New Audio Interface - Focusrite Scarlett 18i6

Was about to buy the focusrite saffire 6 which has received great reviews, however just came across this newer focusrite scarlett 18i6/8i6 usb 2.0 product which seems well much better value (~300e) for more inputs. Can I have some experienced views from forum members incase im forgetting something to watch out for?!
 
http://www.focusrite.com/products/audio_interfaces/scarlett_18i6/
 
or a smaller version of it
 
http://www.focusrite.com/products/audio_interfaces/scarlett_8i6/
 
Regards,
 
Cian

Thanks AT, you would certainly think that the hardware and drivers should perform very similiar to the saffire pro6, i reckon i'll take the risk, dont know which one to go for but i guess more inputs is always better for the sake of an extra 50 squids.

Hopefully some reviews will crop up over the weekend, Im looking to purchase at the start of  next week.

Good luck, whack.  USB should be the standard for many years, which is always nice.

@

I too just ordered an 18i6 from Sweetwater.  It will probably be here next week.  I am looking forward to hooking it up and taking it for a test spin.

I had to scrap my Delta 1010 because it didn't play nice with Windows 7 64bit and my Intel motherboard.    I have read some positive reviews on the web.   I went this route because firewire seems to be on its way out and this device is new and supposedly has decent drivers.

I will check back here to see how everyone is doing with 18i6 and I will let you know how it works for me.

I recommend you to download the latest MixControl (includes ASIO driver) from here:
http://www.focusrite.com/downloads/scarlett_18i6/

At least my 8i6 driver CD that came with it, included older drivers than on the web.

Hi Cian,

First time I installed the driver from the CD and then the one from the web over it. I was also getting BSODs then, but I am not sure what was the cause of it.

The second installation I did, was from the web - downloaded the MixControl driver, which includes USB driver and everything has been working well since then.

What was the message on the BSODs? I am running Win7 x64 Pro and was getting BSODs saying something about "USB" drivers... 
Try this http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed to investigate the BSOD.

If you are running Win7, go to Power Options / Advanced settings and DISABLE "USB selective suspend setting". This should do the trick.

  As of the preamp level, I cannot help you with this as I have not used Microphones with my Scarlett yet. But when I do, I will let you know how it performed. 

  Scarlett plugin suit is x86, so make sure Sonar is scanning for VST plugins also in x86 folders (in case you are running x64 Sonar). My Scarlett plugins showed in X1 just OK. 

Good luck

Thanks for the lenghty post marek, I have not got this blue screen since and everything seems to be working ok so far again.
Although I do notice quite a delay during input echo through my headphones when recording vocal,suppose a little adjusting is needed. Can I clarify the second time you installed the drivers (from the web) did you first uninstall the CD drivers??

I have added the x86 folder to the vst folders tab in Edit >>Preferences, although they still do not show in the plug-in pane in X1. Hey look I probably wont use them but its always nice to have them there!

Please report back with preamp level for instrument 1 when you get a chance, thanks.

Hi Greg, Dont sweat yet, all these things need different tweaking for different machines plus everything is ok at the moment! In relation to your question, I havnt tried it yet but in the mix control software there is a button that selects between line and instrument for ports one and two at the front,so Im guessing that is where it differentiates between the two!

Cian

 "a complete reinstall of the whole PC"......annoying or what?!


Got the plug ins to work, clicked "manage plug-in" and then dragged them over form the folder source to the plug in section.


Cool,


Thanks

I am sorry you're having such problems, Cian.

I am not a PC expert so unfortunately I am not able to help you with the BSODs.

But from my experience, check the power management setting, if you haven't already. Go to Power Options / Advanced settings and DISABLE "USB selective suspend setting. Also, make sure you plug Scarlett to SUB 2.0 port, not 3.0. I have read somewhere it doesn't work in USB 3.0 ports.

You can also try to uninstall the drivers, restart the PC, and run the installation again and make sure you will Run it as administrator (right click on the Setup file and choose Run as admin). Turn off any anti/virus, firewall or other security apps before the installation.

Common recommendation is to perform MemTest 86, so you can try that as well, but since you're getting BSODs only with this particular device, I would be surprised if your RAM was the culprit.  

In either case, you should contact Focusrite tech support. I am sure they will help you in solving the issue.

I believe once you resolve this annoyance, you will enjoy using Scarlett.

Good luck and let me know if I can help you any more.

Marek

thanks for your help marek, I thought you might have more a slight bit more knowledge than I do.

Awaiting email reponse from focusrite,guess it will take a few days.

Have carried out most of the those things too,I lll try one more clean installation see how that goes.

Stop greg,sometimes I wonder why I even go this route,should get someone else to do the technical stuff,slows everything down for me really.

Thanks men,

Cian

Good to hear NW Smith,sounds straightforward from your post.

I tried reinstalling all again,still got blue screen,although when it rebooted itself it seemed to work fine?!,man quirky or what.

Besides this, if anyone could give some info on the latency when they get a chance.Its set to 10 ms by default in the scarlett ASIO panel, but I get a slight delay when recording vocals and MIDI so I went much lower yielding better results. Is is practical to put this buffer size to 0 ms??

Cian

Greg, the MixControl download on the web includes both MixControl utility and drivers, so practically it is the only download you need.


Cian

I run my Scarlett at 4ms latency and this setting is pretty stable on my system even while running larger projects (10 tracks, 4 VSTis, unfrozen...).

10ms buffer is too high I think, that must result into a huge roundtrip latency, and that is why you get a delay while monitoring vocals. Do not be afraid trying buffer values lower than 5ms, in case you start getting drop-outs or crackles, just increase it one step higher. 

But, firstly, I wish you luck in solving the drivers issue. 
I am just curious, how long have you been running your actual Win7 installation? How old is it? Maybe your system is "full of old drivers/files/registry entries" that interfere with Scarlett driver. And in that case Win7 reinstall would be the only cure. I personally consider reinstalling Win7 the most efficient and effective way of solving PC problems. It usually takes me two full days to install every software back (I do not use Backup imaging SW, I know, poor me) but many times it costs less time and lost nerves :) than endless struggling with unsuccessful installations and BSODs etc.

Any news Cian? 

It looks promising then. :) It is good the know that Focusrite support is trying to help.
Am I understanding it right, that now you cannot use Scarlett as a MIDI interface?

Cian and Merak,

Here's a little snapshot of what I've been dealing with regarding the driver and 8i6 Scarlett. I went through all of the driver fiasco and blue screens. I'm not actually a Calkwalk user, but created an account here to share my Scarlett experience which has yet to be resolved. 

I purchased the unit from Sweetwater and pretty much exhausted tech support options there. They've done everything they can do. I've not had the opportunity to even try the mic pres and line inputs because I've been doing so much focus on the midi issues I've encountered. 

I may very well be the one person having midi issues that tech support referenced when speaking to Cian. Although I haven't directly spoken with Focusrite's tech support, I have relayed and updated the following to them through e-mail. 

As far as audio performance, it sounds and works great along the lines of audio output. I will have to take time to record through the inputs which I hadn't done yet. I'm trusting that they work fine. 

Primary issue: I bought this so that I can trigger my Superior Drummer sample kits realtime via MIDI with my Roland V-Drums through my laptop and split that midi information out to record on my primary DAW. 

For the brief time that it actually works, the latency at 3 ms works great. The problem is that the driver completely drops out and I lose all sound and midi after about 3 to 5 minutes. The USB connection LED indicates that it's connected, even though the driver is completely dropped out.

The interesting part is that when I go into device manager of Cubse it sees the driver but still doesn't make a connection even after I re-select it. 

The only way I can get it to work again as two completely unplugged power cord to the unit, because you can't just pull the USB or else it will blue screen (a lesson I've already learned). I also have to shut down the software. Pulling the power cord to the unit pretty much makes pulling the USB cable a moot point. I've pulled the USB after pulling the power, and I've left the USB in as well, and it doesn't seem to matter. 

After plugging the power back in and restarting my software and attempting to record midi it has about 3 to 10 minutes of life before it blows everything out again. By that I mean it loses total functionality and sound. Basically repeating the same issue. 

What really sucks is that I purchased it specifically so that I can trigger the samples realtime with low latency while recording midi to my primarily DAW during a full session. So far, mission un-accomplished!!! 

I know that it has got to be either hardware related, firmware related, or driver related. I hope it's just the latter. I'm still waiting to hear back from Focusrite's tech support team. 

I really just wanted to share my experience on this form to see if anyone else is having the same issues regardless of the application being used. 

Again, when I'm just using audio with no midi connections, it works great. I tested playback for 5 hours straight and by letting a project play repeatedly on a loop, running internal samplers and audio tracks with no problems.

For my purposes, this unit is completely useless until I can get midi working without issue. I love the way it sounds, but for all practical purposes I've already got top industry converters coming out my ears. 

I will watch this post as I am trying to get this resolved. If things get resolved through my interactions with Focusrite, I will be sure to post my findings here. 

System specs: 
HP Pavilion dv7-4285dx
Windows 7 Home premium
i5 2.53 CPU
6 GB RAM
Cubase 5.53 (Latest Update)

Cheers!