Customer Reviews

PreSonus Inspire 1394 4X4 Firewire Recording Interface

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Now this is the way computer peripherals are supposed to work - 15 minutes or so after opening the box, I was laughing my way through my first home recording effort. No tearing my hair out, no frantic searching on-line for new drivers, no pouring through obscure FAQs looking for solutions... it simply works! Mind you, this is with Mac OSX, 10.4.11.

Audio quality is plenty good to my middle-aged ears, and completed recordings downloaded to my IPod sound just as good as any commercial tune. Sure, crank the gain up full and add the boost and you can hear a little bacon frying in the background, but more sedate settings are very quiet indeed.

The absence of buttons and knobs on the unit is fine as well, the on-screen control panel has proven fast and easy to use.

Bottom line? The Presonus Inspire is simple, inexpensive, and performs well.

I'm using this with GarageBand. Everything worked without a hitch. The sound is great. If you're looking for an affordable way to get a good quality signal from your guitar to your computer, look no further.

The Inspire 1394 was very easy to install. Installed the drivers via the included install disk - plugged in the included 6 pin fire wire cable (or use the supplied power supply if don't have a 6 pin connection)- The computer read the interface automatically - I pulled up my DAW ( I use Reaper) and recorded 4 tracks using 4 different in/outs on the Inspire within 5 minutes.

The Face of the Unit has:
2 mic inputs ( with 48v phantom power)
2 Line Inputs ( keyboards/Guitars running from a POD etc)
The Rear has:
2 RCA Phono Inputs ( Hook up Mics via external pre amps through these inputs or plug cassette machines or any other line level stereo outs into these inputs)
L/R Stereo Outs ( run to a mixer or powered speakers)
Headphone Output
2 6 pin fire wire ports

There is little to no latency using the included ASIO drivers - There is a Latency switch on the GUI that allows you to dial in the right amount of latency compensation ( if there is any - I haven't experienced any latency at all.

There is absolute little to NO noise coming from the unit. Available Sample Rates are 44.1 kHz - 96kHz. 48V Phantom power is included on both Mic inputs - A Limiter is included on both Mic Inputs ( can be toggled on and off).

The Inspire 1394 is controlled via a GUI interface on your computer rather than knobs on the face of the unit itself. I like knobs on the face of a unit, but this is not a drawback.
The GUI is user friendly and allows you to load/save a snapshot of user created configurations into the GUI. Everything is controlled via the GUI ( Onscreen User Interface) = The Mic/Line levels- The Phono Inputs - The Headphone Mix/Volume etc.

You can daisy chain up to 4 of these units together via fire wire, although I see no use for this. If you need more than 4 inputs it would more sense to go with a larger unit with 8 mic pres.

If you're looking for a way to record 4 inputs at a time ( Read my reply to Martin Hellers review on this page - 3rd review I believe)or just one at a time overdubs with your DAW, then this is definitely worth the money.

I bought a Behringer UAC222 before I did my homework and It was a waste of money. The Presonus Inspire 1394 is built like a Tank, unlike the UAC222 which is smaller than a cell phone with lots of noise.

If you don't have a fire wire card on your computer, but you have an empty pci slot, then I would suggest buying this fire wire card [...] Low Profile 2 Port IEEE 1394 FireWire PCI Card - FireWire adapter - 3 ports ( PCI1394_2LP )to power the Inspire 1394. Its about 25 bucks and installs without a hitch if you are running windows Vista.

Final analysis. The Presonus Inspire 1394 is worth every penny I paid for it and is MUCH better quality-wise than the stock Realtek 7.1 soundcard that came installed on my computer.

I didn't cover everything about the Inspire so be sure to read about it on the Presonus website. It's always better to research before you buy! ( unlike me with the behringer UAC22! LOL! )

p.s. My computer specs are:

Dell Inspiron 530S
1.6gHz
2 Gigs of RAM
320 gig Hardrive at 720 rpms ( Presonus recommends a drive that runs at least at 7500rpms )

I have always worked with top of the line equipment. I own several professional camcorders (mostly canon Xh-a1s) many canon dslrs, mac pros, lowel lighting kits, Avalon channel strips, Neumann mics, thousands of dollars worth of audio equipment and software. Needless to say I never sacrifice quality. So when I gave one of my audio guys the task of finding a light and extremely portable interface for field recording I was surprised when he handed me one of these.

I immediately thought he was messing with me. He assured me it was a great recording device and extremely reliable. He later hooked it up to a rode k2 and then a cheaper mxl mic and recorded into Soundtrack pro. All I can say is wow! The preamps are a bit noisy, but for the purpose we are using it for it works great. I would recommend this to anyone who is starting out in recording or is setting up a home studio ( when we bought the inspire it was $199 but now the price seems to have dropped to $99 so it is a steal). If you can afford to spend a bit more and need more inputs the Mackie 820i (which we are now using) is a great choice (the preamps are amazing).

Update:

It seems the price is fluctuating on the Inspire so if the price is higher then $139.00 I would recommend going to B&H to purchase it.

note that even though this audio interface claims 4 inputs and 4 outputs, the output channels all reference the same audio stream (i.e., you can't have two independent stereo outs, like a dj might use in cue'ing tracks). Seemed like a good, solid tool, but I sent it back before using it because I was deceived by the claim of 4 output channels.

I bought one of these used as i wanted a decent priced Firewire interface with very basic functions and figured this would fit the bill. I also thought it would last a long time as it does not have any moving parts. Well I certainly was wrong about that as the 1st input channel stopped working after about 7 months and since this was used it was NOT under warranty. So i started using the 2nd channel and then that went out about 8 months later. Keep in mind this has been sitting on my computer table the whole time in a non smoking environment. When i contacted Presonus i was told the price to repair would be $75 which in my opinion seems excessive when you consider the item was made in China. I don't know if the country of origin or the bad design contributed to the failure but i will not consider this brand in the future.

I mainly wanted to post that PreSonus just recently put out a driver for Windows 7 (finally).

With respect to the product, I use it, I like it, it works fine for the little bit of fiddling around I do with recording (which isn't much really).

It also works fine as an External Sound Card for general computer use too.

My only complaint is that the input levels are rather low, which is why I only gave it 4 stars. If you hook up a dynamic mic (i tried a couple, including my standard SM58) you have to crank the level all the way up, and maybe even turn the boost on, just to get a decent signal level, which makes it kinda rumbly. I just bought a MX990 cardioid for $45 to use with it (the 1394 will supply the phantom power), and an art tube preamp for $25 for some more oomph if needed, and my signal level issues are gone.

Setting up Inspire was easy and straightforward. Using a MacBook Pro, everything from the mikes to the computer worked without a hitch. I would, however, recommend using condenser mikes since the maximum gain in the preamps does not seem to be very high. I recorded some close-up piano using condensers. Recording worked well and sounded clean.

My minor issues are more with the software. The driver software is very easy to use, but the included Cubase takes some fiddling around to learn. This is my first experience in recording fully digital so I am still learning the uses for all the different buttons on recording tracks. If you are already familiar with these, the software will present no problem. I ended up using both Cubase (which seems to be a powerful program) and the Mac's own GarageBand.

PreSonus has terrible customer support and has not released drivers for Windows 7. Check out their tech support forum and you will notice many unhappy customers. Look elsewhere for a recording interface.

A very short review. I have nothing to add to what everybody else all over the web stated about this unit. Very quiet, simple, exceedingly easy to use. I've had mine for over 2 years and have absolutely no problems with it. I've only used it with macs (for those that care). I've had experience with other PreSonus gear over the years and have never had any problems or complaints. If you're looking for a very simple audio interface, you can't go wrong with this one.