The Logic Off Topic list

On 13.01.2006, at 05:57, Nicolas diPierro wrote:

> Peter, what's your overall impression of the Saffire? I've been
> looking at it as a kind of Mbox for Logic... and picking one up (not
> until the dust from NAMM settles, of course).

Good device if you are happy as it is. You cannot have mono outputs  
for monitoring, they are always paired and you can just balance them.

You need the control panel always open and visible, at least to  
change between recording and playback.

There could be an issue with a "too hot" Firewire bus of the iMac G5,  
suspected the dealer after he got several units returned (two of them  
were mine). But that was just a guess while they investigated the  
problem. I can't say what the real cause is but the phantom power  
went down below 5 V which filled the headphones with perfect silence.


> It seems perfect: a good Logic citizen, 4 in, 10 out, 24bit/192kHz
> processing which nothing else at this price point seems to have.
> It's  surround capable,


The sound quality is very good and the effects either. Foldback  
reverb is a relief if you record vocals.

You are right, in terms of sound quality there is nothing comparable  
in that class. It costs 475 Euro here, some special price. I didn't  
even find another device in that price class, not to mention the  
quality.

I returned mine and got a Fireface because of the stereo-only  
monitoring of the Saffire, the phantom power failure and the  
software. Of course I payed the triple price for the Fireface and a  
comparison won't be fair.


> and the big gripes about the software interface
> look cleared up with v 2.0 of the saffire control.

There were big gripes? My God. One of the "small" gripes in the Mac  
version 2.0 was still a showstopper for me.

Conclusion:
If you want one, get one and test it. If you are happy then it was a  
very good deal. If not but you want that sound quality, be prepared  
to spend much more money.


___
Peter Ostry