Mackie or Presonus?

[MWK]

Hey there people,

I'm after an interface for my pc and unfortuneatly I'm on a strict budget, so I'll be looking at the lesser of the evils as opposed to taking my pick from King Solomon's tresures as it were.

The two evils that look the most promising are the Presonus Fire Pod and the Mackie Onyx 1220 mixer.


My thoughts on the 1220 are that the preamps are "suposedly great sounding" (if you believe Mackie)
also with a slight Mod you can use the perkins eq in the recording path and you have the whole fire wire option.
you can also use the desk as a bit of a makeshift control surface for mixing afterwards (faders).


I have heard good things about the fire pod, but of corse you don't have faders for mixing, great sound eq (supposedly) or a control surface of sorts to work with.


does anyone have any other options?

I am willing to go over my budget slightly if the option sounds good and kills many birds with one magic stone so to speak.

[astrovic]

The only opinion I can offer is that the light blue font colour you chose is unreadable against a white background...which is my (and probably others') choice of background - any chance you could edit your post and make it black?

[davemc]

I would say probably both pres are a little 2D against pro pres although I do not normally care for many pre inbuilt interfaces.
You can use the mackie as a stand alone analog mixer which is a plus, it has EQ again maybe a plus, depending how it sounds he he

Others to look at would be the MAudio, RME, Focusrite,digi,motu, Alesis etc etc. Depending on how many channels you need. Maybe look for something better aloough secondhand if your got the time.

[chris p]

Hi there MWK

To offer any meaningful advice we'd need to know a little bit more about you. What other gear do you have, and what will you be using it for, the colour of your partner's underpants and what is the urgency to buy either now rather than saving for a better piece of gear in the future.

I'm just kidding about the underpants. At least, I think I am.

Welcome along to da Forum anyhows.

[MWK]

To be perfectly honest with you, I've got jack!

I keep hearing very good things about the fireface800 apart from not having a master volume and the phantom must be activated from the software.

how much difference is there going to be between the fireface converters and say the firepod or the onyx firewire thingy?

I've seen the fireface for about 2400 so that's not to bad!

[Chris H]

I would tend to go for the fireface 800 first and then down the track a bit when you can afford, get a pair of better preamps.

[chris p]

No probs starting from scratch, we've all been there.

The RME converters are famous for their low jitter and steady clock technology, which helps to keep stereo images good and tight and of course improve the quality of your recordings. This is a question of circuit design, not just what chip they use (so beware of all those "same converter chips as RME" type claims). But is the AD/DA thing your weakest link. The Fireface is one mean machine, but there's no point owning one unless you have a computer with DAW software, some decent mics and some decent monitors. It's also not what you need if your just going to record yourself with guitar and vox in your bedroom - some of the 2 channel Apogee stuff would be better for that. Also, the AD/DA thing evolves pretty quickly. The price of the Fireface might drop soon, once the competition (eg Focusrite Saffire Pro, Presonus Firestudio) comes up to speed. Or you might indeed be better off going with an Onyx mixer and spending the difference on a few good mics.

If you are truly starting from scratch on a budget, you may indeed be better off with an Onyx, using its bundled DAW software and acquiring some nicer mics, some monitors and maybe a compressor or 2, like the RNC.

[kassonica]

Hi ALL

I have an mackie onyx that i use cabled into my motu 828mk2 and all i can say about it for the price i'm extremely happy with it's pre's it's not a neve but it does the job very very well. I don't have the firewire option but at one point there were issues (driver i believe) with certain DAWS. I know that it does work pretty well with mackies own software.

Cheers

Kassonica

[Luke Garfield]

Hey MWK,

Firepod is a great cheap box. The pre's are quiet and honest. I had one unit and then wanted 16 tracks so I bought another.

Where I can I stick some nicer pre's in front of the on board ones. I have 2 nice telefunken pre's and then if I need more I've found hiring highly worthwhile.

Aside from all that stuff - this unit is clean and easy to use. Just get in there and get started I reckon ;-). Oh and the Cubase LE software is a good starting point - I use Logic myself but have had a little dabble with Cubase and it's quite tidy.

All the best.

[Damien]

what software will you be using? this can make a differance.
ill assume you "have a copy" of something or are you going to use the stuff bundled with the hardware.

also what is the rest of the stuff you will be using? and do you want to upgrade later or just get an interface and then your done....

damien

[Kurt]

Just to confuse things further, has anyone played with the new MOTU 8Pre?

[MWK]

Hi davemc,

I hadn't planned on using the firepod pre's but had heard that the onyx pre's are quite fair.

Hi Chris H,

I am terribly tempted to go with the Fireface800 and how does the Fireface400 stand up next to it? anybody?

Hey Damien, I'm using a um, borrowed copy of Cubase but I can't stand it it's very clumsy if you know what I mean.
I down loaded the demo of Samp off the Magix site and I love the way it sounds!
It would be nice to try a proper version without all the limitations placed on recording and other functions, but even with my crappy sound card it sounds really clean and true to life, I guess you might say "honest" so I think I'm going to buy myself a copy very soon.


What do people think is fair price for a pair of monitors?
I would like to try and keep it to about $1500 there abouts.


Thankyou everyone for your responses, I really appreciate it.

[davemc]

If your picked your software, check that the soundcard you have works well on forums.. Not all soundcards work well on different software or even on mac vs pc.

Monitors thats a whole can of worms. I personally do not like a lot of monitors people get for home recording krk, mackie, alesis,be!@#$%^& etc etc Although you have to listen with your own ears.
A lot of "cheap studio monitors" are hyped to make things sound good. Although this makes them harder to mix with.
I normally want my speakers to translate although have more detail then say my car stereo.
There are many around to look at under $2k new.
Adam A7, Genlec 8030, Dynaudio BM5a's ok.. Maybe a little bass lite without a sub.
I would say look secondhand and get something nicer.

[headman]

I have a Fireface 400 I use for remote recordings with a Toshiba Laptop. It works like a dream, it's rock solid with Cubase and has good pre's (2), line in's (6) and adat i/o as well, but you would need to purchase extra mic pre's for the line inputs. This gives you up to 16 channels in and out at 24/48. If you want 96k you can't use the adat, but the eight analogue mic and line inputs and outputs are very good. The fireface 800 has more mic and line inputs if you need the higher sampling rate. Give Steve Smith at Innovative music (the Australian distrubitor) a call and he will give you all the RME options. Both the Fireface units are great value for the money

t.h.

[MWK]

I have a Fireface 400 I use for remote recordings with a Toshiba Laptop. It works like a dream, it's rock solid with Cubase and has good pre's (2), line in's (6) and adat i/o as well, but you would need to purchase extra mic pre's for the line inputs. This gives you up to 16 channels in and out at 24/48. If you want 96k you can't use the adat, but the eight analogue mic and line inputs and outputs are very good. The fireface 800 has more mic and line inputs if you need the higher sampling rate. Give Steve Smith at Innovative music (the Australian distrubitor) a call and he will give you all the RME options. Both the Fireface units are great value for the money

t.h.

Well that's it then!

I assume that the pre's in the 400 are the same as in the 800?

a Fireface800 it is then!

It's funny you mention Innovative music, I came straight from there website to here!

[headman]

As far as i know the mic pre's are the same. The 800 just has more options overall ig you want to record at higher rates. It has, I think the double speed adat system that gives 96k over an adat conection (with the apropiate interface). It's more expensive than the 400 but that has to be expected.
Give Smithy a ring at Innovative, he's the one to talk to.
t.h.

[Henry]

Just looked at the Firestudio ($600usd) at the Presonus site today and noted; it's class A and Discrete(no op amps)! The reviewer reckons the new Presonus clock makes it better than his PTHD 192. It has got to be much better than any Mackie stuff in that case right?