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PreSonus FP10

Dolphin id:: 3852
Product SKU:: FIREPOD

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FireWire Interface with 8 Preamps

The FP10 (formerly FirePod) is a complete 24-bit/96k recording system combining eight high-quality PreSonus XMAX microphone preamplifiers, 24-bit/96k sample rate conversion and as an added bonus, the PreSonus Pro Pak Software Suite featuring Steinberg's Cubase LE 4 48-track recording software, over 25 real-time plug-in effects and over 2 GB of drum loops and samples for music production.

The FP10 FireWire recording interface is equipped with eight PreSonus microphone preamplifiers, 24-bit/96K analog to digital conversion along with SPDIF and MIDI inputs and outputs for professional quality convenient and compact no-hassle recording.

The FP10's Class A preamps are custom-designed by PreSonus to deliver high headroom with low noise sonic performance - perfect for recording a wide variety of sources including vocals, drums, guitars, bass, piano, keyboards, guitars, synths, horns, orchestras, choirs, and more. Eight potentiometers are on the front panel to easily control the input level of each preamplifier.

Inputs one and two of the FP10 can be switched between microphone or instrument level while inputs three thru eight can be switched between microphone or line input. Phantom power (+48V) is available on every channel in groups of four. Channels 1 and 2 feature fully balanced send and return TRS connectors on the rear of the rugged metal chassis for inserting outboard dynamics, EQ and effects processors. The FP10 has eight balanced TRS line outputs as well two balanced TRS MAIN outputs as well as CUE outputs for addtional monitoring.

The FP10 also includes stereo headphone output on the front panel, as well as mix control to balance monitoring levels between mixed input and main output signals for zero-latency monitoring. Two channels of SPDIF input and output as well as MIDI input and output are also included.

Two FireWire ports are loaded on the FP10 making it possible to daisy-chain multiple FP10's together creating the possibility for adding additional inputs and outputs (with mic preamps) to your system.

Features

High-Speed FireWire (IEEE 1394) Audio Interface
Up to 96K Sampling Rate
8 XMAX Class A Microphone Preamplifiers (+60dB gain) w/ Trim Control
8 Analog Mic/Line Inputs, 2 Instrument Inputs
8 Analog Line Outputs
S/PDIF Digital Input and Output, MIDI Input and Output
Balanced Send / Return for Channels 1 and 2
Zero Latency Monitoring
Separate Main and Cue Mix Outputs
Daisy-chain multiple FP10's for additional inputs/outputs
FREE ProPak Software Suite including Cubase LE Audio Production Software Included

Artist Series Software

Studio One Artist is based on a cutting-edge 32-bit floating-point mix engine that is identical to that of Studio One in single-precision mode, delivering better audio quality than most high-end professional music-production applications. Studio One Artist has the same easy-to-use single-window interface and browser as Studio One—the friendliest user interface on the planet. This straightforward work environment allows you to track, edit, and mix in one easy-to-navigate window. However, you can separate the Console and Arrange views and can even drag them to separate displays. You also can switch to a larger Console view—yet another way Studio One Artist helps you work quickly while giving you maximum flexibility.

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PreSonus FP10 Reviews

8/10

FP 10

— Gary January 24, 2009

This is the third FP10 I have purchased from you and completes my mobile facilities.I kow that other people have commented on the lack of useful info supplied when buying this unit and I would have to agree,but having said that we all have to have a certain amount of patience when dealing with so many compatability issues and so on.
I tend to use my FP10\'s with Cubase 4 and adopt some perhapps unusual methods with them.I assign my outs from the control room interface in Cubase so as to achieve the following - outputs 3&4=stereo L&R,outputs 5&6=headphones (this routes to my headphones amp,outputs 7&8=alternate stereo L&R (this allows for a second pair of monitors.I then set the Main,Phones and mixer controls to zero (anti clockwise)and away it goes!
I found that trying to use the FP10 as is suggested resulted in compromise between recording and playback levels and it was hard to achieve exactly what you wanted to hear, but this formula definitely works for me.
I have all the units flightcased and their included power supplies strapped securely in the case with them, and they seem to cope with being lugged around the country.
My P.C.is fairly high spec and this helps the situation immensely when running 3 firepods together to achieve 24 simultaneous inputs.That being said,I often carry a laptop and one FP10 out to my smaller jobs and this has always served its purpose admirably.
I do feel that there is room for improvement when it comes to the drivers,they can be a little troublesome when installing and this requires a certain amount of patience.Presonus offer good support online but it is badly written and conflicting in some areas,I found it beneficial to call them in The States,they were extremely helpful and sorted all of my issues out in an afternoon.
Now they are up and running I am delighted with their performance and it has to be said, if like me you are looking for a large number of simultaneous inputs,I can\'t find another product in this price range that gives this kind of performance.
I would like to think that Presonus are constantly striving to improve their driver technology and compatability issues for the Fp10, let\'s hope so.

10/10

Perfect for apple

— Paul Blanchard April 4, 2008

If your using an apple Mac this is the interface to use. Don't even bother with using cubase LE, Just use Garageband and it works a treat.

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10/10

firepod

— left below October 25, 2007

You really have to know how to use this, but it is a brilliant i use it with cuebase and use it live.
the outputs are superb all you have to do is add stereo outs and you can send to anything, we use the outputs to go to the drummer for his own mix and guitarist and bass have there own out to a wireless transmitter and u can also send signal to foh for the singer to have a split signal of click track and actual monitors.
Its truly ahead of its time a great product.
just remeber to keep your cue mix turned off when playing live as will cancel out stereo but thats whats its meant to do.
use with xp pro or apple not vista (yet)

8/10

Specialist, but elegant

— kurtosis December 6, 2006

I bought this for one reason - the 8 preamps on the front of the unit. Having easily accesible inputs is essential for my particular live set up as it is easy for everyone in my band to work out what to plug in where and saves loads of time. I bought it to replace my Edirol UA-1000, which only has 4 inputs on the front panel. At £339 it it was over £200 cheaper than the UA-1000 (and the moto 828 mk II) and it does have fewer features than both these units. Notably, there is no software monitoring-routing system included with the driver. Nor does there seem to be a way to monitor all 10 outputs through the headphones socket. This means that certain monitoring methods that worked with the UA-1000 (for example, sending a monitor mix to the digital outs but monitoring it in analogue via the headphone socket) do not work with this unit. Also, there are only coaxial digital ports.

But to complain about these omissions is to misunderstand the point of the firepod. It ticks two important boxes that no other 1U rackmount interface can: 1) 8 xlr/line jacks on the front panel, 2) 8 input gain nobs on the front panel. This gives it the unique ability of being able to very easily interface with many analogue instruments (be they miked up or line out) in a live situation, without the need for a patch bay and without wasting precious setup time trying to access the back of the unit.

In fact, when using the unit with Ableton Live, the lack of software monitoring becomes a good thing as it means you have a slimmed down driver (which gives lower latency than any other unit I\'ve tried) and can use Live\'s incredibly useful routing system to make a different monitor mix for each song.

While this may not be the all-rounder that other interfaces are desperate to claim they are, for convenience and simplicity there really is nothing to compete with it. I\'ll be buying another unit to enable my band to add miked up accordion and vdrums to our setup without having to worry about how many stupid DIs the soundman has.

7/10

NOT bad

— Anthony November 30, 2006

I've never had any problems with the firepod sounding glitchy or jumpy. It's always recorded and played back very smooth. The preamp's are clear enough for it's price and what someone else saying earlier about the headphone mixing interferring with the main mix just isn't true.

Turn down the main mix to 0, and the headphone mix still stays up. This way you can shut off your control room speakers are the singer can listen to themselves through their cans. Easy.

Learn to use the hardware before you criticise it!

The only problem I have with it is that there is nothing written on how to make good use of the 8 line outputs. It mentions briefly in the FAQ on the presonus website that you can route outputs to them, but never explains how. Not that I desperately need those outputs for anything, it already has a lot of monitoring outputs.

9/10

The recording is pure and precise

— Omar Awapara September 12, 2006

I've been using it for almost a year now, and I think it is amazing. I can record all channels without any problems. It would be cool if it had a a complete signal level for every channel instead of just a CLIP red light. But with the computer having all of this signals it is almost irrelevant, or a luxury. If you are using it as a mixer without the comp, then it could be a bit anoying. The aquility of recording is pure and precise.

I have used it with both Mac and Windows computers, and the drivers work flawless. I've read many reviews and have seen many problems regarding drivers with outher brands. This was one reason why I chosed the Firepod, and the REALLy BIG reason is that you get 8 mic/line Channels and they are all in the front.

It is far more usefull to have the "INS" in the front pannel if you put it in a rack. You don't have to bend and go under your deskboard to try to reach the Channel, like with computers.

The Cubase Le is enought to record and mix a little bit. I don't do heavy mixing or use a lot of plug ins, so it is enought for me.

8/10

the firepod is garbage

— jake September 16, 2005

I tried it on two computers, a laptop (athalon 64bit 1024 mb RAM 200gig USB drive) and a PC desktop (Athalon 2.8 1024 mb RAM 2 160 gig sata drives). The desktop did better than the laptop but both had glitches at the lowest settings, 16/44.1 recording 8 tracks. It sounded like clocking or sync issues. At 24/96 it sounds like someone is shaking the HD on playback.

Funny, I was hoping for 8 simultaneous recording channels.

1/10

Awful.

— Jimmy August 17, 2005

Horribly incomplete documentation. Supplied literature was unhelpful. Virtually every part of setup, especially once you get to working with Cubase, is left up to guesswork. The headphone and cue/main mic outputs conflict with each other, making it literally impossible to effectively monitor through headphones. Therefore, people who record vocals in the same room as everything else (common for home producers) are resigned to shutting off their monitors just so they don't get bleed when recording.

This product is full of design flaws. Nothing on it quite works like it claims to. It's cumbersome, akward, and overall a waste of money.

I bought mine through Presonus directly as a dealer employee, and had to sign a contract saying I wouldn't resell it for one year. If it weren't for that, it'd be on ebay right now.