ESI Maxio 032 vs. Presonus Firepod

Posted on Dec 02, 2005 06:21 pm
thisfilter
Member Since: Dec 02, 2005

Which is the better unit given that i probably wont be using all 8 mic pre's on the firepod?

Noize2u
Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002

Dec 03, 2005 03:31 pm

Well first off it uses a PCI card not firewire. As well you do realise it is geared more toward ADAT use then anything else. It does have analog i/o 2 channel's in 2 out. Mic pre's w/48v phantom power. As well as midi i/o. And the unit's can be chained for up to 4 unit's total.

It is really a differant animal then the Firepod. I guess given the finicky thing's I have heard abou the Firepod, some love it, some cant get it to run stabil on certain systm's I would opt for the ESi unit. But then again I might be a bit biased as I am running 2 ESI unit's currently.

thisfilter
Member
Since: Dec 02, 2005

Dec 03, 2005 08:10 pm

hmm, this is why i was trying to find out how adat could benefit me, but i have heard some great things about esi units, and although they are a bit pricier, i really dont think i will need more than 2 mic pres on my sound card, and i prefer pci if i can find one. for my purposes, it seems as if the esi might be better... How is the latency on the unit? How good is it at handling a lot of tracks/effects/midi channels with huge samplers?

Noize2u
Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002

Dec 03, 2005 10:35 pm

Their drivers are as good or better then most. Very stabil here. Track cont is a matter of the PC not the audio interface. And midi, well that is 16 channels of i/o there so you should be good.