by Steve Cunningham
The computers in the lab at USC, where we teach digital recording and editing, are in active use for up to 80 hours every week. They’re used by students who know what they’re doing, and by a substantial number who definitely do not. As a result, we routinely replace half the computers every summer, and the accessories nearly as often. Since we are an Avid-certified training school, we’ve been partial to Avid’s products (and Digidesign’s before the name change). Their Mboxes have generally been reliable, and have worked well with every software package we’ve used over the years. Nevertheless, our Mbox 2 units began to fail about six months ago; the primary point of failure is the USB jack, which becomes loose over time and begins to intermittently cut out, which in turn generates session-stopping errors and crashes with the software. The secondary failure point is the knobs, which become noisy and inaccurate. Since the latest version of Pro Tools no longer requires an Avid interface to run the software, we began an outside-the-box search for suitable replacements.
The criteria for this purchase, which would involve several dozen units in one go, were reasonably simple: The interface required at least two line inputs and two mic inputs (not simultaneously however, just alternately), plus two line outputs and a stereo headphone jack. It had to run under both ASIO for Windows and Core Audio for the Mac, with or without a driver, and had to sound good in both cases. It also had to connect to the computer using USB, inasmuch as Firewire seems an endangered species on both platforms. Additionally (and unhelpfully), the newest Mac computers include Thunderbolt, an interface for which there is still a dearth of accessory products.
Many candidate products were evaluated and tested over several months. Most were of very good quality; the primary differences were a) the overall build quality, which ranged from very good to cheesy, and b) the need for and quality of the audio drivers and firmware (in one instance a simple firmware upgrade completely bricked an interface). Finally, the votes were tallied and we saw white smoke from the chimney.
AND THE WINNER IS...
(insert drum roll here): Focusrite’s Scarlett USB interface. It comes in a variety of configurations, from the highly portable 2i2 model with the requisite two mic/line inputs and two balanced line outs, to the clearly un-portable but built-to-do-it-all 18i6 which, with eighteen inputs and six outputs, nearly makes coffee for you. Frankly we chose the smallest 2i2 not just because it met the above-mentioned criteria, but also because it’s damned cheap to buy ($149 from the dealer), built like a brick, and kinda cool-looking sitting on the lab worktables in its anodized ruby red case.
If you’ve been using Digidesign interfaces for a while then you’ve actually been using Focusrite’s mic preamps; these two companies have worked together on interface hardware for nearly a decade. And Focusrite has been a well-liked moniker in pro audio in its own right -- their Red-series of mic preamps have been favorites in studios worldwide, occupying a niche just below the über-expensive boutique models. Their Saffire series of Firewire interfaces have been popular in home studios for many years, although Firewire drivers can be fussy about the chipsets connected to them and the Saffire range got off to a rocky start as a result. But there’s no such problem with the Scarlett, which is essentially the USB 2 child of the Saffire.
Where’s the USB 3, you ask? Well, it’s not on any of the Scarlett interfaces, nor does it really need to be (although it is 3-compatible). There is more than enough bandwidth in USB 2 for up to 16 simultaneous channels of 16 bit/44.1 kHz digital audio transfer, a fact that has been proven over the past decade or so by numerous manufacturers. All we were looking for was two audio inputs and two audio outputs. And even though USB 3 connectors are (mostly) backwardly compatible, there is still not that much support for the USB 3 standard in audio today. Besides, those connectors are still a weak point; in other words they still suck (note: according to industry sources, the life-cycle of a USB2-A connector is just 1,500 plug and unplug cycles. Makes you think, doesn’t it?). Thanks, we’ll stick with USB 2 for now, and tell students to just stop unplugging things.
The A-D and D-A converters can operate at up to 24-bit word lengths and sample rates up to 96kHz, and both have a healthy A-weighted dynamic range: 105 dB for the A-D and 104 dB for the D-A, with both the actual chipsets rated at 114 dB dynamic range. The claimed frequency response is from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, plus or minus 0.1 dB. The mic preamp spec is impressive, given the price of the interface. There is one area of concern here, however; the gain range goes from +10 dB up to +55 dB. This is about 10 dB less than one would like, particularly for dynamic mics like the RE-20. It’s absolutely fine for condensers, and in my opinion the trade-off is worth it for the decreased noise floor (which specs out at 120 dB with +55 dB of gain into a 150 ohm load). So while you don’t get quite as much “oomph” in terms of mic gain, you also don’t get anywhere near as much noise as with other mic preamps at similar price points.
WHAT’S ON THE BOX?
The Scarlett 2i2’s rear panel is spartan to say the least. It has exactly three jacks embedded into it -- a USB 2 port, and two 1/4” TRS electronically-balanced output jacks. The latter are for connecting the Scarlett to powered monitors or to a stereo amp and unpowered speaker combo. The former, combined with the lack of an AC or DC jack, should tell you that the 2i2 is a USB bus-powered device. Again, this is perfect for our purposes, where the only other devices that require USB power from the computer are the mouse, keyboard, and occasional USB stick.
The front panel has a bit more going on, although not a lot more. On the left side are two Neutrik combo jacks that provide the option of mic, line or hi-impedance (instrument) formats. The microphone inputs are electronically balanced, as are the 1/4” line inputs, although unbalanced TS 1/4” plugs work fine, as would be the case for instrument level signals when the input switches on each channel are properly set to INST rather than to LINE. Each channel also features an input knob surrounded by an interesting LED circle, which turns green to indicate incoming signal, yellow to indicate approaching clip level, and red to indicate clipping.
While these indicators looked sharp to me at first, I dithered over them like a May-December relationship. First, I liked them. Shortly thereafter I decided that they were distracting. Soon I became accustomed to seeing them light up out of the corner of my eye (while reading a script, of course). Ultimately I’ve decided that they represent one of the better sets of indicators I’ve used. They are clearly visible in a dark room across a wide range of angles (I tend to work in the dark, don’t you?), and for the self-directed, self-engineering voice talent they strike a good balance between being just another glowing studio lights, and actually drawing one’s attention when the input level is overcooked.
Rounding out the Scarlett 2i2’s front panel is phantom power, which is available for the two mic channels and is globally enabled with a backlit red button, a small green LED showing that USB is active, a headphone jack and volume knob, and the large volume control knob. All the knobs, especially the large volume knob, operate smoothly and accurately, although I would prefer some knurling or fluting on the large knob to make it more positive for those of us who tend to be ham-fisted. It’s a small thing.
The last item on the front panel, but not the least by any stretch, is the on-off switch for Direct Monitor. Unlike other interfaces that give you a knob to adjust how much of your input you want to hear versus recorded track, there’s just a switch. Flip it On and you’re hearing the sound of your microphone directly in your cans. Flip it Off and you’re hearing the sound of pre-recorded, or just-recorded, playback. But if you’re recording then you’re hearing the just-recorded playback, which is slightly delayed from the sound of your voice inside your own skull because it’s gone through the A-D converters, the buffers, the D-A converters and whatever else. We call that latency, and you’ve heard it.
Look, I totally get why music engineers want to turn a knob to something between hearing direct input and hearing playback, because they perform this operation known as recording overdubs. They want to hear the guitar solo overdub, or the bass punch-in, and they want to hear some backing tracks and some input while that’s occurring. But that’s not what we do. Why would a voice actor want to hear himself or herself delayed? Doesn’t that throw them off their reading game? It certainly distracts me. All I need to know is that what I’m reading is being recorded, and the meters and advancing waveforms on the screen tell me that very clearly, thank you. Meanwhile I want to hear myself speak the words on the page, so I can be sure I didn’t stumble, or do some weird pitch thing at the end of the sentence. So having just a simple switch to go from input to delayed playback is just fine with me, and that’s exactly what the designers installed on the Scarlett 2i2. Period.
DOES IT WORK?
As mentioned, one of the criteria was that the interface just worked with Pro Tools and with anything else we threw at it. On the Macintosh running 10.7 Lion, the Scarlett performed flawlessly in that regard. It’s definitely Pro Tools ready, and worked well with Reaper and several other programs that use Core Audio. I even threw a large, multi-track, multi-software instrument project in Logic at the thing, and it didn’t so much as burp. According to Focusrite, it does that successfully with both OSX 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8, although I did not test the latter.
The Scarlett 2i2 software drivers and applications run on both Windows 7 and 8. On Windows 7 Reaper wanted a driver, so I installed the 64-bit driver I downloaded from the Focusrite website on my Windows 7 64-bit box. Note that Focusrite includes an install CD in the box, but readers of this column know to just toss that and head for the website to download the latest and greatest, complete with Mix Control software. Among other things, that application allowed me to set latency down into the sub-ten-millisecond range, without any crackles or pops. The ability to get latency that low almost makes recording without Direct Monitoring (in other words, hearing what the drive head is writing) a tolerable situation. Still unnecessary in my opinion, but tolerable.
Given a properly-tuned Win 7 machine, the Scarlett performed without incident. Do take a moment to check out Focusrite’s guide to tuning up Win 7 for audio purposes: www.focusrite.com/answerbase/en/article.php?id=1071. It contains all the usual instructions, including setting performance to High, enabling DMA, disabling visual effects, and so forth. It’s well worth doing to get the most out of Win 7.
VERDICT
I suspect we’ve found an ideal solution for the computer lab in the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 for our students. And as you may have noticed, I think I may have found a good solution for my personal VO business. I haven’t even mentioned the free plug-in set that comes with the interface, including a reasonably good EQ, compressor, gate and reverb. The Scarlett is a great little interface that comes with prizes too, evidently.
But for portable VO work? Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. Mind you, the entire 2i2 box weighs in at half a kilo which is, what, a little over a pound? And it’s just a bit larger than a fat paperback book. In other words, this is a perfect interface for a traveling voiceover rig (or a non-traveling VO rig for that matter). There is no MIDI, no additional monitoring outputs, and nothing else included that is unneeded. Just a couple of mic/line inputs in front of some nice microphone preamps. And it’s red. Who doesn’t like red?
The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 carries a suggested list price of $199 USD, or $149 USD from Focusrite dealers (less from amazon.com). For more information worldwide, visit www.focusrite.com.
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