What do you guys think of this unit? It seems very well priced with a good sales blurb.
How does a unit like this connect to a computer running Reaper for example?
What else would one need to buy to start making use of it?
You will appreciate that I haven't much of a clue as to what is presently going on in this computerised recording world so would need very basic directions
Thanks in advance ....

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Sam

Cheap and good value for what it can do with plenty of inputs you won't find much else that can do that many inputs at that price with decent preamps. Only problems I find is the Dice chipset in it can be a bit of an arse at times if you don't have a Texas Instruments (or VIA I find tend to work fine as well) based firewire card in your system that Focusrite recommend. If your working on a desktop then you may need to factor in another £20 for a pci-e card for your rig in the worse case senario that the onboard doesn't play nice, but other than that it should do the job for you perfectly well.

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ScanProAudio & 3XS Audio Systems
ScanProAudio Blog

So if I went for this I would also need a Texas 800 firewire card (about £40) fitted to the 'puter and all would be honky dory?

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Sam

Quote whis4ey:

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So if I went for this I would also need a Texas 800 firewire card (about £40) fitted to the 'puter and all would be honky dory?

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its firewire 400..

So the 800 is not twice as fast as the 400 .... it only carries twice the capacity?

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Sam

Quote whis4ey:

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So the 800 is not twice as fast as the 400 .... it only carries twice the capacity?

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uh?

The Saffire 56 is firewire 400 with a firewire 400 connector, so you would only 'need' a firewire 400 card, not an 800 as you stated.

Fairly sure You could use a Firewire 800 card, with an 800-400 adaptor cable, but it wouldn't make anything work any better/quicker.

and if budget is a concern why buy what you don't need?

Thanks

Quote:

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You will appreciate that I haven't much of a clue as to what is presently going on in this computerised recording world so would need very basic directions

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Sam

I've found it's perfectly usable with no complaints sound quality wise. Initially didn't find the liquid pre's anything worth worrying about. Recently stumbled upon the Focusrite emulation with 50% harmonic and it's worked really well for vocals. For the first time, twice in a row it's given me rich and warm vocals that didn't really need EQ.
The mixcontrol can do a fair bit but is confusing.

Helpful Steve ... thanks

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Sam

Quote whis4ey:

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So the 800 is not twice as fast as the 400 .... it only carries twice the capacity?

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Nah, FW 2 is faster, but the interface itself is only a 400 device and the connection is only as fast as the slowest link. You should be able to get a 400 based card for about £25 if you hunt about.

It might perfectly well with your onboard, it was just a heads up so you know. What you plugging into an onboard connection on your motherboard? If so what motherboard is it?

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ScanProAudio & 3XS Audio Systems
ScanProAudio Blog

I've had one for a while - and have made a fair bit of use of the different preamp emulations, though inevitably after a while you find the ones you like best with certain mics and stick to them on the whole...

I've never had a problem with firewire or overall reliability - famous last words.

Quick question though - if you're new to all this, do you really need all those simultaneous inputs and outputs. I rarely if ever use more than two preamps at one time (it has eight); and have never used the adat connections or all 8 analogue outputs (though I needed the option to do 5.1 surround, so may need them in future).

The software it comes with is very flexible, but with flexibility comes lots of routing options and complications (if you're new to this stuff). There are other cheaper Focusrite interfaces that may do all you need them to do (without the liquid preamps though).

Just a thought.

Ben

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The large print giveth and the small print taketh away

I like the '56...good sound quality and plenty of I/O and features for the money. Best thing about it is that the inputs have separate XLR/Jacks for the mic/line connections which avoids all the unplugging you have to do when using combi sockets.

Switching sample rate can be a bit of a pain though...it doesn't like doing it when ASIO is running and this can stop any Windows sounds playing if you're on PC. Very annoying, but I know it's not the only interface to suffer from this.

Quote:

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if you're new to all this, do you really need all those simultaneous inputs and outputs

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I have only ever used at the most 5 at once in the past
Presently I would only normally use two, maybe three
Difficult to get a unit that delivers five only
I can image the frustration though, if I needed five and only had four
So, the availability of 8 is as few as I would spend the money on
And the idea of two being liquid appeals
Am I wrong????

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Sam

I do believe Focusrite is picky about the firewire chipset might be worth checking

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Strictly an amateur with some nice toys,

I used to use a Metric Halo 2882+DSP (very nice expensive thing) which went bang one day, so I needed to purchase a replacement ASAP. I had one day to get something and the only thing available was a Saffire 56 so I got it. To be honest I was amazed at the liquid channels so after getting the Metric Halo fixed I sold it. Since then I have added two Behringer ADA8000 to give me 24 input channels and love it!

I'm not over impressed with the mix software. The thing I find most annoying is that you cannot monitor more than 16 channels. Focusrite support are great from experience but I would love it if you could monitor 24 channels rather than be limited to 16.

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I met a strange lady, she made me nervous; she took me in and gave me breakfast

Being able to monitor 16 channels would be fine for me. However, I would want to use this with Reaper. Would that work OK? I don't really want to learn yet another software product

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Sam

Quote whis4ey:

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Quote:

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if you're new to all this, do you really need all those simultaneous inputs and outputs

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I have only ever used at the most 5 at once in the past
Presently I would only normally use two, maybe three
Difficult to get a unit that delivers five only
I can image the frustration though, if I needed five and only had four
So, the availability of 8 is as few as I would spend the money on
And the idea of two being liquid appeals
Am I wrong????

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No you're not wrong - if you might need 5 inputs, then yes, you will need an 8 input interface - and the liquid preamps are good too.

Re the software thing - yes, you can use it with Reaper. The Mix Control software that comes with the 56 is designed for setting up monitor mixes without going through your DAW (Reaper) - the inputs can be routed directly to the outputs (including the headphone outputs) so you can monitor yourself at near-zero latency while you are recording. But you use it in conjunction with Reaper, not instead of...

You can also set up different monitor outs for different speakers, or 5.1 setups, or 16 outs to a mixing desk etc, but to be honest I've never used it for that as I have a hardware monitor controller.

Ben

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The large print giveth and the small print taketh away

New to recording in general or new to computers? The Saffire 56 is a serious interface. For £400 or less you might want to consider the Focusrite Pro40 as a cheaper option. Granted it's not as beautiful. I will also warn about the TI chipsets. I used the Pro40 with the motherboard's firewire and a PCI card and it was prone to dropouts. I also bought a cheap TI card, however that made problems worse so make sure you get the right one. This site claims the card will work with Focusrite. http://www.inta-audio.com/music-pc-systems-c192/pc-accessories-c197/inta-a udio-3-port-firewire-card-texas-instruments-chipset-1394a-ti-chipset-p2036?utm_source=froo gle&utm_medium=ppc&utm_term=3-port-firewire-card-texas-instruments-chipset-1394a-t i-chipset-pcc-fwc-belpci400&utm_campaign=froogle#2036

New to recording with computers
Many many years ago I dipped my toes in the water recording with a Tascam TSR8 and a Proline Gold (Studiomaster) mixing desk
Outboard Quadraverb, Compressor/limiter, and a 31 band EQ, and 'mastered' onto casettes
We had great fun, but somehow there seemed always to be something missing from the final result

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Sam

Quote smash4686:

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New to recording in general or new to computers? The Saffire 56 is a serious interface. For £400 or less you might want to consider the Focusrite Pro40 as a cheaper option. Granted it's not as beautiful. I will also warn about the TI chipsets. I used the Pro40 with the motherboard's firewire and a PCI card and it was prone to dropouts. I also bought a cheap TI card, however that made problems worse so make sure you get the right one. This site claims the card will work with Focusrite. http://www.inta-audio.com/music-pc-systems-c192/pc-accessories-c197/inta-a udio-3-port-firewire-card-texas-instruments-chipset-1394a-ti-chipset-p2036?utm_source=froo gle&utm_medium=ppc&utm_term=3-port-firewire-card-texas-instruments-chipset-1394a-t i-chipset-pcc-fwc-belpci400&utm_campaign=froogle#2036

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Excellent information, thank you smash4686! I will look to see where it can be obtained this side of the pond.

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Alexis -Cubase 6.5.0/SX3.1.1.944, XP SP2, 4GB RAM (1GB not accessible, but used just to balance the computer so it doesn't tip over); Delta 66 in Omni i/O Studio; Motif8; UAD-1