PreSonus FireStudio Reviews

[brandondrury]

PreSonus FireStudio @ Musiciansfriend



PreSonus FireStudio @ Zzounds


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PreSonus FireStudio Description
The FireStudio from PreSonus is an 24-in/24-out FireWire recording interface loaded with 8 of PreSonus' acclaimed mic preamps. It has MIDI, S/PDIF, word clock, and ADAT (dual SMUX) I/O plus a 36x18 DSP matrix routing mixer. Firestudio also gives you up to 26 simultaneous inputs and outputs. Combined with the speaker volume and mix control of the optional Monitor Station Remote (MSR), it gives your studio advanced digital capabilities.

[brandondrury]

Quality: 9
The Presonus Firestudio seems to be a high quality audio interface. It sounds fine. The preamps sound exactly like I would expect from preamps included in an audio interface. They aren't really anything special, but they are not bad. Of all the problems I face making recordings at home, replacing the preamps in a Firestudio would be fairly low on my "to do" list.

Reliability: 9
The Presonus Firestudio has been very reliable for me. I've been more than happy with the way it has performed and can't recall any issues at all once I set it up properly.

Overall Rating: 9
I picked up my Presonus Firestudio several months ago after some problems with my Delta 1010s which I had used for nearly 7 years. I've found that the Presonus Firestudio to be a well put together product. I've been very happy with it and enjoy the modern features that the Delta 1010s did not employ. You can read all about that here:

Departing With M-Audio Delta 1010 Audio Interfaces | Home Recording Blog

I've been most impressed by the routing possibilities which have made it possible for me to easily setup multiple headphone mixes with separate volume controls headed out to my Mytek DA 96 converter for my studio monitors.

I like the idea that I have 26 inputs (by adding ADAT Lightpipe preamps and S/PDIF inputs) if I need them. The Firestudio could work great for recording live bands (as in live concerts) as well as recording live bands in the studio. If you don't have any need for up to 26 simulatenous inputs, I would recommend the Firestudio. I'd go with the one of the less expensive Firestudio Project models simply because there is no reason to pay extra for the ADAT Lightpipe inputs you won't use.

[bilco]

Quality: 8
I am going to try to be objective here and give this thing the benefit of the doubt (I rented one for a weekend, messed with it for over 4 hours, never could get it to work, returned it the next day.) It seemed to be solidly built. By all accounts the preamps are pretty good. I like the concept of having 8 good preamps built into the unit, which I wish Digidesign would do. It seemed to be solidly built and from what I remember, the documentation was pretty good.

Reliability: 3
Sorry, but I've pretty much got to pan this thing. I have used my share of audio interfaces, some of them pretty picky. I tried this with my ibook, which works happily with my Mbox and Digi002 Rack and I could not get it to work. The LED that signifies firewire connectivity would not stay on consistently and I was never able to record a single note. As picky as Digidesign and Digigram products can be, I never had to spend 4 hours trying to install one of their products only to come up empty handed. Maybe it was just a bad unit...... after all it came from a place that rents gear out all the time.

I have read lots of glowing reviews of this thing, so I know it must have been a lemon. I have built and worked on enough PCs and installed enough software and audio interfaces to be confident that I am no rookie. I do not plan to ever try this product again.

Overall Rating: 5
Man, I wanted it to work so bad.... I was going to use it to record our band live. The simplicity of one interface with 8 mic preamps built into it running straight into the ibook was so appealing, but it just did not work out. So I had to drag the Digi002 Rack AND the Behringer ADA8000 to the gig. They worked fine all night.

I also have to say that although I like the concept of the flexibility of the routing matrix software, when I looked at it in the book, it looked anything but intuitive. Life is too short to sit trying to figure out something like that. I just want to turn a gadget on and record, right now, without having to wade through a manual trying to figure out how to do the simplest of tasks.

My final beef is that the Cubase LE that it came with that records 8 tracks and seems like it is a perfect match for the Fire Studio does not advertise anywhere that although it allows "up to" 8 tracks, it is limited to 4 simultaneous tracks of recording. That is the kind of lack of truth in advertising that really annoys me.

[mfassett]

Quality: 8
I bought this with the remote - and I have to say the remote makes lots of things handy - mute, dim, and mono switches, additional headphone outputs, monitor switching (if I had more monitors), input switching between main/spdif/aux, talkback, and a volume knob. I haven't used the pres much, since I have some other pres that I use, but they didn't seem much different than the firepod pres, and according to Presonus, they're the same.

Reliability: 6
This is where the Firestudio falls down. I've had problems with it losing connection when switching apps from Reaper to CuBase, and with loud pops when switching sample rates that the volume knob does nothing to alleviate. With the latest drivers, the headphone indicators in the mixer app for phones 2 & 3 are backwards. None of these are really show stoppers, and they don't keep me from using it and making music - but they are annoying as hell. The lowest usable latency I can set it for is 384 samples on a 2.4Ghz quad core with 2gb of ram. It seems to me that it ought to be able to go lower than that - but then maybe I'm asking too much of firewire. I know I could use a lower setting on my Firepod when I had one.

Overall Rating: 7
The features are great and the sound is fine (I don't think any problems I have with the sound of my recordings are related to the unit), but the annoyances annoy the hell out of me, and I wouldn't buy it again. Unless, of course, the next driver release fixes all the annoyances.


----------------
An Update
----------------
During the beta period, they managed to fix the lost connection when switching apps, and the annoying pops (I was on the beta driver list), but they introduced a different annoying bug which I reported and they never fixed where, when switching between sample rates while loading projects recorded at 88.2 in Cubase 4, the remote would shut down and I wouldn't be able to hear any audio. Switching to another project at 44.1 would cause the remote to come back on, and I could then load the original project again and it sometimes would work.

So when they released "final" drivers, I hoped they'd fixed that, but they haven't. The annoying pops when switching sample rates are back, and the usable latency seems to have increased.

It's getting replaced ASAP. What a waste of money.

[pipelineaudio]

Quality: 1
Though this unit had the most awesome layout I could ask for:

8 mic/line pres
2 Lightpipe I/O's
SMART headphone and monitor features.

Alas, the review unit we were given failed after a few hours, and the sewcond failed after a few weeks, right when the new beta drivers came that were supposed to give the final set of adat I/O

Mic pre's sound fine. Headphone amps are great (we never had it long enough to have the headphone noise problem you hear about in the presonus forums.

The coup de gras is this unit uses a DICE - II setup

Reliability: 1
High failure rate coupled with DICE - II spells doom

Overall Rating: 2
The best soundcard layout I've ever seen saves this from getting a 1, otherwise, try harder presonus: EXCELLENT idea, poor execution

[rally7133]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Quality: 9
The Presonus Firestudio seems to be a high quality audio interface. It sounds fine. The preamps sound exactly like I would expect from preamps included in an audio interface. They aren't really anything special, but they are not bad. Of all the problems I face making recordings at home, replacing the preamps in a Firestudio would be fairly low on my "to do" list.

Reliability: 9
The Presonus Firestudio has been very reliable for me. I've been more than happy with the way it has performed and can't recall any issues at all once I set it up properly.

Overall Rating: 9
I picked up my Presonus Firestudio several months ago after some problems with my Delta 1010s which I had used for nearly 7 years. I've found that the Presonus Firestudio to be a well put together product. I've been very happy with it and enjoy the modern features that the Delta 1010s did not employ. You can read all about that here:

Departing With M-Audio Delta 1010 Audio Interfaces | Home Recording Blog

I've been most impressed by the routing possibilities which have made it possible for me to easily setup multiple headphone mixes with separate volume controls headed out to my Mytek DA 96 converter for my studio monitors.

I like the idea that I have 26 inputs (by adding ADAT Lightpipe preamps and S/PDIF inputs) if I need them. The Firestudio could work great for recording live bands (as in live concerts) as well as recording live bands in the studio. If you don't have any need for up to 26 simulatenous inputs, I would recommend the Firestudio. I'd go with the one of the less expensive Firestudio Project models simply because there is no reason to pay extra for the ADAT Lightpipe inputs you won't use.

i bought one earlier this year and use it with a 15" macbook pro (intel with 2G ram). I get this extremely annoying noise after the first few minutes...not sure if it is feedback or what. I can try to record what it sounds like and post it, but has anyone else had this problem...it sounds as if the rotation from a drive inside the computer is bleeding thru. I have not called presonus tech support or downloaded the latest drivers. any help would be appreciated. I tried it on my imac with same results... i have just started using after about 4 months of owning it due to time constraints and so did not address the problem when I first got it as I should have...

[brandondrury]

I get this extremely annoying noise after the first few minutes...

So the problem doesn't occur immediately? If so, this means something has changed from when you first fire up your Firestudio to the "after a few few minute" period when this noise occurs (assuming it's the Firestudio at all).

I'm not aware of any reason an audio interface would cause this hum you have mentioned.

You also didn't mention if this noise occurs during just listening or tracking. If it's tracking, what instruments are you recording?

Brandon

[shooten]

Rally7133,

Did you update your drivers yet? I had what I think is the same problem. I'm pretty sure it's a sync issue with the clock on the mac and firestudio. I updated my drivers and have been problem free since. It was annoying as hell when it happened.

Scott

[greybeard]

Hello everyone, I'm a HS band director and I like to dabble in recording. I record my band every chance I get as it really helps me and my students improve. I've owned a Presonus Firestudio for about 2 yrs now. This has been my experience.

Hardware Quality 10
The hardware mic-pre,s and hardware features are 1st class
Drivers 5
The 1st set of drivers Presonus shipped were very picky about the computer you used them with. They pretty much refused to run on my Dell Inspiron 1150 laptop. The updated drivers and firmware seem to be much more stable. It runs without a hitch on the same computer.
Included software 7
Cubase LE is OK but you can easily do much better for not much money (Reaper)
Overall rating 8
This would be higher if the 1st set of drivers had been better.

[Thomas Hartkop]

I have been using 2 Presonus FP-10s with my quad core Mac G5. I have used this in the PC mode and Mac mode with Cubase 4 for the last year. I have used these units for recording 7 CDs both live with a Hand Bell Choir at a local church and In my studio. These AD converters appear as transparent and stable as I could wish for. I have been thinking of adding a 3rd FP-10. The Mac is stable and I have never had the FP-10 crash. The key is to have enough memory and hard drive space. I have Neuman and AKG microphones, an Allen Heath board, Aphex and Art tube preamps and Tannoy 6D Reveal monitors with the tannoy subwoofer.

I have been very happy with these units. How could they be any better?

After reading the above reviews, I think that I have made the correct decision. Bang for my buck, these are the best units. Tom