Description
The most popular audio interface for artists across all genres, the third-generation Scarlett 2i2 provides two mic/line/instrument inputs allowing simultaneous recording and playback of up to two channels with independently controllable headphone and monitor outputs. The 2i2 features two upgraded third-generation Scarlett mic preamps with optional Air setting to reproduce the Air effect of Focusrite’s original ISA mic preamp, giving your vocal and acoustic recordings a brighter and more open sound. Equipped with high performance 24-bit/192kHz AD-DA converters, Scarlett 2i2 has the same professional sound quality found throughout the third-generation range. The high impedance, high-headroom instrument inputs allow you to record guitar or bass without any clipping or unwanted distortion, while Gain Halo metering makes it easy for you to set the input level. Scarlett 2i2 is designed to stand up to days on the road and connects straight to your Mac or PC via USB cable, with no external power required. Your Scarlett 2i2 comes with the Hitmaker Expansion, an unbeatable range of tried-and-tested studio tools from some of the biggest names in the business. The Hitmaker Expansion includes: Antares Auto-Tune Access, Relab LX480 Essentials, Softube Marshall® Silver Jubilee 2555, XLN Audio Addictive Keys, XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2, Three Month Splice Sounds Subscription, Brainworx bx_console Focusrite SC, and Focusrite Red Plug-In Suite. Also included are Ableton Live Lite, and a Three Month Avid Pro Tools Artist subscription with their complete plugin bundle; all upon purchase, registration, and download. Interested in what headphones are compatible with Scarlett? Search ‘Headphones’ on the Focusrite help center for more information.
From the manufacturer
The Essential Audio Interface
Scarlett has gone platinum. Sitting on the desks of a huge global community of musicians, producers and home-recordists, the iconic 2i2 has already helped make more records than any other interface in history. And with the 3rd Generation, you’re going to sound better than ever.
Amazon Customer –
A vast improvement from the first gen Focusrite interfacesI have had a first gen 2i2 for 10 years, and recently picked this up to essentially use a nice microphone on my gaming pc for chatting with friends/streaming. The design improvements are immediately obvious, with buttons that light up for all of the functions which used to be small switches that were hard to read. A small change that made a huge impact for me is that they changed where the USB cord plugs in to the back, making it off center which allowed me to position it better than my 1st gen 2i2 on my gaming pc desk. The use of USB type C instead of type A is also an improvement, I never had any issues misaligning the cord before but it is noticeably easier to plug the cord in which is a nice QoL upgrade. Best of all, however? The mic pre sounds amazing, genuinely better quality than the first gen I’ve had for a decade. The “air” mode sounds great as well! There is noticeably more headroom than before, and they introduced a yellow light around the gain knob which fixed a core issue I had with the first gen: you didnt know if you were about to clip, you only knew once you had already clipped. The addition of the green light going to yellow BEFORE going to red is an amazing change, letting you know to back off your gain a bit because you’re at risk of clipping. If you’re looking to stream, podcast, if you’re a pro musician wanting to record on the go, or a new producer looking to get a high quality interface, this is worth every penny. Note: podcasters might want the 2i2 to have 2 mic pre’s, make sure you pick the right unit for your desired application. Anyway, I’m blown away, even already having had a focusrite scarlett (2i2) for 10 years and being satisfied with it for that whole time, they totally nailed every possible improvement I could imagine. Would highly recommend.
Jeff –
Love it!This is an update. Love the interface now. It didn’t work when connected to a Satechi multi-port USB adaptor that Apple recommends for Macbook pros with M1 chips. The Satechi is supposed to have enough power to power the Scarlett 4i4, but it’s a piece of crap and doesn’t. Don’t spend $100 on the Satechi. Search out something that will power the audio interfaces that you use, etc. The Satechi has 1A power output which should power the Scarlett 4i4 but it doesn’t. Get something with 1.5A or higher IMO.When I plugged the Scarlett 4i4 directly into my Macbook pro M1, it did exactly what it was supposed to do and the setup screen immediately popped up. It worked with the Focusrite controller at that point. I do have a suggestion for the company. Add a separate power option (USB-C or whatever) because newer laptops (like Macs) are getting fewer input/output options and it would be nice to be able to plug the audio interface into a USB power station or whatever and then hook it to the computer. Other than that, awesome piece of equipment.I hooked up the Scarlett 4i4 to my Macbook Pro M1 chip via a Satechi MULTI-PORT ADAPTER and nothing happened. The lights lit for a second then nothing. I downloaded the Focusrite controller and it says no hardware is connected. I spent an hour troubleshooting and still nothing. I don’t have time for crap that doesn’t work as advertised. I have an old PreSonus Audiobox that works fine so there is no reason this one shouldn’t.
asky –
Verified Solo 3rd gen works with Tonebridge; haven’t done much yet, will update review for faultsVerified Solo 3rd gen works with Tonebridge; haven’t done much yet just verified first, will update review for faults in the future.Not necessarily five star, just everything works as intended so far as my first step after receiving.It was kind of hard to set up at first, maybe it was connection problems to my guitar.My setup: macbook, solo 3rd gen, electric guitar input to input 2, output to headset and tried output without headset to computer speakers, and tonebridge desktop mac app.Was confusing at first what was input and output, basically the first jack on far left is considered input 1, then the middle standard guitar jack is considered input 2, far right guitar jack is an output.
Mr Shine –
Does what it says with easeMy wife has been singing and making music almost all of her life. She had this up and going in no time at all! She informed me this is one of the easier interfaces she has ever set up ( out of at least a hundred I’m sure) the controls are smooth ,sturdy, and easy to work with. I would definitely buy this product again!
Tadd –
Great now that it works! (Updated 8/21/2020)REVISED REVIEW:I’m an easy customer. The thing works, I’m happy. Thing doesn’t work, I’m unhappy. The Focusrite worked out of the box (YAY!). Then it has issues (BOO!). Then I resolved said issues (YAY!). Now it works as expected.Has this device been a walk in the park? No, not really. There are some tweaks you need to make to your computer (See Update 7/7/2020 & 8/21/2020).With that said, I have been using my Focusrite LITERALLY every day. I have a Rode NT1 attached and I use that for video conferencing, recording vocals for my band GreyHalo, for podcasts, and for playing only D&D with family and friends. It’s been a huge asset in this online life, and I have to say .. I’m happy I got this.While I originally said I would hard pass in the future, I’ve decided I LIKE my Focusrite 2i2. It’s nor perfect, but from what I’ve read on other audio interfaces, nothing is. My son has a PreSonus AudioBox USB 96 2×2 USB Audio Interface and we’ve had to do some tweaking to his laptop to get it to work as expected. I realize that it’s impossible for any company to know how everyone’s computer will work with their hardware.So would I recommend this again? Yes, yes I would. And in fact, I have. And with that, I’ve also told them the tweaks I’ve made and how to do it so they can get faster results.I still have latency in my DAW of choice (Reaper), but that’s something I’ll have to resolve in the DAW. Not Focusrite’s fault. But I’ve used some pretty hoity-toity VST/VSTi with this Focusrite 2i2 and it’s handled everything like a champ. I’m not disappointed one bit in my purchase. And in the future, when I need something beefer, you can be sure I’ll look to Focusrite once more.UPDATE 8/21/202:OK! After scouring the interwebs, I think I found out the issue with crackling in certain software (Discord, Facebook video, Steam chats). It turns out most of those software requires a higher sample rate. I had my Focusrite set at 44100, which was the default that the audio interface started at. HOWEVER, if you put it at 48000 with a buffer size of 192 then the crackling is gone and you can use any software as excepted.UPDATE 7/7/2020:After finally getting through to customer support (took some time) I have finally fixed the issue. It’s actually a USB issue. Windows has a feature that puts USB devices to sleep, and for some reason does not see the audio interface as an active device even if it’s being used. Which is weird and frustrating. Once I disabled the option it’s not had any issues. The lack of star is because it took so blooming long for them to get back to me I almost abandoned all hope.However, since I had it fixed I recorded several songs with no issues. Lord willing my music career will finally see some fruition.Is it worth the purchase? For the price, yeah it’s a decide device. I do wish I would have gotten the Presonus as it has midi in, but I think if you don’t have a need for midi this is a solid device that should last a while.ONE last issue. Latency. If I can use Guitar Rig with my guitar in real time that would be great. But I haven’t figured out if that’s because of my DAW (Reaper) or the device.ORIGINAL REVIEW:I’m going to start this off by saying I work in IT. I’m also not new to the recording world as I’ve used other products in the past. So I know my way around buffer sizes and sample.With that said, I’m going to flat out say that this has been nothing but a pain in my neck. I bought the Scarlet 2i2 with the intention of recording voices for games and animation, as well as podcasts. Since the quarantine order, I’ve used it for video conferencing with work. And, it works. I have a Rode NT1 and everything sounds amazing.HOWEVER, the driver will crash constantly. I’ll be watching a video, and it will just stop working. I’ll be in the middle of a conference call, and it will crash. It’s crashed while recording a podcast. It’s crashed while recording a video. It just .. crashes.And the only thing I can do is force it to restart by changing the buffer size. Then it kicks back in and I’m good for a while.It’s beyond infuriating. There are no errors in the event log. All the drivers are up to date, as far as I know. Except the Focusrite website is always seems to be down. My computer is more than powerful enough to run this relatively simple device.I really want to like this, and I really want to recommend these to my friends who also are looking for hardware for recording their own podcasts and videos and so on. In this time of isolation, people are looking for professional solutions to record good audio. This interface … I’d do a hard pass.
A. Bock –
ProTools Ultimate mBox Pro replacementMac OS Catalina, PT Ultimate 2022.9. I was looking for a simple, easy to use interface for ProTools Ultimate ever since Avid dropped support for my mBox Pro. The Focusrite Scarlett Solo fit the bill. The interface appears as a Mac system audio device without any drivers BUT if you want to unlock high sample rates and disable the USB storage function, you’ll need to install Focusrite control. Once that’s done, it works seamlessly with PT without any fuss. The outputs could use a bit more gain (main & headphone) but otherwise the Solo is a perfect replacement for the mBox. Clean, quiet and compact, I would recommend it.
Azlin 🦋 –
Great audio interface for my RØDE NT1 micsThis has to be the easiest audio interface I’ve used (before I used the Tascam DR-40X). It’s ready to use right out of the box and it powered up my RØDE NT1 microphones with no issue. The audio quality is top notch and so clear and quiet. I’ll be using this for my ASMR content for a long time.
Gabe –
If you’re hoping to record instruments and your voice simultaneously, this is not the right productFool that I am, I believed it would be possible to use my mic and record my guitar at the same time with the Solo, seeing as how there are two different inputs. Unfortunately, they share the same audio device: your voice being the left channel and your instrument (or whatever line item) the right. Unless you’re a masochist willing to put up with virtual inputs or APO mapping, you’ll have to choose one or the other. Otherwise, your DAW will pick up your distorted voice and your friends in Discord will have an ear full of static from the instrument you left plugged in.This is all to say, I really should’ve picked up the 2i2 instead.
CARLOS F. –
Works perfect on LinuxI purchased the Scarlett Solo with an Audio-Technica BPHS1 and it works perfectly on Linux Ubuntu 22.04 without any hacks or downloads.It is great for a home office with lots of background noise.Highly recommended!
London Constable –
Great audio interface for a two person podcast!This Audio’s interface software is annoying but optional, but other than that it’s really good! The headphone jack has a really good amp/dac! Two xlr inputs, left and right audio channels for those xlr ports. It’s only one stereo channel. Really high grade mic amp. It’s pretty good value.