It was quite literally just around this time in 2015 that I did my first audio interface
reviews - for the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and the Focusrite iTrack solo. The channel has
come a long, long way since then, but I still enjoy and use both of those interfaces today.
Well now it’s time to look at the bigger brother to the 2i2 - the FocusRite Scarlett
2i4 USB audio interface.
[INTRO PREROLL]
Costing around $200, the Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 is a USB audio interface with two line
or instrument inputs and up to four high-quality outputs. There are a lot of features here
that would be great for musicians, but I will be covering this from the perspective of a
voice over artist. I can speak briefly on some of the more music-oriented aspects, but
I cannot provide any useful direct feedback or tests.
Taking a physical tour, we have a large, scarlet box. It’s housed in an anodized aluminum
case which looks great and stays durable, but makes awful noises if you touch anything
else metal to it, with a grinding sound I never want to hear again.
The subtle brushed aluminum look with the minimalistic Focusrite logo on top looks great.
On the bottom you have 4 nice rubber feet, which keep the interface up off the ground
and keep it from sliding around.
Over on the front input panel we have… a lot compared to the 2i2.
To start, you have the two line and microphone inputs. This is a convenient design with an
XLR connection and a Line In port inside the center of the XLR port. This way you have
the option of hooking up both without taking up too much space. For each input you have
a gain knob, a line or instrument switch, and a PAD button. The PAD button reduces input
sensitivity by 10db for very “hot” inputs. These inputs have FocusRite’s “award winning”
pre-amps in them - the same as the Scarlett 2i2. They are very clean, but I find for my
microphones that once you start getting past +50% gain for my microphones, at least, unnecessary
noise is introduced. Much less than my Behringer mixer by a LONG shot, but still some. To mitigate
this, I use the CloudLifter CL1 pre-amp. Past that, you have the 48v phantom power
button, which lights up red when phantom power is on, and a MIDI and USB activity lights.
This last section is where things get fun. So you have your one fourth inch headphone
output and a headphone volume knob. But then you have so much more.
As with previous interfaces, you have control over the Direct Monitor interaction with your
headphones. But instead of just being “on or off” you have a dial which allows you
to blend your monitoring of your inputs and playback via USB or MIDI. That way you can
adjust it to ONLY hear the inputs, ONLY hear what’s playing back through the device,
or a blend of both. This is really, REALLY cool.
You also have a switch to affect whether your direct monitoring is in Stereo - with left
and right channels separated per inputs - or mono - where everything is mixed to mono and
balanced to both sides for monitoring.
Next, you have a monitor volume knob. This affects the balanced ¼ inch outputs on the
back, as well as the unbalanced RCA outputs labeled 1 and 2. We’ll touch on this in
a moment. Lastly, there’s a switch to control which
set of outputs your headphone monitoring is based on. You can either choose 1-2 - which
is the balanced ¼ inch and #1 and 1 RCA on the back - whose volume is controlled by that
Monitor volume knob, OR choose 3-4 - which is for the unbalanced RCA outputs labeled
3 & 4 that stay at a constant, fixed volume. The sound being outputted is the same sound,
but volume levels differ. If you choose 1-2, you have both the big Monitor
knob and your headphone volume knob that can affect sound levels within your headphones,
whereas if you choose 3-4, only the headphone volume knob affects what you hear in the headphones.
That was a lot. This is one complicated interface. I love all the options that’s available,
and it makes this one very flexible interface. Now that we’ve had a breather, let’s tackle
the rear I/O.
On the back, we have a Kensington lock, the USB 2.0 a to b connection, a MIDI in and out
- yes, this interface can actually act as a MIDI interface for your computer and DAW
software, eliminating the need for an internal - or separate - MIDI card or interface, so
that’s pretty cool - and then your other outputs.
For this, you have 4 unbalanced RCA outputs, labeled 1-4 and 2 ¼ inch balanced outputs.
1 and 2 of the RCA and the 2 ¼ inch go together as grouping 1-2 for the headphone switch on
the front and are controlled via the Monitor volume knob. 3-4 of the RCA outputs output
a fixed, unbalanced signal at all times. Phew! That’s a LOT of I/O! This interface
can do a ton.
As I said, I’m not a musician, but I do remember “back in my day” having a MIDI
card being a big deal, so it’s pretty neat that this device can serve as an interface
for both MIDI and mic or instrument analog audio.
Hooking it up is fairly straightforward - plug in the USB 2.0 connector to your PC and hook
up your inputs! Make sure you plug it DIRECTLY into a USB port on the computer, not a hub,
as it requires a lot of bandwidth for audio, and their drivers still seem to have some
stalling issues. Also, I recommend avoiding USB 3.0 ports for this. While it still works
fine in USB 3.0 for direct ASIO interaction via something like Adobe Audition, normal
interaction with third-party software such as OBS, Skype, Discord, Elgato’s Game Capture
software, etc. does NOT seem to work at all if connected via USB 3.0. This is weird and
I really hope we get some new driver soon, as it’s been a while.
Make sure your line-instrument switch is set correctly. Personally, I did not notice any
difference when recording my XLR microphones in the Line mode or Instrument mode. I’ve
read online that the interface automatically detects any XLR inputs as a microphone and
sets the correct low impedance for the mic. This is potentially true. However, for instrument
usage, depending on your setup running to the interface, you’ll wanna do some test
recordings and see which is best for you, as I’ve seen some have clipping problems
with “hot” guitar signals on the Instrument mode. Again, not something I can test or speak
on.
If your signal is “too hot” in general on the 2i4, then you can utilize the PAD buttons
to lower input sensitivity by 10db. Thankfully this applies to the inputs individually.
Their 48v phantom power works great and doesn’t introduce any additional noise into the system.
Since I use these interfaces as DACs when the drivers are behaving, having the Blend
knob to blend my inputs and my playback is really quite nice. When I’m recording, I
can lean towards the mic and hear myself better, and when I’m jamming out to music I can
completely mute out the microphone input. I really appreciate this.
Overall, I’m still in love with Focusrite interfaces on the whole. This provides a super
clean audio signal over USB - and at high resolutions - while providing mixer-like features.
I still have trouble with their drivers in my system where if I use it while heavily
taxing my system with other processes, such as video editing, gaming etc. the driver stalls
and I lose my interface as a connection entirely - but sadly this appears to be a very rare
issue and one somewhat unique to my PC setup. More reason to build a higher-end PC when
I can afford it, I guess.
So this is my review of the Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 USB audio interface. It’s a badass and
flexible interface that is definitely well-suited to be the 2i2’s little brother.
Links to my other interface reviews will be in the description below. Thanks for watching!
Smash the like button if you liked it, don’t forget to subscribe for more awesome tech
videos, and otherwise, I’ll catch you in the next one!