Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 compatible with Garageband?

[musicalweather]

I know this must sound incongruous -- hooking up the Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 interface to a Mac laptop that has Garageband -- but it's what I'm considering.

Here's the situation:

I'm helping some friends setup a multi-track recording environment. They have a Mac laptop with Garageband on it. It's quite likely that they will upgrade to Pro Tools or perhaps Logic in the future. Right now they just want to be able to record multiple tracks onto something and hand over those raw tracks to me for editing and processing.

I know that the Saffire Pro 40 is 24-bit and Garageband appears to record only in 16-bit, so I wonder if this will cause a compatibility problem.

So my question is, is anyone out there actually using the Saffire Pro 40 with Garageband?

Thanks!

[kclements]

Garage Band uses Core audio, so as long as the Focusrite provides the drivers, you should be good to go. I don't believe the bit rate will cause any troubles. I use Logic and not Garageband, but they are kind of the same - GB being Logic's smaller brother. But it might be a good idea to call the people you are getting the Focusrite from and get a confirmation. At least find out what their return policy is in case there are issues.

And if they upgrade to Logic down the road, all of their Garage Band projects will transfer over.

cheers -
kc