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Introduction

The Focusrite Saffire Pro is one of the most eagerly awaited products (certainly by me!) in the home / project market for a while. The basic concept was initially proposed when people tried the original (white face) Saffire - like the unit, but can there be more of it please? A wish list was subsequently translated into an impressive feature set : 8 mic pres very closely related to the Focusrite Green series pres, 8 line inputs, an instrument input, insert points, 8 line outputs, sp/dif _and_ Adat connectivity for expansion and proper wordclocking when working with digital systems for a mere price of £499! That's a lot of gear in a 1U rack. Initially aimed to be launched in the spring, it has taken until the end of summer for the product to finally launch. One reason for this was the extensive testing after initial problems with certain supplied components were not performing well and this necessitated some re-working. But, to their credit, Focusrite stuck to their guns and delivered to the spec and at the price point. I have been lucky enough to get one since the first batch hit the country and so I thought I'd jot down some points for others. I was also lucky enough to be running a Mac at the time as well as my usual Windows XP based PC, so the testing and installations were done on both systems.

Initial Thoughts

So what do you get for five hundred quid then? Well you get a 1U rack unit in pleasing metallic shades of silver and light blue - which turns out to be a lot more tasteful looking than it sounds (or looked based upon some of the original photos). The front panel has 8 inputs on balanced jacks, 8 sets of gain controls, a master output knob, two headphone output knobs and the power switch. Of the 8 line inputs, number 1 has a switch for running as an instrument input (for guitars, basses, etc) as well as a phase reverse button and a lo-impedence button so that the input can be matched to the impedance of the mic. This lo-z button is also available for input 2 and all 8 inputs have a High Pass Filter button for reducing rumbles. Additionally, inputs 5 and 6 can be configured to be unbalanced insert points for channels 1 and 2 respectively.

The rear panel has 8 xlr inputs for mic connections, 8 balanced line outputs, two sets of Adat ins and outs, two Firewire 400 ports, sp/dif in and out on coaxial and a pair of BNC connectors for wordclock in and out, as well as a proprietaty mains adapter which is optional if power is supplied by the Firewire bus. However, it is also possible to use the power from the main adapter to give more headroom to the mic pres, so connecting it looks like a good option for those who use mics a lot. There are two sets of Adat connections so when the Saffire is running at normal clock speeds ( 44.1khz and 48khz ), 16 channels can be supplied via Adat and when the unit is running at higher speeds ( 88.2 and 96khz ) then 8 channels can be supplied in two groups of 4 as is standard with S-MUX these days. There is no Adat connectivity when running at 192khz.

Additionally, the box contains the usual driver DVD, power supply and a pair of rack ears. Strangely, the main unit has curved sides on it's top so the fairly plain rack ears make it look quite odd, so it would seem that Focusrite expect it to spend more time on a tabletop. There also a Firewire cable of a decent couple of meters length. Which is nice.

Installation

Installation was easy which was a particular relief for me as this was my first Firewire device that I had installed on my PC. With the drivers installed from the auto start disc, the device was plugged in and lit up immediately first time. The Mac was even easier as MacOs just saw it as another audio device. Whenever the Saffire is in use with a computer, the Saffire Control app must be run as this allows the unit to be controlled from the computer and all functionality other than gain / switches is performed in the Control panel app which sends messages to the Saffire itself. This app is very similar to the existing Saffire control panel already in use with the other units and there is no point in going over it in detail. Suffice to say that the mixer is available and the digital connectivity and clock rates are controlled here as well as any other features (see later).

Just for reference, my PC is fitted with a Lacie 3 port Firewire 400 card. This was chosen for two reasons : firstly, personal recommendation and secondly, it was mentioned on the (throroughly excellent) RME Firewire FAQ page. I mention this as the whole area of choosing a Firewire card for the PC seems to be a little hit and miss, however my card runs both the Saffire Pro and the Liquid Mix so it seems to be ok. Also for reference, my PC is a 2.8Ghz Pentium 4 running Windows XP sp2 with a gig of Ram. It may seem modest by modern standards, but combined with the sound proofing (it's a Carillon) it has been bullet proof and quiet for several years now.

In Use

Once everything is installed, usage is pretty simple. You should start the Control Panel at the same time as you start the Saffire Pro as if you start the Saffire Pro before it can see the Control Panel, it will start as a standalone converter. This is where I have my firs niggle : when starting the unit with monitors connected ( to outputs 1 and 2 ), there is a pretty big 'thump' that cannot be changed. Once the unit has started it's power cycle, it does automatically mute the outputs, but there can be a couple more clicks and pops sometimes, so if possible and practical you should turn your monitors on once the unit has fully powered up. I cannot do this easily so I just live with it and it hasn't blown anything up yet!

In the Control Panel itself, it is possible to change the settings on the unit. There are mixer pages in 'tabbed' blocks of 8 for the analogue, adat1, adat2 and sp/dif connections although the latter only has two channels obviously. The outputs are in pairs with 1 and 2 assumed to be the main stereo mix output. The next two sets of outputs are configured to be two sets of headphone outputs which can monitor either their own channels or the main stereo mix from 1 and 2. This allows two sets of headphones to have separate monitor levels - handy for an engineer and an artist - with the connectors and level controls being on the front panel. All of the outputs have a slider to determine how much of the output comes from the internal mixer and how much from the host software (such as Cubase). When monitoring from the DAW (such as recording guitars) this really needs to be set to 100% in favour of software, but this causes problems as any other devices that are being monitored (such as hardware synths) are then no longer sent to the output. A minor niggle, but one that means that you need to decide how you want to change your workflow to accomodate the unit. The outputs can also be solo'd, dimmed by 18db in software, padded by 18db in hardware (handy as it maintains bit depth but allows more sensible monitoring levels), muted and finally the level can be switched between either software control from the panel or hardware control on the unit.

Other controls on the panel allow the turning on/off of phantom power in two blocks of 4, switching channels 5 and 6 separately into inserts, a 'headroom' control that uses the power from the supplied power adapter to increase the headroom available on the mic pres, controls for AC3 passthrough (through the sp/dif output) and midi thru, a couple of standard modes for easy re-configuration and load and save buttons as these settings can be saved and recalled later. Additionally, there is the clock rate control, the digital connections enable/disable controls and the wordclock source. The wordclock is another niggle for me as the unit does not automatically chase clock changes when clocked externally.

Finally, there is on major niggle that I have. When changing anything on the control panel, there is a pause whilst the unit is updated. When changing several things (such as turning on mulitple digital connections), each change must be sent separately which is time consuming. This even applies when loading pre-saved configurations (which to their credit, Focusrite now supply a large library of which cover most combinations of setup) which is annoying. A check with Focusrite reveals that it is a problem that they are aware of and are looking at.

Once the unit is configured, mics can be attached ready for recording. Here we hit a couple more niggles : first, the mic connector has no lock which means that you have to be careful when using it, secondly, there is no level metering other than an overload light - although the thought that this should be done in the DAW is quite valid nowadays, and lastly the gain control is not nicely calibrated but simply has 0 - 10 marked on a continuous control. Personally, I prefer to know how much gain I am using although I accept that it may vary depending on the power situation. I am also a big fan of stepped controls. One other problem is that guitars with a high output level (such as Max's beloved Jem) can overload the instrument input even at minimum gain. My more modest guitars have no such problem, but it may be something to bear in mind.

Audio Tests

Once everything was connected and ready to rock, I started Cubase to try some recordings. One problem here is that I get a swift 'toneburst' when I start Cubase, but that may be due to running a very old version (SX1.06). After a quick re-configuration of the devices, I was up and running and ready to try things out. Needless to say, the Asio driver seems rock solid and has given me no problems in the time I have been using it. Likewise, when testing using SL3 on a Mac (as well as Logic and Garageband), everything has been fine as well.

First was a simple listening test. I use fairly ordinary home studio gear, so playback over my Alesis Monitor 1s was fine - everything crisp and clear and a very solid sound with a good stereo image - just what I was used to with my old Spirit 328 desks. Initially, having the volume control on the far side of my desk seemed a bind, but I have noticed that I am now used to it. I tend to monitor quietly anyway so the 18db analogue pad is a godsend as it means that I don't need to massively reduce bit depth just to monitor my output. Once I do the sensible thing and reduce the gain on my speakers a little, I should reclaim a few more bits so I should really do that.

Next up was a simple mic test. I have a matched pair of Se3s which were arranged in a parallel array and pointed at Max playing my Norman acoustic guitar. One mic went to the Saffire Pro and the other went to my Spirit which was connected to the Saffire via lightpipe. A couple of test recordings were taken and compared. The test had a minor flaw as the mics were not perfectly adjacent, but even so it was possible to hear a small difference. The Spirit had a slight hardness in the upper mids in comparison to the more open Saffire recording. Noise levels seemed the same which is good as the Saffire was running on bus power.

Lastly, I tried a simple line level test of 96k recording that compared the Saffire to my Creamware A16 Ultra. With the Ultra connected again via lightpipe and happily running S-MUX, I sent the output of my JD990 (one of my favourite Roland synths) to each in turn using one of the demo songs as it showed off the versatility of the unit. Once the recordings were re-aligned and normalised in Cubase, when switching between them it was impossible to tell which was which. Again this was a good result as the Creamware has an excellent reputation as a good line level converter.

Final Thoughts

I like this box. I have been fairly traditional in my approach so far and previously had two linked digital desks so that I could have everything come up before me. Now that I have one device to act as a good central hub for audio, I have completely changed everything round. What is more, this box has been one of the cheapest bits of audio equipment that I have bought. What Focusrite have produced for the money is little short of astounding. Most of my niggles are quite trivial and usually have a logical explanation as to why things are done that way and in that sense, I initially was worried that I didn't like this Saffire as much as I'd hoped. However, once I accepted that I had to do things slightly differently than I was used to and just got on with it, the Saffire Pro has performed admirably. What's more, given that multiple units can also be used and that people are now doing so, the Saffire Pro is starting to look very versatile and exceptional value for money. It sounds good and it works. And it's cheap. What more can we ask for?

Edited by James Lehmann (29/11/06 06:03 AM)