Alesis or Presonus?

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 9 Nov 2007 3:51 am

I've been looking at computer recording interfaces and these two have interested me. Any comments on these?

Alesis io/26 http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=246031

Presonus Firepod 24/96 http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=184131

Craig Stenseth · Post by **Craig Stenseth** » 9 Nov 2007 6:48 am

Jack,
I have the Alesis, I have not had a chance to use it yet (I need a faster PC), but Craig Anderton did a review of it over on the Harmony Central message board.
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/for ... ?t=1562285

That thread is several pages long, you might want to free up a weekend to read the thing...

Miguel e Smith · Post by **Miguel e Smith** » 9 Nov 2007 12:12 pm

I've not used the Alesis but I had the Firepod for awhile. A good unit for the price but I wanted more flexibility and lower latency than it offered so I got the RME Fireface 800 and am very happy with it.

Randy Phelps · Post by **Randy Phelps** » 9 Nov 2007 12:21 pm

Jack, toss up on performance. I've used both. I am starting to prefer Alesis in the price range. I have found their drivers to be better and, of late, better QC, and the way they implement 1394 has been historically less volatile (less potentially damaging) to the 1394 port.

Both are good tools especially for the price.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 10 Nov 2007 3:36 am

As I've been "looking", I see the Firepod has been replaced by the FP10. But, it doesn't look like a "new and improved" model.

The FP10 comes with Cubase LE4, the Alesis site doesn't state which version of Cubase it comes with. I have V1.01 that came with something I bought (don't remember what that was).

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 13 Nov 2007 5:49 am

I got an Inspire GT, and so far I'm liking it. I never have enough time to do aything, but it seems to get a good clean amplified signal to either Cakewalk or CueBase, which I haven't spent enough time on.

With it comes "Riff Tracker", and some other useless "shareware" program that redirects your ability to record to Cakewalk that can take a litle while to figure out how to reverse. Stuff like that sucks.

So far I hooked up 2 57s, one to each amp, and have been recording. Also my xtLive to the 1/4" inputs, and my computer speakers to the output. I glued it onto my computer case.

Lots of stuff to figure out. Last nite I was able to play BIAB tracks into one mike, and record it and a guitar track in Cakewalk.

We'll see if I get more time.

Something I seem to get shorter of..

EJL