Having heard great things about the Scarlett range from Focusrite and, in need of a new low-latency audio interface for a home studio, I bought the 18i8.
Initial impressions upon unboxing were good. Build quality seems excellent, all the knobs have a smooth and deliberate feel, not plasticky at all, and all the interface sockets have a solid, tight connection without any slop or slack. However, I had a number of problems after installing and using this unit - all of which I managed to resolve, but that did involve some hair-pulling!
First, the instructions don't make it clear that you need to install the Focusrite Control software (which also installs the USB driver) BEFORE connecting/powering on the unit. In fact, the little cartoon get-started panel implies the opposite. But if you do that, the install can hang indefinitely during the driver installation. Install the software and driver first, restart, then connect & power-on the interface.
Next, I had real problems with sound quality - especially with ASIO. There were numerous snap, crackle and pop artefacts and no amount of playing with buffer sizes could address it. Have two audio apps working simultaneously, e.g. a soft synth and a DAW, and it would get worse. Annoying for everyone and totally unacceptable for a studio environment.
Even worse were the string of Windows kernel panics (BAD_POOL_CALLER blue screens) caused by the Focusrite driver. It was driving me potty, as every time I tried tweaking the buffer sizes or audio signal path, I'd eventually see my system blue screen.
Fortunately, the solution to ALL these problems was to install the Focusrite USB driver version 4.65.4.656 from beta.focusrite.com which was released in May. No more blue screens, no more crackling and popping (so far). Now - at last - this seems like a great little interface. Everything is now performing as I expect. Yay!
This would have been a nightmare for a non-technical customer to diagnose and resolve, however. So, if you buy one and have problems similar to those I describe above, try the beta driver I mentioned.
| Wymiary produktu | 14.96 x 21.01 x 4.75 cm; 453.59 gr |
|---|---|
| Numer modelu | AMS-SCARLETT-8I6-3G |
| Wycofane przez producenta | Nie |
| Interfejs sprzętu | USB |
| Liczba kanałów miksera | 2 |
| Napięcie | 240 Wolty |
| Waga przedmiotu | 454 g |
