Saffire 6 USB - A few questions about mixing...

[Damian227]

Ok I'm only familiar with analog mixing and working with stereo wav files. I've always used a Mic > Mixer > Soundcard, with the odd bit of hardware to clean the signal up.

Now today my friend brought his new gear over for me to test for him and show him how to use it, but I found myself having to learn a few new things myself.

1. The Focusrite Saffire 6 USB obviously just plugs in via USB so is a digital signal, which only records a single channel? Is that normal? Obviously with my analog set up I use dual RCA's for each channel left/right, but with USB it's a single line and I only got the left channel recording and playing back.

I configured my software to playback mono instead of stereo to fix that, but should it record the right channel also?

2. It does have an option to use dual RCA's for a left/right stereo input, but that defeats the reason he bought it, as he uses his laptop and not a pro soundcard like myself. So he could rig it up, but he'd be back to needing a soundcard or a mixer and the purpose of this unit is to eliminate the need.

3. Finally I also found the signal to sound a little strange, slighty echoy on his vocals. I'm guessing this is because his interface is technically a soundcard/preamp and I'm used to recording through a mixer, thus pre-setting the EQ to sound clean. Is that right or could it be linked to the fact the right channel doesn't record?

Hope you can help me, I'm new to these pre-amp interfaces

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

The Saffire 6 can and will send two channels of audio to your PC via USB. What you need to do is look at the configuration of whatever DAW software your using as well as whatever USB driver you're using and make sure it's configured route the channels to separate recording input channels.

G.

 

[Damian227]

Ah right, yeah I figured it was something in my settings but didn't want to tinker with it too much, as obviously it's set up for my gear.

I'll give it a good look over on his laptop, I did also suspect the XLR cable he was using, it was cheap, nasty, didn't fit properly and looked older than me and him combined

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

 

[Jazztichards]

Hey there,
I have a Saffire 6 usb Audio Interface and a Yamaha S650. How to connect them with only usb connection. I have connected the Keyboard separately to the pc & Audio interface both in the usb port. But the sound card didn't recognize the Keyboard. Please Anyone Help me!!!!

 

[RAMI]

OK, I know this thread is 3+ years old, but since it was bumped for some reason, I noticed something.

I'm only familiar with analog mixing and working with stereo wav files.

....why does that sentence not make any sense to me?

 

[mjbphotos]

Hey there,
I have a Saffire 6 usb Audio Interface and a Yamaha S650. How to connect them with only usb connection. I have connected the Keyboard separately to the pc & Audio interface both in the usb port. But the sound card didn't recognize the Keyboard. Please Anyone Help me!!!!

If you are using Windows you can only use 1 USB device at a time (even with a Mac, its difficult to use more than one USB device).

When you use the Saffire, it IS your soundcard and should be selected as the default hardware with whatever software/players you are using.
I've looked online and can't determine if the USB from/to your keyboard is audio or MIDI (I suspect MIDI only as there seems to be in and out jacks).

 

[Jonesey9]

OK, I know this thread is 3+ years old, but since it was bumped for some reason, I noticed something.
....why does that sentence not make any sense to me?

Because he doesn't really know what mixing is would be my bet.

 

[Jonesey9]

If you are using Windows you can only use 1 USB device at a time (even with a Mac, its difficult to use more than one USB device).

When you use the Saffire, it IS your soundcard and should be selected as the default hardware with whatever software/players you are using.
I've looked online and can't determine if the USB from/to your keyboard is audio or MIDI (I suspect MIDI only as there seems to be in and out jacks).

That's not strictly true.

It is true if you plan on using ASIO drivers as they only allow one device at a time, but WDM drivers allow multiple units to be used.

Some hardware also allows you to daisy chain similar units within an ASIO environment so you will get the benefit of double the amount of inputs/outputs.