Focusrite Liquid Saffire Pro56 & Saffire Pro40 Paired | REVIEW
Вставка
- Опубліковано 16 сер 2016
- Quick review of both of Focusrite's rack mount Saffire range of products, the Liquid Saffire Pro56 and the Pro40. The pre's on these units are both very clean and quiet and don't color the tone. The liquid range is designed to provide some coloring and vintage mojo but there's less wow factor there than if you use something like what Slate Digital has to offer with the Vintage Console Collection or the Vintage Mic Pre's. I personally would recommend two Pro40's and then spend the extra money on Slate Digital's everything bundle.
#focusrite #saffire #review
Dude what a life saver. I was having an issue getting the 2 to communicate correctly through ADAT.
Excellent review. I just got my 56 up and running yesterday. I bought it used a while back, and I really agree with everything you've said. I think it was a fair interview. I wasn't knocked out with the liquid pre's either, although, I haven't really played with them that much, but the rest of the unit sounds solid and I like the software for what it does. I just thought of a quick idea on how you might get an instrument like guitar or whatever to work in the liquid pre's. I havn't tried it yet, but how about a direct box to turn the signal into a mike signal? I'll have to give it a try. Thanks for the great review. Marc Trainor.
Thanks for the kind words and checking out my video! Yea I bet that would be a great way of getting the direct signal thru the liquid pre's. For how I've got it setup right now that would be more work than its worth, 90% of the work done on it is just recording rehearsals with my cover band I'm in. Once we get tracking our next original album though the gloves will come off! lol
Can you try to explane how you setup the connection between the two? What settings you use to make the pro40 work as a standalone unit and just send ADAT signal to liquid56? Tnx, nice video BTW
Thanks! Here's a thread explaining it from the Focusrite website. It's not hard at all, and it works great and its very reliable without having to use word clock or anything.
support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/206849939-How-do-I-set-up-my-Saffire-or-Scarlett-1st-Gen-for-Standalone-Mode
A Minor Error Ohh...thank you very much man !
How do you lock the clocks together? Is it done automatically through ADAT?
It's thru ADAT but its not automatic. You've gotta open up Saffire Mix Control and set the clock to whichever ADAT port you're using. At least I *think thats how I did, its been a bit since I had to set it back up lol
I use this 2. the only issue about the Pro40 for me is that you cant put phantom power on each input individually ,just in two groups of four
Yea, that is a bummer! Fortunately I've never worked with ribbon mics so it wasn't something that I really had to worry about but that is a def draw back. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Hello. Which model would you recommend for single channel sound recording? focusrite pro 40 or lequid 56 ? which one is better? i'm just starting out.
For what you're asking, I wouldn't recommend either of these units. First, these units are pretty old now and there's cheaper, better options available now. Second, you only need a larger recording interface if you plan on doing a lot of multitrack recording (I used these to track 12 inputs when recording drums). Add to that, IMO the liquid preamps in the 56 were especially disappointing and not worth the extra money, if that's why you're considering at 56. All of the preamps in these types of interfaces are very digital and sterile and don't add the nice color that great preamps do. I'd recommend going with a unit with the cleanest preamps with the lowest noise floor (I use a MOTU M2 and the preamps have a slightly lower noise floor, there's plenty of other reviews out there online to help) and use a preamp plugin to add that color. Hope that helps, best of luck!
Been having a tough time getting the Pro 40 and 56 to communicate. What settings did you use. I’m not getting any output through the ADAT out from the pro 40 into the 56.
Unfortunately I don't have my Saffire's anymore, but I remember you have to pick one to be the master clock and another to be the slave. It's important that the lock light pops up showing that they're communicating as well, they communicate via ADAT if I'm remembering correctly. I also might have been using the Pro 40 as the Master and the 56 as the slave, but I can't really remember either. Sorry can't help any better, might be best to check the user manual from Focusrite or reach out to customer support.
@@aminorerror Thanks for responding. I have them working together now
Pro 40 doesnt have word clock, so i was keen to know if the embedded clock from adat made any problem ?
No problem pairing, the only tricky thing is getting the outputs saved to the hardware correctly of the pro 40 so they go right out the ADAT. You've just gotta do it in Saffire Control before pairing the two units.
@@aminorerror Thanks a lot
I have one Saffire Pro 40. Looking to get another Pro 40 for 16 channels total to and mix SoundCraft mixboard. How do you recommend daisy chaining them?
I wound up downgrading to a pair of Pro 40's myself, it's the same method as I'm using here to connect these two. You've gotta navigate Saffire mix control and save the settings to the hardware units with the ADAT outputs matching the ADAT inputs of whichever Pro40 you're making the clock. Best of luck
@@aminorerror so wait. Im confused. so i don't need two fire cables? one going out of one unit, into the other, then out of that unit into the computer? Im confused on how yours are routed
You need an ADAT cable to connect the two pro 40's together. Then you set one of them to the master clock and sync the second one as slave I think it's called in the Saffire mix control software. You don't need two firewire cables, that won't work in your DAW. What you do need to do is set the outputs of the second Pro 40 to the ADAT outputs instead and save it to the hardware before connecting them with the ADAT cable. Beset of luck!
Can 2 Safire Liquid pro 56 units be ran together? Or ?
Pretty sure you can, I never had two of them but I can't see why not. Might be a good idea to reach out to Focusrite though to be sure.
Hi! ..try the Liquid Inputs with good Mics in a good Studio. Nice Stuff!
Thanks for the tips, unfortunately I sold the Pro56. In the end, the Liquid Pre's didn't do it for me, even paired with the best mics we had. Thanks for watching though and appreciate the feedback, consider giving the channel a sub for more content like this if you haven't already.
I'd get a UAD-2 card. maybe get the Neve plug ins
In hindsight....yea that's a good call lol I've been doing all my production work using a native system with Slate Digital plugins and my mac pro 1,1 with upgraded CPU's are holding their own and it sounds great. I'd highly recommend checking out what Slate Digital has to offer
Yeah... I've heard of then but they weren't on my radar. I noticed they are something like 14.99 a month for use of every plug-in. I have 2 songs I need to send stems to a mastering engineer from Ableton tunes. Maybe I should go with a monthly plan for an A/D that can do 96k and subscribe to slate and Pro-Tools just to get the pieces completed in order to serve them on Spotify and iTunes. Really good suggestion, Slate Digital. thanks.
That sounds like a good plan! I also do mixing and mastering for super on the cheap if you're interested shoot me a message!
I might do that. Right now, I'm trying to figure out the new A/d financing thing. My Saffire pro 24 isnt working in windows 10 when it was previously. My last test is this week on a macintosh but Ive got to foot the bill for the thunderbolt adapters. If it doesn't I'm looking at used Focusrite saffire 40s the Liquid saffire and most likely the Apollo twin mkII. If I get cleared for financing, I'm off to a mastering engineer who has gone to school for audio engineer in Montreal I found through SoundBetter. He charges $325 for two songs. I could do them on my own with the apollo but I'd rather have fresh ears. And I'd have to get more creative to get a pair of HS8's.
That's great, I'm sure that engineer would do a killer job! I'm def way less, my rates right now: I do 2 songs complete for $150, mixed and ready for master for $100. All you'd have to do is tell me the BPM and sample rate and send em to me in a dropbox link, it takes about 10 days per song. Best of luck man!