Focusrite Scarlett 8i6 3rd Gen USB Audio Interface Recording, Songwriting, & Streaming High-Fidelity, Studio Quality Recording, With Transparent Playback

I love this freaking thing dude, has overall given many more paths to explore creatively just by simply having more inputs and outs, instantly noticed a difference in productivity, the upgraded appearance is a plus as well, coming from a gen 3 2i2, I was looking for something to improve functionality and allow me to expand my studio, this has done just that, I would recommend this over an Apollo any day, UAD software can be buggy when dealing with multiple systems, focusrite control is very intuitive and easy to use across the board, not to mention artists vocals sound crisp and clear, smooth harmonic drivers sound beautiful when mixed and gain staged correctly. Overall I’d say this product is worth every single penny and more

This is great hardware. I use to do my production hobby work on a desktop that died prematurely. My previous incarnation I ran a R-Bus into my Roland VM-3100 and additionally ran a SoundBlaster Emulator X. Unfortunately running those on an outdated laptop was not an option.I recently purchased a HP Laptop and tried running FL Studio. The audio out was lacking so I decided to look into audio interfaces and their software bundles. I already own an outdated version of Reason, Cubase, and Ableton. So I wanted to see what could I beef up my arsenal with. After seeing what Focusrite had I was thoroughly impressed. My next need was midi i/o. Again I had outboard gear in the form of two MidiSport 8x8. This filled in that gap with it being MIDI capable. My next option was multiple audio inputs and outputs. This more than covered my needs. I just needed a headphones out and it has two. I also needed something to connect my monitors and this was covered. I can chain my MIDI and use my patch bay if needed to route audio in. This device covered more than I needed which is perfect!Setup was pretty much straightforward but a tiny bit awkward. Everything on the Focusrite side is in perfect condition. Downloading everything is simple due to a lack of a DVD drive.Unfortunately I hit a brick wall with the software bundle. Some of the instructions are lacking. After finding a way to download most of the software I found myself at a crossroads. ProTools decided to discontinue their support of PT First. So that DAW isn’t an option for use. You’ll have to rely on Ableton’s Live in order to get any production work done.My other issue is with a bundled reverb. It crashes my DAW of choice every single time. I have a support ticket open for it so who knows if there’s a fix or if it’s just a problem with my configuration. There’s a lot of people with the same issue and different DAWs…???Overall I love my new system. It’s been able to resurrect my love of production.

I can't say enough good things about this product. Paired with my Røde mic, my voiceover auditions have truly never sounded better compared to what I was using (Yeti Mic plugged directly into my Mac). The setup easy and comprehensive, providing an extremely user-friendly setup process to get you up and running not only with the device but also the included apps (though it should be said the AVID app does not work with Mac OS X 10.15 "Catalina"--you need to use the included Ableton Live Lite app or Garageband, which has been working great for me). The "Air" feature does had a really nice feel to the vocals, for sure. I like using it for specific scenes/characters to provide a different feel to the recording.The tech support is *excellent*. My headphone's adaptor got stuck in one of the monitor outputs--just got caught in something, not sure what happened, but it just would *not* come out. I was able to use the other other jack just fine while I worked on a fix. Tech support handled the RMA quickly and I got a replacement unit in about a week. Very smooth process and everyone was very, very nice and supportive throughout. I am just glad I kept the box around to ship it back!Anyway, I use this primarily for in-home recording for voice over auditions and have test it out for streaming purposes as well---works great for both applications. I fear that this might be overkill--you can do a LOT with this box -- but I am very, very happy with the purchase. My only regret is not having bought this earlier, I would have booked more gigs!

My Line 6 UX2 was fun in its time, but it was long past time for an upgrade. This Focusrite box is just about perfect for what I do. It has independent power instead of drawing from the USB port. It has 4 monitor outputs instead of the 2 I had. It has 2 headphone jacks as well so you can have another set of ears in the mix if you want. This box is also capable of supernatural sampling rates up to 192 khz. If we get bionic hearing someday we might notice it.Has a metal case instead of plastic. Setup could be accomplished by a 5 year old in about a half hour. If you don't hear your headphones, reinstall the drivers, restart, and make sure you click the follow up prompt when you login to finish. Then everything is controlled in the Focusrite Control software. The only thing that sucks about the software is you can't use the sliders with the mouse, you have to physically turn the volume knobs. The software just provides a graphic to show the levels. Not a big deal, but sometimes a person's interface is buried so you have to reach. Would be nice of the sliders controlled the knobs as well, but that is a motion controller that would have to be soldered into the next model with code written for it. Might not be able to keep it under 500 bucks that way.The 18i8 is meant to make music or podcast, but it is a great base for an entertainment system. Movies with quad monitors where you can control the pans to get it dialed in perfectly to your location in the room. Yeah, might want to rewatch star wars after setting something like that up. PvP gaming is insane because you can setup the quads to where you can hear footsteps from any direction, like you are actually getting jumped.