to judge so I guess wait to try one out when it is released.
I bought 2 firepods to replace my firewire 1814 and ada8000 and am very, very happy with the sound quality I am getting. The thing I don't understand, as far as practical reasons go, is since m-powered is attached to an ilok, there is really no reason to disallow non-digi or m-audio hardware, because piracy will not be as much of a concern (yes, I know ilok stuff can get ripped off, but I guess it is harder? I don't know) aside from marketing. I really do like protools workflow but some of the digi policies finally got to me.

ok i have quite a few questions for you.

will the firepod work with pro tools? assuming the answer to that is no, if i went with the firepod and reaper (or the cubase software that comes with it) i could then take tracks i record with reaper or cubase and import it to pro-tools for mixing if i wanted to? are there any problems with doing it that way?

i know the ART "tube" thing is kind of a joke and the tube really just acts as a mild overdrive rather than a high quality tube channel. but that being said i have one of those cheap ART tube mp's and to my ears it sounds pretty good and does add a bit of roundness that i like so if i had eight channels of that sound i'd be pretty happy. then again i suppose i would rather have eight quality clean pre's that give me a good sound and enough ins and outs to send signals to outboard gear and back. the firepod is certainly in the price range i'm looking for.

by the way, thanks to everyone for being so helpful.

FNM · Post by **FNM** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:35 am

No, like the guy above said you can't use the tubefire8 with pro-tools unless you somehow have it hooked up to a digidesign interface or supported m-audio (with m-powered pro-tools) interface of some sort.

But you can do what you describe, normally you just have to make sure to create stems (mix down each track seperately) of you tracks in reaper so that they all start at 0:00 and are easy to line up when you import them into pro-tools. if you don't do this it will be difficult to get everything lined up correctly.

I believe if you can record broadcast wavs in reaper then essentially they will remember where they started, but I've never used reaper and never tried that in pro-tools so don't quote me on that. It works in Tracktion though.

About the interface, go with whatever you can afford and don't make any qualms about it. I don't think the tubefire8 is even shipping yet, so go with the firepod, or get sometype of m-audio device if you are dead set on pro-tools. If you can afford it maybe go with a firestudio since it's essentially an upgraded firepod.

mrufino1 · Post by **mrufino1** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:22 pm

Just saw this thread again. I know you can mix to stems in reaper very easily. My plan was to track in reaper, edit and mix in protools. Protools has not been opened on my computer for about 2 months, and in that time I recorded 2 live albums for bands, one is mixed and mastered now, the other is still being mixed, a third mix is on the way and another live recording this weekend, so I guess I am digging reaper...I still think protools is very logically laid out and easy to use, however I was sick of digi's marketing limitations on my m-powered system and sick of my crappy, non working m-audio interface. Anyway, so far I have really liked firepods+reaper- for my needs it is great. Firestudio is cool, but for 16 channels (if I went digimax) I was looking at $1200, rather than the $700 I spent on 2 firepods (1 new and one used). I even got the free headphone amp in the deal. The good part about reaper is that you can try it for free as long as you want to make sure you really know it. I plan on upgrading from the personal to professional license (no difference between free, personal, and professional except for a clear conscience) very soon. In the new version of reaper he even now has a multiband compressor. In fact, the live album I just finished (and have gotten a lot of compliments on already) was mixed in reaper and the only commercial plugins were PSP vintage warmer on the drum bus and sonitus multiband compressor on the bass (reaper's wasn't out yet). All other plugs were stock reaper plugins or freeware (SIR reverb, etc). I hope that helped...

pipelineaudio · Post by **pipelineaudio** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:59 pm

Might want to come to the REAPER chat channel and speak to other PT guys about editing and mixing in reaper, theyll have some transitional tricks for you surely. And youll find a lot of plusses editing in reaper over protools, like being able to see items as you move them and being able to select (for editins/modifying/grouping, etc...) non contiguous items across multiple tracks.

Just click http://www.mixxnet.net/java/?channel=reaper and say hi

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