[ddots-l] Re: A question about the Saffire Pro40 interface

  • From: Phil Muir <info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2020 14:00:34 +0000

that's one cool thing about the liquid 56. You can have up to 16 channels at 24 and 96 or 24 and 48 k. It does this by using the additional ADAT ports on the back. The LIQUID 56 uses the EXACT SAME DRIVERS AS THE Pro40 ETC AND THE CONTROL PANELS THE SAME HOWEVER, THE DIFFERENCE WITH THE LIQUID 56 IS THAT YOU ALSO HAVE SOME VERY NICE PREAMP EMULATIONs on channels 1 and 2. mind you the liquid 56 does take up a 2U rack space which may not be so good for some people.


On 14 March 2020 13:42:22 DJ X <megamansuperior@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Guys, you can in fact use 2 pro40’s with 2 adat channels, you have to do it this way if you actually want to get the 40 channels in and out. They usually recommend the OctoPre or OctoPreX for this purposes, all though, I can tell you that setting up 2 extra pro40s in standalone mode could accomplish the same thing. So yes, in order to get the 40 channels as XLR/1/4 jacks, you will need to have 4 units total: 2 pro40s in dual mode, and 2 pro40s in standalone, or 2 pro40s in dual mode and 2 OctoPre or other pre-amps running as ADAT.
Note also that if using ADAT sample rate will be capped at 48K in order to have all 8 channels per connection. This is 1 improvement on the Scarlett and Clarett, they have 2 ADAT I/O for higher sample rates using ADAT…

HTH, DJX


From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of john@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2020 9:36 AM
To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: A question about the Saffire Pro40 interface

Tim,
Thanks so much for the answer and the link. I will check out his site and the specific answer right away.
Much appreciated.

I know I already like the site name… 😊
/je

From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> <ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> On Behalf Of Tim Burgess
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2020 6:04 AM
To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: A question about the Saffire Pro40 interface

Hi John,

Focusrite allow daisy-chaining of 2 such units (they call it “dual mode”, so that’s a clue). Having said that, here’s a link that describes using 3, with the 3rd connected to the ADAT of the second. I can’t see why you couldn’t get up to 4 units with 2 in dual mode, each with an ADAT slave, where the ADAT slaves could be Pro 40 units, or any other AD converter.

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/633452-daisy-chaining-saffire-pro-40-a.html

The drivers see the 2 daisy-chained units as a single interface with more channels, getting around the issue of ASIO drivers only allowing one active interface at a time under Windows.


Hope that helps.

Tim

From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> <ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> On Behalf Of john@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:john@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 14 March 2020 04:40
To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [ddots-l] A question about the Saffire Pro40 interface

Hi,
I took the suggestion of a couple of you that the Saffire Pro40 would work great with Windows 7 and even be visible in the “panel” for assignment. I got it a couple days ago, and I want to daisy chain it as also suggested.

I have a 3 questions.

Do I need to “home run” the Firewire cables to the Firewire card in the computer (as is required with the Presonus equipment) or do they actually get daisy chained through their dual jacks?

Second question, does anyone know how many Pro40 devices can be daisy chained? Can I do 3 or 4 of them without problem? All the Presonus gear I’m used to has a limit at 32 channels, and PreSonus says this is because there is a hard limit in Firewire itself that precludes any more. I don’t know much about the Firewire protocol. However, if PreSonus says it I usually believe it, they are a superb company when it comes to design… so if it was because of the way their devices and software was arranged, and not really the Firewire, I think they would have revamped their approach…. However they have never released any mixer over 32 channel, even when strongly pressured to do so by users.

I don’t immediately need more than 24 channels, so I hope I can daisy chain at least 3 of the Pro40s. I will use my old 16 channel Presonus mixer as a free standing two channel audio input to the workstation system. This will work great for

But the third question is: If I plug this Presonus into the same computer that the Saffire’s are running on, wil all be okay? I’ve always been able to see the Presonus mixer “somewhat” in the Sonar config… but will it conflict with the Focusrite stuff? Yes, I can just test it myself, but maybe someone here already knows if these two different mfgrs will play together nicely?

Thanks in advance.

John
.

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