Focusrite Saffire Pro 40, Opinions?

[TheDriller]

so lads,

Im gonna be getting myself a more substantial interface some time in the next few months, and have been considering the Focusrite Saffire Pro 40.

http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/focusrite-saffire-pro-40-firewire-audio-interface--58155

never seem to see it mentioned around here, so im wondering if anyone has any experience with it?

is it stable at 32 samples? what is the overall stability like? what are the pres like?
im running OS X 10.5.5, using Logic 9.

currently running an M-Audio Firewire Solo.

and before anyone bothers, no, im not gonna get a Profire
EDIT: actually, i may consider the Profire, if anyone can present a convincing arguement

 

[kev]

Saffire series is great, I have the 56 PRO. 32 samples is asking a lot, so just make sure you've got some good hardware to go along with it ofc. Btw, my saffire 56 only goes to 64 samples, i dont think there is an option for 32 IIRC.

 

[xFkx]

It doesn't go down to 32 samples, with the lates drivers it does down to 224 samples (and acts like 64 samples on the older drivers, so you can monitor through the daw without any problems)

Anywho, i do have some problems, but they might be the fault of win7 beta, or uad drivers. anywho, in a session even though i have my cpu at 20-30% the audio tends to drop out frequently. Like I said, it might not be the fault of the saffire

 

[kev]

It doesn't go down to 32 samples, with the lates drivers it does down to 224 samples (and acts like 64 samples on the older drivers, so you can monitor through the daw without any problems)

Anywho, i do have some problems, but they might be the fault of win7 beta, or uad drivers. anywho, in a session even though i have my cpu at 20-30% the audio tends to drop out frequently. Like I said, it might not be the fault of the saffire

Have you set your firewire driver latency correctly dude? (not Asio sample size). Sounds to me like there is too much stress being left on your cpu here. What CPU have you?

 

[TheDriller]

it doesn't go down to 32samples?

wtf?

the shitty m-audio from 4 years ago thats sitting in front of me goes down to 32.

wow, that sucks.

has anyone got a reading on the "real world" latency at 64samples?

 

[kev]

2.9 milliseconds mate

 

[TheDriller]

2.9 milliseconds mate

thanks man,

2.9ms at 64 samples is damn good.

is that at 44.1khz?

and where are you getting that latency measurement from?
also, is it stable at that buffer size?




my Firewire Solo here shows 10ms at 64 samples
and 9.1ms at 32 samples, piece of shit

im excited about this now,
has anyone compared this unit with the M-Audio Profire?
i'd be interested to hear about the differences.

 

[Melodeath]

Have you set your firewire driver latency correctly dude? (not Asio sample size). Sounds to me like there is too much stress being left on your cpu here. What CPU have you?

How do you "set it correctly"

I recently updated my 56 drivers and saw this new control, but just left it on "short"

 

[kev]

thanks man,

2.9ms at 64 samples is damn good.

is that at 44.1khz?

and where are you getting that latency measurement from?
also, is it stable at that buffer size?




my Firewire Solo here shows 10ms at 64 samples
and 9.1ms at 32 samples, piece of shit

im excited about this now,
has anyone compared this unit with the M-Audio Profire?
i'd be interested to hear about the differences.

Measurement straight out of cubase (and yep 44.1 dude). Here you go (do bear in mind the 3.8ghz quadcore mite be having an impact too):

How do you "set it correctly"

I recently updated my 56 drivers and saw this new control, but just left it on "short"

Always keep it on short if possible, but if you have a slower cpu you might need to use medium. (this is when you'll get FW dropouts)

 

[updog]

it doesn't go down to 32samples?

wtf?

Yes it does, easily.

I don't have a single bad thing to say about mine. It costs about the same as Profire and Profire allows you to route twice as many channels through ADAT, but other than that, I don't think there's really much difference. On Mac at least, this beast has never let me down. It's been updated so you can use it standalone if you need to, as well.

Feel free to ask any more questions about it, and I'll try to answer them as well as I can.

 

[TheDriller]

Yes it does, easily.

I don't have a single bad thing to say about mine. It costs about the same as Profire and Profire allows you to route twice as many channels through ADAT, but other than that, I don't think there's really much difference. On Mac at least, this beast has never let me down. It's been updated so you can use it standalone if you need to, as well.

Feel free to ask any more questions about it, and I'll try to answer them as well as I can.

thanks,

do you use Logic by any chance?
if so, what is the reported round-trip latency at the lower buffer sizes?

how does it perform with all inputs recording?
ever had any problems with drop-outs/glitches at low latency?

im kinda hung-up on this latency thing
would i be correct in saying that ~6ms roundtrip at 64 samples is about the best one could ever expect from firewire interfaces?

im so used to the shitty hidden buffers in my current interface that im kinda obsessive about these details,
im wanting to make this a purchase that will be a solid foundation for the next few years of my audio development.

EDIT: forgot to mention, i have a Quad processor and 4Gb of ram , so the computer performance won't be an issue.

 

[updog]

thanks,

do you use Logic by any chance?
if so, what is the reported round-trip latency at the lower buffer sizes?

how does it perform with all inputs recording?
ever had any problems with drop-outs/glitches at low latency?

im kinda hung-up on this latency thing
would i be correct in saying that ~6ms roundtrip at 64 samples is about the best one could ever expect from firewire interfaces?

im so used to the shitty hidden buffers in my current interface that im kinda obsessive about these details,
im wanting to make this a purchase that will be a solid foundation for the next few years of my audio development.

I'm using Logic 9, yes.

I don't know how much your system will affect the round-trip latency, but I'm having 19,8ms. A lot, I guess? I'm running this shiz on a 2,4 GHz 4GB MacBook. I actually never noticed before.

I'm sorry to say that I haven't yet recorded all the inputs at the same time, but I've probably read all professional and consumer reviews on the net, and no one has reported a problem.

I've had problems with low latency settings, but that's because I'm sometimes pushing my computer too hard (having 32 latency settings at a project with a lot of soft-synths without using freeze function). My system has dealt with it surprisingly well, though. During recording, I don't really get glitches, if it's not a humongous project by that time already.

 

[TheDriller]

I'm using Logic 9, yes.

I don't know how much your system will affect the round-trip latency, but I'm having 19,8ms. A lot, I guess? I'm running this shiz on a 2,4 GHz 4GB MacBook. I actually never noticed before.

I'm sorry to say that I haven't yet recorded all the inputs at the same time, but I've probably read all professional and consumer reviews on the net, and no one has reported a problem.

I've had problems with low latency settings, but that's because I'm sometimes pushing my computer too hard (having 32 latency settings at a project with a lot of soft-synths without using freeze function). My system has dealt with it surprisingly well, though. During recording, I don't really get glitches, if it's not a humongous project by that time already.

thanks.

that 19ms, what buffer size is that at?
could you check what Logic states the latency as at 32 samples and 64 samples if you get a chance?
that would be awesome.

just really need to make sure that the realworld latency is as low as possible, and that it doesn't have loads of hidden buffers adding too much latency.

im being needlessly obsessive about this really.
im not even tracking any bands yet, but i want to have the possibility there.
the plan would be to do the usual, record at 32 or 64 samples, and then crank up the buffers for mixing.

most days i can mix a whole project at 64 or 128 samples with no dropouts, on my current crappy interface, sometimes whack it up to 512 on heavy projects.

this purchase needs to last me a long time, im not even going to be using all inputs for a good while, but i really need the better Instrument input, better converters and hopefully lower latencies.

 

[updog]

That was at 32. 64 is 21,2 ms.

 

[Metaltastic]

You mean 2,12 ms...I hope?

 

[TheDriller]

That was at 32. 64 is 21,2 ms.

???

you sure? wow, thats really high.
damn, my shitty Firewire Solo is half that!

 

[Erkan]

and before anyone bothers, no, im not gonna get a Profire
EDIT: actually, i may consider the Profire, if anyone can present a convincing arguement

How about you convince me to sell my Profire 2626 to buy the Saffire Pro 40 instead? Because I can't find any reason to do it and I don't get your reasoning.

I'm latency obsessed as well and I'm running a Q9550 (2.83ghz x 4 core) with 4GB of RAM and 64 samples with the Profire and it is giving me 6ms (round-trip) according to REAPER.

For what it's worth, when I was researching which interface to buy, most reviews tended to favor the Profire over the Saffire which is why I bought it. This was about 4-5 months ago.

 

[updog]

Yeah I'm sure man. I guess there might be something flawed in my system. I'll have to look into it.

I've always thought my latency was small as hell, but I guess I was wrong. Never noticed any latency, at any rate.

How about you convince me to sell my Profire 2626 to buy the Saffire Pro 40 instead? Because I can't find any reason to do it and I don't get your reasoning.

That's obviously not what he meant. I wouldn't buy a Profire either, even if it was better, because I've already purchased a Pro 40.

 

[updog]

My roundtrip latency really is 19,8 at minimum. Any possible causes? For one, it's impossible that they're naturally that high I guess...

It's actually the same as if I'd use the integrated input of my MacBook. Weird...

 

[updog]

Solved it. Pretty stupid, but I'm fucking glad I noticed....

There's a setting in the MixControl program, which I virtually never open although it's suggested to be kept open while you're using your DAW. The setting was "Firewire Driver Latency" which was set to "Very long"....

I got it down to 6,5ms at 32. 64 is 8,0ms.