Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

TLDR: 1. If you have poppy clicky sound that may be due to latency, a USB add on card may be the solution. This was determined after I ran latency tests that showed the USB driver had a 5ms latency, and was resolved with this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071P5C6CS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 2. If you want to use this to break out windows apps to use different inputs and outputs, you are out of luck for now, windows will only default to the first pair of inputs and outputs (It doesn't break out multiple pairs to multiple windows audio devices, like other interfaces such as those made by m-audio or berringer do) 3. After a few months of playing around with this....focusrite support suggested software solutions to compensate for their lack of basic functionality that other similar devices offer, but were of no help actually implementing their suggestion, which in my hours of playing around I found to be inadequate. I cannot tell you how many times this box has blue screened my computer. I've found that even the simplest of use, using the 4 line inputs on the back of the box, has been inadequate as well, as the level on these inputs is way too low for anything I hook up, and there are NO LEVEL ADJUSTMENTS AT ALL FOR THEM!!!! That's pretty basic stuff, setting levels....yet focusrite seemed to have missed out on the memo that inputs need level adjustments! With a complete lack of basic features, a very unstable software, and a device that falls short in every purpose I bought it for, and a software that crashes my machine time and time again, this has to go back, and I cannot in good conscience recommend this device in any way. I am baffled this gets any good reviews at all, I am a professional and have worked with many devices, and this is by far the worst piece of audio equipment I have ever used! Detailed story below: If you are reading this, be sure to check back here, as I will be updating this review as my experience unfolds. I have used many soundcards over the years as part of my hobby of internet streaming. My needs may be unique. But, to boil it down, I need to have 6 inputs and 6 outputs, 3 stereo pairs, so that I can have a setup between my computer and mixing board, so that I have a set of inputs and ouputs for my computer sounds and stereo mix, a set of inputs and outputs for skype to take calls and send a submix that doesn't include skype, and a set of inputs and outputs for teamtalk for co-hosts and to have a submix that doesn't include teamtalk. My setup up until this point used an m-audio delta 1010lt card. This card is automatically setup as multiple stereo pairs in the sound devices. This is extremely convenient, as it allows for selecting a pair of inputs or outputs from various windows apps rather easily. Simple, basic.....things that are desirable when designing hardware and software. This focusrite box, shows up as a single device in the sound devices. Out of the box, I basically have a device with 20 inputs and 18 outputs, of which I can only use 2 at a time, which is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. There may be a way to configure this to setup....but now I have to chase down that solution and do complex programming, whereas past products would just do it right out of the box. But, that's only my secondary problem. Before I can ever bother dealing with the hours of banging my head against that brick wall, there's the first problem of, ALL SOUND THAT COMES FROM MY COMPUTER IS COMPLETELY POPPY AND CLICKY! For the record, I am running the latest version of Windows 10 64 bit OS. Everything is up to date and current, windows updates are current, drivers are all current, BIOS is current, power options are all set to recommended settings based on focusrite's recommendations (I spent hours reading up and trying to trace down this issue....which, even if I did manage to get it to work, a device that out of the box requires hours of troubleshooting just to get basic functions working doesn't bode well). My machine was built to be an absolute powerhouse. 8 core AMD processor, 32GB of RAM. I have a spare SSD that I put a clean Windows 10 install on, with all updates, and did another clean install of the focusrite software, and found the problems persist. It was as simple as nothing connected to the box except a pair of headphones, and still, any sound from windows came out poppy and clicky. If my machine isn't enough power for this box, then few machines are. At this point, I have to say, this device will never be a 5 star device. If, and that's a big if, focusrite support (when they eventually get around to responding to me.....) manage to resolve this issue and get this device working, that out of the box a brand new device, that costs as much as this device does, won't do the most basic of functions and creates hours of nightmares and headaches, nothing will undo that nightmare. If focusrite does indeed have a winner with this product once something is setup properly (big IF there), then focusrite needs to do some serious research and soul searching into figuring out how to build a device that can consistently and simply just WORK when plugged in! Without that, you're just setting yourself up to look like a bunch of incompetent fools that make crap! Updates will be posted here after consulting with focusrite support, if they ever get back to me...... ....Their support didn't call me after 24 hours. I called them and waited on a short hold. Getting them on the phone isn't hard, but not responding to a ticket for 24 hours is hardly professional. Before calling support, I did a little searching and troubleshooting, and found a latency test to run, and it was reporting issues suggesting there was throttling on my PC. I never did find anything that was setting any throttling, I believe it was a false diagnosis, but I suppose it's fair that a software will make an educated guess based on the data it has. The tech I spoke with first suggested that my being on the latest version of Windows 10 is my problem, that they've been having problems with people who upgraded to 1903. He tried to get me on an older driver, but they didn't have an older driver available that was compatible with the 3rd gen 18i20. At some point I mentioned the latency test results, but he was focused on the Windows 10, and basically suggested he was going to forward the information to the development team, and that I'd just have to wait for them to get an updated driver that resolves the issue. I hung up, figuring I would try to roll back the Windows 10 update, or revert to a previous backup, or find an older installer, to prove or disprove the theory. But the more I thought about it, the more it wouldn't make sense for everyone on the latest Windows 10 update, which has been out for months, to be having noise. So I called back to push for more troubleshooting. Upon calling back, the tech claimed it's only certain hardware that has the issue with Windows 10 1903. I mentioned I built this machine myself, and would be happy to go over any piece of hardware in my machine with him. He tried to imply that was the problem, saying something to the effect of, we make our devices to work on normal computer. I called that out as pure bs, and we moved on. I mentioned the latency test, he had me send him results of the tests, and he noticed the usbport.sys driver had a rather high latency, and suggested updating drivers from the manufacturer. Unfortunately, I bought my motherboard in 2015, and they must have end of life it the next day, as the most up to date drivers for usb and chipsets for my motherboard were from 2014, and for up to Windows 8.1. I had whatever drivers automatically are applied with a Windows 10 installation, it seems they are microsoft drivers, probably something generic. It's worked fine with all my other usb devices (even the dreaded elgato capture device). At this point, the call center was closing, and I'm not that guy that will keep someone past their shift, so we said our goodnights and hung up, so we could each work with what info we captured and resume the next day. As I thought about it, I thought to myself.....self.....if it's usb drivers that are the problem, and I can't get better drivers for my motherboard....what about that usb 3.0 add on card you recently bought for another machine? So, I borrowed it, threw it in my tower, plugged the focusrite box into that, and voila.....beautiful pop free sound. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071P5C6CS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 So, that did the trick for the latency problems. However, we were unable to resolve the issue of my needing to route multiple windows apps to different inputs and outputs. Focusrite really has a very narrow view of what an audio interface can be. If you are buying this strictly for multitrack recording in such software that will use the ASIO drivers, great, you're set. If you want to use it for streaming or for purposes to use multiple inputs and outputs with various apps, like skype, teamtalk, to route submixes in and out to each, you are out of luck. Focusrite literally built a box, with 18 inputs and 20 outputs, that will only let you use 2 of each (1 stereo pair of each) as windows sound devices. Which means, for my purposes, it's worthless. Such a disappointing end. I'm back where I started, on an m-audio delta 1010lt with way outdated drivers that is a ticking time bomb, with no suitable replacement in sight. Focusrite shows promise. Great hardware, a proven track record of support as far as continuing to develop software for older devices.....but severely lacking in software capabilities.