Stay away from PreSonus Products!!!

The reason I am posting this on Cakewalk's Forum is b/c I know a lot of Sonar users either have a PreSonus product or are thinking about getting one.

I own a PreSonus FireStudio Project and FireBox and used to have a FirePod. I have been having some issues w/ the new FireStudio Project along w/ many other users as can be seen on their forums. The FireStudio Project sounds great but isn't as stable as the older FireBox or FirePod.

I have contacted their tech support and they were useless and one of their staff actually told me that I should return the FSP. I have tried emailing them and have never received a response. I have posted on their forum and they sometimes delete my posts or ban me from their forums b/c they say:
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You have been banned for the following reason:
Negative Posting

Date the ban will be lifted: 04-08-2008, 02:00 PM
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This is crazy. I got banned today b/c I wasn't happy that they are releasing a newer product called the FireStudio Tube when they have many customers w/ unresolved issues.

Below is the post that got me banned. Let me know if I was out of line. I have also been having many issue w/ my Line 6 POD X3 Live and have made many posts to their forums and they have never banned me and they reply and resolve a lot of peoples issues.

SUBJECT: Newer products when new products still don't work?

So I was on here today and happened to notice the new FireStudio Tube and
I just can't believe that PreSonus would even think about releasing
another product when they haven't even resolved their issues w/ the
FireStudio or FireStudio Project.

Also, if the new FireStudio Tube does manage to have good drivers and work
for many people out of the box, then all of us having problems w/ our
current FireStudio or FireStudio Project should be given a FireStudio Tube
as a replacement for our faulty products.

My FSP sounds great but it doesn't work as stable as my cheaper FireBox or
my old Firepod did. It just really bugs me to know that PreSonus isn't
putting 100% into resolving their current customer's issues. They should
not even be putting 1% into making newer products until they have stable
new products.

It seems that PreSonus is not the only company following these bad
business practices lately but they should set the precedence and make sure
they release stable products. If they realize they can't resolve an issue
w/ a firmware or driver update and only by releasing a newer product, then
us beta testers should be compensated.
__________________
Thanks,
Lou
Desktop: ABIT IS7 Intel P4 2.8GHz 800FSB 1GB DDR XP Pro SP2
Laptop: Dell Vostro 1700 2GB DDR2 2.0GHz Core2Duo Vista Ultimate SP1

I installed the FireStudio Project for a friend about 3 weeks ago. He loves it and it seems solid so far. He's using it with Sonar 6.2, If your using Sonar 7 I think Cakewalk has a patch that deals with the DICE chipset.

I had a Firepod... ...and I, still today, ask the Heavens "why was I moved to use it for so long? (like three months)"... It's a very dark sounding piece of gear (and I don't mean dark as in 'warm'...). I'd get an EMU 1616M. It sounds as good (to my ears-and to many of my clients) as the RME MultiFace II I use daily- for half the bread. The preamps on the Firepod were useless to me (...of course I have a Pacifica... ...but I also have a Presonus MP-20 which is a very UNDER rated mic pre!).

If you're doing 'demos' (tracks for non-critical listening), then it matters little what you use...

I'm very sorry to report, but I agree with the original poster. I personally owned and used an original Firepod for a while, as well as some of my clients. I found Presonus tech support to be not very supportive or responsive, and issues were never resolved.

Sold my Firepod, and cannot/will not recommend Presonus to anyone for any reason. For the record, I think their audio interface products are OK (above average, but not great), but driver development and customer service have a long way to go in my opinion.

Replaced the Firepod with a LynxTWO-B, and couldn't be happier with the audio quality, driver quality, and excellent service/support -- all a significant improvement over the Firepod experience.

I, too, have abandoned the Presonus ship. I had a FireBox that I had good luck with, but I needed more inputs, so I got the FireStudio. With Sonar 6 on Vista, I was unable to record a clean track without pops and clicks at even extreme latencies via ASIO. In WDM mode, I would get blue screen crashes sometimes when recording.

I've replaced it with an RME FireFace, and life is good now. It's a shame, because the FireStudio was everything I needed at a good price. I'm telling everyone I know to avoid the FireStudio.

Lets get something straight....

who cares! man, she looks hot!

Let's see... we're supposed to boycott Fender and Monster and Waves and Presonus and Creative and Gibson and

Who the hell's left?

I have had a Presonus Firebox for about 2 years. Solid as a rock. Prompt emails sent back to me when I had a question when I fisrt got it. Maybe the service has gone to the dogs in that time.

But I like the product I've got. To me, Presonus is synonomous with quality and happy feelings.

I have a Presonus DigiMax FS that has worked like a charm since I purchased it a couple of years ago. Very nice complement to my RME FF800. I also have an ADL600 which is awesome. The first one I had was from the earliest batch which had an issue with the front mounted impedance switch (which I discovered via a review in Recording magazine). So I emailed Presonus support, and because they hadn't heard of the issue themselves outside of their tech dept, they bumped my email up to their head honcho in charge of dealer support, Chad Kelly. Long story short, I had a new ADL600 sitting next to my old one within 3 days, and they paid to ship my old one back. Bad support from Presonus? ...Not my experience at all.

-mr moon

Thats funny j boy!

I think Presonus generated an awful lot of negative attitudes with the Firestudio 26x26. They strung people on for a year waiting for new drivers. And while all these people are waiting patiently for drivers that work, they are seeing new products coming out that would appear to require the same programming resources needed to fix Firestudios problem. At the time, Presonus seemed much more concerned with getting new stuff out (and maybe they have to keep the cash flowing) than with fixing what was a big problem for a lot of Sonar users.

I am a happy DigimaxFS user and former Firestudio 26x26 guinea pig.

I didn't want to respond to this thread..
but..
of course there are Presonus units that work flawless..
The OP was talking about units that require a driver.. I don't think its correct to lead to a 3rd party driver at this point!
When I was looking for a 24-in/out-solution I really would have jumped on the Presonus series.. front connectors were exactly what I was looking for.. price was also ok.. but by that time there were a lot of (or at least at seemed to be like that) bad units delivered to the customers.. So you had bad units and bad drivers.. I had to jump on RME and bought a FF800 and 2 Octamics.. I still miss the front-connectors though..
it seemed that there were more bad apples in their production line back then.. anyway, I can understand the OPs frustration.
On the other side you have to include the sequencer-software(Sonar) and also the individual hardware to that calculation..

Frank Haas,

I don't think most of my or anyones FSP issues are sequencer-software(Sonar) b/c it has problems w/ all audio applications like Windows Media Player, iTunes, Real Audio, QuickTime, Sony Sound Forge and Vegas but my FireBox works flawlessly with everything.

Looks like one of those 2-guy startups that's now really a 1-guy company.

One of the 2 now gives the corporate interviews, the other has a myspace page, AFAIK. Could be related.

ORIGINAL: j boy

Let's see... we're supposed to boycott Fender and Monster and Waves and Presonus and Creative and Gibson and

Who the hell's left?

good one

-JD