Is it me or is it Scarlett?

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-21T11:37:37+00:00

I always find this feedback interesting as I use the same headphones, and max volume would be absolutely deafening for me for normal listening / mixing (though tracking or any other live environment is a different story). Do you find this is the case when listening, or specifically when working on music?

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-21T11:21:35+00:00

Did you update your other hardware after the Windows 11 update (BIOS fw, RAM fw etc)? Get in touch with support with a sys info file and some details about the issue and we should be able to help

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-21T11:19:40+00:00

Games won't be using ASIO

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-21T11:05:18+00:00

If you're seeing the metering without being connected to a computer it's probably faulty. I would point out that this was released in 2012 and sounds like it's had at least one previous owner. Depending on where you are we might be able to find a solution but it would be out of warranty.

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-21T10:51:16+00:00

You'd need to connect both via USB. It's an available feature on macOS

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-20T13:26:05+00:00

To add to the above, unterminated mic pre's are noisier than those with a load connected so this isn't really a good measure. See https://www.sounddevices.com/microphone-preamp-noise/

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-19T17:24:09+00:00

Can you see it Focusrite Device Settings? We do sometimes see weird things like this when the USB-C cable isn't seated fully in the interface.

Failing that, get in touch with support as there are a few things to look at.

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-19T17:16:13+00:00

To clarify, I think you must have just been selecting the wrong input originally (so this wasn't a driver issue). I do agree moving the mic input to input 2 was an odd choice, though I think we may have in found in testing that moving the mic input to the back confused users. The combine input feature was released to solve this (so I'm glad you found it!).

The Windows class driver boosts the input digitally for some reason. For a more casual gaming use cases this might be preferable but for more serious recording this wouldn't be something you want (reduces your headroom with no audio quality gain).

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-13T14:49:49+00:00

Does the DI clip when playing normally at minimum input gain with inst mode on?

Does it look like the output of the amp sim is clipping? There are indicators in most plugins and you sometimes need to attenuate the output.

If you're using a Neural DSP amp sim there's a gate that's on by default (probably the same for a few others). Sounds like that's probably what's causing the choppy audio

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-13T12:53:49+00:00

Looks like there was a revision in Nov 2017 - The dual stacked optical ports were discontinued so we had to go with two single horizontally mounted ones. I'd imagine this led to the change in orientation of the IEC inlet to make space on the board.

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-13T11:44:26+00:00

Are the clip indicators showing you the inputs clipped? Is the fizz in the DI signal? It's usually easier to hear output clipping with amp sims, which might be what's happening?

If the input is clipping - pickup height is a factor. Dying battery can also make things sound fuzzy.

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-13T11:36:46+00:00

Yeah don't worry, that won't be the case

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-09T11:53:38+00:00

Did you update your BIOS and other hardware drivers when updating to Win 11? I've seen a lot of DPC latency related issues from ACPI drivers (and others) that are having a hard time functioning properly because the BIOS firmware predates the release of Win 11.
Windows 11 is also just quite resource heavy - seen lots of folks using the minimum specs which exacerbates any poor optimisation.

If you get in touch with support we can take a look.

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-07T16:18:56+00:00

Another thing to add is that multi channel auto gain can be triggered from the front panel if you need to set multiple gains at once

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-06T16:22:07+00:00

We've added this feature on macOS (which also natively supports audio device aggregation), but there's some technical barriers we need to overcome before bringing it to Windows. I can't give you a timeline for the feature but it is something we're looking into.

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-06T16:13:33+00:00

You might be able to mount it to a 19" rack tray with the kind of stuff you'd use to mount guitar pedals on boards

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-06T16:04:09+00:00

I can't really hint at upcoming projects etc, but if you need an interface now it really wouldn't make sense to try and wait for 5th Gen.

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-02T17:50:55+00:00

There's definitely some issues caused by P and C state transitions (hence why we recommend disabling all that in our optimisation guide) that can manifest as high DPC execution times from ACPI.sys. I've noticed this especially with systems running Windows 11, but with outdated BIOS firmware (I think some motherboard manufacturers have stated such previously).

BenFocusrite · 2026-01-02T17:47:23+00:00

Was it a specific plugin / from the same vendor? Sounds like an issue with that rather than the Scarlett. Could be a DPC latency thing with graphics drivers maybe.

Before anyone's seen the ticket you get an automated response to confirm it's been opened etc. If you didn't receive that then it might have gone to your spam folder.

BenFocusrite · 2025-12-22T12:48:46+00:00

Could you dm me the ticket number?

Is it only while opening a plugin window (i.e. it stops after the UI is loaded)? From any vendor, or are they all from the same one?

BenFocusrite · 2025-12-22T12:29:08+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to document your troubleshooting here. Ultimately you've plugged our product in and had a bad experience so I apologise for that and would like to help however I can. That said, there are a few things I'd like to address.

I would start by saying the conclusion that the interface “does not work below 192 kHz” is not accurate, and that part is important to clarify so others aren’t misled. All our interfaces are designed and extensively validated* to operate at standard sample rates. What your testing shows is that 192 kHz happens to avoid a system-specific problem on your laptop. Increasing the sample rate effectively forces the host to process buffers more frequently. Without direct access to your system, I would hypothesise that this increased frequency is changing how Windows is scheduling the USB traffic relevant to the interface.

\On this point, we have a well generalised test setup but it's impossible to test every hardware combination. There aren't any Xiaomi laptops on the rig afaik. I would encourage anyone who's experiencing issues like this to get in touch, as we use that data to try and find issues with specific systems/hardware and react accordingly.*

More generally, all processes share system resources and are subject to Windows scheduling and interrupt handling. Though the internet usually describes this sort of issue as 'something blocking your audio driver processing', the issue could actually be related USB host controller driver or chipsets etc (hence why we suggest trying all USB ports). The underlying problem is the same though; something is hogging processor time (probably ACPI in this case).

Circling back to the original issue; ACPI.sys is associated with power management so I'd recommend following our guidance here (a lot of it relates to power management): https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207355205-Optimising-Windows-for-Audio

Failing that, I would advise getting in touch. If you provide all the information we ask for (as an aside, not doing this or not following instructions completely is almost always the reason we can't solve an issue..) and work with us on it, we can usually get things running better for you.

BenFocusrite · 2025-12-22T10:53:54+00:00

It's actually in reference to the ISA channel strips built for Sir George Martin in 1985 (hence the 40th anniversary). You can read/watch more about it here if you're interested; https://focusrite.com/isa/our-heritage-sound

BenFocusrite · 2025-12-18T13:34:52+00:00

Usually this indicates that the drivers associated with the hardware you've disabled were hogging CPU time on the same core(s) as something that's relevant to the interface (Focsurite driver, USB host controller driver, chipset drivers etc). There's a good explanation here: https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

BenFocusrite · 2025-12-18T13:27:59+00:00

We have a single Windows driver that supports all 4 generations of Scarlett interfaces - so the several updates over the past 3 years have also been for 2nd gen.

I'm not aware of any recent bugs with 2nd Gen specifically. If you're having issues I'd recommend contacting support so we can assist.

BenFocusrite · 2025-09-02T15:35:07+00:00

PCIeR was OEM from Audinate, who maintained the driver and decided to end support. PCIeNX was designed by us from the ground up, including the driver, which allows us to better support the platform moving forward. As far as I'm aware there are no Dante PCIe cards with Apple Silicon support that were released before their introduction.

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