Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 3rd Gen

I have never in my life even remotely thought that interface can change my workflow this much. Integrated zero-latency hardware 1 bus mixer is game changer since... it works even if PC is turned off and interface is unplugged. It means that you can actually set this interface up in such way that when PC is off Scarlett 18i20 can behave as pass-through device passing any line-in of your choice (eg. inputs 7-8) directly to your main XLR monitors. It makes it really easy to connect multiple either balanced or unbalanced devices to monitors. Kinda like... monitor controller or actual mixer AND interface in one device.

Really nice. Value added by this device is simply incredible. Also it works under Linux (as of today there's kernel patch available on linuxmusicians fixing implicit USB feedback issue).

The only issue I have with this device it's that it has ONE bus mixer. Means you can create one "custom mix" aka virtual mixer (with whichever physical or software inputs you like) and then assign this one mix output it to whichever outputs you like but there's only ONE such stereo mix. It means that you can't for example pass line-in 7-8 to out 1-2 and line-in 5-6 to out 3-4 as that would require 2 independent virtual mixers which is not possible.

pros:
- standalone 1 bus mixer
- signal level meters and other back lit indicators look super dope
- 10 built-in output channels (a lot of devices have only 8). In general great i/o
- rubber caps to cover rack ears mounting holes if you don't use them
- kind of works with Linux as well as smartphones

cons:
- standalone ONE bus mixer
- i believe more controls should be exposed as physical buttons. Eg. AIR switch which is physical on some other Scarlett devices.

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?

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?

Otherwise, the device is fine. Lots of inputs right into your PC - what more can you ask for.

Bought it several months ago for my studio.
Amazing for recording several analog and digital instruments simultaneously.
Great sound, easy to operate, very high quality pre-amps.
Lots of outputs and inputs.
It should have been one of the best for its price range except for the annoying fact that the headphone amps are shit.
unless you use head phones with 55 ohms impendence you'll get immediate distortion. And when you do use headphone with 55 ohms or higher it sounds like shit, but without the distortion.
You can get by with proper headphones if you are recording and use the headphones as monitors. But for a mix, it's unusable.
Not sure what Focusrite were thinking when they've done this.
I have no choice and need to buy a headphones amp.
If you are not using headphones for a mix or have a good headphones amp, it is highly recommended.

The best card I could find for the price which enables to do anything. Physical channels can be expandable with a preamp via an optic cable. 8 physical inputs are mostly enough for fieldwork.

It makes pops and clicks when recording long sessions for more than 15 minutes but they don't appear in the recording. So it's a small issue with hearing part I guess. Work with higher bitrate and ignore the clicks.

Software interface is fairly intuitive and enables users to make alternative monitoring. Drivers are working without problem with Voiceomeeter Banana stuff. My old Steinberg card does not work with them properly.

The biggest issue I can say is headphone preamps are not very powerful. Even if you hit the max level you can hear a quiet playback with DT-770 Pro 250 ohms. I have to use Behringer's headphone amp to amplify the sound especially on field recordings.

The design and quality of the material (knobs etc.) are exquisite.

Just buy and try if you think of it because its very easy to sell because there are too many of them running around.

The unit is not very heavy but its still feels premium and solid. it has 8 mic preamp/input on the unit itself, which I find is just enough if you're starting to record live drums. However you'll need a separate preamp to use all 18inputs that this unit has.

The mic-preamps has a -15db pad toggle on it, and when I use certain mics with it, I found that it'll clip at around -10db to -20db. I don't know whether its is a problem with my unit or something that all units has. I don't know what caused it, but I haven't re-encounter that problem since then.

For day to day uses, It runs smoothly. its actually plug-n-play, but if you use its control software downloading from their website, you can get much more out of it in terms of internal routing. However, I have experienced occasionally, the control software would say the hardware is not connected even thought the computer is clearly using it to play sound from my daw. Usually it will resolves itself after I restart the control software after waiting a few minutes or restarting my computer.