This is one of those I want my cake and eat it too type scenarios. I use my FW-1884 with Sonar 7.02, but I need more inputs; especially ADAT lightpipe connections. I really like the looks of the Presonus FireStudio plus the MSR (Monitor Station Remote).
I have my FW-1884 in my control room, and I ran 2 optical cables from my tracking room into the control room. I didn't run a BNC cable between the rooms, thinking I could rely on the clock signal within the ADAT connection - this may or may not be a problem. I wanted the flexibility to record up to 8 channels over the optical cables using SMUX compatible devices in both rooms. This was my theory anyway.
I looked at a number of devices, including the M-Audio lightbridge (SMUX capable) as well as the prospect of adding a second audio interface. The Presonus FireStudio looks great on paper, but I can't determine if I can use a second firewire audio interface with my FW-1884. I have a firewire interface on my motherboard (ASUS P4C800-E) and an Adaptec FireConnect 4300 PCI interface in this machine as well. I'm wondering if I can run both devices at the same time on separate firewire interfaces? I see that some folks are using the FW-1884 as a control surface, and using a separate firewire audio interface like the RME Fireface 400. This would be fine with me as well, but only if I can re-route the analog inputs on the FW-1884 to the ADAT outputs.
The ideal scenario would be for me to use both audio interfaces; not simultaneously, just one for one set of inputs, and the other for another set of inputs, with the FireStudio as the master clock and the FW-1884 as the slave. I thought I would use the FireStudio for the outputs because of the flexibility of the MSR. Does anyone care to comment? Does anyone have this specific configuration or something similar? Thanks in advance for your assistance.
I would look a little farther than the firestudio. I have one and presonus has been TERRIBLE with driver support. In short the thing dosnt work very well with Sonar. If they ever get it figred out it will be a nice piece but its been a year and still no decent drivers for it.Ive heard pretty good things about the focusrite pro 26 and of course the fireface 800 (RME)
Well, first off, the Firewire spec doesn't allow two separate audio interfaces on a single computer, so you may want to look another direction. As far as the Firestudio is concerned, it seems as long as you don't use Sonar, and don't jump on the latest OS on the block, you'll be fine. I've had mine for nearly a year (along with the Digimax FS for additional I/O), with absolutely NO issues on an Intel/WinXP Pro/Nuendo 3.2 setup. YMMV, but the only time I ever had an issue with a Presonus product (bought a used Central Station on ebay that turned out to be DOA), they were REALLY helpful. Even got a follow-up from Rick the owner. Anyway, hopefully there was something useful in there for you.
