Pretty solid rig

The rep I talked to at Presonus recommended an i7 processor, 8GB RAM, and a Siig firewire card. Now, that was after me expressing my desire to fully exploit the zero latency capabilities of the Firestudio. I've got his supervisor's email address, and I'm going to ask him if I really need all that firepower. I really had no idea that I was going to basically need full gaming capacity to do this correctly, before I got started.

It looks like you've got the basics, to me, except you may want to consider getting two screens for your computer. Of course, if memory serves me well (and, I'm just getting started with DAW, myself), the Studio One Project environment keeps everything on one screen, anyway, so that might not even be necessary. So, the only other thing I might add is a controller, rather than a mouse. Presonus makes one you can get through Amazon, or whoever, for under $150.

goin,

I did some research on the computer too, didn't talk to Presonus at all, but multiple sources told me that what I had wwould be more than enough. Obvisouly your numbers are great, but not sure if they are overkill.

You need more RAM and you may find your i3 will choke sooner than you think. You'll want to find a proc with lots of L2 and L3 cache.

You should also plug into a surge protector at the least, the best would be one with a power conditioner. Another thing to think about are wall wart eliminators. Oh, get yourself a big roll of velcro while your at it!

Also, if your dropping that kind of dough, have you considered Mac?

Not to start any kind of flame war or anything, but just as far as virus risk and break down risk goes, I would seriously consider a Mac especially if you are getting this for school and random people will be using it. Another good idea would be to not hook up internet to it at all if you can get away with it. Thats how we did it at my college and it just saves headaches. Obviously only do that if you don't know exactly who will be using it.

Aaron, those are all legit concerns. I would be the only one doing any of the engineering. Also, after all of the software is installed, registered, and working properly, I am disabling all of the internet options, and it won't even be plugged in. Those are good ideas though, thanks!

I would throw in an external backup drive. Mirror your main drive there as well so you don't have to reinstall software when the inevitable crash happens.

Well there's your problem right there.

Presonus Firestudio.

Complete rubbish and so are the drivers, which is a biggy for me when choosing an interface. I ran one once in an interim period between upgrading from a MOTU PCI-424 and a 24i/o to our current setup and found many problems.

First of all, the audio would drop out until I went into the mixer and moved one of the faders. I had the most recent firmware and drivers from the presonus website. Also, when checking it's calibration I found a discrepancy of up to 1.5dB from channel to channel. NOT on. And it just sounded crap.

Presonus is the worst of the worst, IMO. After M-Audio. Don't get me started on the Lightbridge.

In order of sound quality and driver reliability for prosumer gear, allow me to offer the following list:

RME
MOTU
Steinberg (they make some rock solid interfa.ces)
Focusrite
Behringer
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M-Audio
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Presonus

Cheers :)

You probably already know this, but preSonus also makes a 6 channel headphone unit.
What you may not know, is that the two units are more different than they may appear.
Take a look.

In fairness, most people have little to no problem with Presonus interfaces. They are not what I personally use but that does not make them bad or rubbish. In fact, Presonus does make some higher end gear as well though they are definitely not "boutique". In my opinion they are far superior to M-Audio through my experiences helping other folks.

That's the thing. I've used quite a few of them and they've ALWAYS given me huge problems. And the tests I've done on some of them have also revealed huge inconsistencies in their design. I'm sorry but Presonus has never impressed me, design, sound quality, or driver-wise

Cheers :)

LittleJohn, post: 372255 wrote: You probably already know this, but preSonus also makes a 6 channel headphone unit.
What you may not know, is that the two units are more different than they may appear.
Take a look.

the contect for this was -- as compared to the ART unit specfied by the OP.
I read it a day late and realized it made no sense... sorry .

Regarding presonus, i will add that I have been using a central Station to organize headphone outputs and love it (completely passive with great meter and remote cntrol)

With the central station, the audio is routed through the cable to the remote unit and loops back to the rack unit. This is not good design and certainly affects the resulting sound quality.

Jus' sayin'.

Cheers :)