Izotope Rx Overdriving Saffire Pro40
The new audio interface from Focusrite offers an awful lot, for an awful lot less than you'd think. Let's find out what it can do..
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Until recently, most multi‑channel audio interfaces offered mainly line‑level inputs, and if you wanted to record multiple mics simultaneously you'd need to add a mixer or preamp. A mixer might also be needed if you wanted to set up multiple monitor mixes for different performers, allowing them all to hear themselves with no latency.
In the last couple of years, however, we've seen a number of interfaces designed to make an additional mixer redundant. Products like Presonus's Firestudio, M‑Audio's Profire 2626 and Focusrite's Saffire 26I/O offer a mic preamp for each analogue input, along with sophisticated internal mixing functionality. And, what's more, prices have been tumbling. The latest entrant into this market, Focusrite's Saffire Pro 40, retails at a mere £349$499, yet offers what appears on paper to be an incredible set of features.
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These are summarised in the 'Vital Statistics' box, but it's worth drawing attention to a few features that set the Saffire Pro 40 apart from its competitors. Hardware metering is superior to that on the M‑Audio or Presonus offerings, with a five‑LED 'ladder' display for each of the eight analogue inputs. You can't bus‑power the unit, but there's an internal power supply that takes a standard IEC kettle lead. Digital I/O is available in electrical and optical formats, but there's no word clock, and only a single pair of optical connectors — some interfaces have two pairs, giving you an extra 16 channels of possible I/O via ADAT. There's a dedicated pair of monitor outputs as well as the eight standard line outs, and a pair of 'loopback' inputs allows you to route audio from one audio application back into the Pro 40's mixer, to be recorded in another. Focusrite initially told me that two Saffire Pro 40s could be used at the same time, but apparently this is not the case. They are working on multi-unit support, but it's not yet clear what form this will take or when it will arrive. Finally, unlike many competitors, the Saffire Pro 40 can only be used while connected to a computer: it doesn't function as a stand‑alone device.
Getting Started
The Pro 40's rear panel includes (from left to right) sockets for the built‑in power supply, coaxial S/PDIF I/O, MIDI I/O, Firewire, optical S/PDIF and ADAT, two analogue monitor outputs, eight analogue outputs and six jack/XLR inputs (the other two are found on the front of the unit).
Jan 07, 2016 Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 Problem, Please Help Saffire cant be recognized nor does the fw light on the pro14 light up. PCI Card shows up working on device manager, pro 14 does not and no fw light. Power and LKD Are on. Really not sure what the problem is I've tried multiple cards and cables. The latest version of iZotope’s best-selling restoration software adds powerful new modules, as well as a Post Production Suite bundle aimed at film and TV applications. It seems that along with Christmas, another regular annual event we can rely upon is a new version of iZotope’s RX Audio Editor software. IZotope has announced that the latest version of their amazing industry-standard audio repair software, RX and RX Advanced, will be moving to version 4 in September. The new RX 4 and RX 4 Advanced are designed to give musicians, audio engineers, and post pros the tools they need to repair and rejuvenate damaged, flawed, or distorted audio. Full information isn’t available yet, but we do know. Shop B&H's in stock, large inventory for fast shipping, great service and everyday low prices on iZotope RX 4. For more info, please call 800-947-4415. Oct 23, 2017 RX 6 is available in three versions—RX Elements, RX 6 Standard and RX 6 Advanced. The Advanced version has the most features and highest price tag. The component plug-ins are available in AAX, Audiosuite DPM, Audio Units, RTAS, VST 2 and VST 3 formats. I used the AU plug-ins in Digital Performer 9, using an 8-core Mac Pro running OS X 10.9.5.
For some reason, my Windows XP laptop wouldn't recognise the Saffire the first time I installed the driver software, but second time around everything worked fine. It takes its time to switch on when you operate the front‑panel power switch, but after a while you learn to stop thinking 'Shit, have I broken something?' before the green light appears.
However, it takes rather longer for that feeling to go away when getting to grips with the control panel software. This is the first Saffire model I've used, and judging by appearances, Focusrite seem to have made fairly extensive changes to the graphical user interface (GUI) of the Saffire Control utility. The result is something that looks very slick and professional, and clearly harbours a great deal of power, but is not always intuitive in operation.
There are three basic sections to the GUI, all of which appear on a single panel (see screen overleaf). Across the top is a tabbed mixer page, where you set up the monitor mixes that can be distributed to various performers. The mixer can, as you'd expect, route inputs directly to outputs for low‑latency monitoring, but, unlike the original Saffire, there are no DSP effects, so if you want to give your talent a vocal reverb, you'll have to monitor via your recording software and put up with the latency. Bottom left is the output routing area, where you assign various sources to the Saffire's outputs, and to the right of that is a monitor control panel. The routing and monitor sections have their own presets that can be stored independently of global settings.
The Saffire Pro 40's Control software is where you can set‑up monitor mixes and manage your output routings. It also includes a useful monitor control section.One thing that confused me to start with is that everything is configured in mono. For instance, because the little headphone icon appears adjacent to Line Outputs 8 and 10 in the routing panel, I assumed that these were stereo outputs, or perhaps that these two were the left and right channels of a single stereo output. In fact, it turns out that the headphone icons actually refer to the entirely non‑adjacent Line Outputs 7 and 9 as well — so in order to get a stereo signal to the first headphone feed, you need to route the left channel to output 7 and the right to output 8. Logical, when you think about it, but confusing until you figure it out. I can't help feeling that life would be a bit easier if it was possible to link output selections, but as it is you have to select a separate mono source for each output. Studio troubleshooting would also be eased if you could display the Pro 40's outputs as mixer channels, but this doesn't seem to be possible — you can only see, and meter, levels on the inputs and DAW returns.
By default, the mixer gives you 16 different mono monitor mixes, each containing 16 mono channels. If you want the luxury of a stereo monitor mix — and I do, frankly — you need to click the stereo link button on the mixer's output channel. This causes the next‑numbered mixer to disappear, so if, for example, you create eight stereo monitor mixes instead of 16 mono ones, they'll be numbered Mix 1, Mix 3, Mix 5 and so on (although these can be renamed). You can assign your monitor mixes to one or more outputs, but before you can hear anything, you'll need to assign any input and DAW return signals to channels within these mixes. Again, you can use a link button to create stereo mixer channels from adjacent mono channels.
The built‑in monitor controller is a nice idea, especially if you work in surround. Either the front‑panel Monitor level control or the mouse can be used to set a master level that can apply to any or all the analogue outputs, and there are also hardware Mute and Dim controls. Individual outputs can be muted or exempted from monitor control, and better still, at least in theory, is that the monitor section of the control panel not only features a Mono button, but also separate buttons to mute the left and right output channels. I say 'in theory”, because although the Mono button lights up whenever clicked, it doesn't actually do anything unless the Stereo monitoring preset is both selected and unmodified. This means you can't use it while the headphone outputs, or indeed any outputs other than the first pair, are active. Also, there are no physical controls for the Mono or L/R Mute buttons. They are only accessible by clicking on the Saffire Control GUI, which means switching the focus away from your DAW. In the case of Cubase, at least, this means that it stops playing. Perhaps these functions could be switchable via MIDI in a future revision — and not lit up unless they are actually doing something?
All in all, Saffire Control Pro is probably the most flexible and powerful control panel utility in its class, but I personally found it harder to get to grips with than the M‑Audio or Presonus equivalents. Your intuitions may be more closely attuned with it than mine, but I wouldn't recommend leaping into a complex session until you've been able to spend some time getting to know how it all works.
In Use
Like their rivals, Focusrite lay much stress on the quality of the preamps in the Saffire Pro 40, and they certainly deliver decent performance for the money. No figures are quoted for the amount of gain on offer, but there's slightly more available here than on M‑Audio's Profire 2626, and comfortably enough to let you use dynamic mics for applications such as strummed acoustic guitar. What's more, the preamps remain whisper‑quiet and perfectly usable even when you turn the gain knob to maximum, which can't be said for a lot of budget gear.
Beyond that, there's little more to say. Once you've got your head round the control panel software, it offers an impressively flexible means of setting up monitor mixes, and the Loopback facility (see box, left) is a lot more useful than I expected. The I/O does its job, the drivers seemed stable at low latencies in the review system, and the sound quality is beyond reproach, especially at this price.
When I reviewed the M‑Audio Profire 2626 just a few months ago, I felt it represented a step forward in terms of sheer value for money, offering eight mic preamps and a wealth of digital I/O for well under £500$1000. Yet, somehow, Focusrite have managed to move the goalposts before the referee has even blown for half‑time. Admittedly, the Saffire Pro 40 lacks the Profire's word clock I/O and second bank of ADAT inputs and outputs, doesn't work as a stand‑alone device, and can't be used with Pro Tools, but in other areas it has the measure of its rival: there's no external power supply or awkward flying leads to trip you up, and the metering is far superior. The Pro 40 is definitley more fully featured and more expandable than Presonus's £399$699 Firestudio Project. You also get the nice bonus of the Saffire plug‑in suite — and the whole thing costs a mere £349$499.
Saffire Plug‑in Suite
Once you've installed the Saffire Pro 40, you are invited to download Focusrite's Saffire Plug‑in Suite, which can then be authorised using the code on the driver CD. Earlier Saffire models came with a bundle comprising an EQ, compressor, reverb and amp modeller. The Pro 40's plug‑in suite still includes four plug‑ins, but they are different in appearance to their predecessors, with some changes to the controls, and the amp modeller has been replaced by a gate. The dynamics and EQ are still said to have been modelled on Focusrite's hardware designs; not having tried the older versions, I can't say whether they are significantly different. Certainly, the controls are very simple, but for the most part they sound surprisingly good (though I suspect the gate would be better if it had a lookahead function). As a sweetener to encourage Pro 40 buyers to register their product, the Saffire Plug‑in Suite is very effective.
Vital Statistics
- Firewire audio & MIDI interface
- Compatible with: Mac OS 10.4 and above, Windows XP SP2 and Vista.
- Analogue inputs: eight, balanced, on combi XLRs.
- Built‑in mic preamps: eight, plus two high‑impedance instrument inputs.
- Analogue outputs: 10, balanced, on quarter‑inch jacks.
- Headphone outputs: two, replicating outputs 7/8 and 9/10, on quarter‑inch jacks.
- Digital inputs: stereo coaxial S/PDIF, optical S/PDIF or ADAT.
- Digital outputs: stereo coaxial S/PDIF, optical S/PDIF or ADAT.
- Other I/O: MIDI, two‑channel internal 'loopback' input.
Loop The Loopback
Being the cynical sort, I initially suspected that the Saffire Pro's pair of Loopback inputs were simply a cheap way for Focusrite to get the total I/O count up to the magic 40 number. Having tried them out, however, I'm a convert to the idea. They will be invaluable for anyone who wants to sample audio from tracks within iTunes or a similar music library player, or you could use them to record the output of soft synths and amp simulators that don't work as plug‑ins.
Again, it takes a little bit of head‑scratching to get a Loopback setup up and running. You need to make sure that your DAW and the music program you're recording from are addressing different 'DAW' outputs within the Saffire Control Pro utility. I found that Windows Media Player, for instance, defaulted to addressing DAW 1/2, but Cubase 4 allowed me to select DAW 3/4 as the main output pair. Once you've done this, you route DAW 1 and 2 (or whichever outputs your library program is addressing) to Loopback outputs 1/2. These show up in the list of inputs that are available to your recording program, and from there on in, it's plain sailing.
Pros
- Superb value for money.
- 'Loopback' inputs are handy for sampling.
- Better hardware metering than its rivals.
- Comprehensive monitor mixer and control panel software.
Cons
- Control panel utility can be confusing.
- Can't be used as a stand‑alone device.
Summary
Offering eight preamps and a total of 20 inputs and outputs for under $500, the Saffire Pro 40 is the perfect audio interface for a global recession.
information
£349 including VAT.Focusrite +44 (0)1494 462246.
$499.American Music & Sound +1 800 431 2609.
iZotope has released RX 5 Audio Editor, a significant upgrade to their well-stocked toolbox of audio repair software modules (previously at v4). RX 5 adds a number of new repair modules, and brings considerable enhancements to many of its tools, along with additional features that offer greater efficiency and better integration with DAWs.
As before, RX 5 comes in two versions—RX 5 Audio Editor, the standard version (for budget-conscious users) and the more full-featured RX 5 Advanced Audio Editor, which includes additional high-end processing tools (for a full comparison, check the iZotope website and downloadable manual). RX 5 comes as both a standalone application, chock full of processing “modules”, and as a suite of plug-ins in all the standard formats. Both the standard and Advanced versions offer new goodies—some modules (DeReverb) that were previously available only in the Advanced version are now included in the standard version, and certain functions that were standalone-only (Ambience Match) are now available as (AudioSuite) plug-ins as well. For the full list of processing modules in RX 5 Advanced, see Fig 1.
Besides being available as an individual purchase, RX5 Advanced is available as part of iZotope’s new RX Post Production Suite, along with several other tools for handling tasks specific to post-production workflows. The Suite also includes RX Final Mix—a dedicated EQ/Dynamics plug-in intended for use on audio stems in video production (dialog/FX/music). And there’s Insight, iZotope’s comprehensive metering suite, and RX Loudness Control, which automates the task of conforming to broadcast industry standards for loudness. RX 5 Advanced adds its many audio repair tools to these dedicated post-production processors—while they do wonders for music tracks, they’re especially valuable for cleaning up audio in post situations, like problematic location recordings (leakage) or classic dialog issues (ambience, plosives, breaths, etc.).
Focusrite
One of the main areas of improvement has been in workflow efficiency—this takes two forms. Options for automatic processing have been enhanced, resulting in less need for experimenting with settings—many modules that I remember had required a bit more fiddling in the past now seem to get the job done more quickly, with default settings. And workflow can be more streamlined, thanks to features like Instant Processing (of selections) and RX Connect, which makes it easier to bring audio in from the DAW for processing, and send the repaired audio back to the DAW.
Naturally, all of the modules from previous versions of RX are there, and I won’t spend time describing those in any detail—I’ll just focus in on a few of the latest & greatest features.
No Waiting
Of course, RX 5 includes the Spectral Processing (and Deconstruct) modules, which let you graphically select and extract unwanted sound from audio waves, like a pedal squeak in a music track, or a passing siren on a dialogue recording. Now there’s a new mode—Instant Process. Normally, you’d select the unwanted sound in RX’s spectrogram display, select the appropriate module, and process. But if you have a longer recording that has a number of instances of the same problem, you can enable Instant Process, choose the desired processing (from the adjacent popup menu), and now the audio will be processed immediately as you complete each selection, using the current settings for the chosen module (Fig 2).
Fig 2 RX 5’s Instant Process feature (applied to Spectral Repair).
Audio Example 1—RX 5 removes unwanted sound/leakage from two recordings with Spectral Repair via Instant Process mode:
I found that this could really speed things up, especially with repetitive problems, once you’ve determined appropriate settings that work consistently for particular issues.
Chain of tools
RX 5’s new Module Chain feature lets you set up a processing chain of several modules, with specific settings for each module in the chain, save this particular configuration as a preset, and then call it up for quick and efficient application of multiple processing.
The modules in a chain have their own unique settings for that chain, independent of the last (default) settings used for them when they were opened up from the main list on the right. Like with Instant Processing, this can be a great time saver for recurring edits, especially useful for dialog editing, where a number of typical dialog issues (pops, breaths, “s”s, clips, room tone, etc.) can be dealt with in a single pass. Again, the key is to save and use a preset with the most appropriate settings for the particular recording(s) you’re dealing with, but as I noted before, the default settings for many of these modules seem to do the trick even without further tweaking.
Muzzle that vocal
Two of the most persistent issues, when it comes to vocal and dialog recordings, are sibilance (harsh “s”s) and breath noises. RX 5’s Leveler module now lets you enable automatic handling for both of these, with depth settings for each (again, I found the defaults often worked best). The algorithms identify any problem sibilance and breaths, and make quick work of those flaws, eliminating the need for separate EQ & gating, and cleaning up even a lengthy recording with a single click—a highly useful tool, for both music and post.
Fig 4 The Dialog Leveler, set to fix excessive sibilance (Ess Reduction) and breath sounds (Breath Control).
Pop goes the module
One of the most annoying flaws in a vocal track can be microphone plosives—those loud thumps that often occur on the letters “p” and “b”—a.k.a. “p-pops”. The new De-Plosive module may not be the flashiest new toy in RX 5’s arsenal, but it can be one of the most welcome. P-pops often require a tedious series of edits or a sometimes dubious application of filtering to get rid of them, but De-Plosive handles all the heavy lifting seamlessly. I’ve often had to address fairly lengthy dialog or vocal recordings with multiple p-pops—especially live vocal tracks made with a hand-held mic—and De-Plosive would have been a godsend. As with many of the new tools, it required little or no fussing with settings—it succeeded on everything I tried it on pretty much out of the box.
Fig 5 The De-Plosive module makes short work of those pesky p-pops (before (top) & after (bottom) processing).
Audio Example 2—A recording with plosives (p-pops) repaired by RX 5’s De-Plosive module:
To completely remove the software, follow our recommended uninstallation steps for Windows or Mac. If I upgrade from Lite/Intro to Standard/Suite do I need to install again? Yes, all Live editions have separate installers. If you have upgraded from Lite/Intro you can download the Standard/Suite. De-authorizing a Live installation. Live Versions: 5-10; Operating System: Windows, Mac; There isn't a way to de-authorize Live, you would simply need to uninstall the program from any old machines. Uninstall Live from your PC; Uninstall Live from your Mac. After upgrading to Standard or Suite, Live still launches as Lite or Intro. Open Live's Preferences in your current Live installation. Show the 'Licenses / Maintenance' tab. Click 'Authorize at Ableton.com'. Select the appropriate license in your user account. Automatically uninstall Ableton Live & all associated files. If you want to find a convenient way to quickly uninstall Ableton Live, and easier to operate than manual option, then try to use the automated tool to completely remove it from macOS and Mac OS X. Follow these steps after. How to uninstall ableton live.
Wrap-up
There are plenty of other enhancements in RX 5 and RX 5 Advanced, but that’s all I have room for here. Whether your area is music or post-production, this swiss army knife collection of tools should be able to handle any problems you throw at it, and this latest version does so with even greater ease and efficiency than ever—definitely a must-have for any serious audio engineer’s toolbox.
Price: RX 5: $349; RX 5 Advanced: $1,199; RX Post Production Suite (incl RX 5 Adv): $1,499
Saffire Pro 40 Mix Control
Pros: An incredibly comprehensive and effective suite of audio repair processors that can address almost any task.
Cons: Advanced version is a bit pricey, though it does include a number of very useful extras.
Web:https://www.izotope.com/en/products/post-production/rx-5-audio-editor/
Video Course:RX Audio Repair for Musicians
Here's a video from the course, RX Repair for Musicians, showing how to remove AC hum and buzz from an audio recording: