The new mic pres have 69dB of gain while gen 2 and gen 3 had 56dB of gain. Pretty remarkable difference. Enough gain to drive an SM7B without an in-line preamp, something you had to use with the old Scarlett interfaces. You can also set the preamp gain digitally with the new gen 4 interfaces, and they also have the new auto-gain and clip-safe features. As an RME user, I can honestly say that Focusrite's Scarlett line has pretty much caught up with RME's Babyface interfaces in terms of hardware quality and features. Their drivers might not be as good yet, and the Focusrite Control software isn't as powerful as RME TotalMix, but they aren't bad at all either.

 

WINDOWS 11 - You can disable the USB Selective Suspend in the device manager.

1-Right-click on Start and select Device manager
2-Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers
3-In this list, there are usually quite a few USB Root Hubs and USB controllers. Unless you know exactly which one your device is plugged in to, then you will need to perform this change on every hub and controller listed here
4-Right click a Root Hub and click properties
5-Select the “Power Management” tab.
6-Uncheck the “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” setting and click OK.
7-Repeat as needed for the other USB Root Hubs/controllers.

 

You could possibly be correct about the hardware, but I kind of doubt it. The Babyface FS is a thousand bucks, so an additional $350 over the price of the Focusrite 18i20. With a comparable amount of i/o to the 18i20, it would probably be more like 3K. My $350 more expensive replacement of the 18i20 ended up being a Motu 828es. The i/o count is very close to the same number as the 18i20. Literally, the only thing better about the 18i20 is the price. So much about this kind of decision has to factor in all the other hardware you are using.

 

yea, driver support is the most valid concern when it comes to audio interface investment,
don't get fooled by lots for I/O, if you don't make use of it, don't overspend,

if you want RME with TotalMix routing and rock-solid drivers for cheap, then check Digiface USB (32in/34out), for 380$ you can get a tiny interface, and with its 4x ADAT I/O expensions so you can buy whatever preamps (like Behringer 8200) and have 32 mic/line inputs

 

Good recommendations so far.

 

RME Fireface UCX II ---> 1.329 €
USB 2.0 audio interface | 24 bit / 192 kHz AD/DA converter | 20 input and output channels

RME Babyface Pro FS ---> 749 €
24-channel USB audio interface | 24 bit / 192 kHz | total of 12 inputs and outputs | all inputs digitally controlled

RME Digiface USB ---> 438 €
32 input / 34 output channels | 4 ADAT/SPDIF inputs | 4 ADAT/SPDIF outputs

Universal Audio Apollo Twin USB Duo Heritage --> 699 €
USB 3.0 audio interface | almost latency-free recording with UAD plug-ins

Presonus StudioLive 16.0.2 USB --> 869 €
- 16-channel digital mixer with integrated 18x16 USB audio interface (24 bit / 48 kHz)
- 8 mono channels | 4 stereo channels | 4 aux channels | Inputs: 12x XLR (microphone),
- 12x TRS jack (line) and 4x cinch (line)
- Outputs: 3x XLR (sum L/R, mono sum), 8x TRS jack (sum L/R, monitor L/R 4x aux)

 

Thanks guys for your suggestions. I appreciate it.

 

Your chosen "Scarlett 18i20" is of course a good choice, which one have you decided on?

 

I will only say what has been said before but perhaps has passed unnoticed by newer members. Focusrite, no matter their best seller status in audio interfaces, have one of the worse drivers ever, supposedly. And still to this day is deemed problematic.
But the truth is quite different, or at least so says a person who's an authorized seller of Focusrite for the past 20 years. The guy is actually a client of mine, i am building his new pc, and just a week ago when we were having a conversation, told me that it is not actually the driver itself that causes problems. It is faulty hardware. He did not fully disclose what is the actual culprit, but let it be understood that -for lack of a better word- it is a "chip" that tends to go bad inside the Scarlett and Clarett interfaces. He said that their practice on clients' RMAs for the last years is when their service dept realizes the hardware's gone bad, they swap the card for a new one at no expense for the client. Something which i found funny, as i had a client with a faulty Scarlett and they kept sending it back to him with a tag notice "no problems found" but the card kept disappearing on his otherwise working fine pc after working for a few hours. After endless restarts he finally gave up and got himself an RME, end of story here, to this day his Babyface works flawlessly.
RME have the best driver in the industry. Although their interfaces are expensive they are worth the money they cost and if a purchase is approached correctly, like my man @tzzsmk said, you can get the most stable multi input system for very little money in comparison.
Cheers
PS: Just so you know, i do not advertise RME. In fact my main system is built around MOTU interfaces Being a system builder for over 25 years, i have laid hands on almost all interfaces in the market, old and new.

 

Hi, we're sorry to hear you some of you have had a poor experience with our products. Generally speaking, our drivers perform very well. Most users never encounter issues and our Support Team will always do everything in their power to resolve any issues that users may encounter. Any critical issues encountered by our users have always been prioritized by our development team and are addressed in one of the many updates to Focusrite Control and Focusrite Control 2.



If any of you are experiencing issues with drivers, or an interface, please reach out to our support team directly at the link below:

https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/requests/new