PRESONUS INSPIRE 1394 (audio interface)

[Anderton]

So why the difference between the Mac, where I could hear some noise and whine (especially with the front panel Firewire jack), and the PC, where any noise was essentially inaudible with the instrument input, and low enough for all practical purposes with the mic input? Beats me. Maybe sending audio over FireWire is a bit more complicated than people realize, and there are "analog electronics" issues (leakage, grounding, etc.) that don't show up when you're shuttling data but do show up in audio. But I also noticed that my PC laptop performed like the ADK as well, and a Mac G4 performed about the same as the G5.

In the Mackie 400F thread, as I recall it was mostly people with Macs who complained about the "FireWire whine." (Sorry, I don't have one of the new Macintel machines for testing to see if there's any difference.) I wouldn't consider the levels to be unuseable for demo-type materials, but they certainly don't come close to the performance obtained with a Windows machine.

It's late, and I'm going to mull this over and perhaps think of some other possible tests...but for now, here's what I'm thinking:

* Inspire 1394 works really well with PCs.
* It may work well with some Macs, and it may not. But at least with mine, performance was clearly inferior to running on any of the PCs I tested.
* Although there is some noise when running with PCs, it's mostly in the 40Hz range and below, whereas with the Mac it's more audible. Adding some sharp highpass filtering on mixdown (which is a good idea anyway, the Inspire isn't the only source of low end energy in a digital system) brings the meter's residual noise reading way down.
* The mic pres are okay, but not as clean as the ones in the Firebox. For most applications, given the price of the Inspire and its intended audience, they'll do just fine. But if you want to up the quality level, feed a mic pre into the instrument input or the 3-4 line level inputs.

More tomorrow...

[Cammy8]

First of all, I want to thank you for this awesome review. It's really helping me to make my decision about which recording setup to purchase for my PC. I have some concerns, however, that are related to the earlier discussion of 4 simultaneous line level inputs. Forgive me if my question seems somewhat redundant, but I'm still a bit of a noob in the area of audio recording, and I don't fully understand things like line level vs. Hi-Z vs. mic inputs, etc.

One of the things that I hope to be able to accomplish with the Inspire is to tranfer some 4-track recordings from my TASCAM Portastudio onto my PC to revive some of my "classic" old recordings. The Portastudio has 4 line outs (one for each track) which I'd like to record onto the PC simultaneously. Now, I'm fairly certain you answered my question about whether this is possible with the Inspire when you responded to rc3's question regarding four line level signals from his external pre-amps:




However, I just want to make sure that this also applies to my 4-track transfer situation as well. What follows are a few of my additional concerns:

Would the 500k impedence rating of the instrument inputs affect the line level signals I am inputting? If so, how?

Also, a fellow at my local shop suggested that I should run those line level signals into the mic inputs, not the instrument inputs, but said that I would need to pad the signals to bring the levels down? Is there any advantage to going this route? It seems like more of a hassle to me, if I can just use the instrument inputs as line ins.

Any feedback you could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Anderton]

Good questions.

>

It should work fine.



No. This has an effect only with high output impedance sources, which your Portastudio is not, as long as the cables aren't too long (e.g., under six feet).



No, in fact it will likely produce a noisier result. The instrument ins on the Inspire are really "multi-purpose" kinda inputs that work for a variety of signal sources, including line ins (as long as you keep the volume down).

[crispete]

I have one of these and it sounds great but I never could figure out how to overdub. And sometimes my recordings came out as only static and couldn't be replayed by windows media player until converted to a mp3. Any suggestions?

[ricknaqvi]

I have one of these and it sounds great but I never could figure out how to overdub.

 

 

There's a video on our site that covers recording a track and doing a basic overdub. It's called 'Watch a Recording Example with the Inspire1394."

 

Hopefully it will be helpful to you:

http://www.presonus.com/inspire1394videos.html

 

If you still have problems, call us and we'll get you going.

 

Regards,

[fuleiragem]

I don’t know if using more units causes a latency hit or other problems, and whether you can still use bus powering for, say, four units or whether you need to get the power supply into action. Hopefully someone from PreSonus is monitoring this and can comment.

 

However, for some reason I couldn’t adjust the preamp gain controls in the Mac Win Shade, but could in the Windows version. I thought perhaps the gain was changing in the Mac applet even though the knobs weren’t moving, but that wasn’t the case. All the other controls in the Apple applet are functional, which leads me to believe this is a bug. For what it’s worth, I’m running Mac 10.4.6, so maybe it’s one of those Mac OS things that seems to trip up designers from time to time.>>>

 

 

rick??

[ricknaqvi]

To my knowledge, chaining multiple Inspires does not increase your latency. In fact, if you record all sixteen inputs at 96k, the latency should actually go down.

You can also chain four of them from a single 6pin firewire port with no problem. You will not have to use powersupplies as long as you are not using a 4pin firewire jack like you find on PC laptops commonly. The only exception to this is if you use a Firewire PCMCIA card, you will have to use the powersupply. Even though it's six pin, it doesn't send power through the extra 2 pins. (bummer for PC laptop guys; you Mac laptop guys have a really nice deal because to my knowledge you are the only ones with a 6pin FW port on a laptop)

Regarding your Mac Control Panel weirdness: That's a first for me to hear about this. I've demo'ed it at every tradeshow that we have done since we introduced it on a Mac and never saw that problem. I will check with Scott Harrell, our digital products manager, about that one. I'll PM you when I find out something.

Cheers,

[fuleiragem]

that applet problem happened with craig. I was only curious to see what could be wrong with the mac version.

thanks for the reply.

[rsleonard]

So I bought an Inspire...a couple of issues, though. I'm primarily interested in this as an input device for a guitar and mic or guitar and guitar, simultaneously, using GarageBand on a Mac.

I have a Mic in Input 1, panned left in the control panel; a guitar in Input 2, panned right in the control panel. I have created 2 new "real" instruments (i.e., one for each) in GarageBand, one for the voice, and one for the guitar. But no matter what I do (assign Line 1 -- in GarageBand -- to the Mic, and Line 2 to the Guitar, etc.), the output for both shows up in both "instruments" in GarageBand.

Before I put this on eBay to sell, can anybody offer a suggestion? Perhaps I'm not getting the control panel set properly...I would really appreciate the help, or suggestions for a link.

if not, I'll be back with a good sale price on a used-once Inspire!

[Anderton]

>

Unfortunately, I don't have Garage Band. But I assume that if it's like other recording software, you can assign track inputs to specific hardware interface channels.

The applet is all about monitoring the inputs; this is the "zero latency" mixer aspect of the applet. Meanwhile, those four channels are being carried down Firewire into your Mac -- think of it like a PA snake, and you then need to assign the right signals to the GarageBand tracks.

The mic/guitar ins are channels 1 and 2, and the are two more channels (3 and 4) for the line ins. With Cubase, the first thing you do is enable these as VST inputs. Once you've done that, with a stereo track, you can choose inputs 1+2 or inputs 3+4. If the track is mono, you can choose among inputs 1, 2, 3, or 4.

My guess is that with Garageband, what's happening right now is that each track is stereo and hearing both channels 1+2. Is there some way you can specify a mono track? Failing that, is there some input selector where you can select In 1, In 2, In 1+2, In 3, In 4, In 3+4?

In Windows, it often works that way: all possible combinations are available to a program's track input.

Don't sell the Inspire just yet, because you may very well have the same problem with other interfaces...let's see if we can figure this out first. Maybe you could do a screen shot of how inputs are assigned?

[rsleonard]

Thanks for the replies, they have helped! ...I have the basics down now, and can isolate the tracks. Now the challenge is to properly monitor...I have to make sure that the apple system preferences/GB Preferences/ and Inspire Control panel are all in sync. Any guidance on that would be helpful.

What's not clear to me is: If I use GB's built in vocal and/or guitar effects, can those be monitored through the Inspire, or is the inspire just for the un-effected inputs. the Inspire control panel seems to have little effect on Garage Band.

Thanks again for the help, and additonal guidance would be welcome.

[Anderton]

Turn up the Inspire applet's "playback" slider, and turn down the other ones. Now you'll be monitoring solely through the computer, although you'll probably have to set up some kind of "thru" adjustment to allow monitoring through GarageBand.

This is where low latency will REALLY help so you don't hear an annoying delay when you play.

[BluesTom]

Thanks Anderton for the great review. I'm new to this forum.

I Have a PreSonus Inspire and when I got it there was a PreSonus rebate, so I got a ton pf great plug-ins on top of the ones that came with the unit (Wave arts, amplitube, Audio Damage, etc.)

I bought the Inspire because I could have 4 simultaneous tracks. For that I bought a SoundCraft Compact4 (A great mixer), which has fantastic mic-pres (IMO better than mackie). The rec-out of the mixer goes to the RCA inputs, and I think the sound is better than the Inspire's mic-pres. I use short Radial Mogami RCA cables to keep things as clean as possible.

When using the mixer I don't have any noise coming from the RCA even at high gains.

[jhampson]

Question for Craig, one of the PreSonus guys, or anyone else who might know the answer...

I'm thinking about getting an Inspire, but I need it for one main purpose, which is to digitize my pretty extensive analog 4-track collection. I've got years' worth of stuff on cassettes recorded using a Tascam Portastudio 424 and I've been looking for a way to get these tracks digitized. So I need something that can handle simultaneous recording of 4 synchronized, cassette-based music tracks.

It looks to me like I can manage this with the Inspire by sending tracks 1 and 2 from my 4-track machine to Inspire's hi-Z instrument inputs on the front and by sending tracks 3 and 4 to the RCA connectors on the back. Seems simple, yeah? Can anyone confirm whether the Inspire can handle this arrangement? Thanks !!

[ricknaqvi]

It should work fine for your application.

The hiZ inputs have a bit more gain since instruments need more than line output devices. However, you can just attenuate them out of the four track to make sure that you don't overdrive the input.

Aside from that, the line inputs also have some gain available so that you can match the instrument inputs. Just make sure that you have about the same healthy amount of gain for all four channels and you should be fine.

That reminds me that I need to do the same thing with some of my old four track tapes. I've been wanting to do a 'Christmas CD' surprise for my old bandmates from way back when and remix some of our old ancient four track masters. Only problem is that I haven't owned a four track in about 16 years or so..... Oh well, there's always ebay....

Good luck to you,

[jhampson]

Hey Rick, thanks for the quick reply. That was exactly the information I needed. Looks like I'll be getting an Inspire before too long, and after I've finished digitizing the old 4-tracks I'll be using the Inspire for digital recording going forward.

Good luck with your Christmas CD for the old bandmates. I've got a similar project to do for mine! Also, I'll bet that prices on old analog 4-track machines are coming down a lot as people like myself are migrating to digital.

Jamie

[Anderton]

Well, it's been a long time between posts, but that's because I've been convinced I could find a solution to the motorboating/noise issues happening with the Inspire and my Mac. AND I DID! Keep reading...

I read Paul White's review in Sound on Sound about the Inspire (he liked it too, by the way) and he also referenced a FireWire whine - but unlike my situation, this one happened when monitoring, and wasn't recorded on to the track. Well, aside from being a great guy he's very knowledgeable about Macs, and mentioned downloading a set of the "CHUD" developer tools from Apple. When he turned off processor cycling, that solved his problem. Cool!

So I downloaded CHUD, turned off processor cycling, got out my mic, plugged in the Inspire, started recording in Cubase LE and...nope, the low-level motorboating was still there, and was still there on playback.

So I closed the Inspire applet, and...hey, what's this?!?!? The motorboating went away! I put the applet back on screen, and the motorboating came back. Closed it again, and the preamps became clean and happy, and of course, because everything had been set in the Inspire, it was still sending signal to Cubase LE. I recorded a vocal track, and played it back, and...

THE NOISE WAS GONE!!!!!!

So if you have one of those weirdo Mac situations where you hear artifacts being recorded on your tracks with the mic ins, just get everything set the way you want, and close down the applet while recording, and all will be well.

Amazingly simple. If I'd only known this a few months ago...

[the stranger]

Thanks for your efforts, Craig and Rick.

[Anderton]

>

I tested the Inspire vs. the Black Box vs. the FireBox, and here's my subjective impressions:

Inspire: Less bottom end than the Black Box, greater high end emphasis gives much "brighter" sound.
FireBox: Best of the three. Full low end, nice highs; Black Box sounds more "muffled" when you immediately go from FireBox to Black Box.

I'd say the Black Box has an edge in sound quality over the Inspire but the BB benefits from a bit of a high frequency boost, while the Inspire benefits from a low frequency boost.

[Anderton]

Okay, it's time to wrap this puppy up from my end, although of course, you're welcome to continue to respond and ask questions. We have several very interesting pro reviews scheduled, and it's time to get to those.

Anyway, until today, I would have given a recommendation with reservations, because of the Mac issues. However, it seems Paul White has found out how to get rid of one Mac problem (hmm...wonder if this works with the Onyx 400F) and I've found a workaround for the other. So, it's time to give the Inspire 1394 a clean bill of health for both platforms.

Which means we get down to the basics: Do you get what you pay for? The answer to that is a resounding YES. Given the low street price, the bundled software (Cubase LE, Acid XMC, various plug-ins, the applet, etc.), you get tremendous value. It's a bit unfortunate that there's not a one-to-one correspondance on software between the two platforms (e.g., Acid won't run on the Mac, some plug-ins run on one platform but not the other), but that's not PreSonus's fault. In fact, to their credit, with their Pro Pak they've tried to provide some sort of parity for both platforms rather than just saying "tough luck."

As an audiophile converter for your computer, I think it's worth stepping up to the FireBox, which outperforms the Inspire from an audio quality standpoint, and also includes MIDI. But it's twice the list price of the Inspire, and about 50% more in terms of street price. Nor does it provide the easy "stacking" of multiple interfaces when individual Inspire owners get together for a jam session.

Ultimately, to my mind, the Inspire 1394 is more like a "porta-studio" type of device intended for those getting into recording. You can go into a music store, lay out less than $200, and go home with a very capable sequencer, interface with mic pre and direct ins, more than decent sound quality, a bunch of plug-ins, a compact and durable case that stands up to just about any kind of punishment you hand out, monitoring, the clever applet that lets you hide the Inspire off a corner to minimize clutter and do everything from your computer, and expandability. When I think of what my first cassette-based Portastudio cost...

If you can afford a more upscale interface like the FireBox, that's a great choice...I've found it to be ideal for my live work, and unexpectedly, for a lot of what I do in the studio. But it's hard to beat the Inspire 1394 for sheer value. PreSonus has come up with a product that rocks, fills a unique niche, and will allow a lot more people to get into recording. Good job.

[Anderton]

Thank you!

It's funny how every pro review is so different. I had no idea what to expect from the Inspire, and I certainly didn't expect to run into the Dreaded Apple FireWire Deal. But it's nice to know the problem is solveable

Overall, PreSonus is IMHO a pretty forward-thinking company. They've come a long way in a short period of time because they seem to understand where the "sweet spot" is between price and performance.

[ViLo]

My Daugther is intrested in buying the Inspire my understanding is that she can record 4 simultaneos instruments/vocals etc..

Am I correct?

From the Presonus Website:
"The INSPIRE 1394 is a revolutionary FireWire Recording System featuring professional quality 24-bit/96k analog to digital conversion rate, four simultaneous inputs..................."

Thanks

[Anderton]

Yes, but note: Two of the inputs are line, one input can be mic or instrument, and the fourth input can be mic or instrument as well.

[RDesjean]

Re: the Inspire 1394 running on an iMac using Garageband. I've notice some latency while recording, is there any way to adjust this? It appears that the windows version has some software adjustment however the Mac version dosen't?

Thanks you!

[Anderton]

Depends on what you mean by "some." There will always be some level of latency; that can't be avoided. Unfortunately I don't have Garageband and I returned the Inspires to Presonus, so I can't give a specific answer. However, with Cubase, you can change the number of audio buffers, which has a direct relationship to latency. Presumably, GarageBand has a similar sort of control.