Beepster


@John... I do indeed have dual monitors (which have actually caused me some grief but I won't go into it just yet as that issue is still being looked at), and I do think I'm going to like this unit very much... despite the cruddy adapter. Hope I'm not boring you guys. Cheers.

Good! You will want to have the Mixcontrol open on the other monitor. 


I wouldn't be upset about the power adapter its the way things are now. Grounding should not be a problem because its low voltage and most likely DC.

Actually I've seen the Cian threads and we even chatted briefly about the device. I learned a lot about the Scarlett series and the issues people were having with them before Focusrite fixed their drivers from those convos. They made me do some more research and contact Focusrite directly to make sure everything was going to work so they indeed help steer me towards the 18i6 in the end. Nice fella.

It is DC. Glad to hear it shouldn't cause any extra noise. That's a real relief actually. It's still a cruddy adapter though. I forgot to mention something however about the fact this device has an adapter. Many devices are USB powered (and my Layla drew power VIA PCI) but there seems to be a lot of talk about that not being ideal for an audio interface. Something about the device being powered VIA USB taking away from the audio data. So now adapters are the shiz. I hate wall warts and extra cables but signal quality and everything running smoothly is obviously more important.

Here is Focusrite's mainpage...

http://www.focusrite.com/homepage/

The general downloads page...

http://www.focusrite.com/downloads/user_guides/

And the 18i6 downloads page...

http://www.focusrite.com/downloads/scarlett_18i6/

So anyway I thought I might get further with this tonight but I'm hungry and sleepy (spent too much time typing this up and not enough time doing... lol) so I'll continue tomorrow after I read the manual. This all may seem silly to some of you but I've always found these types of ultra thorough layman's reviews more helpful than a bunch of specs and technobabble. If it helps even one person understand the product a little better then this diatribe will have achieved it's purpose. Plus it helps me take a good solid look at the gear which will hopefully translate into getting the best results possible from it and avoid any problems. Have a good night, guys.

I was thinking of the Scarlett 18i6 (more input choices), over the Quad Capture....ended up with the QC...
that was during the time that people were still having problems with the Scarlett's drivers...

I hate fiddling around with drivers, etc...so I got the QC...been rock solid with X1
:)

Looking forward to your in depth review of the Scarlett though, Beepster.

turn the damn thing on already!..

lol, it looks a nice little unit.. hopefully you take advantge of the balanced connections?.. 

oh..and the Nova Bassstation will surprise you.. the hardware unit is an all time synth classic and i understand the VST is really good.

coffee time.

Okay, I'm awake. Just gotta some tea into me and then we'll see how far I get. Should have some tunes cranking through it by tonight.

@viscant... The Quad Capture does look quite nice. I think that was the unit Seth recommended to me but it was a little pricier than this one. I believe you can expand the QC via optical cable as well (don't quote me on that though) so it would a good choice for a small studio that may look into becoming a larger studio. And obviously it's a great choice for X1 because it's the same company. Apparently the pres are really nice on it too and it has ultra low latency. I, however, just couldn't afford it. Just from the specs and reviews I'd say you probably got a nicer unit than I did. Cheers.

@mystic38... lol indeed. I have certainly succumbed to OCD in my old age, especially in regards to reading manuals. I read the manual for my kettle. I even read the manual for my long underwear. I guess I spent so much time GUESSING at what stuff is supposed to do in my life because everything I owned was used that now when I have access to a manual I consider it a luxury. I'm also prone to complete freak outs when something doesn't work properly (which happens often) so it helps keep my blood pressure down. Heheh.

I will indeed be using balanced cables for my monitors. Made sure to snag some for this set up. I was going to just use my old snakes but they are pretty big and clunky for a small desk set up and they are kind of thin and chincy underneath the shrink tubing so those will stay in retirement.

It's nice to hear the Basstation software is a desirable plug (I'm assuming it will work as a plugin with X1). I'm all for extra sounds... especially for free. I think I'll have to get into more modern, electronic type music writing to appease the current market if I ever want to make any money. People like my old fart music but it just wouldn't really cut it as far as what people want for commercial music productions. It's also a lot harder to compose and record than this new fangled loopity loop electronic type stuff. That's part of the reason I bought the X1 Suite. That way I just have a whole pile of VSTs to play with. Also if I get too sore or crippled up to play my real instruments I can still write and produce. Cheers.

Here's the list of included items from the manual so you can see more detail on the extra plugs/software that come with the unit...

Box contents
In the box there is:
1 x Scarlett 18i6
1 x USB cable
1 x Universal DC power supply unit (PSU).
1 x Installer CD: Contains combined installer for drivers and Scarlett
MixControl software for Mac and Windows.
Scarlett VST, AU and RTAS plug-in Suite for Mac and Windows - includes
Compressor plug-in
EQ plug-in
Gate plug-in
Reverb plug-in
4 x Self adhesive rubber feet - to be fitted to the base of Scarlett 18i6
1 x Registration card
1 x Xcite+ Bundle - includes:
Ableton Live LE software
Bass Station AU and VST synthesiser plug-in with serial number card
Over a Gigabyte of ‘Loopmasters” and “Mike the Drummer” royalty free samples
1 x Focusrite and Novation product brochure

Not that I was gonna hook this up to a USB hub anyway but apparently it is advised against. If using a hub you can't use any USB 1.0 devices on the hub because it will force the hub to operate at 1.0 and cause problems with the 18i6. Also if using an external hardrive for loops, plugins or whatever it shouldn't share a hub with the 18i6. Good to know.