I don't have enough experience with other products to say how this stacks up against them, but that said - the Saffire audio quality sounds fantastic to me. Also I've noticed absolutely no latency or lag while recording and playing back multiple tracks at the same time.

For this price range, this unit has a perfect mix of the features I need without a bunch of bells and whistles I don't need. The routing available in the MixControl software is fantastic.

It couldn't be any easier. I've connected it to three different PC's so far without any hiccups or hassles whatsoever. Every time I plug it in, it just works. It's so refreshing to just focus on the music instead of fighting with computers. The physical interface itself is obvious and intuitive. The MixControl software is clean and well laid-out.

Very well put together. Sturdy metal case, knobs are smooth and solid. I don't plan on banging it around much, but it feels like it could take a bit of abuse. I'm going to take care of it, and I expect it to last me a good long time.

I'm confident in my research - compared to all the comparable units the Saffire Pro 14 was the best value for my needs. Price was the same here as at other websites, but zZounds shipped fast and provided me with the experience I expect so I have no regrets and will order from them again.

Haven't contacted Focusrite at all but their website is well laid out, easy to find what I'm looking for - manuals, FAQ's, etc.

Some of the interfaces I checked out in the same price range look and feel like plastic toys. This looks and feels like actual audio equipment (and it is!)

30-year musician

Excellent clear sound

1) Background: I was looking for an audio interface to record vocals, electric guitars and acoustic guitars. So I found this one. Everybody told me that it was better a firewire audio interface than an usb, because firewire doesn't use as much cpu as usb does. Anyway. I bought this one. 2) Hardware: 2.1) Front: - 2 x Mic XLR Combo for Input (you can plug a guitar or mic) (Mic/Line/Inst) - Gain knobs for both xlr combo inputs - Leds indicating signal and clipping - Phantom power on/off (for condenser mics) - Monitor volume (the outputs are on the rear) - 3 Leds indicating firewire conectivity - Stereo Headphone out - Stereo headphone volume knob 2.2) Rear: - 2 x line inputs - 4 x line outputs - Firewire socket - Midi in - Midi out - Dc power input (It can be powered via firewire only too) - SPDIF (RCA) in (digital) - SPDIF (RCA) out (digital) 2.3) This can be misleading. It says 8 in 6 out but it's like this: - 8 in: 4 analogue (2 front, 2 rear); 2 SPDIF; 2 loopback (this is internal for recording something that comes from your pc) - 6 out: 4 analogue (rear); 2 SPDIF 2.4) Sum: - You can connect 4 mono instruments at a time (or making 2 of them to 1 stereo, or any combination) and a spdif digital in (I don't really use this). - You can have 4 mono outputs (or any stereo combination) + stereo headphone + spdif digital out (I don't use this one either) at the same time. 3) Software: 3.1) Mixcontrol - It has a mix control that lets you mix any inputs that you want, with the volume that you want for each one, and then route it to whichever output you want. It's an amazing mixer really. One thing, tough, I think that headphones out are linked to two of the outs, so, they will have the same mix. - You can create presets of all your routing - From here you can also control sample rate, buffersize, if you want your inputs to be line/inst or hi-gain/lo-gain, etc. 3.2) Connected to your DAW via Firewire - You can record any of those individual inputs as independent tracks. This is really important. You can actually record anything individually, regardless of what you hear or what you do in the saffire control mixer. In fact, the mixcontrol doesn't alter what you record. It only modifies what you listen. What you record is only modified by the hardware knobs (volume / gain). This is a really good thing, because you can listen to it in a way, and record it in another way. 4) Other features 4.1) Direct-monitoring. You can monitor yourself while you record, directly. This means, that the audio input can be transfered directly to your output or headphones, BEFORE going to your DAW. This is very useful, because with this you can record with zero-latency (is literally, no latency). This is because your computer doesn't process the signal. So you can have your daw with any buffer-size you want (to avoid clicks and pops), but at the same time, record without latency. This is great for recording vocals or clean guitars. One thing though, you will hear the clean signal, you can't apply any effect to this kind of monitoring. You can't have effects while you sing or play the guitar, but you can add them later to the track. It's kinda obvious, but, for example, with this you can't direct-monitor yourself while playing an electric guitar with an amplifier simulator vst to add distortion or whatever. You will hear the clean guitar while you record, and the distorted one when you listen to it after being recorded. 4) Use: So, to sum-up, examples of use: 4.1) You can record your vocals with direct monitoring. You can listen to the song, and yourself singing at the same time (with no latency). Then you will have a track with only your voice in your daw, to mix with the song as you want. 4.2) You can record you clean electric guitar, acoustic guitar, distortion guitar (if you add distortion before the audio interface, with a stomp fx or amplifier, instead of using a vst or any virtual fx) with direct monitoring (without listening to virtual effects while you record). This would also be without latency. Then you will have a clean track of your guitar in your daw, and you can add any virtual fx you want. 4.3) Record any other instrument as in 4.2. 4.4) Record without direct-monitoring. This is if you need to listen to your virtual fx while you record. This has latency, but, depending on your pc and how many fx or tracks you have on your project, it will vary from 7ms to 20ms maybe. This can vary a lot. 4.5) Record, for example, at the same time: 2 vocals (mics) and 2 guitar tracks. You can make two stereo mixes for monitoring. For example, 1 for the singers (with voices louder than the tracks and guitars) in 1 headphone for each one, and 1 for the guitarists (with all tracks at the same volume) to be played by the reference monitors (speakers). You will have 4 individual clean tracks (voice 1, voice 2, guitar 1, guitar 2) in your daw, to mix, edit, add fx, etc. 4.6) Record any combination of the previous, having in mind that only 2 inputs can have phantom power, and that all analogue inputs are mono (if you have, for example, an stereo synth, you will use 2 mono inputs). 5) Pros: - Easy to use - Versatile - Cristal sound. You can literally whisper to your mic, add gain till you get the maximum loudness before 0db, and still have no-noise at all. - Excellent pre-amps. - Great customer support. I contacted them because I was having trouble installing it. It was a problem in my os, nothing to do with the saffire. I did solve it, and it worked wonderfully. Anyway, the customer support was almost instantly and specific (personalized) - Well explained user manual - It includes ableton live (a lite version of it), bass-station and samples. - It can record at 24 24-bit/96kHz 6) Cons: - None for what I use it for (recording vocals over my tracks).

Really easy to use, versatile

Excellent condition. Solid.

Really cheap for its quality

Instant. Very specific answers to problems.

Just so cute ^_^

Active Musician

Alternative

Guitar and Bass for 3+ years

Metal, Hard Rock, Alt