The first section of this Saffire MixControl tutorial is going to focus on the top half of the control panel (shown below), and how to use it to create custom mixes that can be routed to any of the outputs on your interface. It is worth noting however, that this section of the MixControl software has no effect on the signal being passed into your computer.



When used with the PRO 40 and the Liquid Saffire 56 (pictured above), Saffire MixControl contains up to 16 mono, or 8 stereo mixes. With the PRO 24 and PRO 24 DSP, this number is halved.

Let’s start by focussing in on a pair of channels in the mix window:



The first thing that you need to do is to select an input for the channel. This is done by clicking in the box above the pan control in the channel, as shown below.



The possible inputs are divided into streams grouped by source, as shown in the drop down menu above. Inputs are all of the audio inputs on your interface (both analogue and digital), and DAW contains all of the audio channels being sent back to your interface from your computer (Digital Audio Workstation).

The inputs selected will be the same in each of the mixes, however the other controls are specific to each mix. These other controls are:

Pan – adjusts the balance between left and right speakers

Channel Fader – adjusts the level of the channel. Double click to set to unity gain (0dB)

PFL – Pre-Fade Listen. Preview the selected channel before the level is altered by the channel fader.

Stereo – Aggregates the 2 mono channels together into a single stereo channel with shared controls.

Mute – cuts the selected channel.

Solo – cuts all other channels.

It is also possible to name the channel by clicking in the box below the Mute and Solo buttons.


The Mix Output

The audio from the separate mix channels then goes to the mix output, which is situated at the right-hand end of the mixer section. The controls are essentially the same as those found in the mixer channels, i.e. a Channel Fader, and Mute, Solo, and Stereo buttons. However, the stereo button on the mix output aggregates that mix with the one next to it, and the mix tab at the top of the screen expands. The mixes combine in the following way: Mix 1 with Mix 2 and vice versa, Mix 3 and 4, Mix 5 and 6, etc. The example at the top of this article shows Mixes 1 and 2 aggregated together.


See also:
Saffire MixControl Tutorial Part II: Routing Audio to the Outputs
Saffire MixControl Tutorial Part III: Getting Sufficient Level from the Audio Outputs