Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (3rd Gen) USB Audio Interface Review / Explained

greetings earthlings today I'm back with a review of a brand new audio interface from Focusrite so today we're reviewing this guy the focusrite scarlett 2i2 third gen that is right the third generation of this scarlett series if you do want to pick this interface up it will set you back around 160 dollars like always I'll throw some links down below and in the sake of full disclosure Focusrite did send me this interface for the sake of doing this review for this review I have the rode nt1 connected directly to the third gen scarlett 2i2 with the 48 volt phantom power turned on and the gain set at around 50% I will not do any kind of post-processing but I may boost it in post so check the doobly-doo to see what I did Lee did now let's talk about what comes in the box of course you are going to get the interface you'll get a USB C 2 USB a cable you also get some free software like Pro Tools first Ableton Live light soft tube focus writes red plug-in suite and a whole lot more and if that is actually all you get in the box all the downloads like the documentation the drivers the software it's all downloadable onfocus writes website next up as far as the build quality the audio interface feels really well put together just like all the other Focusrite interfaces I've tested in the past it does have an all-metal chassis on the tops and the sides while the back and the front are made of plastic the dials don't have any kind of wobble to them the buttons have a really nice tactile click to them so you know when you've pressed one the XLR ports have no movement to them that is out of the ordinary and very quickly the third gen - I - is actually a touch smaller than the 2nd gen width wise and height wise it is the exact same but when we look at the depth it is just a little bit more shallow on the front of the interface you're going to find two identical channels they each have an XLR combo jack for either an XLR or quarter-inch input they also both have gain dial with a ring meter light around it which will flash red when you start clipping so you know you need to roll back the gain at that point they also have an instrument button to switch between line level and instrument level when you're using the quarter inch input and the really cool feature in this interface is the addition of the err button which is a circuit that's found in focus rights higher end is a preamps when you move farther to the right you'll find a 48 volt phantom power button to turn on or off the phantom power they've also added a new direct monitor button so you can turn on or off direct monitoring but you're also able to monitor stuff as mono or as a stereo pair in case you're running a stereo microphone set and you would want to hear the sound that you're actually recording the third-gen has a very similar monitor dial to turn up or down the quarter inch inputs on the rear it has a headphone volume control and a quarter inch stereo headphone output then on the back of the interface you'll find a USB C port to connect it to your device which is just awesome to see I think we should USBC all the things and you'll find a set of balanced quarter inch monitor outputs then as far as the specs of this thing it has a bit depth of 24-bit and a sampling rate of up to 192 kilohertz a gain range of fifty six decibels with a dynamic range of 111 decibels and when I measure the phantom power it comes in just shy of 48 volts at around forty seven point one and really quickly up on the screen I have a comparison of the third gen - I - to the second gen - I - so you're able to see what the difference is in the specifications are ok so right now I am right on top of the NT one to really engage the proximity effect and I do not have the air circuit turned on and this is how it's sounding and now I've enabled the error circuit and this is how it's sounding and you should be able to hear quite a big boost in the upper frequencies that just really brightens up the sound for another demonstration of the error circuit I am speaking into the sm7b again I do not have the air circuit currently turned on and this is how it's sounding and now I've enabled the error circuit and you can hear that a real brightens up the sm7b quite a lot now let's go ahead and measure the noise floor of one of these preamps and for that I will be using a method that I learned from Julie and Kraus I will link his video in the upper corner if you want to check that out you now in order to really test out the preamps in this thing I've connected the shure sm7b which is a notoriously quiet microphone I've increased my gain nearly to 100% and I am hitting around negative 6 DB on my meters and this is how it's sounding and I will be quiet so you can hear what kind of background noise there is now with a sample rate of 48 kilohertz and an i/o buffer size of 64 samples we have a round-trip latency of 8 milliseconds or an output latency of 3 and 1/2 milliseconds if we jump up to 128 samples we have 10 and 1/2 milliseconds round-trip or 4 and 1/2 milliseconds output and if we jump up to 256 samples we have 16 milliseconds round-trip or 7 and 1/2 milliseconds output now with a sample rate of 192 kilohertz and an i/o buffer size of 64 samples we have a round-trip latency of 6 milliseconds or an output latency of 2.3 milliseconds if we jump up to 128 samples we have 6 and 1/2 milliseconds round-trip or 2 and 1/2 milliseconds output and if we jump up to 256 samples we have 8 milliseconds round-trip or 3.3 milliseconds output and finally I want to demonstrate the instrument input of this interface so I'll be plugging my guitar directly into this thing I'll start by playing the DI track with no amp simulator on then I will turn on the air circuit so you can hear how that affects the electric guitar as just a DI signal then I'll turn on the amp simulator so you can hear it with and without the air circuit and see how it sounds you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and now I want to do a very quick comparison of the noise performance and the max gain on tap of the two I two second Chen to the two I to third gen and see how they match up so there you have it I don't know about you guys but I didn't hear or see much of a difference in terms of the max gain available or the noise floor of the - I - second Chen versus the - I - third gen alright I think that focus right was really smart about the incremental upgrades that they made to the - I - third gen without really losing sight of who it was for it just seems to do everything that you'd need an interface to do and it does it really well and we'll start with the pros and first up we got the high-res recording up to 24 bit 192 kilohertz I also found the preamps to be pretty dang clean even when we were nearing 100% while driving the sm7b which was great to hear there was also ample Headroom when I was plugging my instruments directly into this thing meaning I wasn't running into issues with clipping which has been an issue on some other low-cost interfaces the latency performance of this thing also was pretty impressive and to the headphone amp I found to be a little bit less noisy than the - I - 2nd gen and you also get the ability to direct monitor and either mono or stereo which is really important especially if you are setting up a stereo microphone set and lastly you're getting access to that air circuit which previously had just been reserved for focus rights higher-end preamps and then in terms of cons there's not much that I can complain about about this thing but if I were to get nitpicky I am NOT the biggest fan of the metering lights on this because it just doesn't give me a level of granularity that I like I would like to be able to know what level I'm hitting without having to pull up a DAW or a meter and some software and additionally to get really really nitpicky I personally prefer to have a physical mix style that allows me to mix between the zero latency monitoring and the computer playback which unfortunately is not on this device and to wrap up what I recommend the - I - third gen absolutely I would I legitimately think that for home studio musicians and podcasters it does everything that you would need an entry-level audio interface to do and the reason that I say that is it as great preamps it can record high res audio it has ample Headroom so you can do your instruments and record directly into your DAW and it has low enough latency that you can monitor some amp Sims that you're running through your computer and lastly it has balanced monitor outputs now with all of that being said if you're currently running the - I - second gen and you don't absolutely need the new air circuit or the stereo direct monitoring you don't need to upgrade because the preamp performance from the - I - second gen - the - I - third gen really isn't that different but on the other hand if you are on the market for a new interface around 150 dollars maybe you were previously looking at the 2nd gen version of this interface then absolutely I would recommend picking up the 3rd gen because you are getting that new added air circuit and you now have the added ability to direct monitor stuff in stereo if you are stereo miking anything alright and that is going to wrap up for today so if you found this video fun interesting or helpful go ahead and give me a thumbs up if you hated it can hit big ol thumbs down want more videos you can subscribe by clicking that logo down beneath me and don't forget to hit that Bell icon if you don't get enough of me here go ahead and check out my podcast you can find that at Bandaru says calm and you can also check out my podcast network at geeks rising calm I'll see you all next time thanks for watching thanks for listening bye [Music]

Channel: Podcastage

Views: 648,030

Rating: 4.9325037 out of 5

Keywords: podcastage, review, audio, demo, focusrite scarlett 2i2, audio interface, scarlett 2i2, focusrite scarlett, usb audio interface, music production, focusrite scarlett 2i2 review, home studio, home recording, focusrite scarlett 2i2 usb audio interface review, 2i2 review, scarlett 2i2 review, focusrite 2i2, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen Review, Spoken Word Test, Noise Floor Test, Latency Test, Guitar Test, Rode NT1

Id: b7wwjHnT6WE

Length: 13min 4sec (784 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 02 2019