The PreSonus FireStudio Project interface and software bundle fits the
bill nicely when you're serious about making great recordings but don't
have a big-time budget. The FireStudio Project's FireWire interface has
eight Class A mic preamps, 24-bit/96kHz sample rate conversion,
near-zero-latency monitoring, and an array of input and output options.
You also get mixer router software, plus PreSonus' ProPak software
suite, which includes Steinberg Cubase 4 LE 48-track recording and
sequencing software, over 20 plug-ins, and over 2GB of drum loops and
samples, all included with FireStudio Project.
Quality mic preamps
The FireStudio Project starts with eight custom-designed high-voltage,
discrete, XMAX Class A microphone preamplifiers. The job of a
microphone preamplifier is to boost microphone level signals to line
level so that the signal can be converted from analog to digital. This
mic to line boost is generally a preamplification of over 400 times the
voltage of the original mic level signal. This preamplification stage
is one of the most important stages that the signal will go through
before converted to digital, and is why a high performance preamplifier
is important to achieving great results.
Advanced platform technology: DICE II and JetPLL
The FireStudio Project is loaded with the new ultra powerful DICE II
FireWire chipset delivering 26 channels of simultaneous inputs and
outputs at professional-quality 24-bit. The strength of the DICE II
chip lies with its ability to easilly handle high channel count at high
bit-rate while minimizing latency and load on your computer.
Low jitter, high conversion performance
The synchronization of the FireStudio Project is handled by patented
JetPLLTM jitter reduction technology. JetPLL incorporates noise shaping
to virtually remove all audio band jitter. JetPLL ensures the highest
converter performance possible, resulting in better stereo separation
and clearer more transparent audio. JetPLL delivers ultra-fast locking
to any digital format, through a wide range of frequencies and is
extremely robust, and tolerant of wide variations in clock frequencies.
JetPLL ensures near perfect clock performance when networking audio
devices thus creating the most stable and robust synchronization to the
computer and all devices synchronization with the FireStudio Project.
Near-zero latency DSP mixing/routing
The FireStudio Project also includes the FireControl mixer/router a
18x10 DSP mixer/router for flexible mixing and direct routing any input
to any output including the headphone output, with zero latency. The
FireControl software application lives between your FireStudio Project
interface and your DAW software enabling the mixing and routing of
input streams coming into your FireStudio Studio Project interface and
playback stream coming from your DAW software. The FireControl is
capable of creating up to five stereo mixes and then routing to the
outputs of your FireStudio Project for headphone mixes and various aux
sends. This way everyone in the band and the recording engineer can
have a custom mix. Also, the FireStudio Project is loaded with internal
flash memory so that all FireControl settings are saved and recalled in
the FireStudio Project during power off/on. This allows you to
configure your FireStudio as a stand-alone device, without being
connected to a computer for uses such as a submixer, A/D and
D/A-converter, headphone mixer, format converter, instrument or
microphone pre-amplifier!
ProPak Software Suite (v3)
The FireStudio Project also comes with the new ProPak Software Suite
(v3), which includes more than 20 real time plug-ins, a number of
virtual instruments and over 2 GB of drum loops and samples including:
Steinberg Cubase LE 4 audio production software, BFD Lite, Wave Arts
TrackPlug LE, MasterVerb LE, Discrete Drums, and more!
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 with FireControl mixer/router
- Separate balanced main outputs and 8 balanced analog outputs
- FREE ProPak software suite including Cubase LE 4 audio production software
