VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Bailey]

I searched for Personus Inspire 1394 in the archives and found no information.

I've upgraded to a laptop and now find that my behringer mixer can't be used. Someone told me I needed upgrading anyway. I started looking at USB mixers and followed a few discussions here. I had spoken to a friend who sets up the replay booth at the stadium. He gave me a Presonus Inspire 1394 to try out until the end of the football season. He's had it for a few years. It has a non original program disc, and all the cables and transformer.

I'd just like a few thoughts about the unit. I read a few on Amazon but couldn't tell if most were rants or real opinions.
_________________
"Bailey"
a.k.a. Jim Sutton
Retired... Every day is Saturday, except Sunday.
VO-BB Member #00044 .gif" alt="W00T" border="0" />
AOVA Graduate 02/2004 ;
"Be a Voice, not an Echo."

[JBarrett]

That was the first interface I bought, though I got mine from Guitar Center so it was labeled the PreSonus Inspire GT. Same thing, though. Worked beautifully for a couple years, then just decided to quit.

My only beef with it is the lack of actual knobs for setting levels. All levels are set via software. If they were all straight sliders, it would be great, but the gain control is a virtual knob that you have to rotate, which is a little annoying when using a mouse. Other than that, it's a great little unit. I haven't yet developed the ears of some here, but I think it's got a nice clean sound.

After that one went kaput, I zipped over to Guitar Center again and snagged its newer sibling, the FireStudio Mobile. Decent unit (with real knobs), but PreSonus just loves software interfaces, and there were times when the FS Mobile just wouldn't cooperate unless I opened the stupid mixer program. There were also some occasional connection issues because I had it daisy-chained through an external firewire hard drive (which wasn't a problem w/ the Inspire). Some strange sound issues started up after a few months and had to send it in for repair (under warranty, thankfully). While that was out, I borrowed Zach's M-Audio FastTrack Pro and quickly fell in love. After the FS Mobile came back, I didn't have the heart to switch back to it, but Zach was kind enough to permanently part with his FastTrack Pro.

Long story short, I recommend the M-Audio FastTrack Pro over the PreSonus Inspire. It's less expensive, there's no messy software interface to deal with, and it just feels like a better unit overall.
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Justin S. Barrett
http://www.justinsbarrett.com/

[Bailey]

Thanks Justin. I think I'll play with it for awhile, at least until the end of December. He said if I still liked the unit by then he'd let me have it for $30.
_________________
"Bailey"
a.k.a. Jim Sutton
Retired... Every day is Saturday, except Sunday.
VO-BB Member #00044 .gif" alt="W00T" border="0" />
AOVA Graduate 02/2004 ;
"Be a Voice, not an Echo."

[Bailey]

... maybe I won't be playing with it. Just discovered my laptop doesn't have firewire connection.

_________________
"Bailey"
a.k.a. Jim Sutton
Retired... Every day is Saturday, except Sunday.
VO-BB Member #00044 .gif" alt="W00T" border="0" />
AOVA Graduate 02/2004 ;
"Be a Voice, not an Echo."