BTW in regards to the optical input stuff Matt from Focusrite said this in another thread in case ya'll missed it...


"Glad to hear you are all enjoying using your Scarletts and Saffires with X1.
Beepster: In regards to your question about using the optical input with the 18i6, you should be able to use it with any device that has an ADAT optical output. The only thing you have to do is plugin the lightpipe cable to both devices and set your Sync source in MixControl to ADAT. You will want to set the device sending the optical output to internal clocking. It really is that easy.
Matt Pliskin // Focusrite Technical Support"

Hooray!

And by "Hooray!" I mean my Layla does indeed have an optical out so I think I might be able to use it to take advantage of the extra 8 analog ins on the Layla. Whether I can use the phantom power on the mic pres... well I guess I'll just have to experiment. So the moral of the story is... Hooray!

That would be pretty cool if it works out that way. Let us know when you get back to it.

Okay... so I'm trying an instrument track for the first time (gonna try to record a bass line) and I wanted to use multi input 1. I inserted an audio track in X1, clicked the output menu and selected the Focusrite left channel 1 (not exactly what it said but that's not my point). When I did that the "Instr." LEDs on the front of the box lit up red for the first time... both of them. Just trying to keep with my thorough description. Cheers.

Actually I forgot that I opened MixControl and switched 1 and 2 to Inst (instead of Line) and that is what made the LEDs turn on. When I switch either one back to line the corresponding LED turns off.

I'm super tired now but I just managed to get a bass track recorded. Despite a busted up pickup and a complete lack of any kind of tweaking aside from adjusting the trim knob and setting MixControl channel 1 to "Instr" I got an AWESOME sound. Super clean, crisp, full and loud... just from plugging straight into the front of the 18i6 with my Mexi P. I did not hear ANY latency at all and I have not changed the buffer settings from my last report (it's set at 10ms and I was getting something silly like 30ms roundtrip) so perhaps it was set to zero latency monitoring or I just don't hear that kind of latency. Either way I am quite happy with the results. Cheers and good night.

Okay... so that was a little bit understated. I needed to put away my gear and get some dinner going. When I say it sounded good I mean it sounded GOOOOOOOD. Like I was playing through an old Ampeg fridge dialed into to it's cleanest, most present sound. I was really worried about how I would deal with my bass tracks and thought I would have to buy an amp or screw around with sims forever but from my ears it was spot, freaking, on. And all I did was plug straight into the Scarlett. Granted I did just put new strings on the bass so that probably helped but I used to try a direct in on my Layla through the multi pres with the exact same bass (when the pickup wasn't mangled too) and it was flat and cruddy sounding. I recorded an album and ran my bass through my Line 6 head to get a cleaner tone which worked well enough but that was GARBAGE compared to this. Even after tons of post EQing and adding effects and whatever it was GARBAGE compared to this. So yes indeed a basic Instr. input through the multi pres smokes some considerable butt at least in regards to recording bass. Can't wait to see what it will do for my guitar sound... and, if I ever get up to it again, some vocals. Cheers.

So...   Hi-Z = 
 

Does the scarlett come with any amp simulation software like my line 6 ux-1 did? Something like pod farm perhaps?

No amp Sims. Just compressor, gate, EQ and reverb plugs. I didn't use any of that for the bass track.