Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

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macmurphy
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Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by macmurphy » Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:44 pm

i may soon be in the market for a new audio interface (pc).

i'll need plenty of i/o and standalone operation.

i've had my eye on the Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 and there's also the M-Audio ProFire 2626 for around the same price - £380-£400.
has anyone had experience of either of these? anything to look out for concerning drivers, reliability etc.?

thanks,

neil.

c5_convertible
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Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by c5_convertible » Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:52 pm

I have a saffire pro 40. I like it a lot. Sounds good, and the mixcontrol is quite useful. Never had any issues with it for almost a year now. Stable, low latency, good sound.

However, if you're using it with Windows, I've noticed some strange behaviour.
Everything works fine, mind you, but...
I have a quad core I5 and a Q9550. Both running windows 7 x64. When it is powered off, the CPU idles between 0-2%. Once you switch it on, it goes to about 10-16%, with one core constantly over 80%. It doesn't cause drop-outs or anything, but I don't like the fact that the computer is working hard to run an audio interface... it gets hotter too.
The I5 is actually a 27" imac, and on os x it doesn't have this problem.
I have reported this as a bug some time ago, and they responded "we are working on it" for about 6 months now.

I dislike M-audio so very much, as I have a delta 1010LT, and while it works ok, it misses features under windows 7. And M-audio has been saying they are working on the new drivers now since march... With no reaction up to now whatsoever. No more m-audio for me.

Kurt.
Last edited by c5_convertible on Mon Aug 23, 2010 6:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

tyrosine
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Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by tyrosine » Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:22 pm

TC Electronic Impact Twin for the win.

Looks amazing for the price (both aesthetically and feature-wise).

Very positive review in Sound on Sound:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan10/a ... ?print=yes

Anubis
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Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by Anubis » Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:50 pm

I have a Saffire Pro 24 working very good here under win 7(64) even when using the Ricoh firewire port. Rock solid drivers for Win 7 and great sound. Keep in mind, most firewire interfaces (e.g.- Presonus) will not work with Ricoh drivers, you need to get an TI chipset adapter. This is not an issue with a Mac.
fwiw- I have not had the issue of the increased CPU cycles when idling.
Last edited by Anubis on Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
9.0.4 Suite-Samsung Chronos 7 laptop(17")-12GB RAM-Samsung 840 series SSD(250GB)-iPad2-Maschine-TouchAble-SaffirePro24-Saffire6USB-Komplete Audio 6-Axiom25-PCR300-Nocturn-LaunchPad-QuNeo-QuNexus
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biologik
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Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by biologik » Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:52 pm

I also have a saffire pro 24. best sound card i've ever had.. just make sure the firewire input device you're using uses a Texas Instruments chipset and you're good to go. running like a champ on vista and win7 machines.

redglass
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Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by redglass » Fri Aug 20, 2010 9:06 pm

macmurphy wrote:i may soon be in the market for a new audio interface (pc).

i'll need plenty of i/o and standalone operation.

i've had my eye on the Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 and there's also the M-Audio ProFire 2626 for around the same price - £380-£400.
has anyone had experience of either of these? anything to look out for concerning drivers, reliability etc.?

thanks,

neil.
hi,

I use the Saffire Pro 40 since a year. I'm happy with the sound and the Saffire MixControl Software, which is very useful. I decided to work with 256 samples buffer size which is sufficient for me, smaller buffer size is something for RME or other premium soundcarts.

Its driver behave different on my laptop and desktop:

1) Laptop: XP Pro 32 bit, SP2, Broadcom Chipsets: Everything works fine. Seldomly crashes and dropouts.
2) Desktop (Q9550 + HIS Grafik): No go for the Saffire, doesn't make any sense to me. Grafik of Live is always late an hangin', crashin, sad enough.
Fortunately I have a Digi 96/8 from RME, which works right now as a solution as the main Soundcard.
Its SPDif and Adat outs are connected with the corresponiding ins at the Saffire, Saffire is a wordclock salve then, RME is master. This Setup works perfect, but only with the RME inbetween.

Conclusion: It depends on your hardware and its drivers. If you want to work with less then 256 buffer size, go for rme tc. If you still need some many ins and outs, than the saffire works fine, depending on your PCs hardware. I heard of a friend, who bought a dell vostro desktop for 300 EUR, and it works perfect with the saffire interfaces. Strange, but it is like that.

So, get one and give it a try. If it works, keep it, if not, send it back to the shop and try an RME or TC. Or change Laptop or PC.

best, Bastian

ps: I have no experience with mac or Win7 with Saffire Interfaces.

biologik
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Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by biologik » Fri Aug 20, 2010 9:52 pm

MrMoneypenny wrote:
macmurphy wrote: 1) Laptop: XP Pro 32 bit, SP2, Broadcom Chipsets: Everything works fine. Seldomly crashes and dropouts.
2) Desktop (Q9550 + HIS Grafik): No go for the Saffire, doesn't make any sense to me. Grafik of Live is always late an hangin', crashin, sad enough.
Fortunately I have a Digi 96/8 from RME, which works right now as a solution as the main Soundcard.
.
have you tried a firewrire card with a TI chipset? The native FW port on my quadcore won't have anything to do with the saffire, but the ADG (with TI chip) worked like a charm.. i think it was 20 bucks or so. As for the laptop, i'd say "seldom" is terrible - especially since i'm sure you want to use that in a live setting. Again, could be related to chipset in FW. My old HP had no issue. I needed to buy a FW expresscard for my new vaio though.

redglass
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Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by redglass » Fri Aug 20, 2010 10:42 pm

biologik wrote:
MrMoneypenny wrote:
macmurphy wrote: 1) Laptop: XP Pro 32 bit, SP2, Broadcom Chipsets: Everything works fine. Seldomly crashes and dropouts.
2) Desktop (Q9550 + HIS Grafik): No go for the Saffire, doesn't make any sense to me. Grafik of Live is always late an hangin', crashin, sad enough.
Fortunately I have a Digi 96/8 from RME, which works right now as a solution as the main Soundcard.
.
have you tried a firewrire card with a TI chipset? The native FW port on my quadcore won't have anything to do with the saffire, but the ADG (with TI chip) worked like a charm.. i think it was 20 bucks or so. As for the laptop, i'd say "seldom" is terrible - especially since i'm sure you want to use that in a live setting. Again, could be related to chipset in FW. My old HP had no issue. I needed to buy a FW expresscard for my new vaio though.
Yes, there is a TI Chipset FW Card in the PC. seldom for a producer with lots of VST is ok. In LIve situation I wouldn't work with VST, but with internal Plugs combined with audio clips only.

UncleAge
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Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by UncleAge » Fri Aug 20, 2010 11:07 pm

I have the Pro40 and I have had no problems with it on any of my systems. I have a Q6600/XP/SP2 custom, HP DV2000 laptop w/XP/SP2 and iMac 27" w/i7 quad/OSX. No hiccups or dropouts so far. The earlier drivers (over a year ago) were not as stable but they fixed that some time ago. And they updated the drivers regularly.

My previous experiences have been with an Echo Audiofire 8 and M-Audio FW Solo. I am a big fan of Echo's solid drivers but I was in need of a unit that had more controls on the face of the unit like the Pro40 has.

I gave the 2626 a serious look as well before getting the Pro40. At the time the price difference was significant so I put my money down on the Focusrite unit. I don't think you'll go wrong with either unit though. As always, ymmv...

macmurphy
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Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by macmurphy » Sat Aug 21, 2010 5:07 am

thanks for the replies everyone, you've all been very helpful :wink:

it's certainly looking like it'll be the Pro40.

c5_convertible
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Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by c5_convertible » Sat Aug 21, 2010 6:47 am

To those that are using the saffire 40 with Windows 7 x64.
It seems that nobody else has this issue with idle CPU cycles (run task manager to be sure). Have it switched off until your CPU idles normally (no apps open). Then, switch on the saffire and watch the CPU. Let me know if it goes up for you?

I've had this on 3 different computers, using different firewire chipsets (TI - both FW400 and FW800 (imac) and VIA). I've even tried on newly installed OS. Symptoms are exactly the same

I find it strange that nobody else seems to have this problem... Maybe it's only on Quad core machines?
I use the saffire pro 40 on 190 samples, which seems to work best for me.

leedsquietman
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Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by leedsquietman » Sat Aug 21, 2010 7:41 am

TI and VIA are good firewire chipsets.

Ricoh/ene/o2 and 'generic' are not. You will get reduced firewire performance on those chipsets, even if you can get them working reasonably OK. 99% of laptops have these cheap chipsets which are put in for cost effectiveness and often integrated with several other functions. Macs are diffferent in that although they have a cheap integrated lucent/agere chipse (since 2009), that most vendors have found workarounds given it's only one hardware combination, so performance is a bit lacking compared to the old TI chipset but not quite so terrible - they also have proper 6 pin FW ports which can be more stable and allow buss powering, the 4 pin mini FW in PC laptops has no buss powering and can be less stable.

An Expresscard to Texas Instruments firewire such as made by SIIG etc only work fine if your Expresscard buss is not integrated with the firewire - unfortunately, in most cases, these are both integrated on the same chip in most of the ricoh/o2.ene etc. solutions, meaning that you will not see any benefit. In my computer, which has a ricoh chipset, the expresscard buss is seperate (by Intel), so I could use the adapter, you need to check in device manager.

Really, you should probably be looking at USB 2.0 audio interfaces on PC laptops.

The latest M-Audio products such as the Profire 610, 2626 and Fast Track Ultra R8 are actually much improved and decent products, certainly much better than some of their interfaces prior to this.

Also - Focusrite have great preamps and conversion but their drivers are not in the league of RME and Echo for low latency performance - if you require really low latency, try using the ASIO4ALL driver, this often gives better performance than the native driver (and not just Focusrite).
http://soundcloud.com/umbriel-rising http://www.myspace.com/leedsquietmandemos Live 7.0.18 SUITE, Cubase 5.5.2], Soundforge 9, Dell XPS M1530, 2.2 Ghz C2D, 4GB, Vista Ult SP2, legit plugins a plenty, Alesis IO14.

smaucher
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Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by smaucher » Sat Aug 21, 2010 9:45 am

my pro40 works very well on my RICOH chipset here (Dell latitude E6500).

just my 2ct.
you start bleeding - I start sceaming
propaganda 1985

leedsquietman
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Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by leedsquietman » Sat Aug 21, 2010 1:25 pm

It would work EVEN BETTER on a Texas Instruments chipset though - I can get my ricoh chipset performing OKish with my Alesis IO14 using ASIO4ALL, but the TI chipset in my old single core P4 laptop still gave me better latency and more audio throughput before choking, in spite of being spanked every other way performance wise by new laptop.
http://soundcloud.com/umbriel-rising http://www.myspace.com/leedsquietmandemos Live 7.0.18 SUITE, Cubase 5.5.2], Soundforge 9, Dell XPS M1530, 2.2 Ghz C2D, 4GB, Vista Ult SP2, legit plugins a plenty, Alesis IO14.

smaucher
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Re: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 or......?

Post by smaucher » Sat Aug 21, 2010 2:08 pm

Leeds hates me for not having problems at all while there are latency values <9 ms. in projects >30 tracks /w Ricoh chipsets. ;-)
you start bleeding - I start sceaming
propaganda 1985

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