Focusrite launch Saffire LE

Focusrite have announced the Saffire LE, a more affordable version of their popular Saffire desktop audio interface.

It's a different colour to the original Saffire (black and silver, as opposed to white and silver), and has two extra analogue inputs, making four in total. The compromise is that the Saffire LE has two fewer analogue outputs — there are six in total, on balanced TRS jacks — and it doesn’t offer on-board effects processing.

There are two phantom-powered mic/line/instrument preamps with XLR and TRS inputs, plus coaxial S/PDIF and MIDI inputs and outputs and two Firewire 400 ports. The unit can be powered by either the Firewire buss or the included external PSU.

Front panel features include gain knobs for the two preamps, overload LEDs for all four analogue inputs and a monitor level control. There's a headphone socket with dedicated volume control and surround mixing is possible using the six analogue outputs. AC3 and DTS surround formats can also be streamed from the S/PDIF output.

Focusrite’s Saffire Control LE software, which provides a control panel for the unit’s settings, is included, together with Novation’s Bass Station virtual instrument, Ableton Live Lite, FXpansion’s BFD Ultralite and half a gigabyte of loops and samples compiled by Loopmasters. Also bundled are the same plug-ins that ship with the standard Saffire.

The Saffire LE will be available at the end of May and will cost £239. For more information, see Focusrite’s web site.