Focusrite Saffire 10i/o Question

[allions]

Hello, I'm new to the forum here. I have a Focusrite Saffire 10i/o soundcard. It should (in theory) allow me to record 8 analog inputs simultaneously. Thus far, however, I have only been able to record two tracks at a time. When I go into Edit--Preferences--Audio I/O, in the Device menu, it gives me the choice of: Saffire 1/2 or Saffire 3/4 or Saffire 5/6 or Saffire 7/8 or the computer soundcard. I have successfully recorded through any group of two inputs (ie. Saffire 5/6), however, I can't get it to do more than one group at a time. If I change the 'channels' to 3 or more (it goes from 1-16), it gives me an error message 'Error while opening sound device. Please check the input device settings and the project sample rate.'

It's the exact same thing when I go into Control Panel--Sounds and Audio Devices--Audio, it still only gives me the option to choose 1 group of two inputs from the menu.

Other than that, the soundcard works great for recording 2 channels at a time (guitar, bass, vox etc.), but doing an 8-channel drum track isn't working out for me...

Anyone have any ideas? Is this a limitation of Audacity?

Thanks,

-AL

[kozikowski]

Audacity will manage up to 16 individual sound channels from any one Sound Device. Many manufacturers make 16 channel equipment by electronically gluing eight Stereo Devices together.

The trick is getting the ads to tell you which equipment is "real" 16 track. It's possible that it's a Windows Driver issue as well. Audacity is a complete slave to whatever its computer does.

Koz

[steve]

If there is no option for "Saffire Multi" or something like that, then it is probably as koz suggests, 4 stereo devices "glued" together. If ASIO drivers are available for your sound card, then you will probably be able to record multiple inputs simultaneously with a program that supports ASIO (such as Wavosaur). Unfortunately Audacity can not be distributed with ASIO support due to licensing restrictions.

ASIO can be added to Audacity, but it is quite an involved (difficult) process, particularly on Windows. http://www.audacityteam.org/wiki/index. ... _Interface