I guess that would be "Proper Bobby / Proper Bobby." That's only a guess, though. I've never been to England. And now I don't have to, because the new Focusrite Saffire PRO24 firewire interface is going to be available in North America -- indeed, worldwide -- by the end of the month (June), or so says Focusrite. Now I don't have to personally petition Her Majesty for a compact version of the Saffire PRO 40. Good on ya, mates! I'm working on my "British" impression!

The Saffire PRO 24 may be space-efficient, but it still manages to provide the user with sixteen inputs, including a pair of crystal-clear Focusrite microphone preamps. There's also two instrument / line inputs on the back, as well as an optical connector that supports eight channels of ADAT digital input. For output, you get six analog TRS 1/4" jacks, and S/DPIF I/O rounds out the whole 16x8 package. There's also MIDI In/Out, because you never know when you'll want to hook up some sort of arcane drum machine or wha-eva (JK, I love you, MIDI).

Saffire PRO 24 Rear Panel

A/D - D/A conversion on the PRO 24 is capable of up to 24-bit, 96kHz resolution, and the unit boasts Focusrite's JetPLL jitter elimination technology, making it a high-quality clock source for syncing the slew of peripheral digital inputs you're gonna want to patch in. Finally, the front panel of the PRO 24 provides gain control and 48v switching for inputs one and two, separate headphone and monitor volumes, and a five-segment LED meter for the four analog inputs.

The Saffire PRO 24 ain't all hardware, though. Its significant input total is managed by the Saffire Mix Control software it ships with. Mix Control makes zero-latency monitoring easy, and provides a powerful 18x18 mixing GUI that can even route audio between running audio software.

Saffire Mix Control Interface

That's not all, chummers. You also get the Focusrite Xcite+ pack (a collection of royalty-free loops and samples and a soft synth), the Focusrite VST/AU Plug-in Suite (featuring Compression, Reverb, Gating and EQ plugins in VST and AudioUnits formats), and Ableton Live 7 Lite! Wowzers!

Pricing for the Focusrite Saffire PRO 24 is still TBA.