Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 User Manual Download Page 3

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Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 4

Basics ........................................................................................................................... 4

Box Contents ................................................................................................................ 4

Getting Started ............................................................................................................. 5

Hardware ...................................................................................................................... 6

Back Panel ........................................................................................................... 6

Front Panel ........................................................................................................... 7

Installation ................................................................................................................... 8

Audio Set-up in your DAW ............................................................................................. 8

Liquid Saffire 56 Architecture ...................................................................................... 9

Saffire MixControl ......................................................................................................11

Mixer Section ......................................................................................................12

Routing Section ...................................................................................................16

Monitor Section ...................................................................................................18

Device Setup Section ...........................................................................................21

Settings Menu .................................................................................................... 22

File Menu ............................................................................................................ 24

Liquid Saffire 56 Specifications .................................................................................. 25

Troubleshooting.......................................................................................................... 26

Summary of Contents for Liquid Saffire 56

Page 1: ...1 Liquid Saffire 56 User Guide ...

Page 2: ...ed when the apparatus has been damaged in any way such as power supply cord or 13 plug is damaged liquid has been spilled or objects have fallen into the apparatus the apparatus has been exposed to rain or moisture does not operate normally or has been dropped The apparatus shall be connected to a Mains socket outlet with a protective earthing connection 14 Laite on liitettävä suojamaadoituskosket...

Page 3: ...k Panel 6 Front Panel 7 Installation 8 Audio Set up in your DAW 8 Liquid Saffire 56 Architecture 9 Saffire MixControl 11 Mixer Section 12 Routing Section 16 Monitor Section 18 Device Setup Section 21 Settings Menu 22 File Menu 24 Liquid Saffire 56 Specifications 25 Troubleshooting 26 ...

Page 4: ...id Saffire 56 features two Liquid Pre amps Liquid refers to our hybrid microphone pre amplifier technology matching high quality Focusrite Mic pre design with meticulously sampled pre amp emulations transporting classic front end processing into the digital age All audio signals connected to the inputs plus audio output from your computer programs are routed to the physical outputs for you to conn...

Page 5: ...ports connectors on your computer but these are all connected to 1 physical chip which controls the bus The Firewire bus is limited in the amount of data bandwidth it can handle Each additional Firewire device connected to the Firewire bus demands additional bandwidth resources thus increasing the chances of exceeded the total available bandwidth Consequently it is recommended that Liquid Saffire ...

Page 6: ...evel signals Analogue Line Inputs 3 8 4 2 x TRS jack sockets for balanced outputs for the main monitor mix 5 8 x TRS jack sockets for balanced outputs 3 10 6 Word Clock input and output BNC connectors 7 2 x Pairs of Optical ADAT input and output sockets 8 2 x IEEE 1394 6 pin Firewire sockets 9 2 x Din5 MIDI input and output sockets 10 2 x RCA S PDIF input and output sockets 11 1 x IEC Power inlet ...

Page 7: ... Pass Filter buttons with LEDs 11 Channels 3 5 and 7 Phase reverse buttons with LEDs 12 Input signal level meters 5 LEDs indicate 42 18 6 3 0dBFS 13 Indicator LEDs for Signal level meters LED for ADAT 1 ADAT 2 SPDIF When no LEDs are lit the meters indicate analogue 14 input levels Firewire active LED Lit when the Liquid Saffire 56 is successfully connected to the computer 15 Synchronisation Lock L...

Page 8: ...ter OS should automatically switch its default audio outputs to be the Liquid Saffire 56 To make sure this is the case On Windows go to Start Control Panel Sounds and Audio Devices Set the input and output to Saffire On Mac go to System Preferences Sound Set the input and output to Saffire For more detailed setup options on a Mac go to Applications Utilities Audio Midi Set up Audio Set up in your ...

Page 9: ...DWARE IN DAW IN Analogue 1 8 1 8 S PDIF 1 2 9 10 ADAT 1 11 18 S PDIF 1 2 19 20 DAW IN 21 26 are redundant Loop back 1 2 27 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 DAW OUT Liquid Saffire 56 HARDWARE IN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Analog ADAT 1 ADAT 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 S PDIF 1 2 HARDWARE OUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Analog ADAT 1 ADAT 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 ...

Page 10: ...OUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Analog ADAT 1 ADAT 2 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 S PDIF 1 2 20 IN Loop back 20 OUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Saffire Mix Control Music Software ROUTER DAW IN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 DAW OUT MIXER 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 DAW OUT Liquid Saffire 56 HARDWARE IN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Analog ADAT 1 1 2 3 4 S PDIF 1 2 S PDIF ...

Page 11: ...5 6 7 8 Analog ADAT 1 1 2 S PDIF 1 2 S PDIF 2 3 4 16 IN Loop back 16 OUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Saffire Mix Control Music Software ROUTER DAW IN MIXER HARDWARE OUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Analog ADAT 1 1 2 S PDIF 1 2 S PDIF 2 1 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 DAW OUT Liquid Saffire 56 HARDWARE IN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Analog ADAT 1 1 2 ADAT 2 1 2 ADAT 2 1 2 S PDIF 1 2 16 IN Loop ba...

Page 12: ...tings Windows only are available from Saffire MixControl To open Saffire MixControl Windows Start Programs Focusrite Saffire MixControl Mac Open Finder Applications Saffire MixControl This is how the Saffire MixControl Graphical Interface will appear on your computer Mixer 1 Selected Mix Tab 2 Mixer Input Channel 3 Selected Mix Output Channel 4 Routing Section Pre amp Section switchable 5 Monitor ...

Page 13: ...alogue microphone pre amps After analogue to digital conversion the audio signal is routed through the Liquid Pre amps DSP The analogue circuit in the pre amp will switch to match the impedance settings of the original pre amp emulation Gain phantom power and high pass filter controls are available from the front panel of the Liquid Saffire 56 and all additional controls are available in the Saffi...

Page 14: ...ic with respect to each other is different for pre amps with valves compared to those with transistors and also because the balance of harmonics changes with level The result is that a higher gain at the mic pre stage will produce a greater and hence more noticeable effect as the harmonics setting is increased Pre amps 3 to 8 Input Signal Source Select Select the input source for inputs 3 8 by cli...

Page 15: ...d What you set up in the mixer section of Liquid Saffire 56 Control only affects what is heard in the outputs of the mix The Input recording levels that are sent to the DAW are therefore those set on the hardware using the Gain knobs An example of one use for the mixer is to record multiple artists simultaneously e g a guitarist and a vocalist are recording at the same time and you wish to provide...

Page 16: ... The input needs to be deselected from the track where it is already taken and then re selected on the desired track To get your sounds from your DAW or other computer applications into the mixer you should select DAW 1 and DAW 2 on a stereo input track Pan Slider A Pan Slider is used to position the audio signal anywhere between the left and right speakers Moving the horizontal slider from left t...

Page 17: ...der lights up then the signal level is too high You will need to turn down the signal level by either using the gain knobs on the front panel for the analogue inputs using the gain on the external devices connected to the digital inputs or using the gain within the DAW Once the gains are lowered click on the red portion to reset the clip light Mute Pressing this button mutes the signal Red indicat...

Page 18: ...els of the available total output channel count Note that when pressing on the solo button on an output channel that channel i e the whole mix is soloed and routed to Monitor outputs 1 and 2 This is a non latching button You can name the current mix by typing the desired name in the text field below the output channel You will see the name appear in the mix tab For example Mix 1 can be renamed Mon...

Page 19: ...ix source name Note that the routing section is linked to the selection made for the output channel destination set up in the mixer If you have outputs pre assigned from when you created your Mix you will see the routing selections have been set up Similarly if you change the audio source from the routing section the output of the mix will change automatically Headphones 1 is a copy of line output...

Page 20: ...ill route to the main monitors 1 2 and to the Headphone outputs 1 and 2 Line inputs and DAW outputs must be set up in Mix 1 so that you are able to monitor these sources with zero latency You must also ensure that you are not monitoring the same signals from within your DAW at the same time otherwise you will be monitoring the same signal twice once direct from Saffire MixControl AND a second time...

Page 21: ... so that you have hands on control of volume levels and depending on your monitoring set up you may control no speakers just a single pair of speakers or up to 10 speakers simultaneously All digital output levels are unaffected by Liquid Saffire 56 control Use the output levels of the DAW to control digital output levels Each button can be set to 1 of 3 possible states Blue this output is controll...

Page 22: ...must have your speakers connected to the line outputs as shown in the picture below Surround Sound Monitoring Quad 2 1 5 1 or 7 1 1 Left 2 Right 3 Centre 4 Sub Woofer 5 Left Side 6 Right Side 7 Left Rear 8 Right Rear Loudspeaker Set up Main Medium Small 1 Left Main 2 Right Main 7 Left Medium 8 Right Medium 9 Left Small 10 Right Small ...

Page 23: ...nes 2 Outputs 9 10 Monitor Section Controls The Monitor section will affect those channels that have been selected for monitor control indicated with a blue button see above Monitor level control knob Set the output level of all assigned outputs using this knob The output level can be adjusted using the mouse or from the front panel control depending on the status of the H W Control button The dB ...

Page 24: ... of both Left and Right outputs Remember that these dim mute and mono buttons only affect the outputs selected for control i e Blue in the monitor control section Device Status section The Device Status section shows information about the sample rate synchronisation and driver status of the Liquid Saffire 56 The desired sample rate can be set as well as external synchronisation options for using t...

Page 25: ...ernal ADAT or S PDIF signal If this is the case then please check that digital cables are secure in their input sockets and that the external digital devices have been set up as master devices Firewire Driver This should display Connected at all times when the Liquid Saffire 56 is connected to the computer via Firewire If this shows Disconnected please check Firewire connections check that the uni...

Page 26: ...3 Safe Modes 1 3 offer increasing levels of output buffer size If you are experiencing clicks and pops or audio dropouts this may be due to certain hardware in your computer that is affecting the performance of audio devices connected via Firewire Rather than removing and replacing hardware e g your graphics card or wireless internet card trying these safe modes may solve the problem Disable WDM A...

Page 27: ...nal default state in which it left the factory This can be used to globally reset all mixer routing and monitor settings allowing creation of a new set up from scratch Save to Hardware This saves the current Saffire MixControl set up to the Liquid Saffire 56 hardware If you are moving the Liquid Saffire 56 from one computer to another and want to retain the set up then choose this option Note that...

Page 28: ... 1 dB Gain Range 13dB to 60dB THD N 0 001 measured at 1kHz with a 20Hz 22kHz bandpass filter Noise EIN 128dB analogue to digital measured at 60dB of gain with 150 Ohm termination 20Hz 22kHz bandpass filter Input Impedance 2k ohm Line Inputs Inputs 1 8 Frequency Response 20Hz 20kHz 0 1dB Gain Range 10dB to 36dB THD N 0 001 measured with 0dBFS input and 22Hz 22kHz bandpass filter Noise 90dBu 22Hz 22...

Page 29: ...ont panel Switching between Mic Line channels 1 8 Instrument channels 3 and 4 only via Saffire MixControl Application Digital Channel Inputs Inputs 9 26 44 1 192kHz Stereo S PDIF input on RCA 16 x ADAT inputs on two Optical Connectors reduces to 8 inputs at 88 2 96kHz and 4 inputs at 176 4 192kHz Optical Input 2 can be switched to S PDIF 3 4 in software preferences ADAT Input 2 disabled Analogue A...

Page 30: ...e 56 product and which have not endorsed Focusrite s Liquid Saffire 56 product These other product names trademarks and trade names are used solely to identify and describe the third party products the sonic behaviour of which was studied for the Liquid Saffire 56 product and to accurately describe the functionality of the Liquid Saffire 56 product The Liquid Saffire 56 product is an independently...

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