Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 3rd Gen USB Audio Interface for Recording, Producing and Engineering — High-Fidelity, Studio Quality Recording, with Transparent Playback

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The speaker switcher works with the first two pairs of outputs (1&2/3&4), which you’ll need to keep in mind when mapping your I/O for surround or other applications. It would be nice if the dim was adjustable, but I wasn’t able to find a way to change it. The specific Input Channel will vary depending on your interface and Sample Rate. Below are the input channels for Scarlett 3rd Gen interfaces at a Sample Rate of 44.1-48kHz. For more information, see the Focusrite Control User Guide for your specific interface. What’s more; you also get a free 3-month subscription to Splice Sounds when you create a new Splice account. With its comprehensive connectivity, fantastic features and intuitive included software along with the best preamps ever found in the Scarlett range and improved converters the 3rd generation Scarlett 18i20 could well and truly be the heart of any professional recording studio. Three Month Avid Pro Tools Subscription: get a taste of the industry-standard recording experience with this legendary DAW

Focusrite are excited to announce an extension to the standard limited warranty, which comes with all new products.If you are just starting with music production, we recommend shopping around for a bundle that helps you save some serious cash. Final Thoughts Includes Ableton Live Lite, three months of Pro Tools Artist, and the Hitmaker Expansion, with plugins from Antares, Softube, Landr, XLN Audio and more.

If you're having problems installing the driver on Windows 7, please try the steps in the following article: Focusrite USB Driver will not install on my Windows 7 machine (digital signature problem). Focusrite has upgraded the preamps on the Scarlett line for its third generation with all-new “Air” settings that aim to recreate the rich, open high-frequency response of the company’s standalone ISA preamps. The Air setting alters the signal before it reaches your DAW, so it’s a good idea to experiment with it before committing it to your recorded sound; sound; I found it to be a little crispy and harsh for my taste applied to drums and my voice, but it added some extra magic to my Casio synth and to distorted electric guitar in a very natural and organic way. For drums and vocals, I much preferred the 18i20’s preamps without the Air setting engaged; this rendered a relatively neutral-sounding recording with a bit of wooly low-end that was a nice departure from the brittleness commonly found in less expensive interface preamps.Focusrite has done a great job with the new 3rd generation interfaces. While first glances may give the impression that they are just a prettier version of their former selves, the real magic lies under the hood. This is evident in many of the upgrades listed above.

At the end of the day, however, all that matters is how it sounds. I tested the inputs with voiceover, vocals, acoustic guitars and other string instruments, electric guitar and some drums. The sound was consistently clean and practically noise-free. At no point did I feel that the 18i20 couldn’t handle what I was throwing at it. It’s amazing that you can set up a powerful project studio, band recording session or complete production studio for TV and radio commercial work at this price point. With its speaker-switching technology, the Scarlett 18i20 gen 3 also allows you two to switch between two different sets of monitors. This is an essential feature to ensure the best possible mix and professional level results. This device desperately needs hardware controls for user settings. With that, all Focusrite would really need to do to provide Linux support is to make the device USB class compliant. Unfortunately, since the driver is proprietary, the Linux driver is a reverse-engineered one that works but still has some issues, the device being as new as it is. The free/open source community will fix the driver issues in time, and the device is already quite usable, but all the troulbe make one beg the question: why make things so difficult, Focusrite?

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Which unit in the Scarlett lineup is best for you depends on your needs and budget, but at this price, the 18i20 3rd Gen will have you set for a long time without breaking the bank. As the flagship model in the Focusrite Scarlett range, the Scarlett 18i20 offers fantastic audio quality with comprehensive I/O and great expansion capabilities. While physically speaking the quality of this unit is great, the software implementation leaves a lot to be desired. Many configuration options, such as extending the number of inputs through the ADAT connection, require using the Focusrite Control proprietary software suite, which is only available for Windows and Mac. Why not make all options configurable without a PC, and especially without a proprietary piece of software? Focusrite claims that the 3rd generation Scarlett interfaces are characterized by high gain values and low noise. Making mic preamps since 1985 (Rupert Neve founded the company until being sold to Phil Dudderidge in 1989), they have skin in the game regarding developing high-end gear. There wasn't much wrong with the mic preamps on the second-generation Scarletts, and their 50dB gain range was adequate for the vast majority of recording contexts. But at the bottom end of the scale it was possible to run into clipping with loud drummers, while at the other extreme, the maximum gain available wasn't always enough for the quietest sources. The addition of switchable pads on the 18i20 nails the first issue once and for all, and the extra few dB at the top of the range certainly helps with the second, though podcasters with SM7s and quiet voices might still want to lay their hands on a Cloudlifter or similar device.