Although doing this completely immobilises the use of the pot itself, it at least renders your interface 'useable' without the phase issues or mono comping. The only way around it, at the moment, is to use outputs 3+4 for your monitors instead and switch off inputs 1+2 in the Saffire Mix Control software (Make 1&2 Red). The Pot is merely a digital controller, I believe (although I wouldn't quote me) to the output bus that runs each of the 4 outputs.
I too am having the exact same issue with the Saffire Pro 14, exact same issue with the pot. The latest OS X beta is here: Focusrite / Novation Beta Testing :: Releases
I also get the impression that Focusrite stopped developing for the FireWire interfaces a year or so ago, so we may never see any new drivers or firmwares for the Saffires in the future.
A couple of years ago I updated the firmware in a first generation Scarlett 18i8 using a beta driver and recall that it was impossible to downgrade afterward.
I've noticed that sometimes the OS X version will include a newer firmware version than the Windows version. So, I don't think there are any separate firmware downloads or installers.
In other words, if a newer driver requires a firmware update, Mix Control will automatically update the firmware in the interface. Just guessing, but it could be something like a failed op amp, but I'm not sure if it would be worth taking the unit apart for troubleshooting.Īs far as the firmware update goes, I'm under the impression that Saffire Pro firmware updates are included with the Mix Control software. The unwanted full-volume mono 1/2 mix is pretty strange. Sorry, I didn't read carefully enough previously. I have not brought this up with Focusrite yet but I probably will if I can't find a solution here. This page seems to hint that there used to be a firmware updater available for download on the site but I can not seem to find it. When searching for information about updating the Pro 14 firmware, I found nothing except this page in the Focusrite knowledge base: If volume control was the only issue I could just turn down my system volume to a comfortable level as a workaround, but that is not the case. The issue here isn't volume control, the issue is that the mystery summed-to-mono mix is being mixed with my ACTUAL mix, leading to some frequencies being cancelled out, making the Pro 14 useless for any kind of serious mixing. So it DOES control what it's supposed to, it's just that at the same time, there's a mystery mix of both monitor outputs summed to mono coming out of both speakers, which seems to be an issue that is completely independent of the volume pot. The volume knob only controls the level of the properly panned monitor mix.
If I have the monitor volume put turned up, I hear Monitor Outputs 1 + 2 summed to mono, coming out of both speakers at full volume, AND Monitor Outputs 1 + 2 properly panned left and right, mixed in at the level of the monitor volume pot. So, if I have the monitor volume pot turned all the way down, I hear Monitor Outputs 1 + 2 summed to mono, coming out of both speakers at full volume. But that signal is mixed with a summed-to-mono mix of MixControl's Monitor Outputs 1 and 2. It turns up the actual mix that I've configured in MixControl. I must not have made myself clear enough. I wonder if it might help to flash the Pro 14 with a firmware update? Have you brought this up with Focusrite? If so, what was their response?That's the thing though - the volume control pot DOES have an effect. While I suppose that the potentiometer might have failed, that seems unlikely. If the volume control has no effect, that suggests that the software is not responding to the change in resistance. not directly controlling the output level in the analog domain). definitely a much more flexible interface.Įven though there is no option to defeat it (like on the Pro 40), I suspect that the volume control on the Pro 14 is a software control (i.e. Thoughts?Pretty sure there's a button or switch in Mix Control that bypasses the volume knob. Sounds like a hardware issue to me but I just thought I'd see if anyone had encountered anything similar. I've restarted, uninstalled + reinstalled MixControl, tried using the Saffire with a different computer, and double checked every last setting of Saffire MixControl to make sure my signal routing is correct, with no luck. Turning up the monitor volume mixes in a correctly panned version of the same stereo output. So if I'm just sending stereo sound out of my Monitor Outputs it gets summed to mono and I can't make it any quieter. Here's the issue: if I route any signal to either Monitor Output 1 or 2, that signal comes out of both Monitor Outputs 1 + 2 at full volume, despite the fact that the Monitor volume pot on the front of the Saffire is all the way at 0. I'm having a very strange issue with my Saffire PRO 14 - I have used this thing for years, never had any real problems.