Firebox and Komplete 4

I posted asking for comparisons the other day between the Tascam FW-1082 and the Presonus Firebox.

I didn't get any responses but after doing some research, decided on the Firebox. A lot of people seem to like it and views on the pre-amps and headphone amps are pretty positive in general.

I got it to replace my m-audio USB fasttrack. There were a number of things with the fasttrack that I was unhappy with. The drivers locked things up so much I ended going to using the Microsoft generic drivers with ASIO4ALL. Second, I could never get the latency (with their drivers or ASIO4ALL) as low as I wanted them. I could get reported times of 5 msec and such but I could tell that actually latency was more than was being reported. Using Guitar Rig II live was basically a no go. And I suspected that the pre-amps were less than stellar.

So I bought the Firebox from a place that I could return it. I hooked it up last night and installation was painless. I had already checked to see that the firewire in my computer was VIA which is one of two brands which is supposed to work well with this unit (the other being TI).

Obviously, I couldn't do extensive testing last night but I do know the following:
1. Latency is definitely very improved. Guitar Rig II now actually works well live. In fact I would say it works really well. I could notice this with my synths as well. This alone was probably worth the upgrade to me.

2. The headphone amplifier is a treat. I was amazed at the detail I was now hearing. In fact, it was so detailed it was sometimes distracting. And it will crank up loud.

3. As I mentioned, I was playing guitar through the thing and aside from the latency issue, it was sounding much better as well.

So far, I'm a happy camper. I do need to do more testing and I might still find that fatal flaw. But I do know that for me, it is miles better than the m-audio fasttrack, even if you were to leave off the additional features like the midi ports, SPDIF port (which I do have a use for), etc.

As I was getting ready to leave the store where I bought it, I mentioned that it had been a tough choice between the Firebox and grabbing the Komplete 4 update. The guy I was working with told me he could let me have the Komplete 4 update for $250 instead of the normal $299. Well that was too much for me and I got that too .

I spent most of my time working with the Firebox last night and fooling around with guitar Rig II, etc. But I did get Absynth 4 installed and began playing with it. I'll have more thoughts on that with more play but I already know one thing I absolutely adore about this upgrade from Absynth 3. I love the kore library database function they have built in (you do not need Kore to use this - I don't). It makes finding appropriate patches so nice. You click on a couple of choices within various categories and pretty soon you have narrowed the patches down from 1200 or so to a much more manageable 4 or 5 to audition looking for that perfect brass part or digital piano. You can also rate patches, etc. This is a real winner of a feature and as much as I like Dimension Pro (and it is organized better than most), this would be a wonderful addition to an already great instrument.

I loved FM7 and even apart from the other updates in FM8 (which are substantial) getting the Kore database thing there is going to be really nice as well.