Saffire mix control windows 10

Saffire MixControl 3.7

The application includes all the necessary drivers and software utilities in order to run the firewire Saffire range of Focusrite interfaces.

Saffire MixControl 3.7 details

Author:	Focusrite
License:	Freeware
Price:	FREE
Released:	Sep 6, 2017
File size:	17.70 MB
Downloads:	125
Keywords:	multi-channel mixer, mixer controller, control mixer, mixer, control, mix
Author URL:	https://global.focusrite.com/

User Rating: 4.0 ( 3 votes)

Software Coupons

Windows 10 Blog

Windows 10 Tags

Saffire MixControl for Windows 10 — Full description

Saffire MixControl is a reliable and intuitive application whose main purpose is to help users control a multi-channel mixer with ease.

The application includes all the necessary drivers and software utilities in order to run the firewire Saffire range of Focusrite interfaces.

Saffire MixControl for Windows 10 — Post your review

Top Win 10 Downloads

Saved Downloads

You have not saved any software

Click «Save» next to each software

Would you like to receive announcements of new versions of your software by email or by RSS reader?

Focusrite Saffire (56 and others?) “no hardware connected” on windows 10

Spoiler: At least for my issue I found a solution, see my answer for that.

Recently I got back into recording and wanted to connect my Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 to my Windows 10 machine. AFAIK the liquid and the pro editions are all connected via firewire so I also bought a PCI Express firewire card for my machine.

I grabbed the latest Saffire MixControl which is 3.7 for windows but at the end I kept the older 3.4 version, which should not matter for the issue.

My machine kept detecting the saffire and my DAW and OS told me that it is there but I was not able to record with it and got always generic errors during opening the audio device. Furthermore the saffire mix control kept saying «no hardware connected»

I checked the firewire cable and socket, albeit a bit wobbly they are ok since the PC detects the interface properly.

4 Answers 4

Focusrite discontinued the support for the Saffire 56 from Windows 10 build 1903 due to device incompatibilities in the firewire interface and says «it will not work on versions >= 1903″. That’s not a good start for that.

Regardless of this fact my audio interface seems to work very stable and reliable on my windows 10 machine now.

My PC had no firewire inputs on the board so I bought a delock PCI firewire card. The brand is not important, important was the fact that Focusrite supports only VIA and Texas Instruments chipsets on the firewire interface. I was lucky because I had the Texas Instruments chipset and also the card was rated for 400 mbps, just like my saffire needed.

Beside that I could not work with the Saffire Mix Control nor record anything. The device appeared to be there but only as a non working zombie. I knew from the past that the interface was working on Windows 7 and cannot remember whether it did on 10.

After testing all of those focusrite articles and some threads on various forums I found an issue with microsofts driver selection in the device manager for my firewire card.

Looking at the device manager for the firewire card I noticed something strange:

Seems to work and looking good but then I said «wait, wasn’t my firewire chipset’s brand Texas Instruments and not VIA?»

Windows insisted it was a generic VIA chipset so I right clicked onto it, went to settings/properties, picked the «driver» tab, selected «Update driver» then selected the «locate driver on my machine», then clicked «pick one from a list» and got basically two different options:

• OHCI compliant VIA 1394 Host Controller
• OHCI compliant 1394 Host Controller

I selected the non VIA version, installed it and that fixed my problem. The Saffire Mix Control was then able to detect the saffire without any issues and I was able to record instantly.

Firewire is quite old and I guess since windows already provides the drivers for firewire, the PCI card manufacturer relied on windows for matching it’s chipset signature to the necessary driver. Either the PCI card manufacturer or microsoft botched things up picking a driver that only «seemed» to work.

If you have the same issue I hope it will help my fellow friends in the firewire hell 🙂

Small disclaimer: The process of selecting another driver might use a different wording, I recommend searching for a guide on how to do this if you are stuck or not sure. My windows machine uses a non English language so the guide above might be not entirely accurate on the wording you might find on your machine.

Windows 10 upgrade with Firewire issue

#1 WaltC

I upgraded to Windows 10 yesterday. Everything seems fine except my Focusrite Saffire Firewire audio interface will no longer work. It worked fine under Windows 7. I’ve installed the legacy 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller, uninstalled and reinstalled the driver for the device. During the driver installation it prompts me to connect the firewire cable to the device. After that is says waiting for the firmware to boot but it times out. Then says upgrade the firmware which click OK on then it says no device connected. The device is connected and getting power. I’ve read conflicting reports about Windows 10 firewire support. Any ideas? Thanks.

Windows 10 Pro ▌MSI X570-A Pro ▌Ryzen 5 3600 ▌Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB ▌32Gb DDR4 3200 G.Skill Ripjaws ▌EVGA GTX 1070 SC ▌ Samsung 970 EVO 500GB M.2 NVMe ▌ Corsair RMX750x ▌ NZXT H510i

BC AdBot (Login to Remove)

• 
• BleepingComputer.com
• Register to remove ads

#2 Steve Lum

Howdy, I am in the same boat with a Saffire Pro 40. Did all the steps you mentioned and no joy. Had to roll back to Win7. I talked to Focusrite this morning and they don’t have any known issues — tech support guy said he had a win 10 machine working with a Pro 26 right next to him. So it seems situational but it feels like a bug. It may take some time for MS and manufacturers to sort out specific issues. I signed up here just in case this thread produces some leads. Cheers.

#3 WaltC

My Saffire is the original one so pretty old. When installing the driver it does fine until it asks me to connect the interface. Then it says it’s waiting for the firmware to boot but it never does. Then asks to update firmware and I click yes and it says device not found. So I’m not sure if it’s the driver for the interface, the driver for the firewire card or actually a problem with the firmware. I was recording literally 10 minutes before starting the upgrade with no problems. I tried to go back to Windows 7 but it says files it needs have been removed but I haven’t deleted anything and windows.old file is still there.

Windows 10 Pro ▌MSI X570-A Pro ▌Ryzen 5 3600 ▌Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB ▌32Gb DDR4 3200 G.Skill Ripjaws ▌EVGA GTX 1070 SC ▌ Samsung 970 EVO 500GB M.2 NVMe ▌ Corsair RMX750x ▌ NZXT H510i

#4 Steve Lum

Hey, I just saw an updated note on the Focusrite support website that they know of an issue with Windows 10 on computers with a VIA firewire chipset, which is what I have. so no Win 10 for me until they figure that out.

#5 WaltC

I have the VIA chipset too. But my interface is so old they won’t update the driver for it. There wasn’t an updated one for Windows 7 even but it happened to work. I’m going to try a clean install of 10 and if that doesn’t work I’m going back to 7 for now.

Windows 10 Pro ▌MSI X570-A Pro ▌Ryzen 5 3600 ▌Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB ▌32Gb DDR4 3200 G.Skill Ripjaws ▌EVGA GTX 1070 SC ▌ Samsung 970 EVO 500GB M.2 NVMe ▌ Corsair RMX750x ▌ NZXT H510i

#6 WaltC

So the whole time I had Windows 10 installed I got no response from the audio interface at all except it powered on through the firewire cable. Restarts, IEEE 1394 driver changes, unplugging the firewire cable, nothing except power. Yesterday after I got Windows 7 reinstalled I had the interface plugged in and it was getting power but still no response, at this point I hadn’t tried to install Focusrite drivers yet. I went to the device manager to change the IEEE 1394 driver to the legacy one, which I used previously with 7 and tried to use with 10 (among others), and as soon as I chose it the interface clicked and the lights changed to the ‘ready’ pattern. Went on to install the drivers with no issues. So it does seem to be an issue with 10 and the IEEE 1394 drivers.

Windows 10 Pro ▌MSI X570-A Pro ▌Ryzen 5 3600 ▌Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB ▌32Gb DDR4 3200 G.Skill Ripjaws ▌EVGA GTX 1070 SC ▌ Samsung 970 EVO 500GB M.2 NVMe ▌ Corsair RMX750x ▌ NZXT H510i

#7 himuragackt

I went to the device manager to change the IEEE 1394 driver to the legacy one, which I used previously with 7 and tried to use with 10 (among others), and as soon as I chose it the interface clicked and the lights changed to the ‘ready’ pattern. Went on to install the drivers with no issues. So it does seem to be an issue with 10 and the IEEE 1394 drivers.

Please, could you explain me how to do that? I need to use my Saffire Firewire in this Windows 10 :s

#8 Steve Lum

Himuragackt, I think Walt is just telling us he was able to roll back to Windows 7 successfully. When he first tried to go back to Win 7 his audio didn’t work any longer.

On Windows 10 there is a known issue at this time with Focusrite Saffire devices connected to a computer that has the VIA chipset on the motherboard or firewire card. If you do not have the VIA chipset you should be able to run Saffire devices on Win 10 with their latest mix control application.

Those of us that have the VIA chipset will need to wait for Focusrite to figure out what is wrong. Here is the text from their website:

» We have become aware of a connectivity issue running Saffire units on Windows 10 connected to firewire cards with a VIA chipset. We are currently investigating this issue as a top priority. In the meantime, if you are using a VIA chipset, we recommend you do not update to Windows 10. «

#9 WaltC

Yes, Steve is correct, I never got it working under Windows 10.

Windows 10 Pro ▌MSI X570-A Pro ▌Ryzen 5 3600 ▌Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB ▌32Gb DDR4 3200 G.Skill Ripjaws ▌EVGA GTX 1070 SC ▌ Samsung 970 EVO 500GB M.2 NVMe ▌ Corsair RMX750x ▌ NZXT H510i

#10 himuragackt

Himuragackt, I think Walt is just telling us he was able to roll back to Windows 7 successfully. When he first tried to go back to Win 7 his audio didn’t work any longer.

On Windows 10 there is a known issue at this time with Focusrite Saffire devices connected to a computer that has the VIA chipset on the motherboard or firewire card. If you do not have the VIA chipset you should be able to run Saffire devices on Win 10 with their latest mix control application.

Those of us that have the VIA chipset will need to wait for Focusrite to figure out what is wrong. Here is the text from their website:

» We have become aware of a connectivity issue running Saffire units on Windows 10 connected to firewire cards with a VIA chipset. We are currently investigating this issue as a top priority. In the meantime, if you are using a VIA chipset, we recommend you do not update to Windows 10. «

Thak you very much.

#11 usedforbattle

Hi all, so I have managed to get my Saffire Pro 24 DSP working FIRST TIME on Windows 10 Professional, with

a VIA 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (firewire card).

As I had such a nightmare getting the Pro 24 working properly on my old Windows 7 Professional system, I thought I would leave you my instal steps. Please note while this worked for me, the Focusrite website advises not installing Windows 10 (but sod them).

STEP 0: Saffire Interface is off!

STEP 1: Clean Windows 10 Professional Install! I was brave (or stupid) enough to delete my old partitions on my SSD and start a completely fresh Windows 10 Pro install and NOT an update. This means no going back to reliable 7.

STEP 2: Once windows 10 was installed and working I checked the driver version of the IEEe 1394 host controller in device manager (VIA 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller). The driver version Windows 10 installs is 10.0.10240.16384, Drive date: 21/06/2006.

NOTE: This is not weirdly the legacy drivers, or the version I had working with Windows 7 (driver version 6.1.7601.17514). The 10 drivers seem to be the one windows 10 auto installed for my firewire card, they may be different for yours!

STEP 3: Downloading the ‘ Saffire Mix Control’ version 3.3 (NOT 3.4) from the focusrite website.

I had such a bad experiences with 3.4 on windows 7 that I’m not even going to try 3.4. It Bloody wouldn’t work the last time!

STEP 4: Instal ‘ Saffire Mix Control’ 3.3, to the main C drive. At the end of this instal the program will state that your interface is not plugged in. Now is time to turn it on!

Step 5: PRAYING. Once on the interface lights flashed and should stay green. I then right clicked opened the speakers icon on the desktop and went to playback devices.

STEP 6: In play back devices I made the speakers the Saffire Audio the default device.

STEP 7: Turn on your favourite tracks and enjoy!

Note: To get audio working again after a shutdown, I turn the PC first on with the interface off, then wait for it to ping back to life. You may need to repeat Step 5 at this point (I don’t have to).

I hope this gets you guys going with WIndows 10, let me know if you have any luck!