Hey guys, in this video we’re going to review the Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 audio interface.
This is a mid-level rackmount audio interface that has a lot of features and connectivity.
We’ll talk about everything this audio interface is capable of, how to use it, and what’s
included. If you’re interested in getting one of these units, I’ve left links in the
video description down below. Let’s start with what this audio interface
includes. The front of the audio interface has 2 combined
XLR ¼” inputs that can also act as a direct box for an instrument input. The Focusrite
Scarlett 18i20 can record at up to 192 kHz, but it can’t use all the inputs at once
when it’s doing this. The next 2 buttons give us phantom power for all the inputs,
separated in 1-4 and 5-8. Then we have the preamp levels with an instrument button, and
pad for the first 2 inputs. The next 6 inputs just have preamp levels. To the right we have
a level indicator that shows us the input level after the microphone is amplified. We
can use this to make sure we’re getting a loud enough level without clipping. After
that is the monitor output with a DIM switch and mute mode. The DIM switch will reduce
the audio output by 18 dB. Then we have 2 headphone outputs and a power switch.
Most of the connections we’ll use on the 18i20 are found on the back of the unit. Starting
on the left, we have our power connector. Then there’s the SPDIF connectors which
can be used to attach a stereo digital effects processor. We’ll cover that again a little
later. Next are MIDI inputs and outputs to attach a MIDI device. These can be required
depending on the type of MIDI device you use, but many MIDI controllers are now made to
be USB compatible. The next connector is for USB connection to the computer. Then we have
the clock connection to sync to other devices. The optical inputs and outputs give us 8 additional
inputs and outputs to use with a second rack processor, such as the Focusrite Octopre or
a Behringer unit like I have below. The two outputs in white are the monitor outputs for
our monitor speakers, or in this case, I have them routed to a headphone amplifier first,
which can then be sent to a set of monitor speakers. The line output allows us to connect
to analog effects processors. The rest of the inputs are for microphones or line inputs.
Unfortunately, they’re all on the back of the unit, which can make accessing them difficult
if the audio interface is setup in a rack. To fix that, I’ve purchased an ART P16 XLR
patchbay to pass all the inputs through to the front of my rack. Then I’ve made a few
custom sized XLR cables with bulk wire and Neutrik connectors to connect it all.
So let’s cover why I chose this audio interface. My previous audio interface was a Focusrite
Scarlett 18i6, first generation. When I upgraded, I wanted to make sure whatever I chose was
rackmountable to keep all my equipment contained and wired up in a clean way. Another thing
I considered was the number of inputs. I wanted at least 8 microphone inputs, but the option
of expanding to more was a nice bonus since I already owned the Behringer ADA8000. The
one thing to keep in mind is a lot of audio interfaces will have additional line inputs,
but they require external preamps, so by the time you buy preamps and the interface, it’s
actually cheaper to just go with a bigger interface like this. This interface is also
great because it allows me to loop through external effects processors, and I might experiment
with that in the future. I’ve also been really impressed with my audio interface before,
since Focusrite does make really clean sounding audio interfaces with good quality built in
preamps. Before you go ahead and try to use this audio
interface, you’ll need to install the drivers. They are available on Focusrite’s website
when you register your product. Just make sure to get your serial number off the bottom
of the unit before you go mounting it in a rack, because you’ll need that to register
it. Now let’s cover how to use Focusrite Control.
Focusrite Control is the configuration software that lets us adjust the settings and signal
routing with the Focusrite Scarlett 18i20. This is part of the software package that
you need to install to get the audio interface working.
If we start in device settings, we can see what audio interface we’re use, the firmware
version, sample rate, clock source, and the monitor controls, which determines which outputs
are controlled by the monitor level knob on the front of our audio interface. Our default
has this set to output 1-2. Next we’ll move onto the output routing
section and cover how we can set up our different hardware outputs.
If we start at the top, we can see our monitor outputs. Clicking on this brings up the mixing
controls so we can adjust what signals are passing to that output. The first thing we
should note is that the monitor outputs are set up as custom mix. This means that we can
add or remove hardware and software outputs to the monitors. If we want this simplified,
we can have it set to either a playback output or direct routing out of a hardware input.
Either way, with custom mix we can do all these things anyways, but we can only have
1 custom mix, so everything set to custom mix monitors the same inputs and playbacks.
The top of our mix shows the hardware inputs. These are the inputs to our audio interface
that are directly routed to the output, that way there is no latency. We can add new hardware
inputs with the plus button to the right of the inputs. For each input, we can adjust
the panning, level, mute and solo. If we double click the pan or level, it will reset to zero.
Down below we can change our Playback outputs. The default for our software will be Playback
1-2, unless we tell it to use another Playback in our software.
Along the left side, we can do this with all our outputs, including the headphones, SPDIF,
and ADAT outputs. The last thing I want to cover with the Focusrite
Scarlett 18i20 is how to loop through an effects processor. The process is the same whether
we use SPDIF or line outputs and inputs, so I’ll be connecting through the line inputs
and outputs for this example. To get started, connect a pair of outputs
from the audio interface to the line inputs of an effects processor. Then connect the
line outputs on the effects processor to a pair of line inputs on the Focusrite Scarlett
18i20. For this example, I’m using my Eleven Rack as the external effects processor. Normally
I just connect it as my USB interface to do this, but this will work to test in this video.
We’ll start up our digital audio workstation, and add a hardware output to a clean DI guitar
track. Then we set our Eleven Rack to respond to a Line Input as the input signal.
To listen back in real-time, we can setup real-time monitoring for our monitor or headphone
mix in the Focusrite Control software to play the signal on inputs 3-4, then adjust the
level from the Focusrite Control. To get this into our DAW, we would create a stereo track
and set it to record the stereo 3-4 input. We can also play it back through the DAW using
input monitoring, but this adds a little bit of latency. We don’t end up hearing the
latency when we capture the track though. One thing we should note here is that the
line outputs 7-8 and 9-10 are linked to the headphone outputs 1 and 2. This means that
they default to also having playback 1-2 sent to them. If we’re trying to use an effects
processor on these outputs pairs, we would have to disable the outputs to the headphones
as well to only get the output we want. This is done by changing the output from custom
mix to playback 7-8 and 9-10. That’s fine for me, since I can connect headphones through
my headphone amplifier on the monitor outputs, but it provides less options for different
headphone mixes. The Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 also comes bundled
with included software and plugins. You’ll get the Focusrite Red Plugin Suite, Softube
Time and Tone Bundle, an Addictive Keys piano, Loopmaster samples, Pro Tools First (which
is free anyways), and Ableton Live Lite. All this software is available for download, and
the instructions are written on the inside of the box along with the code to redeem the
bundled software. Thanks for checking out this review on the
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20. If you’re interested in getting one for yourself, we’ve left
links to the product in the video description down below. You can also like the video, subscribe
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