Replacing Q10, but with what?

OK, I think it's time to retire my Q10, but I'm not quite certain what to replace it with. Here is what I've narrowed choices to.

1. RME 9652
2. Sapphire Pro 26 I/O
3. PreSonus Firestudio

Long term I want the ability to record 16 tracks simultaneously (on a rare occasion) so either of the Firewire interfaces would get me there right now ( I have a Digimax FS). RME has such a good rep. though and I could pick up another preamp to go along with it at some point.

Here's my system (it's old but runs like a champ)

Dual AMD 1600 MP
1 Gig Ram
ADS firewire (TI chipset)
Matrox G550
SB Audigy 1394 (DVD Encore chokes on the Q10)

Thanks all for any input.

Brett

Small world!

At the moment I am leaning towards the Firestudio, because I just found out that you can save settings and use it independent of the computer as a preamp, which would work great with my HD24 portable setup.

It looks like the Sapphire can run effects for monitoring though and then I could ditch the mixer I use for monitoring.

But then the RME has two MIDI I/O and with the digimax, it wouldn't change my physical setup at all.

No perfect option and no truly bad options either. Errrrrr!!!!

Brett,

Hi! I am leaning toward the Firestudio with a Digimax FS. I have had such a good experience with my Presonus Eureka and was very impressed with Presonus's Support ethics that I am really wanting to stay loyal to them if possible.

According to the Presonus forum, there are some people having some issues with the Firestudio and Sonar 6. They are working on new drivers and expect to have that ironed out soon and, based on my experience with Presonus, I tend to believe them. Right now, I'm still using Sonar 4 and that doesn't seem to be effected.

The Mackie 1200F looks real interesting. 12 pre's all in one unit, monitoring section w/ talkback, etc. Unfortunately, it has entered the realm of "vaporware". A lot of talk but still no product!

I know there's also the MOTU stuff and the RME stuff which just adds to the confusion, eh?

When I bought my Aardvark, I felt really good about the product and the Company. The Q-10 worked and sounded great for me, and the people at Aardvark were great, very responsive. Then, of course, they went out of business so, no new drivers or updates, or support, ever. It still works fine but, not much way to expand it's I/O thanks to the lack of ADAT I/O.

I also bought the Tascam US-2400 control surface, which I absolutely love. Unfortunately, thanks to EU regulations, Tascam discontinued the US-2400 so, now when I upgrade my computer I have to stick with XP instead of Vista to assure that my control surface will still function. Of course from what I've heard, XP is still a pretty good way to go for a DAW...... for now, but I'm sure in the future Vista will be the way to go. Then it's decision time, again.

I really hate all this updating/upgrading stuff. It's just impossible to keep up! I hate to sound like an "old fogey" but, it was so much easier back in the old analog days. You just bought stuff, hooked it up together and it all just worked! Imagine that!!!

Sorry this is so long, I really didn't mean to write a book here! Please, keep me posted as to what you end up buying and how it all works out.

It's been a while since I sold my Q10, but I replaced it with FF800 from RME. I've never looked back. It has all the expandibility I'll ever need with this system and more. Look to the future of your setup to see if the other interfaces mentioned have the capability to expand like the FF800. They update their drivers about every other month.

Got my FireStudio (Sweetwater had it to me in less than 24 hours of ordering it and that was with the free shipping)

Here's my mini-review

GOOD STUFF - Well constructed, the mixer software is a huge improvement over the Q10 (extremely flexible routing,9 available mixes), the preamps sound cleaner and gain control with knobs is also a big improvement over the software method with the Q10, Phantom power available for all mic inputs.

BAD STUFF - BSOD in Sound Forge (reinstalled the drivers and seems OK now), BSOD if you turn off the unit or unplug the firewire while the drivers are in use, the mixer software was mind boggling to me for the first 1/2 hour and then merely confusing for the next 2, sample rate has to be changed manually

Current Setup: Firestudio + Digimax FS Attached via ADAT. 6 Mixes defined (Control Room, Phones 1- 4, & FX Send (to Alesis Quadraverb). I reserved one set of Analog inputs for Stereo FX return, so there are 14 available Analog inputs. Software: Sonar 5 PE WinXP SP1.

In Use: Did a quick session for a friend last night. Had one problem with audio speeding up after two takes and adding plugins. After rebooting had no more problems. The only different was that after rebooting, I didn't leave the Presonus Mixer utility open while using Sonar.

Overall Impression: I think the mic pre's are slightly "cleaner" than the Q10 and the mixer utility is a huge improvement. With my setup I am able to have zero latency monitoring with FX and plenty of inputs without using an outboard mixer. I'm still a little bit nervous about the driver stability, new drivers are due out in the next few weeks though so I am hopeful that will be the final piece of the puzzle. Anyone looking for a used Q10?

http://www.samash.com/catalog/showitem.asp?ItemPos=0&TempID=1&DepartmentID=6&STRID=55430&CategorySubID=877&CategoryID=877&BrandID=0&CategorySubPriceRangeID=0&pagesize=10&SortMethod=3&Method=3&PriceRangeID=0&SearchPhrase=&Contains=&Search_Type=Department&GroupCode=&categorysubsearch=true

This is the best deel from pre-sonus. You get this all for $399 This inclused the firepod, A headphone amp, and 3 vst plugins (wich includes Drumagog le) This offer ends at the end of the month. I have mine on order. I couldnt resist this great deal. The firepod has 2 sends for outboard effects. This is a beautiful thing

Cj

Just curious...... What version of SONAR are you using? As of now, I'm still using SONAR 4. Until I update my system, I just don't think updating SONAR is going to help me out that much. (Not sure if my system as it is can handle it)

Also, I see you bought from Sweetwater. Just thought I would add that I have had nothing but great service from Sweetwater and Bob Mondock in particular.

Again, wishing you the best experience with the Firestudio and still thinking this is probably the way I'm going to go.

The MSR-1 looks great, but you have to buy the Firestudio AND Cubase 4 to get it "free".

PS: I'm using Sonar 5 PE