Just before I installed X2, by coincidence, my Cakewalk UA-1G USB audio interface seems to have failed. It still works, but it badly clips even very low level guitar inputs at exactly the same settings that worked fine a few days earlier. I have switched temporarily to a little Behringer USB unit I had bought, tried and rejected. I forget why but I went with the Cakewalk UA-1G which I was happy with until the clipping started. Behringer is working now but I am looking to upgrade.

I'm thinking of the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 which looks pretty good (I'm a solo singer-songwriter so I usually do one thing at a time) for about $134 on Amazon. I've only seen a couple of reviews but they say good preamps, good latency, and good drivers for 64 bit Win 7. Does anyone have any experience with this with Sonar, or advice for an alternate ($200 is the max I'm willing to spend right now). I am running a Toshiba Qosmio x775 laptop with 8 GB RAM and Intel Core i7 (it has USB 3.0 if that matters - 2i2 is USB 2.0). 

Thanks a lot,
Bruce

its a solid unit..nothing better really until you get to the $250 range imo

I got a Scarlett 8i6 in April, which was phenomenal in X1 - my i3 system runs at very low latencies with it even with plenty of tracks.  I am expecting X2 to be just as good.

Scarlett 18i6 working flawlessly (so far) with X2.

200-180 on sale at times...
the presonus saffire 6 usb.
tested and working for windows 7 sonar x2
thats what you want..something tested and working nice.
for 180...200.
look into it.its got the presonus award winning pres's in it. and midi support.
2 - 1/4 inch guitar/xlr phantom powered inputs.

uhwha?  Saffire 6 is Focusrite.  

Hello,

I just bought the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and I love it.  Before my Sonar X2 Producer crashed I recorded my electric guitar with an SM57 into the 2i2.  I was able to listen to the recording and I was extremely impressed!  I also like the fact that the housing is made of metal and it's completely powered by USB, including phantom power, which I haven't tried yet.

I'm very happy so far.  Got mine at Best Buy.

Good luck to you.

Duke Starbuckle

Thanks for the tips! I ordered a 2i2 to try out this coming week.

-Bruce

Getting ready to dump my TASCAM US-1800 due to high latency drivers.  Looking at the Scarlett 18i6.  How are you handling the 8 ADAT channels. Are you using a optical patch bay?  Looks like this unit has 8 analog, 2 S/PDIF and 8 ADAT for a total of 18 input.  I need to be able to patch the 8 channel ADAT into XLR or 1/4". Glad to see it working with X2.  I haven't been able to get under 15ms RT using my TASCAM US-1800.  Have you been able to get 10ms or less? What are you setting your ASIO buffer I/O to?  

Scarlett 18i6

NW Smith


Scarlett 18i6 working flawlessly (so far) with X2.

I just bought the 2i2 last week.  I wanted an interface that I could plug my Tele straight into without a lot of noise.  Two places I visited recommended the 2i2 for its Focusrite preamps.  They were right. Plugging both my Tele and a cheap mic into it produced very clean sound.  The latency at default setting was not acceptable, but after tweaking now performs as well as my Audiophile USB did, and I believe I can get it even lower if I drop my buffers a bit. Still tweaking.  Also LOVE the look and feel of it. Very sexy... for a sound card.

Best,
Rob