Although I am well pleased with the audio and build quality of my new
PreSonus FireBox, I am having trouble recording with it.

Everytime I put a mic on, I get extreme pumping of the level. It cuts
in and out in an oscillating wave like a compressor on crack. What can
I do? I've tried lowering the levels and different Fs, all to no
avail. Am I doing something dumb? It does it with both of the
programs I've tried it on, haven't tried it on Vegas yet.

I use a Dell 8100 PC 2.8P4/1GB with XP SP3 with Sound Forge 8 and
Cubase LE. I also have an Audigy2ZS PP but I got the FireBox for
proper balanced inputs.

Any ideas anyone?

TIA,

Iggy Makarevich
ifmproductions.com

"iggymak" wrote in
oups.com:


Everytime I put a mic on, I get extreme pumping of the level.

Any ideas anyone?


Long shot, but is there any chance you are asking it to supply phantom
power to microphones that want enough that the phantom supply misbehaves?
I've heard Earthworks mics are famous for making the phantom supply
surfboard on more than one box. I don't know where you find honest phantom
current draw numbers for others, but what happens with another microphone?


Peter A. Stoll

Thanks for your quick reply! I had not thought of phantom giving a
problem. I have only used an AT2020 on it so far. I will try my M37
and let you know what happens.

Well it doen't like the other mic. Maybe I should go through my mixer?
Actually I should have said noise gate on crack instead of a
compressor - it still cuts out in regularly spaced waves. I'll use it
mostly for VO work (hopefully!) I don't want to go back to the
audigy...Level and padding don't seem to matter. I see that as why you
proposed what you did. I've shot a letter off to PreSonus. Cubase is
very, very slightly better, but still the audio is unusable with the
same problem.

Could it be my Firewire? It goes through the Firewire on the Audigy
box. Perhaps I should swap it to the SIIG FW card? That is now
handling the Canopus converter and the Glyph. Isn't this fun?

"iggymak" wrote in
ups.com:

Could it be my Firewire? It goes through the Firewire on the Audigy
box.

It sure does not seem likely to be an artifact from a digital stage to me.

Peter

I tried plugging it in at the combo USB2/FW card which has 2 ports, one
runs a DV converter the other the Glyph. Swapping the DV device with
the Firebox caused only the non-recognition of the Firebox. The FB
control panel said "no device." The FW card claims OHCI compatibility.
It does power the unit. The Audigy card has it's own FW bus. Tried
Guitar Tracks and Vegas - same. Although actually Vegas recorded but
doesn't play it. A private email from a group reader suggested going
direct from the FW card - I'll try the other port. I'd like to thank
you for your continuing support! OK, off to attempt more.

Iggy

Alles in Ordnung! Yes, folks, it now works. After getting a new
Firewire card, an Adaptec 4300C, and going directly to it, (and
reloading the driver for insurance), it worked immediately! I've also
noted that I must use the medium CPU setting in the Firebox settings
even though my CPU is well into High, at least on paper.
I was instructed by PreSonus to change the Windoze perf preference to
"background processes" from "programs" as I've had set for ages for the
3D stuff. Guess I'll need to switch back n forth.
Apparently, only Adaptec and Belkin FW adapters are good due to using
the TI chipset, according to 2, yes, 2 tech support folks, (I am very
pleased with their folks), even though AIDA32 identifies it as an
AT&T/Lucent chip. They also advise strongly against using ports on a
combo USB2/FW card.
So all is well. The audio quality is very nice indeed, it's all
balanced, the headphone amp is killer (be careful!), and it's built
very near to Nagra standard. The breakout cable for MIDI and SPDIF is
a little weak, but should be NP.
Thanks to all who helped out,
Ig