What do you think about FOCUSRITE SCARLETT 2I2?

J

Joao

New member
i need to buy an interface, but i read that scarlett 2i2 came with ableton and this daw is more adequate to djs. my objective is recording guitars bass and drums with good effects and plugins to mix my songs.
i cheeked to the audiobox usb by presonus. what do you think about these interfaces?
 
I assume when you say "drums" you're not talking about real drums, for which a 2 channel interface would be too limiting. If you're talking about MIDI drums then as long as you're not recording more than two channels at once, you'll be fine...
 
Yup, if you want to do real drums you need at least 8 ins/outs.
You could sell the 2-channel later and move up, but it's worth it to get more ins/outs than you THINK you'll need...
 
I don't know if you need 8 inputs, but certainly more than 2. The 2i2 doesn't have midi functions if that's important to you. It also doesn't have a "Mix" control to balance between playback tracks and the direct monitor channel. Kind of have to fudge with the output volume to match levels between the playback and what your recording. A bit of a pita, but doable. The focusrite has nice mic pres, not stellar.
 
It only depends on how many instruments you will be recording at the same time, if one or two this interface will be enough, if more look for something with more inputs. About the software side you can always record with another daw.
 
My two cents: I just returned a 2i2 yesterday after about a month of use. It worked alright...simple and elegant, but the direct monitoring signal was whisper quiet, even turned up all the way. That's something I need when recording vocals/acoustic. Eventually after toying around for a bit I got a fairly decent latency (and volume) routing through my computer instead of direct, but eventually decided it would be best to return it and get something else.
 
+ 1 for the 2i2. Crystal clear preamps. Certainly good enough for my semi treated home recording environment.

The bundled plugins are good but you can find fantastic and free plugins through google.

Had no issue with monitoring volume.

Their site indicates a bundle of 2i2, condenser mic, headphones and DAW Cubase lite is available.
 
I use a Sony MDR-7506 (~24 ohm I think) haven't had any trouble before. The 2i2 playback sounded plenty loud through them. Maybe I just got a bad apple.
 
Spells said:
I use a Sony MDR-7506 (~24 ohm I think) haven't had any trouble before. The 2i2 playback sounded plenty loud through them. Maybe I just got a bad apple.
Click to expand...

Nah, I don't think you did. That's the only downside to the 2i2, no mix knob. You can't control the balance between the playback and the recorded channels. I use the stereo buss volume to find a balance and sometimes find the overall volume a little low. For me, not a big deal, it's not my main recording rig.
 
I've had this interface for a year or so. Great interface at this price point. This is what I think about it :
youtube.com/watch?v=yjBpazR9neo
 
What I think about the 2i2 is...

Not a lot. Now I have not used one I admit so I can only go on the problems I see reported on forums but these include..

Driver/setup issues.

Poor latency.

Poor overload capacity on the high impedance input and checking the specification it is quite plain why this is so.
The interface boasts no MIDI nor S/PDIF. I know the Steinberg UR22 lacks digital I/O but it does have MIDI and is IMHO better value and I have yet to read one adverse comment. The UR22 also comes with Cubase, matter of choice I know but it would be MY choice.

On another forum a poster has voiced his regret in getting the 2i2 because it has transpired that he needs S/PDIF...Think on!

I dare say some will know that I have recently acquired an 8i6? Seems fine but I would not pay £200 for one! Rather pay a bit less for an NI KA6!

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Poor overload capacity on the high impedance input and checking the specification it is quite plain why this is so.
The interface boasts no MIDI nor S/PDIF. I know the Steinberg UR22 lacks digital I/O but it does have MIDI and is IMHO better value and I have yet to read one adverse comment. The UR22 also comes with Cubase, matter of choice I know but it would be MY choice.

On another forum a poster has voiced his regret in getting the 2i2 because it has transpired that he needs S/PDIF...Think on!
Click to expand...

This guy is speaking a little more technically than I understand but he might be explaining my issue with it a more techincally sense. I think it is a good starter unit. The mic pre's as other have said are really good. My problem with the unit is recording guitars direct. I plug it in and select "Instrument" and it just blows up my DAW. I can turn the gain all the way down and it will still almost clip. I have to turn the guitar volume almost off as well just to tame the signal.

I can flip the switch over to "Line" and the clipping issue is more under control but then my guitar signal sounds a bit flat to me. I emailed them 4 days ago about this issue and still haven't gotten a response. After doing some Googling it appears it is a known issue and most recommend getting a DI box to help it out.

I bought the bundle and it's hard to beat for the price. If they fix the problem above I'd be completely satisfied with my purchase.
 
Interesting. I don't think I've tried a guitar DI with the 2i2 before. I'll give it a try tonight to see if it happens here.
 
Zydrus said:
This guy is speaking a little more technically than I understand but he might be explaining my issue with it a more techincally sense. I think it is a good starter unit. The mic pre's as other have said are really good. My problem with the unit is recording guitars direct. I plug it in and select "Instrument" and it just blows up my DAW. I can turn the gain all the way down and it will still almost clip. I have to turn the guitar volume almost off as well just to tame the signal.

I can flip the switch over to "Line" and the clipping issue is more under control but then my guitar signal sounds a bit flat to me. I emailed them 4 days ago about this issue and still haven't gotten a response. After doing some Googling it appears it is a known issue and most recommend getting a DI box to help it out.

I bought the bundle and it's hard to beat for the price. If they fix the problem above I'd be completely satisfied with my purchase.
Click to expand...

Hi Z' Tell me where my technical effluence has boggled you and I will try to explain further!

To be strictly fair to the 2i2 the problem might be in Win 7 (I guess you are using that?) and it is worth checking the Audio Devices menus and looking at the levels for Recording Devices. Probably slammed to 100% so try backing it off to 5% or less. This might help but the 2i2 does have a basically low input overload capacity and needlessly high gain for the high Z input.

Dave.
 
I use it for the same purposes you've mentioned. I record guitar/bass through a DI box though I haven't faced any clipping issues even when I've plugged the instruments directly. That might be an issue with passive basses but otherwise you should be fine plugging in directly.

What do you mean by drums ? There are too few inputs to record drums directly. It also doesn't have a midi input in case you're using a midi kit. I use ezdrummer on Ableton with Guitar Rig loaded onto atleast 4 tracks and haven't faced any latency with the 2i2 (just ensure you have the correct drivers; asio4all has some issues) . I'm still on a learning curve with the Ableton workflow (it's more suited for looping) but the arrangement view in Ableton is just like any other DAW.
 
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