focurite vs. presonus FW I/O

brightpavilions · Post by **brightpavilions** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 7:23 am

I'm making the transition to Logic from Pro Tools, since the PT interface is a drag and I'm sick & tired of having to use proprietary hardware. Digidesign lost me.

So, say you out there had to make a choice on a DAW Firewire I/O interace, would you prefer one made by Focusrite (and thus their pre-amps) or one made by Presonus? The other specs are pretty much identical.

In case you're curious, the two units in question are the Presonus Firestudio Pro and the Focusrite Saffire Pro.

Thanks!

woodhenge · Post by **woodhenge** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 8:12 am

I'd have to give the big +1 to Focusrite here...

I used to be a Presonus owner, actually. It sounded great and seemed to be quite stable, but one day they decided it wasn't worth it to continue to write drivers for it when Leopard came out. They strung me along for over a year telling me a new driver was "a couple of months" away... only to eventually be told that it wasn't coming at all. Ugh. For a relatively new interface! Still makes me angry...

I ended up buying the Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 to replace my Presonus piece, and have been extremely pleased with the choice. The pres sound very good, and the Saffire Mix software is really flexible with some unique features. On top of all that, they seem to be interested in improving and updating their drivers and software... The unit has been rock-solid stable as well. (They use the same software for the Saffire Pro, btw...)

Just my 2 cents worth... Hope this helps!

brightpavilions · Post by **brightpavilions** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 8:14 am

Thanks! That's exactly the type of feedback I'm looking for. I too have had good results using Focusrite gear.

Out of curiosity, did you use the Focusrite with any software other than the Saffire Mix program that's included?

woodhenge · Post by **woodhenge** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 8:43 am

brightpavilions wrote:Thanks! That's exactly the type of feedback I'm looking for. I too have had good results using Focusrite gear.

Out of curiosity, did you use the Focusrite with any software other than the Saffire Mix program that's included?

I use Logic 9 mostly, but also occasionally use Record, Reason, and Live when needed. The Saffire seems to work great with everything. The "loopback" feature is pretty interesting, but I haven't used it for much beyond monitoring, really.

Speaking of monitoring, I'm also really impressed with the headphone amp... just as loud but much cleaner than my Presonus headphone distro amp is...

Good stuff, imho

brightpavilions · Post by **brightpavilions** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 8:47 am

Awesome. Thanks again.

CurtZHP · Post by **CurtZHP** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 12:08 pm

A review I did of the Focusrite Saffire Pro40:

http://www.rwonline.com/article/84052

brightpavilions · Post by **brightpavilions** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 12:59 pm

Sounds like what I'm after. Thanks for the review.

What are the specific purposes of the Saffire PRO 40 control program? I'm coming from plug and play Digidesign hardware, so I guess I'm not clear what exactly this app does.

Did you have a chance to use it with Logic, per chance?

CurtZHP · Post by **CurtZHP** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 1:36 pm

Didn't use it with Logic, so I can't really speak to that.

The control program is essentially a routing matrix with some basic level and pan controls. You're not really meant to use it in lieu of a mixing console or the mixer window in your DAW program. It determines where the input signals and output signals go, as well as what sample rate you're using. The "mixer" section is basically for setting up what signals (whether from your DAW or the hardware inputs, etc.) go to what outputs and at what level they should be.

I think Focusrite has a pretty good explanation at their website. You can also download the manual.

b3groover · Post by **b3groover** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 1:43 pm

I use a PC and I love my Presonus Firepods. Always been rock-solid stable and they sound great.

A quick check on the Presonus website shows that drivers for Mac OS 10.4 - 10.5 and then Snow Leopard drivers. I'm not a Mac user so I don't know if that includes Leopard, but it looks like they are continuing to support all Firestudio devices.

woodhenge · Post by **woodhenge** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 2:08 pm

b3groover wrote:I use a PC and I love my Presonus Firepods. Always been rock-solid stable and they sound great.

A quick check on the Presonus website shows that drivers for Mac OS 10.4 - 10.5 and then Snow Leopard drivers. I'm not a Mac user so I don't know if that includes Leopard, but it looks like they are continuing to support all Firestudio devices.

Except for the V-Fire... Waited forever for the thing to ship after it was announced, and then had a very limited lifespan before they pulled support for it. They were even still selling them after they discontinued support! Wrecked a really stable and efficient setup in the process, too.

I used to own a Firepod, and it worked well. Can't knock it... I'm just paranoid about their 'legacy' support. Can't... won't go through that again. YMMV, of course!

kingmetal · Post by **kingmetal** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 2:30 pm

Really impressed with my Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 so far -- picked it up 'like new' on eBay for $300 shipped and there's pretty much no way you could beat that deal as far as I can tell. Great software suite (comes with Live Lite, a set of decent Focusrite plug-ins, some kind of VST synth and a bunch of loops), solid drivers (so far) and the pre-amps and converters sound great to me.

Plus, you can't go too wrong with something like the Pro 40 because you can actually run the thing in a 'stand alone' mode now with the newest firmware -- so if you stop using it as you primary interface you can turn the thing into an Octapre and just route the pre-amps into either the TRS outs or the ADAT bus and unplug the thing from a computer.

The one thing that I wasn't super impressed with was I could only run the thing at around 256-192 samples reliably -- but this was on an old laptop (Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz) running Windows 7 (32bit) on a PCMCI firewire card (VIA chipset) with no tweaking so I'm not too surprised. The device supports low latency, and to tell you the truth I shouldn't even mention any of this without testing my MOTUs on the same system.

Great interface, great feature set, great drivers. I'd recommend it to anybody.

I've also dealt with Focusrite support with my Liquid Mix 16 and they're really awesome as well -- real people giving you real advice. Their website is also a great resource for general topics like optimizing your DAW and things like that. Totally into Focusrite right now!

IanWalker · Post by **IanWalker** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 6:28 pm

I had a firepod, and I only sold it when I moved to ProTools and a Digi002.

To be honest, I really loved it. The pres on it were really nice, and I DIDN'T HAVE TO INSTALL DRIVERS. That's a big thing - its core-audio compatible, meaning you plug it in, and tell Logic to use its ins and outs, and you're good to go.

Pretty cool, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

b3groover · Post by **b3groover** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 11:34 pm

woodhenge wrote:
b3groover wrote:I use a PC and I love my Presonus Firepods. Always been rock-solid stable and they sound great.

A quick check on the Presonus website shows that drivers for Mac OS 10.4 - 10.5 and then Snow Leopard drivers. I'm not a Mac user so I don't know if that includes Leopard, but it looks like they are continuing to support all Firestudio devices.
Except for the V-Fire... Waited forever for the thing to ship after it was announced, and then had a very limited lifespan before they pulled support for it. They were even still selling them after they discontinued support! Wrecked a really stable and efficient setup in the process, too.

I didn't say anything about the V-Fire. I said it seems they are continuing to support all Firestudio devices.

Although I'm confused at how their discontinued support for the V-Fire "wrecked a really stable and efficient setup". If the setup was stable, then why did you need continued support?

woodhenge · Post by **woodhenge** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 5:53 am

b3groover wrote:Although I'm confused at how their discontinued support for the V-Fire "wrecked a really stable and efficient setup". If the setup was stable, then why did you need continued support?

Quite simple... Software updates required me to move to Leopard. (If I'd have had to purchase a new Mac, I'd have been SOL for sure.) Having to set up a dual-boot system just so my DAW can connect to my mixing console is kind-of a PITA... especially considering I have other gear that's pushing 10 years old that still gets the drivers updated occasionally. I don't think legacy support is too much to ask, especially with what was a current product...

b3groover · Post by **b3groover** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 10:02 am

Not to derail the thread further, but I don't really see why this is Presonus' fault. Obviously the V-Fire didn't sell well for them (for whatever reasons) and pulling valuable manpower from other areas to support it after it was discontinued, updating the drivers for endless OS upgrades must've been a no-win situation for them.

Sure, it sucks but that's the price we pay to use computer-based technology in this ever faster changing world.

I'd be more upset at Apple continually changing their OS and rendering both software and hardware obsolete in the process.

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focurite vs. presonus FW I/O

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