Focusrite Scarlett Solo (2nd Gen) USB Audio Interface with Pro Tools | First

So I bought this and I'm pairing it with my Audio Technica AT2020. It provides the 48v phantom power needed to run the microphone and works very well. I plug in audio from my gaming PC using a 3.5mm(sound card side) to 1/4' (Scarlett side) cable and it works great. Then I plug the unit into my streaming laptop via USB and plug in my Sennheiser HD579 headset with 1/4 connection to the monitor output on the Solo. It's a great setup and the mic sounds great using this "preamp". Before I had a Pyle Mixer and it sucked compared to this. All I wanted was a way to have my game audio and mic audio piped into one unit, and then be able to control the volume of my headset without having to minimize my game. This provided just that. I highly recommend this if you stream on Twitch or Youtube. Also, I dabble in music creation with Reason 10 and this gets recognized by the software and my mic sounds great when recording vocal tracks for music. 5 stars all the way!! Update 1/5/2020: This Audio Interface is still going strong and working very well for me. I mainly use it to get audio from my Pioneer DDJ-SX2 DJ controller into my computer to stream on Twitch or Cue.dj and it gets that job done flawlessly. I can connect turntables to my SX2 and record vinyl to MP3 using Audacity or Reason 11 Intro and it works perfectly fine and sounds great. Still recommend this Audio Interface.

I have been playing guitar for over 50 years. I started doing home recording back when the only thing you could use was a 4 track. I was one of the first purchasers of Fostex's 4 track cassette decks. I work with Logic Pro X now on my MacBook Pro. I have been using an M-Audio Fast track for years, and figured an interface is an interface. When using the M-Audio, I had to run the mic and bass, etc, through a Tube pre-amp. I purchased this on a whim, thinking that it would be nice not to have to use the Tube. To be frank, I am pleased and amazed. No latency issues at all. Crystal clear sound. Plug and play, no hassles and an unbeatable price. The unit is very sturdy, and looks good as others have noted, but who cares about that, the sound and ease of use for Mac is all I care about. I don't need multiple inputs, since I do one track at a time, and like it that way. If you are like me, and use Logic, this is a great buy. I express no opinion about using this with a PC, since you have to download drivers and stuff like that. Avoiding all of that is why I have a Mac.

Good build and overall great performance

After using my microphone, The Audio-Technica ATR2100 , for a while, I decided I wanted to up my voiceover game by getting a nicer mic. I finally settled on the Shure SM57 after using the Shure SM58 for a while. Both of those are dynamic microphones, which provided the tone I was looking for, and both use an XLR interface. So in order to use those, I needed a USB audio interface. I did plenty of research before purchasing, but I should have done a tad bit more before buying. I'll come back to that, but first the review of the scarlett solo 2nd gen. The unit came well packaged. It's double boxed, having a plain brown outer cardboard box, with the fancy, full-colored, glossy product box inside. In the box is the scarlett solo 2nd gen unit, manual with download codes for the included software (which I have no need for; I record directly into OBS Studio and Audacity) and usb cable. The usb cable is thin and a fair bit too short, so I highly recommend getting a longer cable, six feet or so. That said, I had no issues with the included cable. The unit itself is very well built and has some heft to it. The casing is red anodized aluminum and feels very solid and not hollow. All of the knobs and switches are equally solid. The knobs especially, feel great when adjusting. There's no roughness in their rotation and they have a decent amount of resistance so you can make very fine adjustments without fear of overdoing it. The adjustment switches don't have any excess wiggle nor do they feel cheaply made. The XLR, instrument, headphone, usb and rca jacks all accept their appropriate cables snugly with no play. There's wide, flat rubber feet on the bottom that keep the unit in place with minimal slipping. When plugged in, there's a small green led indicating usb power. When the 48v phantom power is activated, the button lights up in red. Not blindingly so, as the button is translucent, so the light is diffused to a gentle glow. Around each gain knob is a ring that lights up (green indicating a signal is present, red indicating clipping) when an attached microphone or instrument produce sound. The ring is frosted like the phantom power button, so when lit up, the light is even all the way around and diffused and not blinding. This is an ingenious implementation of monitoring your levels while recording and easily one of my favorite features of the solo. Installation was extremely easy; I downloaded the Windows 10 usb driver from focusrite's website (note that you do NOT have to register anything to download the driver), plugged in the solo to my pc with the included usb cable and it was ready to go. I plugged in my XLR cable, Cloudlifter CL-1 , another XLR cable (needed when using the cloudlifter) and SM57. The solo records at up to 24bit 192 kHz, but I never felt the need to go higher than 24bit 48 kHz. At first, everything was working great; with the cloudlifter I only need the gain knob at around 25%. My voice comes through loud and clear with little to no noise. But after a while of use, usually 1-3 hours, the audio would start to distort and become garbled. I'd hear it through my headphones, and my neice, who I was playingan online game with at the time, heard it on her end as well. Unplugging and plugging back in the solo would be a temporary fix, but the problem did persist. I saw reading the reviews that it was an issue others were having as well, and that there was a focusrite rep (Chris Ready, a very polite and helpful gentleman) commenting and trying to get to the bottom of the issue. After emailing back and forth with the rep for a bit, I downloaded the most recent driver and the problem now appears to be fixed. So as it is now, it's working very reliably, which is an absolute necessity for streaming and recording. Now that said, It's very hard to recommend the solo over the Scarlett 2i2 2nd Gen . The 2i2 is $50 more, but worth it for a few features that stand out, one big one in particular. First, the inputs on the front are slightly different; there's two combo inputs that accept both XLR and 1/4" plugs, rather than the single XLR and 1/4" inputs on the solo. Second, the inputs on the back are 1/4" balanced TRS as opposed to the unbalanced rca inputs on the solo. Not a huge deal, but an improvement nonetheless. Finally, and the main reason I should have done a bit more research, the volume knobs for the monitors and headphones are separate on the 2i2, while on the solo a single knob controls both. I do use my headphones a lot ( beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 80 ohm ), but I have a set of emotiva 6s on the way. With the solo, if I want to use just the headphones, I'll have to reach behind each speaker and turn them down/off, since using the volume knob on the solo controls the volume for both the monitors and the headphones. With the 2i2, I can simply turn down whichever I won't be using. So while the solo is great, but simple, audio interface, save those extra pennies and go for the 2i2 instead.

This product works really nicely. I am a newb in the recording world so even though there aren't a lot of inputs or outputs on this unit (just guitar and microphone) that helps me because I am learning. I could see a person in a quick fashion outgrowing this unit and needing a larger audio interface that can do more but for now it works well. The software that comes with it, works easily enough, takes some tweaking to work with my 4k monitor resolution and Windows 10 but it DOES work! It again just takes some patience to set it all up. I use this with some 4 inch studio monitors that I purchased and the sound is incredible! I use them for all sound not just for recording. YouTube clips, games, movies all sound amazing through this interface. I love its blissful simplicity. For intermediate or advance recording individuals I would probably not recommend this unless you wanted something small you could take with you on the go? Seems like a funny thing to tag along though, its definitely more of a table top item. But for us beginners its a great way to get your feet wet with some simple recording. I play Guitar and Sing for fun and it has proven effective and simple.

EDIT: I mentioned in my original review that the interface does not provide phantom power, but I was mistaken. There is a button right under the microphone gain knob for it. The interface does everything it was designed to do. In hindsight, I should have gone a step up because this interface does not provide phantom power for microphones. I had to buy a patch cable to bridge from my phantom power supply to this interface (see attached photo). I also needed to buy an adapter for my headphones since this unit has a 1/4" headphone jack for studio headphones instead of the common 3.5mm. The free software licenses provided have been lackluster. the Protools license only lets you save 2 project files and it eventually stopped opening for me, the other one that offered effects never worked to begin with. I am not removing stars for this though because I bought the unit for the ability to record guitar and vocals to my computer (which it does as advertised), not for the free software. I also went down to my local Guitar Center after I purchased this unit and all the staff had only good things to say about it.

Idk it works and it's cheap. If there's something better let me know. But tbh with a midi keyboard a mic and a arturia microphone freak this is pretty much all I need. Im not an audio expert but. It works and I've NEVER had an issue with it not once ever. Its also red. Thank you.

I've recent started a home studio and received many suggestions for what I should buy for my first Audio Interface. Focusrite Scarlett Solo was mentioned many times so it became my first choice. Since purchased I have tried many other products and I'm ready to tell people what I think. This is not a piece of equipment that should be in a major studio although anyone just getting into recording that wants a simple and extremely capable sound should look into this. If you're reading negative reviews on this product then its probably somebody who is expecting more from something that exactly what it's supposed to be. As far as issues go, I've never ran into sound or power issues as some reviewers have mentioned. Although if there's a power issue I would suggest calling Focusrite. The build in preamp worked perfectly until I was able to buy a preamp. I give this product a 5 out of 5 for doing its job well beyond the price paid for it.