Saffire, Firebox or 410?

westla · Post by **westla** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:50 am

I'm looking to get a small portable audio interface for my Powerbook to do stereo mic recordings. I'm considering the Focusrite Saffire, the Presonus Firebox, and the M-Audio 410. From reading various reviews the Saffire is said to have great sounding mic pre's, so I guess I'm leaning that way.

Does anyone have any experience with any of these, especially when used with DP? Thanks

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:43 am

There are many options to consider today, but I have to say that little Firebox from Presonus sounds very good and after having a $100 price-drop, it's even more affordable. I don't think either of these units have "great-sounding" pres, but they are certainly useable. One advantage with the Firewire410 is you can purchase the ProTools M-powered software and have BOTH a copy of Digital Performer AND ProToolsLE..... very cool

kelldammit · Post by **kelldammit** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:51 pm

i was going to buy the firebox, and got suckered into the extra $ for the saffire...hehe, yeah, they really had to twist my arm, lemme tell ya...

it really depends on what kind of stuff you'll be doing with it. for instance if you're going to need to do a few separate headphone mixes, and send reverb out to your vocalist's cans (but not being recorded)...the saffire's probably the way to go. i ended up going with it partly for that, but primarily because i could run 5.1, and still have a pair of outs to use for sends.
if you don't need anything quite so...nuts...the firebox is probably your best bet (and for $100 less, at that). i've heard nothing but good about that unit, especially for the $. like i said, that's what i went out with the intent to buy...i think the firebox's build is a bit sturdier too.

i believe that you'll need to set your work priority to "low" in dp...hopefully that saves you some headaches starting out with whichever interface you decide to buy.

kell

westla · Post by **westla** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 12:02 am

I know in that price range nothing can have "great" sounding mic pres.

But between the Saffire and the Firebox, which has better sounding mic pre's? The reviews I've read seem to point to the pre's in the Saffire (they are based on the Focusrite Green Mic Pre's).

Anyone use both?

jon · Post by **jon** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 9:53 am

Sorry, I am going to chime in here a bit. There are so many of these devices on the market of late so I guess it is rather difficult to decide. What about Tascam?

I like the looks and price of this device:

http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i- ... d-265.html

chrispick · Post by **chrispick** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 10:50 am

jon wrote:Sorry, I am going to chime in here a bit. There are so many of these devices on the market of late so I guess it is rather difficult to decide. What about Tascam?

I like the looks and price of this device:

http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i- ... d-265.html

This I what I use in my home project studio. Works great. Sounds good too.

westla · Post by **westla** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 11:41 am

It does look cool, but for my specific usage I don't need all the in/outs.

My studio is based around 3 2408's, I would use this only for doing stereo recording of intrumental groups.

So that's why I've narrowed it down to the Saffire and Firebox. I guess I'd like the best sounding interface.

westla · Post by **westla** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:35 am

I just noticed on Presonus's Website that the Firebox:

** Digital Performer - We curenlty do not recommend using Digital Performer with the FIREPOD/FIREBOX. We are in the process of certifying this software application.

Can anyone confirm this? Is anyone using it with DP without problems?

jonotron · Post by **jonotron** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 11:19 am

Can't comment on the firebox, but I had mega hassles with the saffire. Two of them wouldn't supply phantom power to my sE mic, and I found the control software clunky to say the least. Focusrite admitted they had a bad batch with phantom problems, but by this time I had dumped it and replaced it with an Edirol Fa101 which i've found to be an excellent no-nonsense interface.

abe_lincoln78 · Post by **abe_lincoln78** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 9:05 pm

I use the M-Audio FireWire410 and I can tell you that the pres are OK. They are better than some budget stand alone pres out there (one example I am familiar with is also made by M-Audio). You will want to keep the trim knobs below 3:30 or 4 o-clock as around this position noise starts to enter the sound. M-Audio claims that the pres are quiet, but I don't believe them. The outputs are very good in my oppinion. They are quite clean.

When the 410 first came out there were driver issues and reliability issues, but I have found that over time as the new driver updates have been submitted that reliability is signifficantly better. The box is rock solid now (2 years after I first bought it though.)

I also originally had issues with clicks and pops with the input, but those are also gone.

Here are some current issues:

The blue power led is VERY bright, so unless you want it to be a nightlight, you will want to make sure the box does not get power when you are sleeping (if you sleep in the same room it is located). You will also find that the machine is not hot pluggable (M-Audio claims that hot-plugging the 410 can potentially destroy not only the box, but the firewire ports in your computer.)

If you have any other questions, just let me know.

J.L. · Post by **J.L.** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 3:30 pm

westla wrote:I just noticed on Presonus's Website that the Firebox:

** Digital Performer - We curenlty do not recommend using Digital Performer with the FIREPOD/FIREBOX. We are in the process of certifying this software application.

Can anyone confirm this? Is anyone using it with DP without problems?

I just emailed presonus and they told me that DP and FIREBOX can now work together. But Im still deciding

sonicdeviant · Post by **sonicdeviant** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 4:11 am

kelldammit wrote:
i believe that you'll need to set your work priority to "low" in dp...hopefully that saves you some headaches starting out with whichever interface you decide to buy.

kell

Does this mean that ANY non-MOTU firewire interface requires the "low" setting? I thought it was only an issue with the Firebox (or maybe it's an issue with DP and the stock Apple firewire driver).

kelldammit · Post by **kelldammit** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 7:05 pm

it really just depends on how the driver in question deals with thread prioritization. by default, these days, motu recommends "high" as the setting for their hardware, with the exception being if you're using single-cpu g4's.
the easiest thing to try if you're having trouble, aside from buffer/latency settings, is the work priority setting in dp.
for instance, at the medium setting on the saffire, i had issues with pops and clicks...and they got worse the higher i set my latency...even at the lowest latency, they didn't completely go away. switching to low priority fixed that one.
changing work priority does NOT affect the audio...it just changes how dp, the driver, and os x arbitrate who does what when.

sonicdeviant · Post by **sonicdeviant** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 6:24 pm

I went ahead and got the Saffire. It's awesome...I can't believe what I was missing; the onboard compression and eq are great (makes my MXL condenser come alive)!

The Saffire disagreed with my old ATI Rage 128 PCI card, but I just pulled it and the original AGP Rage 128 and threw a flashed AGP Radeon 9200 in there to run both monitors. All my clicking and popping went away.

I knew it was the PCI card, because I could open a QT movie and let it play on the AGP Rage with no popping, clicking, or resetting on the Saffire. If I dragged the QT movie (while playing) over to the PCI Rage, clicky, poppy, resetty. Sucky.

And good call on the Low Priority setting. I had harsh digital noise until I made this change.

MOTUnation.com

Saffire, Firebox or 410?

Saffire, Firebox or 410?

Got the Saffire