Ableton Forum

i hear that they're good fer the money but i just wondered if anyone here had used 1 and what it was like.

i'm running a macbook pro with live 5.

are there any other good firewire interfaces in this price range?

thank you for your help!!!

really good
I have a pc and very satisfied
i record bass, guitar, midi synth and midi drums

go for it!!!

to give my perspective from using it on Mac; it sucks the world's hairiest ball sack. i hate this thing like sin. i have the latest drivers, OS, host software, etc and no matter what i can use it for about 5 minutes before it begins to shit out the most horrifying digital noise puke for about 30 seconds and then it goes back to normal, for another 5 minutes. i'm on a Core Duo mini with maxed RAM. i give it 2 turds up! mine's for sale, PM me if you're interested.

I only know one person who has one, and he uses a new MacBook Pro.

It sucks the dog's dangly bits.

Come on guys, don't sugar coat it....tell us how you feel!

must be a macbook thing as i have one using a c2d imac and its great, only thing is it loses connection if you put the imac to sleep - but then so does the wireless net adaptor so its a apple problem not focusrite

tjwett wrote:to give my perspective from using it on Mac; it sucks the world's hairiest ball sack. i hate this thing like sin. i have the latest drivers, OS, host software, etc and no matter what i can use it for about 5 minutes before it begins to shit out the most horrifying digital noise puke for about 30 seconds and then it goes back to normal, for another 5 minutes. i'm on a Core Duo mini with maxed RAM. i give it 2 turds up! mine's for sale, PM me if you're interested.

sounds like the user to me. I had no problems setting it up on my core2 duo macbook pro 2gb. Works in both OSX and XP. Have you tried calling support?

i have a friend who had one for pc and it had the problem of cutting out all the time -- he stuck with it to try and fix it for awhile, but in the end he gave up and just got a firebox (which seems to have worked out for him).

adi wrote:i have a friend who had one for pc and it had the problem of cutting out all the time -- he stuck with it to try and fix it for awhile, but in the end he gave up and just got a firebox (which seems to have worked out for him).

i've said it before, and i'll say it again...

Microsoft crippled SP2 firewire drivers. If you're using a firewire device in XP w/SP2 installed and you're having a problem you have to regress the firewire driver to the SP1 version!!!! This is a known problem:

http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techinfo/fw800sp2.htm

I had to do it to get my Digi002 working, as well as my Saffire working in XP w/SP2. My gear works like a charm, but it was a true bitch to figure out initially!

Also, if you're using a pci firewire card in a desktop, you need to make certain you're not using a pci video card, because there's not enough bandwidth on the bus to support both running intensively at the same time(and with Lives screen redraw issues, the problem is compounded.) Best to use an AGP card for video, and your problems will be solved. I experienced this problem as well, about 3 years ago.

adi wrote:i have a friend who had one for pc and it had the problem of cutting out all the time -- he stuck with it to try and fix it for awhile, but in the end he gave up and just got a firebox (which seems to have worked out for him).

the firebox is very good for the money and works well with macbooks.
the only thing is that it doen's start up via firewire on macbook pro 17''[intel] and the c2d macbook pros 15'' and 17'' as far as i know it starts via firewire on all other macbook / powerbook / desktop models.

i have never used a saffire, but it gets raving thumbs up at the logicprohelp forum all the time, so i guess it can't be that bad.

I sell music gear (computer recording) for a living and here's what I believe and the feedback that I've got from coworkers and customers. I think the Saffire is awesome. I owned one for a few months, then traded to a Toneport (i needed guitar FX) and i've missed the Saffire ever since. I'm getting a new one in 2 weeks and I can't wait. I love the quality of the converters and especially the preamps.

The Firebox is also good but I have heard many reports of them blowing up. Literally... smoke coming out of them. haha. And an unresolved issue with the SP/DIF.

Also check out the TC Konekt8 (if they've sorted out the drivers yet) as it sounds really good too.

The Saffire gets my vote because I enjoyed working with mine so much. We have also had all three Saffire interfaces set up on our demo machines at various times, and they are amongst the most hassle free interfaces I have used. Trust me... those demo computers ALWAYS have something going wrong with them, but the Saffires are pretty reliable.


I hope that helps.


R6

stinky wrote:sounds like the user to me. I had no problems setting it up on my core2 duo macbook pro 2gb. Works in both OSX and XP. Have you tried calling support?

ha! good one. Focusrite's support told me they never heard of such a problem, yet i read similar reports all over the web. i have been using Live since version 1.0, been Apple Certified since 2000, and have been fucking with digital audio since before it was even digital. i can't imagine that there is some advanced hidden feature on a simple audio I/O that i have overlooked. i'll just box it up and send it back as i'm already far beyond my 30 day Guitar Center return thingy. i'm hoping i just have a lemon unit or something.