In my last essay, I described some of the problems I was having with a Mark of the Unicorn (MotU) 828 mkII audio I/O device. I also described the differences between two MotU support technicians, Miguel and Nathan. To review briefly, Miguel was a complete ass, blaming everything but the MotU hardware/software regardless of any facts or reason to the contrary, while Nathan was far more personable and at least held out some hope that he might be able to help me with my problems.
Unfortunately, Nathan turned out to be just as unhelpful as Miguel. After my initial contact with him, he didn't respond to any further email messages, didn't return my calls, and never contacted me as promised to discuss the results of the testing he claimed he would do. As a result of my experiences thus far, I feel pretty confident in saying that MotU technical support is a contradiction in terms.
Even still, I was somewhat inclined to keep the MotU 828 mkII because of its functionality and simplicity. Yes, it was annoying to deal with the CPU usage spiking as well as the intermittent audio distortion problem. But given the unit's features, I was willing to live with such things. Or, at least, I thought I was. When I shared my concerns with my wife, she suggested that I had nothing to lose by returning it to the store in favor of a different unit. After all, if the other unit didn't work any better, I could always go back to the 828 devil I knew. I took her advice; in retrospect, I'm glad that I did.
I exchanged my 828 for a Presonus Firestation, which was about $50 cheaper. And to be honest, I wasn't particularly impressed with the new unit from the outset. Oh, I looked at all the specs on-line before agreeing to try it, but it's really impossible to get a good feel for a device until you've used it. My initial hands-on impression was quickly blunted by the fact that the Firestation doesn't do nearly as much as the 828. It supports only 44.1 KHz. and 48 KHz. sampling rates (the 828 also supports 88.2 KHz. and 96 KHz.), it supports only 16- and 24-bit precision (the 828 also supports 32-bit floating precision), its mixer isn't nearly as capable as the 828, and so forth.
To make matters worse, I found the manual for the device almost completely useless. To be sure, it does a good job of explaining what every control on the front panel is, but it provides absolutely no guidance whatsoever for configuring the unit for actual use. This wouldn't be such a bad thing, mind you, if the unit could simply be plugged in and used, as the 828 can be, but that's certainly not the case. The Firestation requires quite a bit of fussing around to get it installed and configured, and the documentation is entirely lacking in that regard. I've since discovered that Presonus makes a thorough installation guide for Windows XP available on their web site, but I had somehow missed that. Click here for my own tips and tricks for getting the Firestation configured under Windows XP.
In short, I got off to a really bad start with the Firestation, and it probably didn't help my mood that I had to go buy a separate firewire cable just to use it. Yes, Presonus does include a firewire cable with the unit, but it's an almost completely useless 4' in length. Honestly, who has room for the unit within four feet of their computer? There's no way I could make that work. At any rate, after I got a high-quality cable and sat down to start experimenting with the Firestation, my thoughts all ran along the same line: I had made a mistake returning the MotU 828 mkII.
Nevertheless, I wasn't going to let those first, bad impressions prejudice my ultimate conclusions, and I'm glad I didn't. After fiddling about for about an hour, just trying to figure out how to get the most basic features of the Firestation working, I decided to do the stupid thing and call technical support. I keep saying that's the "stupid thing" to do because it almost never helps. It's stupid, in my view, to keep doing the same thing if it doesn't work, and yet I keep calling technical support. Maybe I'm just masochistic? I don't know.
What I do know is that Presonus has great technical support, and there aren't that many companies of which that can truly be said. When I called, I was immediately pleased to hear a human being answer the phone. I realize that phone systems can be very efficient at routing calls, but I despise them utterly. Why? Because they either never seem to have the option I want, or they force me to wade through menu after menu after menu until I select an option that simply disconnects me.
Phone-system ranting aside, the pleasant woman who answered the phone transferred me quickly to yet another human being, Butch, who was actually able to help me. What I first found astonishing was that he didn't immediately blame my system for the problems I was having. Imagine that! Instead, he actually listened to my description of what I was seeing. Technical support? Listening? What's up with that?! What's more, Butch said that the device simply wasn't configured properly, and that he would be happy to walk me through the steps to get it working.
I spent the next half an hour or so on the phone with Butch, listening to his explanations for why each step in the process had to be taken. He gave me quite an education in how the Firestation is designed to be used, and I'm glad I was able to return the favor by suggesting a couple of helpful tips to streamline the process for his future callers. It's only because of Butch's efforts that I have a much better feel for the particular niche the Firestation fills best. Armed with that better understanding, I think the designers of the Firestation really need to fix a few things here and there. It sounds like they really got screwed by Yamaha, and it seems as if they need to do some more work on their drivers as well.
Nevertheless, what I found most amazing about the whole telephone conversation was that Butch actually did his job. That is, he walked me through the configuration process and got me to the end result I desired, namely, a unit that works with my system. That's practically unheard of with modern technical support. What's more, Butch did his job without speciously blaming my video card, my sound card, my operating system, my firewire bandwidth, or even a herd of invisible pink unicorns. Ok, I made up the invisible pink unicorn bit, but it's honestly not that far removed from some of the bogeymen various technical support personnel have invoked in the past to get me off the phone.
| NB: | I'm not going to go into the specifics of configuring the Firestation here, but those who are interested can read about the entire process in my tips and tricks for Windows XP writings. |
Once the Firestation was working properly, I made an even better discovery, namely, that what I thought was great audio quality with the 828 was actually not all that impressive. I didn't realize how much background noise and how many digital artifacts were present with the 828 audio until I listened to the Firestation. Bear in mind, dear reader, that such problems are not due to the quality of the instruments involved, for I'm using a software sampler (Native Instruments' Kontakt) to produce the sounds that I'm using for comparison.
In the case at hand, I launched my software sampler, loaded the acoustic grand piano instrument that came with it, put on my headphones, pressed a couple of keys on my Alesis QS-8 master keyboard, and promptly reached for the volume knob in a panic as my eardrums were assaulted. Honestly, I didn't know the volume was up so high because there was no noise whatsoever. When listening through the 828, there was always a certain amount of background hum and hiss, as well as the occasional pop or click. I figured that was probably just the nature of the beast, however, given that MotU has a reputation for high-quality gear.
In contrast, the Firestation sets a completely different standard. Yes, I can force the unit to produce background hissing, but only if I crank up the input gains and headphone volume so high that I would literally damage my hearing if I struck but a single note. At normal listening levels, the Firestation is quieter than the average mausoleum. We're talking dead quiet, folks; i.e., the kind of quiet one might associate with deep space. And when the audio plays, it's completely free of any artifacts whatsoever. No clicks, no pops, etc., nothing but the pure beauty of my software sampler's piano. In terms of audio quality, the 828 provides no competition for the Firestation.
At this point I've had but a few days with the Firestation, but I'm really starting to think that it's the unit for me. I do wish it could sample at higher rates and precision. I also wish it were as simple to set up and use as the 828. I even wish it could at least save and load a few preset mixer settings, though I realize the unit would probably have to sacrifice the use of knobs on the front panel to do that. Most musicians I know prefer to have physical knobs they can twist; I guess I'm one of the minority who prefer more precise control via software. The Firestation has even lost sync with the computer a couple of times since I've been playing with it, though only under certain unusual stresses.
Despite those "warts", however, the Presonus Firestation has much better audio quality than the MotU 828 mkII. It's also true that Presonus, as a company, has infinitely better technical support than MotU. For these reasons, and others that aren't as individually compelling, the verdict seems pretty clear to me: if you're in the market for a relatively powerful firewire audio I/O interface, the Presonus Firestation should be at the top of your list. There are units that do more (e.g., the 828), and there are units that do less and cost significantly less money (e.g., the M-Audio Firewire 401). Nevertheless, if you need an interface with a good number of inputs and outputs, ADAT and/or SPDIF compatibility, high-quality preamps with phantom power, a top-quality mixer, solid A/D conversion at 44.1 KHz. and 48 KHz., and even mLAN functionality, the Presonus Firestation is the best choice I've found to date.
09/11/2003