Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd gen - piece of shit? D :

[Goriila Texas]

I don't have beef with crimsonwarlock he's posted some good things on the forum but I have to call out misinformation as we are all here ( I assume) to learn. In the grand scheme of things it's about the user and how they use their tools. I'm a creative mostly as I can make almost any genre of music if I put forth the effort. I'm not a good mixer so someone with lesser gear who knows how to mix can make better sounding music than me.

yeesh, people, listen to each others’ music and ask yourself how much it matters. this whole thing is about making art. stop twisting it into some dumb pissing contest about who can spend the most money on gear, and go enjoy some fucking music.

[Goriila Texas]

You make valid points on the testing.

" Audio-interface-/preamp shootout: Focusrite Clarett+ 8Pre vs. Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 3rd Gen.
Drums (8 channels) were recorded in two consecutive takes with the air feature enabled for the close mics on kick, snare and toms. The snare lost tuning during soundcheck for the second take (Clarett+ 8Pre) but the overall differences betweeen the preamps/converters should still be clearly audible."

Two consecutive takes, for real?
There should not have been a ‘second take’ if you’re doing a comparison of gear. If you want to compare two takes you can always find differences even using the exact same gear. But if you want to compare two mics or pre amps or convertors, you need to remove ALL other variables and change just ONE thing. This is basic, and if folks can’t be bothered to setup a better comparison I can’t be sure I’m hearing the difference between two takes or two different convertors.
[EDIT for clarity: this video compares the convertors AND the preamps AND two different takes, three variables in total. If you hear a difference, how can you be sure you’re attributing it to only one of the three variables? I can hear a clear difference between the first and second and third snare hit in both videos, so there’s that as well…]

[Reminiscence]

I can guarantee that, for almost everyone, the tech spec of their audio interface is not the limiting factor of the quality of their output.

Ryan's banjo works just fine, then.

[RobC]

Meanwhile Focusrite Scarlett Solo has an ASIO driver alright, some useless "control" software, with no benefit, whatsoever. I'd prefer to just run everything with ASIO4All. It does a great job.

The Focusrite Control software has one function I’ve used quite a bit, the ability to loop-back computer audio into Reason.

I'll check for that, but remember, this is just the Scarlett series, and just the Solo.