Just wanna share my Focusrite Saffire 6 USB experience.

chelemasty

chelemasty

New member
First of all, hello!
I made this thread since there's little amount of infos and reviews about the Focusrite Saffire 6 out there.

So yeah, I just got a Focusrite Saffire 6 USB and boy it kicks my Firebox big time... At first, I was skeptical about the USB 1.1 but it's really not that of a problem. It has near zero latency. The preamps itself already is very worth the price. It's crystal clear with a lot of headroom. If you compare it the Firebox, it's like night and day. The sound is not that bassy and it's actually better than Firebox. I've used an M-audio Fast Track Pro too, and that one is garbage if you compare it.

The reason I went to the USB route is that, it is for my laptop for mobile purposes. And having a 4-pin firewire slot will require a power supply so that would be a bummer.

So if you're in a quest for a USB audio interface for mobile purposes, try this. It also has some extra RCA outputs if you want to cue or connect it to your mixer. So for those whose still skeptical about it, you could drop that now. Peace! :)
 
I've already been shut down trying to prove Firewire is better than USB. Great to see it is doing well for you. I'd say if I ever decide to upgrade my Sound Card I will actually look at the USB section as well :D
 
Well, there's nothing really wrong about firewire, it's just if you have a 4-pin slot on your laptop(Which is all or almost all laptop) and you want to go mobile, you'll need a power supply. Yes, firewire is much faster than USB. BUT, for soundcard purposes, or some minor recording on the preamp, it doesn't even need a lot of power or speed, so USB is just fine. At the end of the day, the DAC itself is the one who's giving the quality of the sound not the firewire or the USB. So yeah, now I'm happy coz I can take it anywhere without bringing a power supply. ^_^ Peace!
 
Yeah messing with USB I haven't noticed that big of a difference between firewire besides how companies charge and advertise.
 
Obitheincredible said:
Yeah messing with USB I haven't noticed that big of a difference between firewire besides how companies charge and advertise.
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Yeah! So true...LOL But only for those interface that has like, only one or two preamps. Coz more than that, I guess you'll gonna need firewire for all those incoming data, specially recording drums.

But yeah, hopefully many people will review this product since it's still a fresh one.
 
Yep2x, Already did. That's what I would like to buy at first. But there's been a lot of talks that the USB in it, has a lot of bugs, and people used the firewire instead because the USB is a PITA. Also, the preamp is not that powerful so that's why. Oh, and the price also.LOL
 
I haven't heard anything bad about those interfaces and they aren't all bus powered they have external powersupplies included.
 
Obitheincredible said:
I haven't heard anything bad about those interfaces and they aren't all bus powered they have external powersupplies included.
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The MOTU Ultralite MK3 can actually be powered by Firewire(With power suppy if via 4-pin) or USB. Yep, it is a good interface but the preamp built-in is not really that good, it's about the same as some presonus preamp card.(Atleast, in my own Ear
opinion) You can make some good vocals out of it, but needs a lot of touches.

Oh yeah, if you're looking for firewire, check the Focusrite Saffire Pro DSP. That would be my next buy. It has a Virtual Referencing Monitor kinda feature that lets you hear your mix in different studio environments, different "VIRTUAL" high-end studio speakers and from different positions via your headphone out. So it's like an ARC and KRK Ergo, built-in.(Or something like that) Good for quick mixing and mastering while mobile.
 
DiaboliC said:
I just purchased this unit as well very solid and sounds better then my old Digi 002 rack
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Thanks man. Glad to know that. I was about to purchase a Digi 002 too or an M-Audio ProjectMix for Pro Tools back then. Now I'm glad I stayed with my Ableton, Cubase, and Reason setup(Now Ableton and Reason only) and never went to Pro Tools and bought that mixer...LOL

Yo! did you practiced singin on it too while testing the preamp??? LOL That's what I did for two days...LOL:cheers:
 
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Nah but first night tested it with a recording session its very nice pre amps blow my old mbox and digi 002 pres ..Focusrite did a great job also the FX are smooth
 
DiaboliC said:
Nah but first night tested it with a recording session its very nice pre amps blow my old mbox and digi 002 pres ..Focusrite did a great job also the FX are smooth
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How's the deal on the CPU? Is it light on the CPU? I didn't tried mine yet coz I already used other plugins for that work.
 
Hi all!! good see this posts...i have m audio firewire solo and it works fine more or less per 2 years but now i reinstal my windows xp and this no work ...it is very boring and i need to continue my projects obviuos....i think about get one saffire 6 because pres and usb conection even being 1.1 because i read good coments and it have good specs.
 
A lot of the FW/USB controversy still goes on due to the fact that the early USB audio interface implementations were pretty flaky. Then USB2 interfaces came out...and the first implementations were again unstable and shoddy while FW stuff played nice. Now the playing field is pretty level unless you really push them (ie. use all the inputs at the same time, all the time), in which case I'd imagine you still might get some kind of a bias one way or the other.

For recording a few tracks at a time, I don't think the choice of the protocol matters very much anymore - and I'm thinking USB3 will take over anyway.
 
yeah very good...i just want rec electric and acoustic guitar and bass here....perhaps rarely will rec one voice and acoustic guitar simultaneously or 2 mics to guitar...all the rest i go to proffessional studio....my firewire solo no work at this moment.... you moderator know about this saffire 6 and can coment compare with fast trak pro? is good choice?

thank you!! great forum!

Marco
 
Yo I just copped a Dell XPS 17' laptop. Its got all the trimmings (i5 M460, 6gb RAM, 64 bit). No express card slot. I just realized that. Kinda sucks actually. What kind of USB interfaces are out there to increase audio performance (lowest latency setting possible)? I don't need anything for recording cause I just use it to produce. I have frequent access to a studio for recording.

I use the asio4all driver but there are frequent hiccups. No clicks and pops or anything like that tho. The program will just hiccup (jerk, pause, flinch, glitch w/e) for like less than half a second while audio is being played or when midi is being recorded. Its not very frequent but it happens often enough to be a problem. I know its the weak ass JBL (in conjunction with Waves) Realtek sound card. My dell desktop has a soundblaster and that thing is dope! I can get it down to like 5ms with the onboard soundcard and get half way through mixing a huge as beat (hella VSTi's and such) before it starts getting crazy.

I'm looking for something small but powerful. This laptop also has that new top notch azz USB 3.0 sh*t in it, if that helps at all.

I can get the comp down to 5ms with aiso4all, but I'm just looking for something better and less glitchy I guess. I'm gonna try upgrading my program and all that as well, but if you all spot something dope, point me in the direction of it. Peace.

BTW I use FL9, Komplete 6 and hella samples. I own a few other plugs, but I use komplete mostly.
 
The EMU 0404 USB is a good Interface, use it with a midi keyboard and to record my hardware synth and no glitching at all and excellent sound, fairly cheap and even though some people seem to have had issues with the drivers, I use Windows 7 64 with the latest beta drivers for the 0404 and have had no issues straight out the box no messing around. Hope this helps
 
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