Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Talk about your MIDI interfaces, microphones, keyboards...

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Jyves
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Post by Jyves »

I reply to myself: For Debian Users the best is to use the latest liquorix kernels.
They can be found and are compatible with the AV Linux : Mx Patito Feo Distribution which is based on Debian Buster. The current - 1 release.
Then it is compatible too with Debian bullseye since it is the last kernel.
With this kernel i get a strong stability so far.
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Post by geoffrey »

n473 wrote: Sun Feb 13, 2022 3:19 pm I just wanted to report. Be careful playing with the loopback interface. The manual says it needs to power cycle between changes, but alsamixer doesn't do this correctly (I don't think or maybe there was a glitch). When adjusting I'd get clicking. I believe my 4i4 is now bricked. It doesn't appear as USB device anymore on my computer or my partners windows machine. Yikes :'(
Hi n473,

I'm sorry to hear that your 4i4 broke, but I don't think it's to do with the alsamixer and the loopback interface; I think you were just unlucky. I did have one of my 4i4s die as well (Linux reported an over-current condition when I plugged it in, then the magic smoke literally came out of it); I sent it to the local distributor and they fixed it under warranty. While developing the driver, I definitely sent the wrong thing to the interface more than a few times, and the worst that happened was that I needed to power-cycle the interface and/or reboot.

I checked the 4i4 manual and the FC User Guide and neither of them mention needing to power cycle between loopback changes. Internally to the 4i4, changing the loopback interface inputs is no different to changing any of the other routing. Any routing change in fact resets the entirety of the mux settings.

Regards,
Geoffrey.
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Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others) GUI!

Post by geoffrey »

And, if anybody watching this thread didn't see the new thread I just started: viewtopic.php?p=142723
There is now a control panel GUI for all the Gen 2 and Gen 3 devices! https://github.com/geoffreybennett/alsa-scarlett-gui
Jyves
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Post by Jyves »

I'm disapointed. Jackd and Linux do not work for me.
And if i look behind, I've never had success with these applications.

I tried a 6 Channels with 12 plugins CPU used is about 30% : no more.
At low latency : say 5.3 ms.

My Motheboard is a GA_990XA_UD5 with a 6 cores CPU, 3500+ Ghz.
The Xorg server consumes a lot when i start jackd?

I struggle to understand what this has to do with but....
With a low or medium preemptions kernel : i got boring xruns at some moments, not all the time.
If i move graphics in general.

I compiled a realtime kernel : no xruns , everything starts well.
But at a really unpredictable moment freeze occurs .
I can then only move my mouse cursor and i'm forced to force reboot by hard reset of the computer.

I feel that it's a thing like: Greedy CPU needed at some particular moments and it seams to be
related to the sound treatment.
When i hide all my graphics plugins i've more luck in general.

When i use Top or glances : i never pass more than 20% CPU Often less.
If i hide application and/or plugins windows , i go down to 10% even less CPU.
I really do not understand.

The fact to ask for a longer latency : 20ms for example does not prevent from crashes with RT kernels.
It's less xruns for sure but latency start to be eared.

Who can help me?
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Post by geoffrey »

Jyves wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 6:19 pm I'm disapointed. Jackd and Linux do not work for me.
And if i look behind, I've never had success with these applications.
[...]
Who can help me?
Hi Jyves,

Sorry I can't assist with this one. It sounds to me like a jackd or RT kernel problem, not to do with the Scarlett driver or hardware. Perhaps you can try using pipewire instead of jack. But for support, I'd suggest asking in the Newbies or System Tuning and Configuration forums here.

Regards,
Geoffrey.
Jyves
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Post by Jyves »

Hi, Ok thank you very mutch.
Yes i think it is focusrite the culprint once more.
EricW
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Post by EricW »

Ok... I write a kind of auto-answer to my previous message :wink:
I hope this will be useful to someone else.

1. from the alsamixer, it is possible to deactivate MSD mode : just click on it (I was desperately looking for a keyboard action...)
2. then, all the controls are available...
3. ... allowing me to see that outputs 1 2 3 and 4 where muted...

So everything is working fine, monitor button works, know I can prepare my live recording session template :wink:

[edit]I made a mistake : this answer is about questions I was asking here :
viewtopic.php?p=144949#p144949
Moderators can move this answer.
Sorry
[edit]

E.
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Post by geoffrey »

EricW wrote: Fri May 13, 2022 10:45 am Ok... I write a kind of auto-answer to my previous message :wink:
I hope this will be useful to someone else.

1. from the alsamixer, it is possible to deactivate MSD mode : just click on it (I was desperately looking for a keyboard action...)
Just for the benefit of anyone coming along here later, press "M" to toggle the playback boolean controls like MSD Mode in alsamixer. Or even better, use the GUI: https://github.com/geoffreybennett/alsa-scarlett-gui/
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Post by scott.thomason »

Alas, distros based on Ubuntu 20.04 don't have dependency GTK4, but for those who are upgrading to Ubuntu 22.04 (and for those of us waiting for Mint 21), the time has just about come...

Geoffrey, would you be interested in packaging this up in an Appimage so we don't have to worry about things like that?
---scott

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Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Post by fab2 »

Hello,

first, thank you so much for the hard work! Is there any news about putting your work into the kernel upstream ?

regards,

fab.
saxa
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Post by saxa »

Cool, thanks for the hard work on this driver. I will try it in the next days and report back how it works on my 4i4 3rd gen.
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Post by geoffrey »

scott.thomason wrote: Fri May 13, 2022 4:05 pm Alas, distros based on Ubuntu 20.04 don't have dependency GTK4, but for those who are upgrading to Ubuntu 22.04 (and for those of us waiting for Mint 21), the time has just about come...

Geoffrey, would you be interested in packaging this up in an Appimage so we don't have to worry about things like that?
Hi Scott, I have no idea how to package an Appimage. If it can be built on 22.04 and used on 20.04 that'd be great. If someone can figure out how to do that, I'd certainly include/build/distribute it too.
Thanks,
Geoffrey.
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Post by geoffrey »

fab2 wrote: Sun Jul 03, 2022 4:46 pm Hello,

first, thank you so much for the hard work! Is there any news about putting your work into the kernel upstream ?

regards,

fab.
Hi fab,

Yes! It's already in upstream, as of 5.14.

Regards,
Geoffrey.
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Post by lad »

hello, I've got a focusrite i18i20 GEN 3 and running AV-MX Linux LIVE CD with the following Kernel:
Linux avl-mxe-live 5.16.0-18.1-liquorix-amd64 #1 ZEN SMP PREEMPT liquorix 5.16-26~mx21+1 (2022-03-29) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Based on the comment above, I would expect this to be functional in 5.16 but doesn't appear to work for me?

When I run alsamixer the only control I have is for the clock source... Can someone fill me in on what I might need to do to get my focusrite to function?

I have attempted to disable the memory card mode by pressing 48V and powering on for 5 seconds.

I can configure jack to use the focusrite and can start jack, but when I enable record track in ardour I get no signal in the software. The focusrite displays signal from my mic, however. And yes, the input is selected correctly in ardour :D i'm not that much of a newb. And I have tested an alternate audio interface which does work (Zoom H5).

Many thanks for any help and for the work on this!
OS: Debian 11 kernel: Liquorix
...trying out AV Linux
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 3 4i4 (and others)

Post by scott.thomason »

lad wrote: Fri Jul 22, 2022 10:20 pm When I run alsamixer the only control I have is for the clock source... Can someone fill me in on what I might need to do to get my focusrite to function?

I have attempted to disable the memory card mode by pressing 48V and powering on for 5 seconds.
If you're unable to use alsamixer and still see the MSD (mass storage device) control, select that channel and hit the "M" key to mute that feature. Then you should be able to see all the controls (you may need to reboot the device or something along those lines).
---scott

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