Eric Crockart
April 17, 2009

Rating: 9/10

I use the Saffire with a dual-boot iMac, recording in Garageband on the Mac Leopard OS, and recording on Sonar Producer on the Windows XP home edition side. The Saffire worked straight away with Garageband once I had carried out the online firmware update. But I had some initial difficulty getting the Saffire to work with Windows and Sonar Producer. However, Focusrite\'s technical support staff were very helpful in an exchange of email suggestions. First, they got me to apply a Microsoft FireWire Hotfix to deal with Windows XP being unable to recognise the FireWire connection to the Saffire. This apparently solves the problem for most users. In my case it did get things working, but playback on any audio platform like iTunes or Sonar Producer was very crackly. Another exchange of emails with Focusrite pinpointed the problem as the FireWire buffer size being too low. A simple tweak from 2.0 ms to 10.0 ms got crackle free playback, and I was finally in the recording business on the Windows partition of the iMac! The lesson of this is that with so many different combinations of OS and recording programs out there, you may well find the Saffire is not a simple plug and play option. But if you are not afraid of getting your hands a little dirty inside the engine of your computer, so to speak, then the Saffire is a very cost-effective solution to how to get a decent connection between your instruments and microphones and your computer. It also has lots of sophisticated options for playback, should you need these.

The other thing you need to know, if you are still puzzling over whether devices like this are what you are really looking for, is the thing that doesn\'t seem to be stated anywhere for those of us who can use technical equipment but are not techies - devices like the Saffire or the Presonus Firebox or any of the other boxes that do similar things are basically external soundcards for your computer. Personally, this meant I spent several months in some confusion looking for a suitable piece of equipment to do the job before I put the right question to a more technically savvy friend. Good hunting for your own particular solution to this problem, but you won\'t go far wrong if you choose the Saffire.

Nigel J
November 8, 2007

Rating: 8/10

The Focusrite Saffire is a competent audio interface and well worth a look at this price point. I run one of these into Cubase versions SX3 and 4 on a PowerMac G5 Quad. The results are extremely good indeed.

Installation was a breeze and everything functioned perfectly from the moment it was connected. Very little to do other than plug it in. The SaffireControl software takes a little getting used to, but it's well worth taking the time to find your way around. Monitoring is latency free, direct to the singer's cans, and you can add reverb so the singer can feel comfortable with the sound of their own voice whilst tracking.

I've used it to DI acoustic and bass guitars with excellent results, and recorded equally satisfactory vocals using Shure Beta58A mics. The mic pres are a little hissy when the gain is turned up, and this would be my only complaint. Phantom power is selectable for use with condenser mics and this might help with the hiss, although I haven't tried mine with a condenser yet.

The Saffire appears well made but it is mostly plastic so not particularly rugged, and not something you'd want to throw around too much. My first one sat on the desktop for six months and then died for reasons unknown. Dolphin's repair centre had several goes at repairing it but couldn't fix it; eventually Focusrite replaced it with a new one. I've had absolutely no problems with the replacement.

Overall I would say the Saffire is excellent value for money and in no way does it produce 'cheap' sounding results. It's easy to install and use and I sometimes find it hard to believe that a £250 unit can accomplish so much. If you need to track more than two inputs simultaneously you're going to have to spend more, but if you can live with just two good quality mic pres/instrument inputs from a manufacturer that knows their stuff, there's little reason to choose anything else.

Some cheaper and also very competent firewire interfaces are available at less than £200 (e.g. the Presonus Firebox, Edirol FA-66, Echo Audiofire etc.), but it's worth noting that the Saffire has SPDIF, Midi I/O, up to 8 outputs for 7:1 surround out and two independent built-in headphone outs. More significantly for home recording, the Saffire also has on-board digital signal processing which provides hardware compression, EQ and reverb. Together with the versatile SaffireControl software, these features make the Saffire well worth the extra money, and you'd have to spend at least twice the price to get a unit with better quality mic pres than these.

Finally I have to respond to 'Mike Native's' review on this page by saying that, whilst I sympathise with his difficulties in getting started, I was a complete novice to home recording when I bought my Saffire, yet my Saffire worked 'out of the box' on a G5 PowerMac that I had configured myself with extra memory, more SATA drives, uprated video card and bluetooth/wireless capability. If Mike suspects a problem with the Saffire he'd be well advised to send it to Focusrite under the warranty and I'm sure they'll look after him as well as they did with me.

Simon Goodin
June 13, 2007

Rating: 10/10

With a large number of soundcards on the market, choosing one of the many can be tough. . Im very pleased i went with Focusrite. . The Focusrite reputation is excellent ,this is why i chose to purchase the Saffire soundcard .
The perfomance suits my needs completely, and the Saffire sounds great. . I can now record high quality audio into my DAW, with the excellent added benefits of the outstanding Focusrite onboard DSP effects. .
Setup was simple, use of the Saffire is confusing to begin. .But i went to the Focusrite website, where i found some EXCELLENT very informative video tutorials. .these explain all of the uses of the Saffire very well!!
Im very pleased with my purchase and would reccomend the Saffire to anyone looking for a soundcard in this price range.

James
January 13, 2007

Rating: 9/10

Bloody love it, bought it with my m8, after a few minutes of working how it all works, we were recording. Very good sound quality comes with alot of plugins and saffire control is very useful, its top notch.

Mike Native
December 27, 2006

Rating: 1/10

It's Rubbish

Looks good out of the box, feels well made then it all goes wrong. Clicks pops crashes and cuts out in the middle of a set. Mine even has trouble communicating with focusrite's saffire control software and will say "connection to saffire lost please check firewire connection" even if I am listening to Itunes or using ableton through it. Also the latency through Ableton and Logic changes every-time the saffire is reconnected or my computer is turned off. Leading me to have to restart my system 4 or 5 times before a set to get it to work ok.

This is what technical support told me when I complained about my unit being unreliable

"Whilst I'm sure your problems are genuine, there are, as you are
doubtless aware, lots of variables in any Mac or PC-based system that
need careful examination to figure out why problems are occurring when
they do occur"

Should that all apply to a straight out of the box powerbook G4 and a straight out of the box Saffire? No because there are not that many variables in such a set-up. (+ I have exactly the same problems with using it with my G5)

Don't get one of these go for something else. I had a tascam US122 before this and in two years it never crashed once. I only purchased this as I needed more outputs and would probably swap it back for the tasam (half the price of the saffire) if I had the chance. But as it is I would feel guilty selling the saffire to anyone and would rather keep a clean conscience and bin it.

Mike Native
December 27, 2006

Rating: 8/10

It\'s Rubbish

Looks good out of the box, feels well made then it all goes wrong. Clicks pops crashes and cuts out in the middle of a set. Mine even has trouble communicating with focusrite\'s saffire control software and will say \"connection to saffire lost please check firewire connection\" even if I am listening to Itunes or using ableton through it. Also the latency through Ableton and Logic changes every-time the saffire is reconnected or my computer is turned off. Leading me to have to restart my system 4 or 5 times before a set to get it to work ok.

This is what technical support told me when I complained about my unit being unreliable

\"Whilst I\'m sure your problems are genuine, there are, as you are
doubtless aware, lots of variables in any Mac or PC-based system that
need careful examination to figure out why problems are occurring when
they do occur\"

Should that all apply to a straight out of the box powerbook G4 and a straight out of the box Saffire? No because there are not that many variables in such a set-up. (+ I have exactly the same problems with using it with my G5)

Don\'t get one of these go for something else. I had a tascam US122 before this and in two years it never crashed once. I only purchased this as I needed more outputs and would probably swap it back for the tasam (half the price of the saffire) if I had the chance. But as it is I would feel guilty selling the saffire to anyone and would rather keep a clean conscience and bin it.