Confuse me now, or forever hold your peace..

[Chitta]

I'm preparing to buy a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 in the next few weeks.

I've done what I think is quite a fair amount of research by reading and comparing specs and reviews, but now it's time to do research by discussing.

So, I'm going to give you a quick overview of my gear and budget and what I'm looking for,

And I'm inviting the masses to comment, confuse, cajole, give me careful advice as to how to proceed.

I'm running Logic 9 on my Macbook pro with OSX 10.5

I'm using an apogee duet and a Motu Fastlane (2X2 MIDI) to deal with my 3 synths, MIM Strat, and an acoustic with a couple mediocre to decent mics.

I want space to expand here. More Ins with decent preamps so I could Mic Drums, Or lay down basics with a small ensemble and just overheads on the drums, and have some options for monitoring.
I'd also like to be able to expand and buy some outboard FX. Hopefully the ADAT and s/pdif can help me do that.
(Q: Can one daisy chain with ADAT? if its 8X8 should I be able to run multiple FX units with one ADAT jack on my interface?)

I want good drivers. Not only that, I want to buy a product from a company that has a decent track record of updating their drivers relatively quickly, and with good quality.

I'd like to not feel like I wasted my money because I missed some, near essential, feature that I really don't have full and clear understanding about cuz I'm so NOOBish around the edges.
Will I really cry myself to sleep in 4 years when I don't have Word Clock? etc.


Most importantly: I only have $500 (in check form that I dare not deposit lest it disintegrate) and a laughable income (my last two biweekly paychecks were for 37.58 and 178.94)


Thoughts anyone... excuse me, I mean everyone?

 

[FLYcrash]

Confuse me now [...]

Well, I found the following UNIX command line to be very useful:

./configure --prefix=/home/raman/bin --with-device=ch3:nemesis:tcp --enable-pmiport --with-pm=mpd:gforker --with-pmi=simple --enable-romio --enable-mpe --enable-f90 --enable-f77 --enable-cxx --enable-g=none --enable-fast=O3 --disable-sharedlibs F90=/home/raman/gcc/bin/gfortran F77=/home/raman/gcc/bin/gfortran CC=/home/raman/gcc/bin/gcc CXX=/home/raman/gcc/bin/g++ F90FLAGS=-static-libgfortran FFLAGS=-static-libgfortran CFLAGS=-static CXXFLAGS=-static

HTH

 

[Chitta]

....Maybe I should edit the title.

 

[FLYcrash]

Haha, yeah, it helps to have a specific title. At least yours is entertaining. It's annoying to see so many threads with titles like "Total Newbie" or "Newb questions" or "Someone help me please." I mean, c'mon, narrow it down, right?

But more importantly, could you be more specific w.r.t. which pieces of gear you're looking to upgrade? It sounds like an audio interface. But you said you're already preparing to buy the one you mentioned? Are you asking to be talked in/out of this particular interface? You mentioned outboard effects...should those be factored into your budget? Etc.

 

[Chitta]

Fly Thanks for calling out my lack of specificity.

Being talking into/out of buying this interface is EXACTLY what I'm looking for.
Basically it's a lot of money for me and so I want to hear some other opinions and talk to folks before I make the plunge. I'm not really looking to upgrade anything, just to add to my rig for expandability.
I will keep using my Duet for mobile recording and laying down final vocals. But I'm looking to buy a new interface with more of all the things I mentioned above (including the ability to incorporate outboard FX into my rig.)
I was looking at the Saffire Pro 40 and feel like it'd be a good bet but want a second, and third and fourth opinion.

 

[iLogical]

i have also been looking at audio interfaces for logic and am preparing to buy a "Fast Track Ultra - High-speed 8 x 8 USB 2.0 Interface" which doesn't have quite the same number of input's and it's usb not firewire, but it does have a damn good soundcard - sorry if this is a pointless suggestion but it may be worth a look at - i don't know?

can't be very helpful about the hardware stuff i'm afraid but i would like to suggest that u get os x 10.6 - logic runs faster on it partly it just is a slightly leaner os and partly it supports the new 64bit logic - i would recommend this if your doing any thing over 4-8 tracks really.

i'm sure you can quite happily get away with leopard really but now snow leopard has most of it's bugs removed and stuff it really would be a good move. otoh judging by what u said about budget this really isn't a priority!!! go for what u neeeed!!!

logic 8 was not such a big deal (it was only 32bit by itself) but now logic 9 has the capability to be even faster on the right platform.

probs not what u were looking for but i hope it helps.

good luck!

ps have i confused u?

 

[Chitta]

Well iLogical,
I guess the reason the fast track didn't register is becasue I've have bad experiences with mAudio. The Mboxes and the Firewire 410 I had has all be jokes. Really mediocre pieces of gear. But I don't know anything about how to compare soundcards. How do I find out more infor about that?
The Saphire has more Preamps and ADAT as well as having leveling meter's on the front.
But is that worth it? I'm not totally sure.
As for the new OS, That's coming soon, maybe even x-mas

 

[trunkdog]

I'm preparing to buy a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 in the next few weeks.

I've done what I think is quite a fair amount of research by reading and comparing specs and reviews, but now it's time to do research by discussing.

So, I'm going to give you a quick overview of my gear and budget and what I'm looking for,

snipped

[/I]

Hell I'm looking at the post BECAUSE OF the title.
But then I'm a mind reader, Ah know where yo head is.
Ain't got no cash and don't want to waste what you have on a poorly designed / implemented audio interface with too few features some of which you're prolly not going to use anyway,
but want to avoid bypassing a really neat feature you could use down the road.

Damn those paycheck values hurt
But then I ain't had one in 33 months, but that's another tune...

I have narrowed my choices (given pretty much the same criteria as you, Chitta my man, except the budget ) to:

Focusrite Saffire Pro 40

Motu 8Pre
Motu Traveler
Motu 896 MK

Presonus FireStudio

Of these I am definitely "more comfortable with" Focusrite as a company.

Out of curiosity; what acoustic and mics do you use?
I'm looking at getting Rode NT5's as they seem to be defacto standards.

Is that Strat a "Freddy Fender" model, couldn't resist

Reading up on ADAT makes my head hurt:

"Recently, Lightpipe devices have been successfully interfaced via FireWire.
Lightpipe can carry eight channels of uncompressed digital audio at 24 bit resolution at 48,000 samples per second. A signal with a sample rate of 96 kHz is thus effectively split up into two signals of 48 kHz each" - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Given your budget I will assume all those additional inputs (drum mics) are "future". If you are trying to stay under budget with that volatile check then the Pro 40 should be the ticket IM<HO; you'll have 8 quality pres, Firewire and ADAT for expansion / future implementations; $360 (open box free shipping).... dude!!!

With all the external syncing and synthing going on you'll want (have to have) a "dependable word clock source" or die from the pops and click or even worse actually cry thyself to sleep

Perhaps the clock is a future investment since you ain't gonna get it from the Pro 40. I guess that's one of the reasons the unit sells for what it does.

There is a good aftermarket life for these units, so who knows, that paycheck might just take radical turn for the better and you can ditch (resell) the unit you opt for and go Pro!

Good luck with whatever route you take!

 

[The Cancers]

I've had a pro 40 for a while.
Never had any problems with the hardware or the software.
The included Saffire Mix Control is a little program you'll need to learn, but it's not too difficult to figure out.
It's where you make a lot of your adjustments for the interface.
Things you do in mix control that I do on the regular and are really easy:
1) Most useful in my view, zero latency monitoring.
Turn off your DAW's input monitoring and use Mix Control's mixer to adjust the levels and panning of your input signals. So nice never having to worry about latency at all.
2) Selection of sample rate.
3) Syncing to an external clock, which I know can be done on the Saffire via ADAT (I'm using an external 8 channel preamp with digital out that can send it's clock signal via ADAT along with the 8 channels of audio. More in a minute) and I think can also be done via S/PDIF.
4) Routing of outputs (in conjunction with your DAW).

There are other things that are done in there, I'm certain but, yeah, it's handy and fairly useful.

I got a Presonus Digimax D8 via trade.
The thing's only clock input is BNC, which I'm sure you're aware the Saffire doesn't have an output for. So my only option for ensuring both devices are working on the same clock is the one I described above.
No clicks or pops, the presonus clock isn't noticeably better or worse than the Saffire's, and I've got 16 channels of 24-bit 48k audio coming in.

I'm using Reaper on an XP system I built for recording but use fairly generally.

Ummm... that's my experience. I haven't got any complaints about the Saffire. The only thing it's missing is that BNC input/output, though I know little enough about external clocking that the S/PDIF input on there might be capable of doing the same thing with the right cable (if you know different please correct me).

So, +1 for the Saffire being a darn good, stable and reliable piece of gear.
Good luck.

 

[Chitta]

You're good folks.
I'm discovering how truly satisfying it is to have someone take the time to give their honest opinion in reply to a question in moderate detail.
The replies are super helpful, and mean a lot.
If anyone else has more to add I'd really love to hear it.
My girlfriend says "Thank them in the morning..."

Which means....
I'll give you my updated thoughts later.