Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 vs. Scarlett 18i20

[Mark Valenzuela]

I may be in the market for another multi-channel audio interface, and I've heard a lot of great things about the Saffire Pro 40. Considering the fact that firewire is on its way out (and I've had problems with the FW to TB adapters), I'm wondering if anyone out there, especially all you Pro 40 fans, have had any experience with the Scarlett 18i20. It looks almost exactly like the Pro 40, with the exception of having USB instead of FW, and having a BNC wordclock out. Other than that I can't see a difference. I'm wondering if it's as reliable as the Pro 40, and might be a good alternative to the Pro 40 for QLab computers that don't have FW ports. Thoughts?


Thanks,
Mark V.

[Sam Kusnetz]

Mark Valenzuela wrote:
> I may be in the market for another multi-channel audio interface, and I've heard a lot of great things about the Saffire Pro 40.

I concur with those great things.

> Considering the fact that firewire is on its way out (and I've had problems with the FW to TB adapters)

Have you had problems other than problems relating to bus power? The
FireWire spec calls for 45 watts of bus power, but the Thunderbolt bus
only supplies 8 watts. Taking my FW gear off bus power solved all my
TB-FW woes. Since the Saffire Pro 40 is not bus-powered anyway, that's a
non-starter.

> I'm wondering if anyone out there, especially all you Pro 40 fans, have had any experience with the Scarlett 18i20.

No experience here. There was a time that the Scarletts had decidedly
inferior drivers, but I cannot say if that is true anymore.

Cheerio
Sam
--
Sam Kusnetz
QLab Field Operative
s...@figure53.com

[Andy Dolph]

I've got a scarlet 2i2 and a 6i6 and I'm quite happy with them.

My only complaint is that the routing in the software mixer (which you have to use to route different signals to the 2 output pairs) is NOT intuitive. (at least not about how to do that)

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[Mark Valenzuela]

Thanks for the replies. 

Have you had problems other than problems relating to bus power? The FireWire spec calls for 45 watts of bus power, but the Thunderbolt bus only supplies 8 watts. Taking my FW gear off bus power solved all my TB-FW woes. Since the Saffire Pro 40 is not bus-powered anyway, that's a non-starter.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a bus power issue. The problem was with a new Ultralite, and after extensive testing done by myself and tech support from MOTU, we determined based upon the console logs that it was very specifically the FW adapter loosing connection with the MOTU. Out of a series of troubleshooting techniques, pulling the FW adapter from the computer was the only thing that would trigger the exact console log we were getting. If I know myself, I most likely would have tried it with the external power when testing. Despite some people's gripes with MOTU, when we switched to the USB connection, it worked flawlessly for the run of the show. 

No experience here. There was a time that the Scarletts had decidedly inferior drivers, but I cannot say if that is true anymore.

Does anyone else know whether the Scarlett drivers have become more stable?

Thanks,

Mark

[Mark Valenzuela]

> I'm pretty sure it wasn't a bus power issue. The problem was with a new Ultralite, and after extensive testing done by myself and tech support from MOTU, we determined based upon the console logs that it was very specifically the FW adapter loosing connection with the MOTU.

** Correction - the FW to TB adapter loosing connection with the COMPUTER, as if it had been pulled out.

[Sam Kusnetz]

Mark Valenzuela wrote:

** Correction - the FW to TB adapter loosing connection with the COMPUTER, as if it had been pulled out.

It might not be out of the question that this is more of an exception than a rule... my FW/TB has been going strong since I bought it, no problems at all.

Cheerio
Sam