Liquid Saffire 56

The Liquid Saffire 56 is Focusrite's new flagship Firewire interface. It has generated a great deal of excitement in the industry as it marries Focusrite's celebrated Liquid technology with its new generation of Firewire interfaces (led by the critically acclaimed Saffire Pro40). Two of the eight mic pre's use the third generation of Liquid pre amps, building on technology used in the Liquid Channel and Liquid 4Pre.

This means that as well as six Focusrite's legendarily transparent mic pre's, 2 further Liquid pre's each provide a choice of ten different pre-amp emulations. These include emulations based on the Neve 1073, Pultec MB-1, Telefunken V72.

In addition to 8 mic pre's, Liquid Saffire 56 includes 10 analogue outputs, 16 channels of ADAT i/o, stereo S/PDIF or AES i/o (on RCA phono), MIDI i/o, 2 virtual 'loopback' inputs, for routing digital audio between software applications, and BNC wordclock i/o. The Saffire Mix Control software provides ultra flexible control over routing and monitoring, which includes presets for immediate set up of commonly used mixing situations, and full metering across all inputs, outputs and submixes. This is just a few of the Liquid Saffire 56's many features, see product pages for full details.

The Focusrite Plug-in Suite
Focusrite have also announced the release of two Plug-in suites: The Focusrite Plug-in Suite provides a collection of EQ, Compression, Reverb and Gating VST/AU plug-ins from one of the most prestigious names in pro audio. The Compressor and Gate have been modeled on Focusrite's hardware devices, using the measurement of Focusrite’s custom optos to achieve a vintage optical sound. The EQ module delivers a similar signature to the original Focusrite ISA EQ curves, and the reverb is based on classic studio designs and has been developed to allow users to get the right reverb sound with the minimum effort.

The Guitar FX Suite
The Guitar FX Suite from Focusrite consists of eleven professional VST/AU plug-ins for guitarists. These include five of the world’s finest guitar amp models and four distortion pedal effects, all courtesy of ‘Overloud’, experts in the field of accurate guitar amp modeling. The amp models include plug-ins based on the Vox AC30, Marshall JCM900, Fender Twin, MESA Boogie Rectifier and the Fender Bassman. The pedal models include plug-ins based on the Boss DS-1, the Ibanez Tube Screamer, the Electro Harmonix Big Muff and the Dunlop Fuzz Face.

 

• Two Liquid Pre-amps
  The marriage of a hugely flexible analogue front end with cutting-edge dynamic convolution DSP, each Liquid Pre-amp lets you choose from ten different classic pre-amp emulations, with an eleventh ‘flat’ option.
• Six High Quality Award-winning Focusrite Pre-amps
  Six award-winning Saffire pre-amps complement two Liquid pre-amps. All eight pre-amps demonstrate the same wide bandwidth philosophy behind the early vintage Focusrite units.
• High Quality 24-bit/192kHz Firewire Interface
  Professional digital conversion and JetPLLTM jitter elimination technology; pristine audio quality and reliable synchronisation are guaranteed.
• Total I/O Count of 28 Inputs and 28 Outputs
  A host of i/o options are provided*, including a unique loop-back facility for routing audio between software applications via Saffire Mix Control.
• Suite of Focusrite VST/AU plug-ins
  Upgrade your standard sequencer effects and bring a touch of class to your session with Focusrite Compression, Reverb, Gating and EQ VST/AU plug-ins.
• Two separate headphone buses
  Two artists can receive independent and fully customised monitor mixes. Each output has an independent level control available on the front panel.
• Saffire Mix Control Zero-latency DSP Mixer/Router
  Routing flexibility and intuitive one-click set-up solutions; Saffire Mix Control provides an 18 x 16 DSP mixer with excellent output routing and monitoring capabilities.
• Front panel 5-LED metering
  LED metering for each of the analogue, ADAT1, ADAT2 or S/PDIF inputs offers accurate viewing of levels direct from the front fascia.