greetings earthlings today I'm back with a review of a brand new audio interface from Focusrite so
today we're reviewing this guy the focusrite scarlett 2i2 third gen that is right the third
generation of this scarlett series if you do want to pick this interface up it will set you
back around 160 dollars like always I'll throw some links down below and in the sake of full
disclosure Focusrite did send me this interface for the sake of doing this review for this review
I have the rode nt1 connected directly to the third gen scarlett 2i2 with the 48 volt phantom
power turned on and the gain set at around 50% I will not do any kind of post-processing but
I may boost it in post so check the doobly-doo to see what I did Lee did now let's talk about
what comes in the box of course you are going to get the interface you'll get a USB C 2 USB
a cable you also get some free software like Pro Tools first Ableton Live light soft tube
focus writes red plug-in suite and a whole lot more and if that is actually all you get in the
box all the downloads like the documentation the drivers the software it's all downloadable onfocus
writes website next up as far as the build quality the audio interface feels really well
put together just like all the other Focusrite interfaces I've tested in the past it does have
an all-metal chassis on the tops and the sides while the back and the front are made of plastic
the dials don't have any kind of wobble to them the buttons have a really nice tactile click to
them so you know when you've pressed one the XLR ports have no movement to them that is out of the
ordinary and very quickly the third gen - I - is actually a touch smaller than the 2nd gen width
wise and height wise it is the exact same but when we look at the depth it is just a little
bit more shallow on the front of the interface you're going to find two identical channels they
each have an XLR combo jack for either an XLR or quarter-inch input they also both have gain
dial with a ring meter light around it which will flash red when you start clipping so you know you
need to roll back the gain at that point they also have an instrument button to switch between line
level and instrument level when you're using the quarter inch input and the really cool feature in
this interface is the addition of the err button which is a circuit that's found in focus rights
higher end is a preamps when you move farther to the right you'll find a 48 volt phantom power
button to turn on or off the phantom power they've also added a new direct monitor button so you can
turn on or off direct monitoring but you're also able to monitor stuff as mono or as a stereo pair
in case you're running a stereo microphone set and you would want to hear the sound that you're
actually recording the third-gen has a very similar monitor dial to turn up or down the
quarter inch inputs on the rear it has a headphone volume control and a quarter inch stereo headphone
output then on the back of the interface you'll find a USB C port to connect it to your device
which is just awesome to see I think we should USBC all the things and you'll find a set of
balanced quarter inch monitor outputs then as far as the specs of this thing it has a bit depth of
24-bit and a sampling rate of up to 192 kilohertz a gain range of fifty six decibels with a dynamic
range of 111 decibels and when I measure the phantom power it comes in just shy of 48 volts
at around forty seven point one and really quickly up on the screen I have a comparison
of the third gen - I - to the second gen - I - so you're able to see what the difference
is in the specifications are ok so right now I am right on top of the NT one to really engage
the proximity effect and I do not have the air circuit turned on and this is how it's sounding
and now I've enabled the error circuit and this is how it's sounding and you should be able to
hear quite a big boost in the upper frequencies that just really brightens up the sound for
another demonstration of the error circuit I am speaking into the sm7b again I do not have
the air circuit currently turned on and this is how it's sounding and now I've enabled the error
circuit and you can hear that a real brightens up the sm7b quite a lot now let's go ahead and
measure the noise floor of one of these preamps and for that I will be using a method that I
learned from Julie and Kraus I will link his video in the upper corner if you want to check that out
you
now in order to really test out the preamps in this thing I've connected the shure sm7b which
is a notoriously quiet microphone I've increased my gain nearly to 100% and I am hitting around
negative 6 DB on my meters and this is how it's sounding and I will be quiet so you can hear
what kind of background noise there is now with a sample rate of 48 kilohertz and an i/o buffer
size of 64 samples we have a round-trip latency of 8 milliseconds or an output latency of 3 and
1/2 milliseconds if we jump up to 128 samples we have 10 and 1/2 milliseconds round-trip or
4 and 1/2 milliseconds output and if we jump up to 256 samples we have 16 milliseconds
round-trip or 7 and 1/2 milliseconds output now with a sample rate of 192 kilohertz and
an i/o buffer size of 64 samples we have a round-trip latency of 6 milliseconds or
an output latency of 2.3 milliseconds if we jump up to 128 samples we have 6 and 1/2 milliseconds
round-trip or 2 and 1/2 milliseconds output and if we jump up to 256 samples we have 8
milliseconds round-trip or 3.3 milliseconds output and finally I want to demonstrate the
instrument input of this interface so I'll be plugging my guitar directly into this thing
I'll start by playing the DI track with no amp simulator on then I will turn on the air circuit
so you can hear how that affects the electric guitar as just a DI signal then I'll turn on
the amp simulator so you can hear it with and without the air circuit and see how it sounds
you
and now I want to do a very quick comparison of the noise performance and the max gain on
tap of the two I two second Chen to the two I to third gen and see how they match up
so there you have it I don't know about you guys but I didn't hear or see much of a difference
in terms of the max gain available or the noise floor of the - I - second Chen versus
the - I - third gen alright I think that focus right was really smart about the incremental
upgrades that they made to the - I - third gen without really losing sight of who it was for
it just seems to do everything that you'd need an interface to do and it does it really well
and we'll start with the pros and first up we got the high-res recording up to 24 bit 192
kilohertz I also found the preamps to be pretty dang clean even when we were nearing 100% while
driving the sm7b which was great to hear there was also ample Headroom when I was plugging my
instruments directly into this thing meaning I wasn't running into issues with clipping
which has been an issue on some other low-cost interfaces the latency performance of this thing
also was pretty impressive and to the headphone amp I found to be a little bit less noisy than
the - I - 2nd gen and you also get the ability to direct monitor and either mono or stereo which is
really important especially if you are setting up a stereo microphone set and lastly you're getting
access to that air circuit which previously had just been reserved for focus rights higher-end
preamps and then in terms of cons there's not much that I can complain about about this thing but if
I were to get nitpicky I am NOT the biggest fan of the metering lights on this because it just
doesn't give me a level of granularity that I like I would like to be able to know what level
I'm hitting without having to pull up a DAW or a meter and some software and additionally to
get really really nitpicky I personally prefer to have a physical mix style that allows me to
mix between the zero latency monitoring and the computer playback which unfortunately is not on
this device and to wrap up what I recommend the - I - third gen absolutely I would I
legitimately think that for home studio musicians and podcasters it does everything that you would
need an entry-level audio interface to do and the reason that I say that is it as great preamps it
can record high res audio it has ample Headroom so you can do your instruments and record directly
into your DAW and it has low enough latency that you can monitor some amp Sims that you're running
through your computer and lastly it has balanced monitor outputs now with all of that being said
if you're currently running the - I - second gen and you don't absolutely need the new air circuit
or the stereo direct monitoring you don't need to upgrade because the preamp performance from
the - I - second gen - the - I - third gen really isn't that different but on the other hand if you
are on the market for a new interface around 150 dollars maybe you were previously looking at the
2nd gen version of this interface then absolutely I would recommend picking up the 3rd gen because
you are getting that new added air circuit and you now have the added ability to direct monitor
stuff in stereo if you are stereo miking anything alright and that is going to wrap up for today so
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geeks rising calm I'll see you all next time thanks for watching thanks for listening bye