Is there any reason for me to upgrade from Scarlett Focusrite Solo?

Basilosauridae

Basilosauridae

Member
I currently have a Scarlett Focusrite Solo 3 gen and an EV RE20 for voice over work (thinking of buying the Neumann u87ai sometime in the next year or two). I feel like I have a decent grasp on microphone differences and quality but I have zero idea what makes a good interface, what I should consider, what the limitations of my current interface are, and if I should consider upgrading in the future, and if so, to what.

Any thoughts you could share on interfaces would be appreciated. :)
 
I personally would never upgrade anything on someone else's say so. I would upgrade when I want to do things that my current set-up/tools can't do. For example, when I was using an 8 track cassette portastudio with only 2 trim knobs even though it could simultaneously record 4 tracks at once, I couldn't individually record each component of a drum kit. So I upgraded to digital. I could have gone to 16 or 24 track reel to reel also, but in any event, what I had was limiting what my creative bent was demanding.
That's just one example among many, but if you are currently happy with your results and don't have in mind to be doing something pretty different, why upgrade ?
 
grimtraveller said:
I personally would never upgrade anything on someone else's say so. I would upgrade when I want to do things that my current set-up/tools can't do. For example, when I was using an 8 track cassette portastudio with only 2 trim knobs even though it could simultaneously record 4 tracks at once, I couldn't individually record each component of a drum kit. So I upgraded to digital. I could have gone to 16 or 24 track reel to reel also, but in any event, what I had was limiting what my creative bent was demanding.
That's just one example among many, but if you are currently happy with your results and don't have in mind to be doing something pretty different, why upgrade ?
Click to expand...
What I’m saying is I don’t even really know what to look for or consider in terms of interface quality or potential limitations, not that I’m going to go out and buy the first thing someone suggests.
 
The only reason to upgrade IMHO is if you need more inputs in re: recording multiple sources at once. If VO work is all you are doing, i also wouldn't bother getting a U87 as the RE is better suited for that usage. The Neumann is a great mic that is going to pick up all the sound in the vicinity and accentuate whatever your room sounds like, so unless you are in a great recording environment, it will probably sound worse than the RE
 
Now that I've used about a dozen of the entry and mid-level interfaces from the common brands, I've been amazed at how similar they all are. There are differences in how they each sound, but those differences are really subtle. Converter quality and preamp quality is pretty consistent across brands. They're all aiming for the same thing: clean, low-distortion, enough headroom and enough gain. Focusrite's Scarlett is the only one I can remember that even has much a "sound" of its own. They all sound kind of boring, frankly. And I think that's what we want in an interface. These things are made with the aim to please a lot of people, and to be relevant in a lot of different situations. Any company that would make their interface sound remarkably different would probably be committing marketing suicide.

Anyways, the main differences that I've noticed are in a few areas:
  • connectivity to the computer. USB is by and large the most popular, but some brands offer Thunderbolt, PCIe, and the older FireWire connectors
  • Windows drivers. RME has been the most impressive to me in this regard, and everybody else's drivers pretty much tie for 2nd place. Your mileage may vary, depending upon your specific computer. Everything I've used over the last few years has been rock solid, and pretty similar in terms of latency and stability.
  • bells and whistles. This would be things like 3rd gen Focusrite's Air button, SSL's 4K button, MOTU's fancy meters, UA's on-board DSP, Behringer's pads and inserts...things like that
  • software bundles. This can really sweeten the deal if you're buying an interface for music production. NI's virtual instruments, Focusrite's Red plugins, SSL's compressors, they're all great, and make for a nice treat on day 1 of plugging in your new interface. And pretty much everything comes with a "lite" version of a DAW these days as well. I think that this is where Behringer is the big loser, as they just point you to a freeware DAW like Tracktion and they don't come with any cool plugins to play with.
  • headroom and gain. Focusrite used to be the big loser in this category, but they've made big strides in their 2nd and 3rd gen Scarletts. Steinberg didn't impress me with their UR22 mkII in this regard either. Behringer had the genius idea to add a -20dB pad on each channel of their U-Phoria HD interfaces. Everybody else seems to have enough gain and enough headroom for anything I threw at them.

But really, I can't say that I've come across an interface that I haven't liked in the sub-$300 range so far. Except the Lexicon Alpha. That thing was awful. But it was also a 10+ year old product when I reviewed it. It just shows how far things have come. There's hardly such a thing as a bad choice in the interface market these days. They're all pretty damned good! So if you're looking to upgrade, my advice would to be to upgrade for features and not for sound quality.
 
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Gtoboy said:
The only reason to upgrade IMHO is if you need more inputs in re: recording multiple sources at once. If VO work is all you are doing, i also wouldn't bother getting a U87 as the RE is better suited for that usage. The Neumann is a great mic that is going to pick up all the sound in the vicinity and accentuate whatever your room sounds like, so unless you are in a great recording environment, it will probably sound worse than the RE
Click to expand...
I really love the RE EV20 and would probably use it for many projects but unfortunately for professional work there are a lot of clients who require a high end mic off a short list of preferred mics to view you as legitimate. It’s silly and arguably many of their choices are not the best mic for the job (like the Sennheiser MKH 416) it’s sort of a requirement for legitimacy.
 
Two thoughts:

1 Contemp[orary interfaces are the least likely part of the signal chain to present sound quality problems. Therefore there is little be gained by swapping the Focusrite for something else.

2 The U87 enjoys a reputation that these days does not reflect its utility. As you note, you are happy with your EV, and that's a good reason to continue with it. If your business is going to suffer if you don't have that particular status symbol, that's something you will have to weigh up.
 
Tadpui said:
Now that I've used about a dozen of the entry and mid-level interfaces from the common brands, I've been amazed at how similar they all are. There are differences in how they each sound, but those differences are really subtle. Converter quality and preamp quality is pretty consistent across brands. They're all aiming for the same thing: clean, low-distortion, enough headroom and enough gain. Focusrite's Scarlett is the only one I can remember that even has much a "sound" of its own. They all sound kind of boring, frankly. And I think that's what we want in an interface. These things are made with the aim to please a lot of people, and to be relevant in a lot of different situations. Any company that would make their interface sound remarkably different would probably be committing marketing suicide.

Anyways, the main differences that I've noticed are in a few areas:
  • connectivity to the computer. USB is by and large the most popular, but some brands offer Thunderbolt, PCIe, and the older FireWire connectors
  • Windows drivers. RME has been the most impressive to me in this regard, and everybody else's drivers pretty much tie for 2nd place. Your mileage may vary, depending upon your specific computer. Everything I've used over the last few years has been rock solid, and pretty similar in terms of latency and stability.
  • bells and whistles. This would be things like 3rd gen Focusrite's Air button, SSL's 4K button, MOTU's fancy meters, UA's on-board DSP, Behringer's pads and inserts...things like that
  • software bundles. This can really sweeten the deal if you're buying an interface for music production. NI's virtual instruments, Focusrite's Red plugins, SSL's compressors, they're all great, and make for a nice treat on day 1 of plugging in your new interface. And pretty much everything comes with a "lite" version of a DAW these days as well. I think that this is where Behringer is the big loser, as they just point you to a freeware DAW like Tracktion and they don't come with any cool plugins to play with.
  • headroom and gain. Focusrite used to be the big loser in this category, but they've made big strides in their 2nd and 3rd gen Scarletts. Steinberg didn't impress me with their UR22 mkII in this regard either. Behringer had the genius idea to add a -20dB pad on each channel of their U-Phoria HD interfaces. Everybody else seems to have enough gain and enough headroom for anything I threw at them.

But really, I can't say that I've come across an interface that I haven't liked in the sub-$300 range so far. Except the Lexicon Alpha. That thing was awful. But it was also a 10+ year old product when I reviewed it. It just shows how far things have come. There's hardly such a thing as a bad choice in the interface market these days. They're all pretty damned good! So if you're looking to upgrade, my advice would to be to upgrade for features and not for sound quality.
Click to expand...
Agreed. It's like car shopping now. You can get a car with more features, but even the lower end cars are pretty damned good.
 
I still have a 2010 interface, 96khz max but 99% of the time its in 24/44 setting. So if I dont use 96k do I need 192khz? no
This weekend did a short jam in 96k, then playback in GroovePlayer it was 48k anyway...no big difference heard from 24/44..

So it comes up for me too, "do I need to upgrade?".....saw the UA near zero latency ad and compared to my 2010 and it was the same....no need to upgrade there either for Latency.

then I went for "sound!! better" and tried the focusrite 8channel,a MOTU and a tascam and again....nothing better noticed than what I had.

then microphones...much more interesting.
like gtoboy mentioned ..I add.. on 87.
the U87 first wave was much less sensitive, the U87AI newer one is much more sensitive so yeah a lot more room pickup.
8mv/pa on the old one, to the newer one at 28mv/pa!! huge difference...(recording hacks.)

I had a sensitive 28mv/pa MXL 890 and it would pickup the fan in the attic ac unit, wild...!
I find in my semi-closet room and my interface pre's something around 8mv to 15mv is nice, and no preamp really needed, no boosters, nothing needed. But for the 58/SM7 a booster of 20+ helps my interface pre's.
But you can make a vocal booth easier than a mixing control room, so maybe not a big deal.

good luck..enjoy
 
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