greetings earthlings I'm back with another interphase review for you guys
so today I'm reviewing this guy the focusrite scarlett 2i2 2nd gen interface if you are
interested in this thing it'll set you back around 150 bucks on Amazon as per usual link in the
description and for this video I have the rode nt1 connected directly to the 2i2 2nd gen with phantom
power on and my gain at around 45% recording at 24 bit 192 kilohertz I'll do no post-processing or
add any effects to the audio but I may boost it in post so check the doobly-doo for more information
Jesus Christ that was a long one and before we go any farther I know people will ask what's
the difference between the first gen Scarlets and the second gen Scarlets and according to Focusrite
they've improved the latency on the newer models they've redesigned the gain structure to make it
better for getting the right game they've redesigned the instrument inputs to resolve
the clipping issue that a lot of people have had and have also made it a higher resolution so now
you can record up to 192 kilohertz now let's go ahead and talk about what comes in the box
obviously you're going to get the interface you get a USB cable you get minimal documentation
because it's all online and when you register your device you get a bunch of free software as far as
the build quality just like the first gen devices this thing feels absolutely amazing it has an all
aluminum chassis that feels very rugged the dials are all nicely attached except for the headphone
dial which does wiggle around quite a bit and the XLR ports are not loose at all on the front of the
interface you're going to find two channels which are the exact same they each have an XLR combo
jack which accepts XLR or 6.3 millimeter cables they have game control dials that also have a ring
light to indicate when you're getting a signal or when you're clipping and they also have a switch
to switch between line or instrument level inputs then in the main section you have a plus 48 volts
button to turn on or off phantom power for both channels XLR ports you have a direct model switch
to turn on or off zero latency monitoring you have a monitor dial to control the outputs on the back
of the interface you have a headphone volume control and lastly you have the 6.3 millimeter
headphone output on the back of the interface you just have a couple of things you have the USB plug
which allows you to connect this to your computer and you have a set of 6.3 millimeter outputs to
connect to your powered amp or powered monitors in terms of specs this thing has a bit depth
of 24-bit a sampling rate of 40 4.1 up to 192 kilohertz it has plus 48 volts of phantom power
that you can only turn on or off for both channels and it has a gain range of 50 decibels so right
now you can see that our gain is at around 50% I'm going to go ahead and drop this to zero and
slowly increase it so you can hear what kind of line noise is generated by this preamp 25%
fifty percent
75%
and 100%
now I have the 2i2 connected to my Windows 10 PC with the exact same settings after downloading
the Focusrite plugins and installing them and this is how the audio sounds in this
setup situation and just to demonstrate the amount of gain that this thing does offer i
have the shure sm7b connected directly to the 2i2 with my gain set at around 95 or
98 percent and this is a level we're getting out of this setup now I'm going to go ahead
and plug my guitar directly into the second channels instrument input and show you how
it sounds with some guitar processing as well as raw to give you an idea of how they've changed it
now I'm speaking into the rode nt1 connected directly to the focusrite scarlett 2i2 second-gen
with the input gain at 45% and this is how the audio sounds and this is the level that we're
getting and now I have the NT one connected directly to the focusrite scarlett solo first
gen with the phantom power on and my gain at 45 percent as well and this is how the audio sound
and these are the levels we're getting which you can see are quite a bit lower than the scarlett
2i2 2nd gen so you can see here on the - I - that with an i/o buffer sizes 64 samples we have
a round-trip latency of 8.3 milliseconds with a sample size of 128 11.2 milliseconds and with a
sample of 256 17 milliseconds on the scarlett solo with an i/o buffer of 64 samples we have
a round-trip latency of 8 and 1/2 milliseconds when we switch to 128 11 and 1/2 milliseconds and
then at 256 17 point 2 milliseconds so to me the improvement seems negligible so overall just like
the first gen Scarlett solo I think this thing is an absolutely amazing Buy in terms of pros
this thing is just insanely well built it has some really nice mic pries in it it has a really good
noise floor the instrument inputs no longer clip and you get a bunch of free software so you're
up and running right out of the box and then in terms of cons it doesn't have phantom power
controls for each individual channel which I would have liked to see and also the headphone dial does
wiggle around a bit but there's nothing huge about that so if you're looking for a relatively cheap
interface that records high res audio has some really nice mic pries and just does everything
that you would expect an interface to do I would highly recommend the scarlett 2nd gen series of
interfaces the gods agree I guess now if you do currently have one of the first gen models I don't
think it's necessary for you to upgrade I think you're perfectly fine with what you have but if
you're new to the market and you're looking for a new interface and you have the option between
the first and second-gen series i highly think you should go with the second gen over the first
alright guys i guess that'll do it for today if you found this video full and it's trigger helpful
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the bottom of this screen and I will see you all next Friday or this Friday talk to you later bye