The Firebox contains two ultra-low noise, high-headroom microphone/instrument preamplifiers with 48V phantom power and a high quality stereo headphone output with volume adjustment on the front panel. The headphone output has its own two-channel driver stream which can be used as a separate stereo bus or two-channel output giving you the ability to send a "cue" mix to the headphone output and a main mix to the main output - perfect for DJing with the latest computer mixing software. Two additional balanced TRS line inputs are located on the rear of the Firebox along with six balanced TRS line outputs. Two channels of S/PDIF input/output and MIDI input/output are also included via a DB9 breakout cable. A software router/mixer is also included for further flexibility and power. The 1/3U-wide metal chassis of the Firebox is designed to fit PreSonus' MaxRack rack-mounting system and can be racked with the TubePRE, COMP16, EQ3B and HP4 for a neat and compact computer recording system.

The Firebox works with both four and six-pin FireWire (IEEE 1394) connectors and can be powered by either 6-pin FireWire bus power, or powered by an external power transformer. The Firebox is Windows XP and Macintosh compatible and comes pre-packaged with Steinberg's Cubase LE 48-track 24-bit/96K recording software, and is also compatible with many popular Audio applications including Logic, Sonar, Audition, Digital Performer and others. A retail price has not been established.

>>> Digihear? December 2004

Part of Experiments In Sound, TestDrive will feature the lab results of our DJ Experiments so that everyone can get in on the action. Take the latest electronic music releases, mix vigorously with bleeding-edge DJ technology in a large beeker, and then cook the hell out of it! Be the first to hear about TestDrive by joining Futuremusic Direct.

Futuremusic wants to thank everyone who participated in The Next Big Thing 2004. John Digweed, Beatport, Alienware, M-Audio, Native Instruments, IK Multimedia, PVDJ, PK Graphics, Ableton, The DubHouse, Propellerheads, Technics, FreeFloat, The Church, PCDJ and every DJ who entered this year's event thank you. From the sheer number of quality mixes, we can tell you that dance music is thriving in the United States. The amount of outstanding talent and creativity really blew us away, and every DJ who's putting their heart, mind and soul behind the music is a winner. John Digweed has made his decision and the winner is...