Saffire Pro 24 User Guide FA0268-01 1
Important Safety Instructions 1. Read these instructions. 2. Keep these instructions. 3. Heed all warnings. 4. Follow all instructions. 5. Do not use this apparatus near water. 6. Clean only with dry cloth. 7. Do not block any ventilation openings. Install in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. 8. Do not install near any heat sources such as radiators, heat registers, stoves, or other apparatus (including amplifiers) that produce heat. 9.
Contents Introduction................................................................................................................... 4 Basics............................................................................................................................ 4 Box Contents................................................................................................................. 4 Getting Started.................................................................................................
Introduction Thank you for purchasing Saffire Pro 24, one in a family of Focusrite professional multi-channel FireWire interfaces featuring high quality Focusrite Pre-amps. You now have a complete solution for routing high quality audio in and out of your computer. This Guide provides a detailed explanation of both the hardware and accompanying control software “Saffire MixControl” to help you achieve a thorough understanding of the product’s operational features.
Getting Started The Saffire Pro 24 has a single 6 pin FireWire ports on the back. This FireWire connection will work with any of the current FireWire standards and connectors; FireWire 400 (6 pin or 4 pin connection); and FireWire 800. BEFORE YOU CONNECT THE Saffire Pro 24 TO YOUR COMPUTER, PLEASE RUN THE INSTALLER. This will ensure that the correct drivers are used, thus preventing any unexpected behaviour The Saffire Pro 24 ships with a 6 pin FireWire cable.
Hardware Back Panel The Back Panel provides the majority of input and output connections on the Saffire Pro 24. 6 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 7 5 4 3 2 x TRS jack sockets Line Inputs 3 and 4 *. 6 x TRS jack sockets for Line Outputs 1-6 *. 1 x Optical input socket **. 1 x IEEE1394 6 pin FireWire socket 2 x Din5 MIDI Input and Output sockets. 1 x Power switch. 1 x 2.0mm DC Power inlet socket - Use supplied power supply only. 2 x RCA SPDIF input and output sockets.
Front Panel The Front Panel includes the input connectors for Mic, Line and Instrument signals, as well as the input gain controls and monitoring controls. 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8 2 1 4 3 5 6 9 10 7 Channels 1 and 2 with Combo XLR input sockets for Mic / Line / Instrument Channels 1 and 2 Gain control Channels 1 and 2 Instrument LEDs Phantom power switch with LED for Mic inputs 1-2. Power LED - Lit when the unit receives power from FireWire or external power supply unit.
System Requirements Macintosh • OS: Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later • Computer: Apple Macintosh with FireWire 400 port • CPU/Clock: PowerPC G4/1 GHz or higher (Intel/Dual 1 GHz or better recommended) • Memory (RAM): 512 MB (1 GB or more recommended) • Screen Resolution: 1024x768 (1280x1024 or more recommended) Windows • OS: Windows Vista (All Versions) or Windows XP SP2 or higher (All Versions) • Computer: Windows compatible computer with FireWire 400 port.
Saffire Pro 24 Architecture Saffire Pro 24 offers more than just simple input and output routing to and from your computer. Saffire MixControl software also allows you to re-route audio signals to any output, and to create custom mixes to be sent to your recording artists, outboard processing equipment, or mixing console. The following diagrams give an overview of the Saffire Pro 24 audio paths when set at different sample rates and Optical input configurations.
88.2kHz / 96kHz Optical as ADAT Saffire PRO 24 Saffire Mix Control HARDWARE IN Analog 1234 S/PDIF 1 2 MIXER ADAT 1234 ROUTER S/PDIF 1 2 HARDWARE IN DAW IN Analogue 1-4 1-4 S/PDIF 1-2 (RCA) 5-6 ADAT 1-4 (Opt) 7-10 Loop back 1-2 11-12 DAW IN 12 IN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 HARDWARE OUT Analog 123456 Music Software DAW OUT 8 OUT 12345678 Loop back 88.
Saffire MixControl The Saffire MixControl software allows flexible mixing and routing of all audio signals to the physical audio outputs, as well as control of output monitor levels. All sample rate selection, digital syncing and buffer size settings (Windows only) are available from Saffire MixControl. To open Saffire MixControl. Windows Start > Programs > Focusrite > Saffire MixControl. Mac Open Finder > Applications > Saffire MixControl.
Pre-amp Section When connecting a Microphone to the Saffire Pro 24, you must connect an XLR cable to the Combi inputs on the front panel. When connecting either Line level signal or Instrument signal to the combi inputs, you must select either Line or Inst from the preamp section. Additional Line level signals can be connected to inputs 3 and 4 on the rear of the unit. The Preamp gain for Inputs 3 and 4 can be set to either Lo (low) or Hi (high) gain.
Input Channel Here is a picture of 2 mixer input channels. Below is a description of every component of a mixer channel. Audio source select When there is no input to a mixer channel, it will display “Off”. Clicking on the “Off” region brings up a list of all available inputs that can be fed to the channel. All analogue (labelled ‘Anlg’) and digital inputs, and DAW outputs are available.
Pan Slider A Pan Slider is used to position the audio signal anywhere between the left and right speakers. Moving the horizontal slider from left to right will move the audio signal from left to right within the stereo field, i.e., the signal is faded between two audio outputs such as monitor L and R.
Stereo Pressing this button combines 2 mono channels into 1 stereo channel. Track Name As a default, each track is given a number as a name. Double click to rename the track to something more useful such as ‘Vocal Mic’. Mix Output Channel The output channel of the mix is where all the input channels are routed to and mixed together. The output channel gives you control of the overall level of the entire mix.
Routing Section The routing section allows you to set up which audio sources are to be routed directly to which physical outputs. The routing section displays every physical output on the Saffire Pro 24 and the audio stream to be sent to that output is available for selection in a drop down menu to the left of that output. Clicking on the box to the left of the output label will bring up a list of all available audio output sources.
Routing Presets Routing Presets are provided as a starting point for you to create your own routing and mixer set-ups. These will enable you to quickly set up your routing for recording (monitoring your inputs); mixing (sending signals out to outboard processors or external mixer); or internal looping (routing audio between software applications without leaving the computer). Clear This turns off all output routing.
Monitor Section The output levels of the monitor outputs and line outputs are configured in the Monitor Section. You can set up your Saffire Pro 24 so that the hardware ‘Monitor’ knob on front panel of the Saffire Pro 24 will control the desired outputs, such as your stereo monitors, your surround sound system. Alternatively the hardware ‘Monitor’ knob be deactivated for specific outputs e.g.
Monitor Presets drop-down menu These presets allow quick changing of typical monitoring set-ups. For the monitor presets to work, you must have your speakers connected to the line outputs as shown in the picture below. Surround Sound Monitoring: Quad, 2.1, or 5.1.
Monitor Presets Preset Name Output Off - no Monitor control buttons enabled, therefore no sound will come out of any analogue output. Mono - outputs only to the Centre / mono speaker (Line output 3.) All other channels are muted. Output - 3 Stereo - outputs to Stereo speakers (Monitor 1 and 2 output.) All other channels are muted. Outputs - 1,2 Quad - outputs to Monitor 1 and 2 outputs and Line 5 and 6 outputs. All other channels are muted. Outputs - 1,2,5,6 2.
Device Status section The Device Status section shows information about the sample rate, synchronisation and driver status of the Saffire Pro 24. The desired sample rate can be set as well as external synchronisation options for using the Saffire Pro 24 with external digital devices. Sample rate display This displays the current Sample rate at which the Saffire Pro 24 is running. To change the Sample rate, click on the red sample rate value and select 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.
Settings Menu This is a drop down menu containing all of the following items which allow you to set up different global/system configurations. This is the only part of Saffire MixControl software where there are differences between the Windows and Mac versions. Mac Windows Use Optical ADATs as S/PDIF Here you can set the format of the optical digital input/output socket. It can either be an ADAT stream or an S/PDIF stream.
ASIO Buffer Size (Windows Only) Set the buffer size of your ASIO driver here. A small buffer size will in result in lower latency at the expense of increased CPU usage. A high buffer size will result in a higher latency but with lower CPU usage. If you are using lots of virtual instruments and effects processing in your DAW project, and the CPU usage is high, then increase the buffer size to permit lower CPU usage.
Performance Specifications Microphone Inputs 1-2 • • • • • Frequency Response: 20Hz - 20kHz +/- 0.1 dB Gain Range: +13dB to +60dB THD+N: 0.001% (measured at 1kHz with a 20Hz/22kHz bandpass filter) Noise EIN: 124dB analogue to digital (measured at 60dB of gain with 150 Ohm termination (20Hz/22kHz bandpass filter) Input Impedance: 2k Ohm Line Inputs (Inputs 1-2) • • • • • Frequency Response: 20Hz - 20kHz +/- 0.1dB Gain Range: -10dB to +36dB THD+N: < 0.
Front and Rear Connectivity Analogue Channel Inputs (Inputs 1-4) • • • • • 2 Mic XLR Combo (channels 1-2) on front panel 2 Line ¼” TRS (channels 3-4) on rear panel Automatic switching between Mic / Line (channels 1-2) Switching between Line / Instrument Inputs (channels 1-2) via Saffire Mix Control Application Switching between +16dBu (low) and -10dBV (high) gain on inputs 3-4 via Saffire Mix Control Application Digital Channel Inputs (Inputs 9-26) 44.
