It a Winner

Using it with a Windows 7 Professional -64 & Reaper - 64. Prior to installation got on the Focusrite web site and found "pre-installation" instructions:
1) Change firwire driver to legacy
2) My motherboards firewire chips set was listed as compatible.

Dropped in install disk it automatically went out on the web and check for updated drivers and control panel software...VERY NICE.
Once all software installed plugged in unit to port, turned on, and wah-lah it showed up and was working. Total install time from opening box to a working unit ...15 minutes.

This replaced an M-Audio Audiophile192 and I could not be happier. Recordings are much more crisp and clear. Mixes are very transparent. I keep asking myself, "Why did you wait so long?"
Great unit !

The only thing that takes a bit to learn is the control panel software. But again Focusrite comes to the rescue with resources. They have a very good tutorial video on their web site in how to use it.

Not only is this a great product but Focusrite has done it right by making so much information readily avialible.

Saffire Pro 40 rocks

Setup was very easy.
It just worked.
I linked two together and had no problem setting them both up.
The sound is clean and clear.
The hardware meters combine with the software interface to create a seamless system.
I am using this for 16 channel analogue studio recording.
This thing rocks.

Focusrite Saffire Pro 40

Really love this piece of gear...I now have two of them connected together for a total of 16 XLR Mic channels !!!! Clean, clear, transparent, no extra sounds induced !!!! And the digital switching network for output monitoring is fabulous....any combinations you could ever dream of is easy to set up. It's exceeded any of my expectations. These two plus my (DAW) SONAR X1 Producer are capable of turning out great tracks !!!!! The DIGITAL World, not quite VIVID gear, but at the present more than adequate for me.

Very Impressed!

I have had this Pro 40 now for about 3-4 weeks. I was extremely nervous selecting an audio interface because it is so critical to my process. I was having a lot of latency issues, 64bit driver updates and audio dropouts with my current interface and was ready to move on. I can't even begin to explain how happy I am with this interface. I am running Windows 7 64bit, 8GB of RAM and Sonar X1 DAW. I also plug a Pacifica preamp in for my vocals. The drivers work extremely well and even though all firewire interfaces have latency challenges including this one. However, when you record on this interface you don't need the audio to run through the daw before you can hear it in the headphones or monitors. This allows you to have the vocalist in the booth hearing their voice before it is processed through the DAW (NO LATENCY!!!) I could go on and on about so many routing and features of this unit. I could not be any happier with this interface!!

FOCUSRITE Saffire PRO 40

Transparent. extremely versatile, great all around piece of equipment ,...wish it was a PRO 80 with 16 analog inputs....was blown away with the sound quality...and the packaged software ( Comp., EQ., Gate, and Reverb ) aren't shabby either . BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK so far. The routing capabilities were simply AMAZING !!!! Wish I had the PRO 40 a year ago. FOCUSRITE has done it again.....Great British sound.

Amazing Value

this interface works great! i use Logic 9 with it and i love it! the preamps are clean, quiet, and sound great! i have had no problems with it. i love having the clip meters on the front. the 2 headphone outs are very handy.

You Cannot Go Wrong Here.

This thing may not be the fanciest looking of the bunch but the Saffire Pro 40 has it where it counts - quality inputs/outputs and sound.

The preamps are lovely. I was finally able to REALLY hear the difference between my $400 and $1000 guitars even through full blown distortion from VST guitar simulators, something my older interfaces could never do.

Vocals, with a good mic, just shine. What you put in is what you get out.

Transparency is the name of the game here. Also, numbers. 8 awesome preamps. Just... wow. Go ahead, record a full band.

I thought this part would be a gimmick but it turns out that the Dim and Mute buttons for the monitor outs are extremely useful. I use them constantly and would really miss this feature in any future units.

Throw in two dedicated Mic amps, great drivers (VERY important) low latency and you've got yourself the best unit in this price range... or higher.

Pristine Audio

The tireless search is over. True there are lot of audio interfaces and I have listened and tested quite a few. There is the difference with this one, Focusrite is a hardware company. That is their one and only main focus. Good thing to, because this interface records what you give it. No sound coloration, no sweet spots, no noise, no glitches, just pure audio. If that is what you are after, then stop looking for it because you just found it.

My only issue is with the software interface. It is functional, but it takes a bit of time to work with it. It would have been better to have a graphic representation of a mixing console. But again, these guys make hardware, not software.

The driver interface is rock solid.

ADAT interface is solid.

Thanks to Andy Bitler (Sweetwater Rep), as this thing is exactly and then some what I expected. For the future: Octa-Pres and a PCI ADAT or Ethernet interface.

Exceptional Preamps and Easy To Use

I've had mine a little over a month now. I love it! I had read some reviews elsewhere complaining about latency issues and FW problems, etc. I put a Lacie FW400 card in my old Dell Dimension 3000 w a 2.80 GHz Pentium 4 and t works seamlessly, although being dingle core, the FW interface eats up more CPU than I would like. But that is no problem because it is so versatile as a mixer I just use it as an 8 channel ADAT expansion to my E-Mu 1212M card which gives me two more analog inputs with Pro Tools 190 HD converters. And that still leaves me 2 S/DIF channels. I can run all that at 48K all day plus I have 2 channel direct zero latency monitoring off the 1212M and two different zero latency headphone monitor channels and a third monitor output channel giving me a total of 4 different monitor mixes as well as a variety of ways to mix them. And I can use the E-Mu-s 32 bit on board effects on all channels independently as inserts if I want to add saturation, color, tube simulation, etc., as well as really nice digital compression.
And the pre amps! Clean, pristine, and with tons of dead quiet headroom! I went through two TrakMaster Pro's that had horrible noise issues above 6 on the gain control. I replaced them with a Studio Projects VTB1(which is actually also an exceptionally clean and useful pre amp for the money) that was much better. But the pre amps in the Pro 49 are what one expects from Focusrite. They don not color the sound they way a Neve or other vintage type pres do, and they don't add tube harmonics. But what they do is give you a clean, very musical, very accurate transmission of whatever you plug in it. You can get all kinds incredibly realistic, relatively inexpensive (and even free) plug-ins to give you all the warmth and color you desire as well as compression, etc. (the included Focusrite FX bundle is actually pretty good...), or run it back out and through an analogue source after you have recorded the dry signal. Either way, you won't be disappointed! It has the quality and versatility of interfaces costing far more and is a steal relative to the OctoPre MK II w/o compression.

What's with this price???

500$ for this unit, it is really a STEAL!!! it has a lot of features that other guys at this price range won't even hassle to put on, the interface its just great, and do not forget the mix control, very happy with this product!!!

Rock Solid Performance

It's already been said by everybody, preamp preamp and preamp.I bought this last week to replace my MOTU Traveler Mk3, which were plagued by driver instability and I was not very impressed with the preamps. This thing costs more than $300 less than the MOTU yet it sounds, and runs better. Driver is rock solid on Windows Vista, and the Saffire MixControl is extremely flexible. The build quality is also above-par. I only wished that the unit has a built-in hardware limiter which is very useful for me because I don't always have the chance to do sound check with musicians in live situations. Overall, great buy!

Solid value

Best feature is the preamp quality. It is notably improved from the two other mid-range interfaces I've had, the edirol FA66 and the art Tubefire8. DICE II chipset does not seem to have any issues on intel macs, though I don't know about the newer unibody macs. Software router is REALLY comprehensive. Expect to take many dedicated hours to learning it completely. I've only run into one issue where the audio comes in distorted after changing the sample rate in my DAW (live 7). The solution, although inexplicable, was simply to change it again and change it back, then wait a second. Eh. So you don't freak out, the device does take about 5 seconds to turn itself on. The only other issues are the somewhat wobbly knobs (no worse than the edirol fa66) and the lack of XLR locking mechanisms. Otherwise, the sound and features are better than I'd expect for the price, and the newest drivers allow for stand-alone operation. Pretty lightwight, too.

Right on the money

Got my Saffire Pro 40 yesterday and installed it on both desktop and laptop systems. Worked flawlessly on both right out of the box, no glitches, noises or problems. The driver seems very stable. It offers a great deal of flexibility...there is a bit of a learning curve but once that's over, you realize just how flexible this thing is. And the sound? The mic preamps are typical Focusrite, smooth and detailed and DEAD QUIET, even with my Sennheiser 441U dynamic mic. That's a lot more than you can say for most in this price range. Even though I plan to use high end outboard preamps most of the time, I would not hesitate to just plug mics directly into the Pro 40 and hit record. The build quality is also excellent. It's heavy and solid with a smooth PRO feel to the knobs and switches ...and very nice metering too. My only quibble is with the choice to put the first two inputs on the front and the rest on the rear. I realize they pretty much had to but it is slightly annoying. The Presonus Firestudio Project, for example has them all lined up on the front. However, I read a number of user reviews that were less than enthusiastic about that product. And since I already own a Saffire LE for my laptop and have been impressed by its quality, I felt safe in trying out a brand new product from Focusrite....VERY GLAD I DID! And Kevin at Sweetwater is simply THE BEST. Buying from these guys is always a great experience. I'll be back!

Great upgrade from Digi 002

I bought the Saffire Pro 40 to replace my Digidesign 002 when I upgraded to Protools 10. The mic preamps are vastly more transparent, quiet and musical than the 002, so that part of the upgrade was worth the money. In addition, the Mix control software provides a great deal of flexibility including a quick status switch to latency-free monitoring via a drop-down menu.
I had a question that I posed to the factory and received a very fast, thorough response. I'm very happy with this interface.

All you need!

This is a fantastic interface. The preamps have plenty of gain and the flexibility of the mix control is awesome. The sound quality is great. Bottom line is if you can't get a radio ready mix out of this interface then the problem isn't the interface. As a sound director, I can tell you that with today's technology, 99% of people's issues are room acoustics, instruments/sound programming, recording techniques or performance. Focusrite did a great job. You can go out and spend $3000 or $4000 on an interface but for most thats like trying to kill a fly with a shot gun. For music, this is all you need.

zero latency monitoring!!!

after a bit of learning curve and re-thinking the concept, i was able to get rid of that latency issue that comes with pt9
this is a huge deal for some singers and musicians.
it's more of a "feel" issue -while some can power through it-
others have a real hard time "getting their song on" with the latency factor.
therefore...this piece is vital-like everything about it!!!
not a 5 because i there is a learning curve.

GREAT BANG FOR THE BUCK

This is a great audio interface for all non Pro-Tools DAW's. The Pre-Amps are much better and quieter than some more expensive outboard ones that I own. The Saffire Mixer give's you more routing and controle than you can imagine and this thing works great right out of the box. The product was recomended to me by Alan Carter and I've loved it from the minute I got it. Call him today and get this great Interface!

Surprised and impressed!

Very surprised and impressed by this product so far, considering the price. The only thing I'm not thrilled with is the poor low-latency performance, which is to be expected with a DICE-II based firewire interface like this. However, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. At a reasonable 128-sample or 256-sample latency, this thing performs beautifully, and sounds great. It has also been extremely solid, and I love the loopback driver feature, which allows you to record the output of another app. The no-latency mixer in the driver is also outstanding, and compensates somewhat for the roundtrip latency issue. I'm giving this 4.5 stars just due to the latency, but you should be aware that any DICE-II based interface will exhibit the same or similar performance. Basically, the only recent non DICE-II devices here at Sweetwater (that I know of) are the MOTU and RME devices, so you are pretty much stuck with DICE-II and its latency issues unless you want to spend much more money. For Windows, the best option is probably RME (in my opinion) but if you can live with the latency you will be hard pressed to find something better than the Saffire Pro 40.

Impressed

I have been using it for about 2 weeks now. The sound quality is great...a big step up from the firepods I have been using. The drivers seem stable on windows xp. I am using it with sonar 8 producer and reaper with zero problems. It can sometimes get strange playing a video file and then opening up sonar a restart always fixes the glitches. Highly recommended. It is the best sounding unit in its class without a doubt.

Great gear

I was looking for versatility and got it with the Saffire Pro 40. Easy to hook up and use.

Great sounding mic pre's! Great value!

Overall I am really impressed with the clarity of the focusrite pre's. They are super quiet regardless of the level that you have them at. Wether they are all the way down or wide open you won't have to worry about any noise induced by the pre. The included mix control software is super usefull and allows you to easily set up and save 2 independent cue mixes. The only feature that I wish the hardware had is pads on every channel. The two pads are nice but you must be careful if you are recording drums because of the fact that you can only pad 2 mic inputs. Other than that, they are GREAT sounding pre's that are super clear sounding.

Only A Dummy...

Only a dummy would pass up this great piece... I'm no novice, but I'm not a Tekkie, either... This wonderful piece worked perfectly right out of the box... The software was MUCH more than I expected, and it all links up with my Protools rig. I'm sure it does even more than I know about, at this point. Can't wait for time to 'play' some more with this latest 'toy'.... Many thanks to my awesome Sales Rep, Ryan Z... He's certainly my 'Go-To-Guy"! Love the Saffire Pro 40 and Sweetwater.... Why ever go anywhere else?

Audio Good. MIDI Bad

Audio is Great. but MIDI ports are not that great, especially MIDI OUT. When Sending MIDI data from Computer to ext. MIDI devices thru Saffire PRO40 MIDI Out, notes "stick" or keep on hanging without stopping about every 1.5 minutes.

Great Piece for the price

I recently purchased this interface for my home studio. It's a pretty solid unit, and the Pre's sound great. However if your rig is moible or you're like me where your workhorse computer is a laptop and you are frequently having to unplug and plug it in this piece is quite an inconvenience because you CAN NOT HOT SWAP. Apparently the unit can damage your computer or vise versa if you unplug or plug it in while the computer is on. so it is required that you shut down your computer every time you connect or disconnect the interface. at first i didn't think this would be that big of a deal, but it has turned out to be a major annoyance because i usually have a whole lot going on at one time on my laptop and i hate having to close everything and shut my computer off just to disconnect my laptop to go into the next room with it. also where the chassis feels solid, the knobs and button's feel a bit to cheap and "plasticy". i feel like i could break the knobs if i turn them to hard. also the Saffire Mix Control software used in conjunction with this device is rather confusing to use. Overall i am happy with the purchase because the sound quality is phenomenal and it has more in's and outs than i need at the moment however i do wish it was hot swappable and the build was a bit better.
3.5 in my book

Latency and crashing.

For the price this unit has a great feature set.

However, I like to use a lot of outboard gear, and it has significantly more latency than other units I've tried. On my first install It also crashed a good deal, but this time around it has been better. I got it because it was cheap, and I sort of regret it.