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.

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.