New Saffire FireWire Interface from Focusrite

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NAMM Show 2005 sees the launch of the Focusrite Saffire, a new breed of firewire interface with onboard DSP and 24-bit/192kHz processing. Saffire includes integrated software to take audio interfacing a step closer to the professional studio experience.

Four inputs (2 digital) and 10 outputs (2 digital) with foldback and monitoring options ensure the engineer has all he needs to navigate through a modern recording session.

The brand new software accompanying the Saffire hardware is a new platform from the team that produced LiquidControl and the Forte Suite. This application floats comfortably over any recording software and allows extensive control over the sound of the recorded signals and the multiple (monitor and headphone) output paths. Compression, reverb, amp modeling and EQ Saffire-powered plug-ins are included. All four are also available as a suite of plug-ins from within the recording platform in use. Up to five separate user-defined stereo mixes can be created of all incoming signals and recorded tracks from the recording platform.

Saffire features at a glance:

• Firewire 400 interface with onboard DSP
• 24-bit, 192kHz integrated A-D/D-A
• Four inputs; two Focusrite preamps and SPDIF I/O
• Eight balanced outputs for creating separate headphone/monitor mixes or 7.1 surround monitoring
• Suite of Saffire-powered plug-ins; compression, EQ, amp modeling and monitor path reverb available on analogue inputs, for recording wet and or monitoring
• Free accompanying software allows the engineer to create up to five unique stereo mixes of all incoming and recorded tracks
• Plug-ins also available for use within the user's software platform
• MIDI I/O

For more information, visit their web site at www.focusrite.com.