M In A Pickle, Saffire Or Fire Options

[Blue Sky]

hi, i am trying to make my mind up between the firebox by presonus and the saffire by foucsrite. i would like to hear ur oppinions. i want something that i could travel with but when i get home i can hook it up to monitors, a mixer and everything else there is in a home studio.

This post has been edited by cstar1989: Sun 18 Sep 2005, 11:06

[klownshed]

What the DSP can be used for is to utilise the saffire as two channel strips with mic pre + compressor + EQ. It's replaced my rack mounted channel strip, EQ and compressor and saved me a ton of space. It's then easy to use other dynamic plug-ins once you've got everything recorded, and it's really nice to be able to monitor the signal with dynamics applied but record it unaffected. The dynamics plugs are then available as AU's if you want the same sound or you can use your other plugs to do the job.

Regardless of the DSP, it's a really nice interface. Once you've set up the saffire control software you don't actually need to have it running for the saffire to work.

On the negative side, I agree the softwares UI with its (almost) white on white legending isn't great and the amp modelling is pretty dreadful, unless you like your amps to sound fizzier than a dropped crate of pepsi.

I'd also trade a couple of outs for a couple more analogue INs, but on the whole it's obviously the best interface I could find within my budget (or I'd have bought a different one!).

The best thing about it (so far, haven't had it long) is that it's been 100% trouble free in operation. No crackles, pops or dropouts and it sounds good. I'm Happy.