Focusrite Saffire Pro 10 i/o vs. PreSonus FireStudio Project vs. MOTU 8pre

[Bitfiend]

Anyone one have good/bad experience with any of these models? Or possibly all 3?
How are the converters? How are the pre-amps?

[RUSTE]

Ive had a presonus firestudio & liked it but had problems with drivers etc.. & ended up changing it for a focusrite saffire 26 io & i prefer it & the pre amps are great. Better than presonus. I did like the presonus routing dsp mixer though. The saffire mixer is tiny & not great! Apart from that it rules. Ive a behringer ada8000 pluged into it for a 16 track portable rig

Russ

[inthere]

Saffire Pro 10/10 and the preamps are great, sounds great, I'd put the sound quality ahead of everything else in that price range except the Apogee Duet. Very underrated box, I don't hear many people talking about it.

[preben]

I have used the Focusrite 26i/o on many occasions with very good results. It's not high end but for the price it's pretty hard to knock it.

[Terminus Est]

Firestudio's seem to have problems with drivers for some people. I've never had a single problem with them but as we all know, different computers can react very differently.

That said, as I've never had any problems with the Firestudio in that regard, it has been about as near-flawless as you could hope for. I love the sound of the pre-amps and would gladly make the purchase again.

[AlexRoudos]

Saffire Pro 10 here as well. Very satisfied with the quality at all levels, and rock solid drivers and operation, at least in my case, since i bought it a year and a half ago.

I think it's a bargain for the price it goes these days.

[KeithMoonwannabe]

After using PreSonus Firepod (no problems with it) I was just looking for preamps that sounded better and better A/D conversion I switched to the Pro 10 i/o. I did not like the sound of the PreSonus preamps, they weren't awful but they colored my sound a little too much for my tastes and the knobs were way too sensitive even after adjusting everything on the DSP mixer on the toolbar. Well after several months of using the Pro 10 i/o I am planning to order a Pro 26 i/o to daisychain with it for more ins. The preamps are spectacular for the price point far surpassing any PreSonus, M-Audio, etc. Obviously they probably won't fare for long when you start going into UA, Trident, GT, higher end Focusrite, Avalon, Great River, etc pres but for less than $100 per pre they sound better than my Mackie 1402 VLZ pro mixer's XDR pres.

I've heard mixed reviews on the 8-Pre, I went with the Focusrite over it because the preamp and A/D converter specs looked better on paper. Not sure if they sound better or not but I would definitely do Focusrite over PreSonus again. Other MOTU units I've used where the 896 and the traveller and both of those were awesome, but I believe the 8-pre is a lesser quality unit, from my understanding. I'm sure it's still rockin but I'd probably place it in second place behind the Focusrite and ahead of the PreSonus.

Plus the Saffire Plugin suite isn't too bad of a bonus, it's kinda straight-forward and very user-friendly but the sounds aren't bad. Maybe not as nice as my Waves SSL bundle, Diamond bundle, or the UA xpander emulations but certainly usable for the inclusion with the interface. I am aware I spent way too much on plugins, lol.

[Bitfiend]

how is the latency on the Focusrite Saffire 10 i/o?

by the way, thanks for all the input. I was really getting torn between the Motu and Saffire but it sounds like the Saffire is more bang for the buck. Plus i've read A LOT on other sites/forums about drivers really being an issue with PC's for Motu....

[AlexRoudos]

In the Saffire's Asio Control Panel you have control over the Asio Buffer size and the Firewire buffer size.

The Asio buffer size can be set as low as 0.2ms and the Firewire buffer size at 0.1ms. The selected firewire buffer size will determine the available asio buffer sizes as well.

I have set the Firewire buffer size at 2ms and the asio buffer size at 6ms, which results in 7.6ms input latency and 11.5ms output latency. No problem at all ever.

[vhaghar]

(I know this is way late on the thread, but....)I own a MOTU 8pre, and although I haven't been blown away by the preamps/converters, the hassle free compatibility with my Mac/Logic Pro have been fantastic. In this price range, 8 preamps are going to sound just about how you'd expect.....not terrible, but definitely not amazing. The ease of compatibility, however, has made it a great unit for me. Plus, the ADAT/lightpipe input allows other preamps to be connected with the same simple connectivity.

[twiggy19]

hey - i have recently baught a second hand focusrite saphire pro 26 I/O - my 1st question is if i can get my hands on a saphire pro 10 I/O could i daisy chain these ? and if so is this a good idea or should i get another 26 I/O - as i am after another 8 XLR imputs to mke me have 16 this is what i would like ? -

secondly when i bought this focusrite saphire pro 26 I/O he decided not to send me the disk with the code on it so i can not access the VST plugins that come with it, as i have emailed him he does not reply im a bit stuck really ? is there anyhting i can do to get the code as i have found the VST set on the saphire website but it wants the code ?

and thirdly if i do get a 10 I/O or a 26 I/O with the disk and then daisy chain the two would i need to find the origional code for my 1st 26 I/O or would the disk for me 10 I/O or my second 26 I/O just work for the two interfaces

your help wold be much acpriacted thanx

[mxdistortion]

Hey twiggy10,

This might be too late, but I have run the Saffire Pro 26 and 10 together via firewire daisy chain and the only issue I've encountered is when switching the boxes between sample rates. It is rather cumbersome as you have to connect only one at a time to set the desired rate. Aside from that, the software mixer/control is not very intuitive, and you need to switch back and forth between the two boxes if you want to monitor the channels on each. With the 16 XLR channels of Focusrite preamps, I would typically run all my non-essential drum inputs through the box that I didn't need to send to the headphone distribution.

As far as the plug-ins are concerned, as long as you have a key for one of them, you'll be good to go.

I should also mention that I bought the Pro 26 almost as soon as it was released, and experienced some driver/firmware issues. So much in fact that I purchased the Pro 10 as my main box. After setting the Pro 26 as the slave to the Pro 10 the issues were minimal.

All in all, I have been extremely pleased with the sound of both the Pro 26 and Pro 10 preamps. Very quiet and discrete for the price range. There really is nothing to compare these boxes to. One poster said the Apogee Duet, which is nice, but that's apples to oranges, since the Duet is only 2 channels.

Hope this helps!

Originally Posted by twiggy19

hey - i have recently baught a second hand focusrite saphire pro 26 I/O - my 1st question is if i can get my hands on a saphire pro 10 I/O could i daisy chain these ? and if so is this a good idea or should i get another 26 I/O - as i am after another 8 XLR imputs to mke me have 16 this is what i would like ? -

secondly when i bought this focusrite saphire pro 26 I/O he decided not to send me the disk with the code on it so i can not access the VST plugins that come with it, as i have emailed him he does not reply im a bit stuck really ? is there anyhting i can do to get the code as i have found the VST set on the saphire website but it wants the code ?

and thirdly if i do get a 10 I/O or a 26 I/O with the disk and then daisy chain the two would i need to find the origional code for my 1st 26 I/O or would the disk for me 10 I/O or my second 26 I/O just work for the two interfaces

your help wold be much acpriacted thanx

[Ru_C]

Hi there, anyone using this under OSX ? If so, is it well behaved, & what are the lowest buffer settings ?

thanks !

[mcjr]

Regarding the Focusrite Saffire Pro 10 i/o...have two, been using them a few years now. Tried several others including USB's...the Focusrite pro 10 i/o is great! I use it with A.A. 1.5....have used with A.A. 3.0 and a few others. I love it. If you can get one, go for it!
I do have a question tho....has anyone ever daisychained it with a Mackie 1640i firewire mixer, or any other firewire mixer?

[mcjr]

Hey Twiggy19...I don't know what what audio software you're using...I'm using Adobe Audition 1.5...but as far as vst plugins, I just go online and download freeware vst plugins then install them in A.A. 1.5 ! There are tons of them you can pick from...free, and they work!