Focusrite Clarett downgrade?

[brucie]

Hi there everyone,

Bit of a dilemma here, I have currently out grown my Focusrite Clarett, an interface that has served me very well and which I love the sound of. The only problem being is the limited outputs (plus no adat output option), I have come to a time with my work flow where I need to have a lot more outs in the studio. So I need to upgrade (or is it downgrade?) to something else.

The Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 look perfect for my needs but I was wondering if this would be a downgrade from the Clarett? Has anyone had any experience with this. I do use the 'air' mode on the Clarett a lot which I know is an actual hardware change rather than in software in the new Scarlett.

If I was to 'downgrade' I would consider paring the Scarlett with an Audient ASP800 as I really like the sound of that.

Then part of me thinks that I should look else where, say RME or Motu (I have had Motu in th past). I am not really considering the Apollo (convince me otherwise), not on cost, but I am happy with my plug-ins and don't feel I need to enter the UAD eco system.

Mac user running Logic and ProTools mainly. Mostly recording upto 4 mics (occasionally more but this isn't a main consideration as I can always add with ADAT.)

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

All the best, Neil

[CS70]

Very hard to given any meaningful input as it all depends on what are your expectations and what exactly you value.

As of features, as you say, it depends on what you need or have.

The preamps on the Scarlett are fine - I've used one and didn't find anything objectionable.
Since Clarett is "next gen" I would expect the A/D conversion to be slightly better (without knowing for sure as I've not tried a Clarett yet).

A third aspect is perhaps how much you use the equipment - the Scarletts are more consumer oriented so practical stuff like pots, controls, etc may be less durable. But on the other side since the inception of computer controlled manufacturing, consumer stuff can have astonishing levels of quality, and the fellows at Focusrite are good. I still have, use and love their old Forte interface in perfect happiness. Not to mention the ISA..

In other words, I wouldn't particularly mind (or notice, I guess) using either.

If I were you I would reframe the question in terms of what specifically you find very good in the Clarett - and then try a Scarlett from a shop and find if you're missing it.

But keep in mind that I generally find to be gear to be far less important than how you use it (from guitars to audio equipment), within reasonable limits of course (and both interfaces fall well within for me). I have the same attitude with guitars and audio equipment, so YMMV.

[brucie]

Hi there,

Thanks for that. All great points. I should have been more specific.

What I value (or am looking for)
- Reliability
- Latency
- Outputs (the big requirement now)
- Quality of the conversion
- Quality of the preamps (although I am happy to farm this out, I have a few external 'nice' or 'colour' preamps.

So what I basically need now is more outputs but same (or better) level service that the Clarett has given me. Been a fan of Focusrite since I started selling their Red (and Green) gear back in the 1990s. I just wonder if upgrading to a Clarett 8pre might be a step back as well given it is now quite old.

Usage wise it is (and will be) used daily, but it won't be hammered in terms of things being plugged in and out.

Nice to have (sorry I had to add )
- Rack mountable (big issue of mine with the Clarett 4 pre with it's custom size)
- On and Off switch (i know a strange one!)

Totally agree with you in terms of usage, I am just having that strange buyers panic (which only seems to have developed since the internet!) of wanting to do the right thing. Since moving to the sticks, getting gear to try is a bit harder unfortunately.

My brain is telling me a Scarlett paired with Audient ASP800 will be a great solution. But something is saying perhaps to look at something like the RME.

Cheers for you help! All the best, Neil

[ef37a]

From years of reading about them in SoS, if you can afford to go for RME do it.

When I hit 65 I seriously considered a small UC something when I got my pension lump but sanity prevailed and we got double glazing! Just as well really since the musician in the family buggered off to France and I would have been left with £1k worth of kit I had no need of.

Dave.

[John Willett]

From years of reading about them in SOS, if you can afford to go for RME do it.

Agreed

When I hit 65 I seriously considered a small UC something when I got my pension lump but sanity prevailed and we got double glazing! Just as well really since the musician in the family buggered off to France and I would have been left with £1k worth of kit I had no need of.

Dave.

Ahh - but maybe the musician buggered off to France *because* you did not buy the gear.

Or was that your plan.

[CS70]

My brain is telling me a Scarlett paired with Audient ASP800 will be a great solution. But something is saying perhaps to look at something like the RME.

RME's advantages are not sonic, but in longevity. If you see yourself using the same piece of kit for the next, say, 20 years, go buy RME , because judging on history any Focusrite (or most others) will be long out of support by then.

I cannot know for sure, and it could be that it's been changing, but I have a feeling that Focusrite main know how is on the analog circuitry part, and the digital part is put together competently but without the extra edge of in-house DSP design, development and testing - which in turn allows them to provide great quality at very great prices.

It's not a criticism: for a company that came from large desks, it's remarkable they've been so incredibly successful at digital devices. No other company with the same heritage (that is API, Neve, SSL etc of the ones still surviving) comes to mind with a comparable success.

RME on the contrary is founded by a couple of guys who see no problem in knowing deeply everything - the electronics, the DSP, even the marketing. Sometimes they could have been better outsourcing in some fringe things (their new website is better looking but the old one was awful but they go so far to base their designs on FPGA to enable tweaking and adapting them after manufacturing and take ownership of the relative device driver code.

Again without direct knowledge, I have the feeling that "we own all the chain" attitude seems deeply embedded in the company from the top, and that is what allows them to support, maintain and develop their products for decades rather than a few years.

It seems that that's what you pay for with RME: longevity. Plus of course hardware solutions which allow for very strong feature sets and advanced software control (as with TotalMix) without increasing the cost too much. As of sonics, while they may have their own flavor if carefully A/Bed, I would say they're absolutely comparable in terms of quality - there's no "better". Besides, on most interfaces preamps are rather clinical and transparent by design. The Scarlett + ASP800 sounds like an excellent combo, and so does an equivalent RME interface. I'm actually thinking of expanding my own RME with an ASP..

Hope it helps!

[ef37a]

From years of reading about them in SOS, if you can afford to go for RME do it.

Agreed

When I hit 65 I seriously considered a small UC something when I got my pension lump but sanity prevailed and we got double glazing! Just as well really since the musician in the family buggered off to France and I would have been left with £1k worth of kit I had no need of.

Dave.

Ahh - but maybe the musician buggered off to France *because* you did not buy the gear.

Or was that your plan.

No John, son was never a 'gearhead' his knowledge of music and music theory is great but he is pretty technically dumb. I wanted an RME for me! I just would have liked one to play with and of course, it would have been an excellent recording platform. We had however by then an Allen&Heath ZED 10 feeding a 2496 card and he was making very decent recordings with that. He really did not need much more. Dad did but in the end I could not justify the expense for a 'Boy's Toy'!

Dave.

[James Perrett]

An RME Digiface USB with a Clarett Octopre might be a good solution as that will give you 8 input and outputs with future expansion potential. The Audient ASP preamps are great but they are input only devices.

[fatbenelton]

Why not just get a Clarett 8 Pre X? 10 out (incl monitor) on jack and 16 in and out on ADAT. The inputs are versatile too having both XLR and jack which you can connect up and select in software (default is XLR I think).

Prices seem all over the show on the net but there is one for £739 on the Focusrite refurb store. I bought an octopre dynamic as refurb and it looked brand new! (If you have a student in the family they get 25% off everything including the refurbs).

[Watchmaker]

I added an Audient ASP 880 to my Clarett 8Prex via light pipe. The Audient is a great complement to the Focusrite - plenty of flexibility and pleasing results are easy to get.

you say your current interface doesn't have ADAT output? which one is it?

[yelemusic]

RME are excellent products, but what they are most famous for are their ultra solid low latency drivers, something that can’t be said about some other manufacturers.
So that’s definitely a reason to consider RME.
As for the Audient, beware that the ASP800 has only inputs, no outputs, it’s only AD conversion, no DA. It’s perfect for adding 8 more mic pres, but since the TO said he needs more outputs, the Audient won’t work.
I’ve been looking for a ADAT Interface with 8 I/Os because I needed more connectivity for my outboard. The Audient won’t work here, as it’s missing the 8 outputs to send signals out to the rack. Which is a shame, as this unit is a thing of beauty otherwise. I just wish they’d release a 8 channel I/O unit!
One possible interface I found for my purpose would be the Presonus DigiMax DP88, which has 8 I/Os with the added benefit that the Preamps can all be bypassed for a clean line signal. People don’t talk much about it, but it seems a killer unit! Maybe worth looking at.

[Martin Walker]

As for the Audient, beware that the ASP800 has only inputs, no outputs, it’s only AD conversion, no DA. It’s perfect for adding 8 more mic pres, but since the TO said he needs more outputs, the Audient won’t work.
I’ve been looking for a ADAT Interface with 8 I/Os because I needed more connectivity for my outboard. The Audient won’t work here, as it’s missing the 8 outputs to send signals out to the rack. Which is a shame, as this unit is a thing of beauty otherwise. I just wish they’d release a 8 channel I/O unit!

One small clarification here - while neither the Audient ASP800 and 880 include D/A converters, both provide DB25 25-pin Tascam format multi-pin connectors for the eight balanced analogue outputs on their rear panels.

Martin

[brucie]

HI there

Thanks everyone for your time and considered replies! A lot more for me to take a way and consider. Just to confirm that I know that the ASP 800 doesn't have D/A conversion, it would be for additional flavour preamps to accompany whatever interface I end up going with.

Also thanks for mentioning the Clarett 8Pre or 8Pre X, I have considered both of those as those are the logical solution, but I just feel that they are a bit old now, FR has already dropped the 4Pre and I am a bit concerned about the TB support so wanted something new (or at least future proofed).

After reading all the comments it seems that a more serious look at RME is the way to go. I like the idea now of perhaps an expandable system based on the UC box (with either the ASP800 and/or the Clarett Octopre).

Thanks again for your time, things to seriously consider now and hope that I have been good enough for Santa to drop by!

Cheers

Neil

[Martin Walker]

After reading all the comments it seems that a more serious look at RME is the way to go. I like the idea now of perhaps an expandable system based on the UC box.

Hi Neil,

Ironically that's exactly what I decided to do after a lot of internal debate - placed my order for the RME Fireface UC yesterday, and it arrives tomorrow!

Martin

[brucie]

Great stuff! Look forward to hearing how it all goes!

[Watchmaker]

Another thing to consider with the 8PreX - it only has one TB connection so no daisy chaining - it has to be the last device on the path, which has been a frequent source of annoyance.

I wouldn't overly worry about it's age yet, the build is good the pres are great and unless you intend to go to TB3 or USBC anytime soon.

[MOF]

A bit late now since you’ve placed the order but my thought would have been Apollo X6 or X8.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

- Latency

These days, it seems to me, that's more a function of the computer than the interface? I could be wrong.

I can get my Scarlett to work fine 85% of the time on the lowest buffer setting in Pro Tools on a 2.66Ghz i5. 15% of the time it'll drop out of record. Which is annoying. This is with Guitar Rig and/ or Kontakt or whatever- a guitar part or a MIDI part. I guess most you probably do the same thing? Then put the buffer up when mixing with a lot more plugin engaged.

I recently got an i7 MacBook Pro thinking I'd buy a Thunderbolt interface for it. But now I'm thinking that thing will probably manage a low buffer with the Scarlett just fine? And while that's set up, I'll put the iMac on the bench and install an i7 (scary).

[ef37a]

Now, I WAS getting an i5 Lenovo laptop but the one I bought failed final test and so 'Zon refunded me.

Now they have found me a T510 i7 8G ram. I was not that interested in a faster than i5 machine since its main duty will be internet on W10 but since I am getting the faster CPU I will be interested in seeing how it plays with my 3 interfaces.

Dave.

[MrWolf94]

I don't know if OP got it sorted out but I did use a Clarett 8pre USB with a Clarett OctoPre, for like a year and a half and yea the I/O count is lower. Still those two units alone , especially for price, have plenty of routing and unique features that I think are overlooked. The Octo-Pre I think is the best, extremely affordable, expansion interfaces for small to semi-mid studios, even if tracking in like a Control Room/Live Room set up like was. it's pleasantly clean as far as not being a 4 D-Sub interface, with solid routing through Pres, compressors, EQ's Gates, Etc, using inserts. I never had an issue with sound degradation compared to a patch bay but again we're talking other than 8 Channel LB, I only used one racked pre's, 2 racked compressors, and reverb. I ended up going with a Red 8 Pre more out the fact I had 2 rooms and was tired of constant 50+ foot cable runs. So have switched to Dante and great system as well but I will say "mo money mo problems" on equipment in my experience meaning more work that hopefully streamlines but that's unfortunately not.as kind on Wallet as Claretts.

[worshiptuned]

After reading all the comments it seems that a more serious look at RME is the way to go.

just my little 2 cents...I know a professional musician who owns both a Scarlett 3 generation and a RME fireface UC. He says that the he finds the RME better with regard to the sound quality and he noticed it has more gain in the preamps