- If you're considering
whether you want to master the RODECaster
or hop on over to the 2i2,
this video will focus on what's right
with the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB audio interface.
(upbeat music)
And this is a question I actually get a lot.
Several times each week, people ask,
should they get the RODECaster Pro or the Scarlett 2i2.
And I will jump straight to the conclusion here
and say that these are not really competing products at all.
They're incredibly popular in the podcasting space.
But they aren't very competitive.
The RODECaster is about $600
and the Scarlett is about 150, $160.
As usual with my reviews and comparisons like this,
I'm gonna spoil everything upfront
and just hope that you stick around for the rest.
So, here's who each of these are for.
The Focusrite is a USB interface
that lets you connect to XLR microphones to your computer.
And that's pretty much it.
It has a decent amount of gain.
It has some functionality and controls on the front.
But really, it just lets you get the input from an XLR mic
into your computer.
The RODECaster on the other hand
does have some overlapping features.
It is a USB interface
that will let you connect four XLR inputs
along with a Bluetooth input, a smartphone input,
and a USB input and sound pads all to your computer
while out putting four or five headphone outputs
and a line output
and an internal recorder with built-in effects.
So, if you want something that is standalone.
Right now, I literally taped it a USB power brick
to the back of my RODECaster
with the USB adapter that Rode sells.
So, it's literally a standalone podcast studio.
I could record up to four or more guests
with this without ever connecting it to a computer.
I could even multi-track it internally.
Now how I ended up with the Focusrite Scarlett
is that over the holidays last year,
Buzzsprout where I host my podcast
sent me this pretty incredible care package,
and it included the Focusrite in it.
Which I was really excited to have,
because I know that it is so popular.
And I was curious about it.
And it does have one killer feature
that even though I have the RODECaster really makes me
absolutely love this for a very specific use case.
So, I'll explain that at the end of this.
Focusrite does sell a solo version of this
for just over $100.
Usually that's what it sells for.
But I would really recommend the 2i2.
This is the third generation and it's pretty terrific.
It's incredibly well-built.
It's all made out of metal.
Even the knobs actually feel amazing to turn.
The buttons are very clicky.
It's a really high quality piece of gear.
And if you're somebody who just wants to connect an XLR mic
to your computer
and you don't need any other of the fancy stuff
that the RODECaster offers,
I would definitely recommend the 2i2 over the solo,
even though the solo is about $50 cheaper.
Just because even if you do think
you only need one microphone,
you kinda never really know.
And down the line, you may want to connect instruments
or another guest's microphone.
You never really know.
I think having two inputs and two outputs is pretty amazing
and that's a good bare minimum.
So, I would recommend starting here,
if you're gonna go with this lineup.
And this is it.
It's super duper compact.
It just connects to your computer via USBC.
And once you get the Scarlett,
you do need to download their software application
to make it work with your computer.
It's a pretty easy process.
You do have to create an account.
Always a little bit annoying when you have to do that
just to get a thing working.
But it's pretty easy.
And then you can just install the software.
In the Settings, you can adjust the sample rate
all the way up to 192 kilohertz.
And you can adjust the clock.
And you can adjust your Phantom power settings.
You can also change the gain halo color.
So around the gain knobs,
you can select what color you want it to be.
Of course, by default it's green, yellow, and red,
because that makes sense.
But because I am who I am, I made good blue.
So when these light up blue,
that means I know there's a good signal.
If it goes green, for me, that means watch out.
And if it's red, that means you're clipping.
Obviously, not something you wanna do.
And on the front of the unit, there are two XLR inputs.
Each one has its own gain control.
And each one also has an instrument and an air button.
So by default, they're line level inputs for microphones
and stuff like that.
But if you press Instrument,
it will then be adjusted to something like a guitar
or a bass, which we'll talk about a little bit later.
You've also got the air button,
which I don't really use that much.
But the air button basically boosts the mid-level.
And so, Focusrite's claim
is that if you're somebody who needs that boost
or maybe you're a little quieter
or your microphone kind of needs that boost,
it will give it to you.
You've got your monitor input.
There's a headphone jack,
technic headphones with their own volumes.
And there's also your monitor level.
And then you can turn Phantom power on or off.
And Phantom power is universal.
So it goes to both inputs at the same time.
On the back of the unit,
there are the line outputs, right and left.
There's the USB connector and then also a lock.
So, we're gonna switch over to this unit in a second.
But let me pull in the Rode video mic pro plus
because something I've been waiting to do,
specifically for this video,
I haven't yet peeled off on this nice glossy black,
this little plastic here.
So here we go.
And even better.
There's another one on the front.
That was weird and unnecessary.
But now the design really shines of this thing.
So we can focus right on the things that are most important.
So let me level with you about the levels.
Let's try it out.
I've got my Rode pod mic here.
Of course, with the windscreen on it.
I'm gonna plug this into input one.
So, let's start out by turning the game to nine o'clock.
And then I'll switch over to the Focusrite
in the pod mic right now.
So, this is the pod mic.
You probably can't hear much because the levels are so low.
So, I'm gonna keep turning up the gain,
turning it all the way up.
There we go.
We're starting to see some indication
that we're getting a good level of signal.
So, if you're using this as an XLR interface,
how good does it sound?
Let's see the noise floor.
So right now it's turned up almost all the way,
which is giving me a decent level
on my voice with the pod mic.
But if I stopped talking,
now you can kind of hear the noise floor and the hiss level.
If I turn that down to where the noise is gone,
which is right about 10 or 11 o'clock,
you probably can't hear me very well.
So what that means
is if you're using a relatively gain hungry mic,
like the Shure SM7B, or even the pod mic,
you might end up needing some kind of gain booster
like a CloudLifter or a FetHead
in order to get the signal that you want.
And we'll try this out in a second.
But I just happened to have my Shure SM57 right here,
with it's super cool looking windscreen on it.
This is very similar to the 58
and other microphones like that,
which aren't quite as gain hungry,
or at least they don't normally tend to be.
So, let's plug this into input number two.
And then see how it compares
in terms of gain with the pod mic.
So, I actually learned something
in order to get this to work,
it wasn't showing up on channel two.
And then in Adobe Audition,
I had to select specifically stereo channel two.
And that showed up.
So, just know if you're switching from channel one to two,
or you doing multi-track, you gotta make sure
to specify which one.
I know that sounds obvious,
but hey, I'm learning along with you right with this.
So, right now here is the SM57.
If I turn this down,
it does still need quite a bit of gain.
This is at about the three o'clock position.
And it sounds all right.
And then if I, whoa, if I crank that all the way up,
we get a lot of background noise.
And there we go.
This is probably like the happy medium.
What is that?
Maybe like four o'clock on the gain dial.
So what this kind of tells me is you really want a mic
that's not super gain hungry.
Even the SM57 isn't quite as effective
as I was hoping it would be.
So, it kind of seems like with a lot of XLR mics,
you might need to just be maxing out your gain knob,
which is gonna give you plenty of volume.
But the downside of that,
is it's also gonna bring up that background hiss
that you can hear when I stopped talking.
And that can be kind of frustrating.
So, if we bring in something like a CloudLifter,
that should solve that problem.
Let's take cloud, no, the pod mic
and plug that into the CloudLifter.
Plug the CloudLifter into the Focusrite.
And then, we will also need to turn on Phantom power
to power the CloudLifter.
Okay.
So now that we've got Phantom power
turned on with the CloudLifter,
Phantom power's running into the CloudLifter
to give it it's gain boost.
That's running into the pod mic.
Let's check out our levels on the pod mic.
If I turn it up now, I turn the SM7B down.
And the pod mic up.
Wow.
Okay.
Using the CloudLifter with the RODECaster,
I didn't notice much of a difference.
But right now I've got the gain knob turned to 12 o'clock.
And my level is pretty much maxing out
where it was at, you know, all the way down five o'clock.
If I turn, whoa.
Okay.
If I turn it up, wow.
If I turn it up all the way, this is what it sounds like.
I'm barely talking and it's super loud.
So, let's turn that way down.
So, I can get a very, very decent level with the pod mic
and the CloudLifter,
with the gain at pretty much like 12 o'clock.
And if I stopped talking,
you can hear the noise floor significantly quieter.
Now the downside to this is you have to add in another unit,
the CloudLifter, which isn't really a big deal
except that this is the double channel one.
But the single channel CloudLifter is $150.
The Focusrite is $160 to get started.
So, you're now spending the same amount of money
on the unit as just the amplification for the unit.
And that to me, isn't super ideal.
Obviously, something maybe like a FetHead.
And there's some cheaper options you could find
for gain boosters that might work
and make it more reasonable.
But it really seems like if you're planning to use this
with a dynamic mic, that's kinda gain hungry,
you're gonna need some sort of booster
just because the preamps aren't quite strong enough
in here to handle it on its own.
Let's check out the CloudLifter with the SM57.
All right.
So with the SM57,
it's very similar to the pod mic.
I think I'm actually getting a slightly higher reading
at 12 o'clock.
So that's kind of nice.
And I start peaking,
I start pre-clipping right around three o'clock.
And then I start, whoa.
Okay.
So, they're actually kind of similar.
I thought for whatever reason that the SM57
just wouldn't want as much gain as the pod mic does.
But it does.
So, there we go.
Now, the last thing that I wanna check out,
you might recognize this bad boy over here,
the Neewer NW-800.
This was from my cheapest mic on Amazon video.
This looks like I'm holding a trophy.
And if this mic won a trophy,
it would be for the worst sounding microphone that I own.
And I'm sorry.
I know other people have gotten good results with this.
But this thing I can not get it to sound good.
Here's why it's here though.
This is a condenser style microphone.
So what that means is we should be able
to get a strong signal out of this microphone
without the CloudLifter
and without maxing out our gain knobs.
So, let's see if that's something we can do.
I've now switched back to the pod mic
running through the CloudLifter on channel one
with the gain at about 12 o'clock.
And that's so I can steal this cable from this microphone.
Plug it into this microphone.
Since I've got the CloudLifter connected,
I've already got Phantom power turned on.
Just a couple of notes about CloudLifters and Phantom power,
the power does not go through the gain amplifier.
So, it's powered by Phantom power,
but nothing is going through to your microphone.
So you can't use a Phantom power device with a CloudLifter.
It just doesn't work.
Similarly, I do wanna differentiate that Phantom power
and a gain booster are not the same thing.
That's another question that I get a lot.
Instead of buying a CloudLifter,
can I just turn on Phantom power for my SM7B
or my pod mic or something?
And the answer is no.
That actually just won't do anything.
Probably won't hurt the microphone,
but it's not gonna boost the signal
because Phantom power is literally powering the microphone
through the XLR cable.
But it's not boosting the existing signal
which is what the CloudLifter is doing.
This is why this is not a microphone test.
'Cause this microphone
is going to sound worse than this one.
But we're looking at levels.
And this is the only condenser style microphone I have.
So, you gotta work with what you got sometimes.
So, let's turn down the pod mic and turn up the NW-800.
And this is pretty much exactly
what I was hoping would be the case,
which is I've got the gain knob turned up to 12 o'clock
with the NW-800.
And I have plenty of volume.
If I max this out, I can go all the way back here.
I can barely talk right now.
I'm like whispering, but the noise floor is really loud.
I have a really long joke about microphones.
But I'll need to condense it a little bit
to make it more dynamic.
So what this means is you might actually wanna consider
using a condenser style microphone with this,
just because the Phantom power is going to give you
so much more gain without having to add in a CloudLifter.
The downside being cheap condenser microphones
like this do not sound great.
I know we're talking about condensers,
but I'm gonna switch back over to the pod mic.
The thing with condensers though is by their very nature,
they tend to pick up more sound.
So, they'll pick up more room tone.
They will pick up, you know, keyboards.
They'll pick up ambient noise and stuff like that
more easily than a dynamic microphone will.
So, whether or not a condenser will be the right choice
for you, only you can decide.
But just based on my experience,
it seems like it might actually be the way to go
for the Focusrite.
So with all that being said for $150, two inputs,
everything it can do, I think this is a great deal
if you just need to connect an XLR microphone
to your computer.
That noise floor may or may not be a problem to you.
Also, depending on which microphone you're using.
And the fact that you're using this
means you are using some software already,
whether it's GarageBand or Logic, Audition,
Audacity, something else.
Your software probably has some sort of noise reduction
effect built into it.
So maybe if that noise floor is annoying,
you can just adjust it.
And this is great because now you can use
all these different style XLR microphones
with not just podcasting in your computer,
but then they just become an input source for anything.
If you're doing streaming, video calls, Zoom,
all that stuff, now you can use an XLR mic.
And there's just so much more variety
in available XLR microphones than there are USB microphones.
Now, as I mentioned,
there is that one absolutely killer feature
of the Focusrite,
which is what I've been using it for.
Because I have the RODECaster Pro,
I'm not gonna use this for XLR microphones
in place of the RODECaster.
Because the RODECaster is sitting right there.
That'd be kind of silly.
But there is something
I really absolutely love using this for,
that's not really podcasts or streaming related.
You can take an instrument,
connect it to the quarter inch jack,
press the instrument button.
And now through an app like GarageBand,
which is what I'm using right now,
or whatever other app of your choice,
you can now use your real world instrument digitally.
And the Scarlett then just takes your guitar signal,
which is loud, and lets your computer then process it.
So, it gives you the best quality
that you could hope for in terms of your final recording.
So now, if I play the guitar,
you're just gonna hear the sound of the strings.
(lively upbeat music)
But I hear loud music.
(lively upbeat music)
Which is pretty crazy.
So, you don't have to worry about miking amplifiers.
You don't have to worry about disturbing your neighbors.
If you live in an apartment,
if you work a schedule where you can only record
or play music at night,
now you don't have to worry about being a crazy nuisance.
You can record directly into your computer
and make it sound as loud as you want.
Do as many tracks as you want,
add guitar, add bass, add your synthesizers.
Whatever you want.
(tense upbeat music)
I wish I would have had something like this
when I was like 17.
If as a kid, I could be playing guitar,
not disturbing anyone,
but also being able to record it as if I was playing loudly,
which you can do all kinds of crazy sounds.
Distorted stuff like I did.
You can do clean things.
(lively upbeat music)
If you're just listening to me in the room,
it doesn't sound like anything.
It just strings.
But if you're listening to me in my headphones,
then it sounds like I've got this super loud amp
with a ton of reverb going.
(quirky music)
That's kind of amazing.
(lively upbeat music)
I don't think you can go wrong with the Focusrite Scarlett.
I don't think it compares to the RODECaster
'cause they're not even the same thing.
It's kind of like going, hey, do you want a sports car?
Or do you want a pick up truck?
Neither is better than the other.
It just kind of depends on what your needs are.
Do you wanna go really fast?
Do you wanna be able to carry a whole bunch of stuff
and have people ask you to help them move all the time?
And they'll pay you in pizza, but they never really do.
Now, if you're still sort of on the fence
about what's best for your setup,
I've put together an entire playlist of videos
all about audio.
So audio videos, as I say, adios to you in this video.
(lively upbeat music)