Features:

  • Two natural-sounding Scarlett mic preamps with plenty of even gain; two instrument inputs, 1/4-inch balanced jack outputs to connect professional studio monitors; one headphone output with gain control
  • Class-leading conversion and sample rates up to 192kHz / 24 bit; super-low roundtrip latency for using your plug-ins in real time without the need for DSP
  • LIMITED TIME OFFER: FREE Venomode DeeQ, Maximal 2, and Pivot, plug-ins upon registration and download.
  • Includes Pro Tools | First Focusrite Creative Pack and Ableton Live Lite, Softube Time and Tone Bundle, Focusrite’s Red Plug-in Suite, 2GB of Loopmasters samples, Choice of one free XLN Addictive Keys virtual instrument, all available via download upon purchase and registration
  • Compatible with Windows 7 and higher, and Mac OS X 10.10 and higher. Frequency response - 20 Hz - 20 kHz ± 0.1dB. Supported Sample Rates: 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, 192 kHz. 2-year limited warranty on manufacturing defects.
Small but mighty!

This little box is a miracle. I have it on a desk where it connects my laptop to some powered monitors, a digital keyboard, and guitar. Its being USB powered is phenomenal, as it leaves me with one less wall wart to try and squeeze onto my power supply/conditioner. It is miraculously small and lightweight, so if you ever have to pull up stakes and run for it, you won't be tempted to leave it behind, only to find yourself music-less when you make it to your hidey hole. Sound through it is very clean, and there is no hum or hiss to be heard. A beautifully simple, compact and functional device. All electronics should be this simple to use.

A great Mac and Linux sound I/O option

As a satisfied owner of a 1st generation Focusrite 2i2, I was curious to see what changes they would make to the 2nd generation. The most obvious changes are cosmetic ones. The rotary controls for the headphone level and monitor level are now shinier, with black lines rather than grooves in the knobs to mark the levels, making it much easier to see the setting at a glance. The same is true of the black rotary input gain controls, which now have clearly visible red lines. In fact, the labeling of the entire front panel is noticeably clearer, being white on black now rather than gray on very dark gray. The headphone control has gained the traditional 0 and 10 markings, so Spinal Tap probably won't approve. The same is true of the input gain controls. The case is the same excellent solid red metal case, now a touch brighter in color with the logo in gray rather than black. On the back, the ports are rearranged slightly, and the ¼' audio output sockets no longer protrude half a centimeter. Once you plug in ¼' jacks it'll scarcely matter, but I thought I'd point it out. Also gone from the back are the screw holes; I'm guessing they're now hidden under the rubber feet on the bottom of the unit. Once you plug the box in, an interesting change becomes apparent: The new 2i2 is faster to boot up. Whereas the old 2i2 would flicker its input LEDs a few times before settling down, the new one blinks once and is ready to go. The old units only took a couple of seconds to boot, so it's not a big deal, but it shows the attention to detail and quality Focusrite put into their products. The fact that the USB ID has changed from 0x100016e4e to 0x100016db4 as well, suggests that it's all new under the hood. As with the 1st generation 2i2, two of the best features of this audio interface are things you don't get. There's no power brick, because it's powered straight from the USB bus; and there's no driver disc, because it uses standard USB Audio Class protocols. Specifically, it's USB 2.0 Class Compliant. On the Mac, the 2i2 shows up as an AppleUSBDevice, and automatically appears in the System Preferences alongside the built-in Apple audio hardware. Open up Apple Audio MIDI Setup and you can change the format from the default 44.1kHz 24 bit to 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, or even a ludicrous 192kHz. Furthermore, no special drivers means it will continue to work with future versions of macOS. This adherence to standards also means that the Scarlett 2i2 is a great choice for Linux users. You plug it in, it works flawlessly using the snd-usb-audio ALSA module. I've no idea what the driver situation is like for Windows users, others will have to review that. The box is simple and obvious in its general usage. You have two input sockets on the front, which take either XLR connectors or ¼' jacks — one for left, one for right. You have two ¼' sockets on the back for output — one for left, one for right — and you have a headphone socket, again ¼' but this time stereo. The knobs next to the input sockets control the input gain. Switches choose line level or instrument level input, and you can choose differently for the two inputs if you want to have two mono signals instead of a stereo one. 48V phantom power is also supported via a switch, but affects both inputs. The LED rings around the knobs pulse green with the signal. If they pulse orange, it means your audio clipped but you might get away with it. If they pulse red, it means your audio clipped really badly, and you might qualify for a job with a major label fighting in the loudness wars. A switch enables direct monitoring, or you can have your computer pass the audio back out and monitor that. Audio quality hasn't changed with the new hardware as far as I can tell, though I didn't do any double-blind tests. It's certainly markedly better than Apple's built-in audio hardware on my MacBook Pro, and the headphone output can easily drive a full-size set of headphones to ear-splitting volumes. Overall, an excellent entry level choice for any Mac or Linux user wanting to connect a musical instrument, or for use as a general purpose high quality audio interface.

Great product does what it says

I bought this to record both microphone and guitar on different tracks and do basic editing on the laptop. It works great. Simple to set up (drivers for Windows were easy to find and MacBook doesn't need drivers). I also connected it to my stereo amp to have a sort of mini studio monitor and that works great too. The strange looking sockets do in fact connect to either 1/4" cables or microphone cables. The only disappointment (and this has nothing to do with the Focusrite product itself) is that it was supposed to come with ProTools. This was a complete failure. After creating an account, waiting for a massive 2.7GB download, installing, and rebooting several times, ProTools didn't even work. It requires a "cloud" login which fails every time (even though the Avid App Manager on the same PC works fine). So I switched to Garage Band on the Mac and it worked as expected. (Note that the version of ProTools that comes with this product doesn't include any support, so Avid refused to troubleshoot even a basic issue like not being able to get the software to start). The Scarlett is still a 5-star product, but if you are buying it because you think you're getting ProTools, think again. For 99% of amateur recordings, Garage Band is going to be far simpler anyway. And it works.

The Answer To My Garageband Problem

I've been podcasting since 2005, but never using 2 mics. When I decided to do a new show with my son, we bought USB mics and followed the instructions for Garageband on multiple YouTube videos and blog posts from the pros, but the program continued to crash. So we decided to go with xlr mics and use this device instead, my hope being that we could record 2 tracks at the same time without Garageband crashing. Well, we gave it our first run yesterday and it worked like a dream through my iMac. BTW, we did NOT have to make a new midi aggregated device this time either. Just plugged it in, selected the 2i2 device in both the iMac system preferences and the Garageband preferences, then selected the 2i2 mic 1, created a second track and selected tge 2i2 mic 2...make sure to enable the recording button under the track options and push play. You'll notice that as you speak into the mics that the dials on the 2i2 light up green. If they flash red, you're speaking too loud. I'm SO excited to get back to interviews and talking fiction, family and fun on our new podcast series...thanks to this awesome device!!!

The Mic pres aren't amazing, but if you are expecting great mic pres ...

Used with Ableton. The scarlett has become the centerpiece of my small home studio. My previous interface was an aging M-Audio rig, and honestly the Scarlett really shows how far the industry has come. Simple, no software needed to be recognized on any system i've tried it on (OSX largely). The Mic pres aren't amazing, but if you are expecting great mic pres on a USB interface you should revisit your entire approach. I've already considered upgrading to an 18i20 when I finish building out the home studio and will have more equipment to be multitracked, but for right now it is doing the job beautifully. My only complaint is that it is hard to get a pre/post mix. IE on my old maudio interface I was able to control the volume of the interface direct vs. return from my DAW more precisely so I could hear what I'm recording better over what was already recorded/playing back. This isn't a huge problem, more of a shift from what I'm used to.

Loving This Little Thing

I only have a few small complaints, but nothing that I think should affect its 5 star rating. It's a steal at the list price. 1. When you turn on phantom power it applies to both inputs so you cannot plug in a guitar and a condenser mic at the same time. 2. I am color blind (color deficient really) and having a single light that shows green when a signal comes through and red when it clips makes it hard for me to tell if it's clipping or just getting a good signal. I wish it had a single clip light that only flashed if clipping. Otherwise, a great buy!

2i2 Sweet Sound

Nothing is better than imagining your ideal sound and somebody makes a product that gives you that sound exactly. Clean, crisp and loud. It captures brighter frequencies stunningly Good and all the low end mud I would have to roll off or filter out are naturally not noticeable (did I mention that it captures sound how I imagine it should be) I have tested it against my Mbox2 and the Mbox2 is back in a box, it's brighter than the Mbox and I will admit the Mbox has a great sound but I would have to boost the highs and cut out some of the lows of the Mbox. I have watched YouTube videos on Focusrite products and have heard them compared to other brands and maybe 2 or 3 are in the same class as the Focusrite interfaces but none captured sound with the same level of clarity and crispness of the focusrite to my surprise not even the Apolo line Focusrite reminds me of the Pro Tools HD sound, which is interesting because the 2i2 is way cheaper than the HD interface. All in all I love it

Easy to use USB interface that supports Win7 and Win10

We were looking for a portable, USB powered device for our podcast. I've always heard good things about Scarlett 2i2 and so it was the direction we moved in. It came with a USB cable and the driver was easy to find on the Focusrite website. The audio is nice and clear. It doesn't have the gain on tap to power something like an SM7b, but I can't think of a USB or Firewire pre in or around this price range that's going to power gain hungry mics like that. Putting a cloudlifter CL-1 in front of the SM7b fixed the issue. Downside to teh 2i2 is that it doesn't have MIDI out, if that's your thing, but for $150, I'm not going to fault the device. The majority of podcasters, bedroom musicians, and others who will make use of this aren't going to worry about MIDI.

Very well made, works great

I am so glad I bought this. I was replacing a really old MAudio unit...it was a workhorse that I used for hundreds, maybe thousands of hours....but I had pretty much worn in out. There are lots of reviews and videos about the Scarlett 2i2, and I am glad I bought it. The top two things I like are: 1 - It is very popular so there is lots of support for it. The drivers were readily available, and there are tons of videos and other tutorials all over the internet for it. The fact that so many people have made videos about it is a good sign of how will people like it. 2 - It is very solid. It seems to be very well made. It feels like this can be another workhorse that I can use for many many more hours.

Now I see why everyone loves this audio interface

My old audio interface (Line6 POD Studio UX2) died and I was getting really sick of some of Line6's business practices (hardware dongles, slow driver updates) and also wanting to get away from modeling and, instead, record more simply: just putting mics on cabs. The Focusrite Scarlett is perfect for that. It's super quiet, has no noticeable latency, is class compliant (so, no drivers necessary), and is a beautiful piece of hardware with every knob and switch right where you need it. An audio interface shouldn't get in your way. Everything about the Scarlett is designed so that you can get on with recording and not have to worry about any of the details of your interface. I love it. I wish I'd bought one years ago.

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