Problems with Presonus Firepod

[bstardoh]

Hi Everyone,

I have recently purchased a Presonus Firepod and have been using it to record Bass and Guitars and Vocals

So far it has been very good except when I start using the 3-8 th inputs

I have a feeling that I might be doing something wrong.

Inputs 1 and inputs 2 work perfectly.

Inputs 3-8 however are extremey soft in volume.

I understand that Inputs 1 and 2 are recommended for instruments and the rest of the inputs are for mikes. I am using a shure 8800 to record vocals on input 8, however I can't seem to get the gain up to decent levels even after cranking all levels to max. I have activated the inputs in Cubase so that is also not the issue. The manual does not state that I have to do press any buttons or do anything specific to activate inputs 3-8.

I'm in a little bit of a fix here. Any help is appreciated.

 

[blueprintstudios]

thats weird, you might wanna go back to the shop where you bought from and ask?

 

[unholyernest]

never heard of shure 8800 leh.. condenser or dynamic?
if your mic goes into input 1 for instrument, is it better/louder?
then u might have to go through external preamp for your special mic loh.

i not pro at recording..can't help much..

 

[blueprintstudios]

still can't be.. the fp10 itself is a preamp on its own with the audio interface. need 2 levels of preamps??

 

[teleholic]

IIRC inputs 1 & 2 are switchable btw mic and hi-z while 3-8 are switchable btw mic and line..what have you set the switches to?

 

[bstardoh]

Thanks guys,

Ive solved the problem.

I changed the cabling on the microphone and used an XLR cable instead of a 1/4" jack.

this solved the problem and its working like a charm.

I guess inputs 3-8 need to use the XLR thingy. 1 and 2 are instruments inputs for which you can use a normal 1/4 inch jack.

Although i knew this, i didnt quite understand till i was told by the dude I bought it from.

 

[blueprintstudios]

nice, glad to hear.

 

[teleholic]

good to hear that bro..while we're at it, any firepod owners facing any problems like not syncing all of a sudden or a fried unit..wanna get one but heard many stories..like working fine till one day just died on them or stop syncing even though the blue led is on..also the compatibility issues..thnks!

 

[blueprintstudios]

well so far I've used james (soft) 's firepod, then I introduced 2 of my friends the fp10, all working great so far (although "Made In China") i think the problems would usually be exception case or human configuration error

 

[godchuanz]

Most hardware made to accept both inputs in the same socket (i.e. both XLR and 1/4") specifies that you have to use XLR for mic-level and 1/4" for line-level inputs.
This makes sense since the hardware cannot decide for you whether what you have plugged in is a soft line signal, or a mic signal on the same port.

If you take a look at your firepod's knobs, there are 2 sets of gain scales. One set is for the XLR input, the other set is for the 1/4". The outer set is for the preamp on the XLR.

Then, notice that the inner set of values for Channel 1 and 2 are different. There are instrument preamps built in to the 2 1/4" inputs, which means it'll probably be too hot for your line-in, but provide good amount of pre-amplification for your passive guitar/bass. If you really need to use line-in for Channels 1 and 2, plug them in via the back of the Firepod.

 

[jon__]

jem007: i've been using a firepod for about two years now. i use it almost exclusively with a macbook and powerbook g4 and headphones/in-ears, using xlr cables for connections wherever i can and a crate powerblock as a guitar preamp. i initially bought it to record a full-length lp in a mobile studio setup at school, which worked out great. it sounds fantastic, and it works pretty well. the only real incident i have had with it was when i blew up the power supply because i didn't realise it was rated for 120v. no problems with unit though. heh