Liquid Saffire 56, liquid pres?

[JamesNorman]

I have this unit sat in my equipment rack, it arrived the other day, how are I havent took it to the studio to tinker with as I'm still waiting for my digimax d8 to get delivered (gone off topic.....)

What emulation pres do you guys like? And more importantly which are you guys using, and what for?

 

[Empathy]

The API 3124+ and Neve 1073 emulations are great, as you'd expect.

Check out this thread for comparisons of each pre.

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/...-56-preamp-shootout-api-neve-pulltec-etc.html

 

[JamesNorman]

Yeah bro i read that thread months ago when it was posted on guitar gurus saffire question thread, but there is only two people talking about it.

Was just looking to see if i could get more people opinions on it.

Cheers for quick reply.

 

[Empathy]

Best thing I can suggest is having a play around with it. If you know your pre's, use the emulations like you would the real things.

As Jaymz said in the other thread, the API and Neve emulations work great for guitars. I had a play around with the different pre's for DI signals through a countryman type 85, got some nice results from the Avalon emulation.

 

[Randyisgod15]

Yea the Neve pre is my favorite, but it's a load of fun to just cycle through them and tweak them out. You can some pretty interesting sounds that way. The MixControl software makes it all pretty user friendly.

 

[C-Martin]

I use the Neve, API and UA610 models quite often. They might not sound identical to the originals but that was never the point of these. The point is you get a great interface with 6 good clean preamps and 2 sets of 10 different colored preamps that you can switch at will and they all sound great. The interface alone has enough features to get you going a long way with great results, add a few more real deal pre's to the whole thing and in a full mix you get amazing results.

 

[kev]

Just listening back to how annoying my voice was on that clip . Now ive got a reamp system im tempted to go through it again and see how it deals with my hi gain guitars (James did this also). I've pretty much started using the API emulation for everything now, but I really havent extensively tested them all.

From what I can tell, there still isnt a huge user base for the unit yet for some reason!

 

[Melodeath]

To be honest, I use the liquid pres on Flat. The Neve added too much noise on vocals for my taste, and I just went back to Flat

 

[Empathy]

I'm not entirely sure what the deal is with the 'flat' mode on the liquid preamps. As far as I could tell, there was a perceivable difference between a flat liquid pre and the other pre's on channels 3-8, especially in regards to DI signals. I wish there were more than 2 liquid preamps, there's more than one time I've considered buying the 4-channel liquid preamp.

 

[Melodeath]

What do you mean "in regards to DI signals?" The DIs are channels 3 and 4, and don't run through the liquid pres.

 

[Empathy]

Sorry, should have specified, I don't use the instrument inputs on the Saffire. I use a countryman type 85 through the mic inputs so I can play around with the liquid preamps.

 

[TonyS.]

Sorry, should have specified, I don't use the instrument inputs on the Saffire. I use a countryman type 85 through the mic inputs so I can play around with the liquid preamps.

Did you notice a better quality this way?



Genral question:
Isnt there a bigger latency when using the liquid pres? Somebody know how much?

 

[Melodeath]

I vaguely remember 11 samples, but I could be wrong. I think it says in the manual

Empathy, so what did you notice? I always use Flat and the non-liquid pres on different sources, so I haven't noticed any difference.

 

[Empathy]

I'd say the liquid pre set to 'Flat' sounded better than any of the normal preamps on the unit. I never have any latency issues comparing the liquid pres to the clean pres.

The 'modern' (don't quote me on the name, it's the last one) preamp emulation also had some nice results, though I barely use it. I'd rather get a flatter preamp for DI signals, then use the Neve or API preamps for mics when reamping.