Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

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Re: Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

Post by JamesPeters »

@furanku :

Did you disable USB_autosuspend? If you're trying to use low latency settings with ALSA, that can be important for USB audio devices. I had to do that for my 2i2 otherwise I had the same issue as you. In Pulse it worked ok for a while but in ALSA, it started having problems immediately.

You can use TLP to set this. There's also TLPUI, a GUI frontend for it.
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

Post by furanku »

Thanks James!

I had same success. I disabled USB autosuspend, at nothing changed at first. Then I played a bit with in alsamixer and suddenly I had sound, as all my neighbours within one mile range will confirm: My test file played at full volume and the hardware volume knobs did not work ... and it was 2:00 in the morning :lol:

I'll report back when I have found out more ...
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

Post by geoffrey »

Here's a pre-built 5.14rc6 Linux kernel if you want to try out the upstreamed Scarlett Gen 2 & Gen 3 changes before 5.14 is released:
https://github.com/geoffreybennett/scar ... /v5.14-rc6
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

Post by wolftune »

incidentally, a while back I mentioned having reduced capacity for going below 128 for buffer on my 18i8 3rd gen. I realized now that the test kernels you built aren't marked low-latency. So, I'm guessing that's the whole issue. I'll have a full good result when the full release 5.14 is out enough and there's a low-latency build for me to try (I'm not up for compiling myself). We'll see. I'm optimistic
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

Post by kraus »

From the previous forum thread:
geoffrey wrote: Thu May 20, 2021 6:27 pm Anyone who has a 6i6, 18i8, or 18i20 2nd Gen device either working or not working, please could you help me test:
https://github.com/geoffreybennett/scar ... /v5.12.5s1 (source, binary RPMs, and debs available there)

(etc, etc.)

Thanks,
Geoffrey.
Well darn! It's August, but I hope it's not too late to help test! I have my 18i20 Gen 3 at the ready.

I'm a bit confused on how to install the kernel, though. Each git release (or release candidate) has words like "See previous release notes for instructions to enable/install." ... I can't find the release that actually has the instructions. Perhaps those instructions can go into the README.md file since it's universal?
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

Post by geoffrey »

kraus wrote: Wed Aug 18, 2021 5:25 pm From the previous forum thread:
geoffrey wrote: Thu May 20, 2021 6:27 pm Anyone who has a 6i6, 18i8, or 18i20 2nd Gen device either working or not working, please could you help me test:
https://github.com/geoffreybennett/scar ... /v5.12.5s1 (source, binary RPMs, and debs available there)

(etc, etc.)

Thanks,
Geoffrey.
Well darn! It's August, but I hope it's not too late to help test! I have my 18i20 Gen 3 at the ready.

I'm a bit confused on how to install the kernel, though. Each git release (or release candidate) has words like "See previous release notes for instructions to enable/install." ... I can't find the release that actually has the instructions. Perhaps those instructions can go into the README.md file since it's universal?
Hi Kraus!

You can download a prebuilt kernel with the latest version here:
https://github.com/geoffreybennett/scar ... /v5.14-rc6

To install the kernel, you usually need to do something like "rpm -ivh kernel-5.14.0_rc6-56.x86_64.rpm" (RPM-based systems) or "dpkg -i linux-image-5.14.0-rc6_5.14.0-rc6-20_amd64.deb" (deb-based systems). I only regularly use Fedora, so I'm not confident of the instructions for any other distro & if you're not either, please make sure you have backups before trying this!

Instructions on enabling the module are here:
https://github.com/geoffreybennett/scar ... /v5.12.9s1

And notes on the available features are here:
https://gist.github.com/geoffreybennett ... 13cc719645

Good luck!

Regards,
Geoffrey.
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

Post by DarkPoubelle »

Hi all

I'm new here but i've been following all Focusrite Gen 3 Drivers related posts for a half year now. So first i wanted to thanks all the people involved in the dev of thoses drivers. I truly enjoy focusrite products and i'm really happy to be able to keep them in an Linux environment.

I got my 18i20 Gen 3 last week, and it works well on my Manjaro. I have the latest kernels updates and didn't get any xruns or strange behaviors at 48kHz 128 samples. I only had to create the scarlett.conf by myself and write the related config for the 18i20 as explained on the GitHub page. I'm able able to configure the soundcard using alsamixer. It's a bit overwhelming because of aaaaaall the possibilities and sub-mixers and I/O on this soundcard, but it works. For now i'm able to get my stereo output on my monitors works, all the headphones too. And use the 8 first inputs with all the features (phantom, AIR, PAD and so on). I'm still trying to find how does direct monitoring works.


So i've got a few questions for you people :

- How can i use those drivers on a Realtime Kernel ? I noticed that i had better performances with a rt kernel when i had my Focusrite Solo Gen2, so i suppose that i can improve performance on the 18i20 too ?

- Is a GUI planned for this sound-card, i mean like the Focusrite Control Center, for a more user-friendly management than the raw alsa mixer and the thousands of faders. ? I know how to use Qt kinda well and i might be able to recreate the same GUI as the original control software, but idk how to interact with the soundcard .


Thanks :D
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

Post by bluebell »

DarkPoubelle wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 8:48 am - How can i use those drivers on a Realtime Kernel ? I noticed that i had better performances with a rt kernel when i had my Focusrite Solo Gen2, so i suppose that i can improve performance on the 18i20 too ?
My experience with DAWs is that a RT kernel offers no advantage compared to a Lowlatency kernel. An explanation might be that the CPU needed to do the plugins' work is the critical point, not I/O.

This might look different if you want to record with the lowest possible latency and without much processing of the signal.

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

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Re: Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

Post by DarkPoubelle »

bluebell wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 4:20 pm
DarkPoubelle wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 8:48 am - How can i use those drivers on a Realtime Kernel ? I noticed that i had better performances with a rt kernel when i had my Focusrite Solo Gen2, so i suppose that i can improve performance on the 18i20 too ?
My experience with DAWs is that a RT kernel offers no advantage compared to a Lowlatency kernel. An explanation might be that the CPU needed to do the plugins' work is the critical point, not I/O.

This might look different if you want to record with the lowest possible latency and without much processing of the signal.
Wdym by Low Latency Kernel ? Is this a different thing from the standards Kernels i have ?
So according to you, for my needs if the latency is fine while recording and no xrun happens, i should stay with my 5.13 kernel ?


Thanks ! :)
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

Post by bluebell »

DarkPoubelle wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 7:16 am
Wdym by Low Latency Kernel ? Is this a different thing from the standards Kernels i have ?
So according to you, for my needs if the latency is fine while recording and no xrun happens, i should stay with my 5.13 kernel ?


Thanks ! :)
The Lowlatency kernels use a few settings like 1000 HZ scheduler frequency. At least Ubuntu offers them. They have "lowlatency" in their package's name.

Code: Select all

grep CONFIG_HZ_1000 /boot/config*
gives a hint.

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Linux 5.14.0 released with new Scarlett Gen 2 & 3 mixer driver

Post by geoffrey »

Linus has released 5.14.0 which is the first release kernel with the new Scarlett Gen 2 & Gen 3 mixer driver.

As https://9to5linux.com/linux-kernel-5-14 ... -whats-new says:
You can download Linux kernel 5.14 right now from the kernel.org website if you fancy compiling it yourself, but I highly recommend that you wait until it lands safely in the stable software repositories of your favorite GNU/Linux distribution before updating, or sticking with one of the several long-term supported kernel branches.
As that might take a while, if you are impatient and want to try some just-released software (with the usual caveat that you should first ensure your backups are working), I've built RPMs and debs and put them here for you: https://github.com/geoffreybennett/scar ... /tag/v5.14

I even included instructions in the release notes this time!
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

Post by wolftune »

When people get the 5.14 kernel in a fully-supported OS version, will the modprobe settings still be needed as an extra step?
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

Post by geoffrey »

DarkPoubelle wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 8:48 am - Is a GUI planned for this sound-card, i mean like the Focusrite Control Center, for a more user-friendly management than the raw alsa mixer and the thousands of faders. ? I know how to use Qt kinda well and i might be able to recreate the same GUI as the original control software, but idk how to interact with the soundcard .
Yes, there is a GUI planned, and it's almost ready to share! Here's what it's looking like with a Gen 3 18i20:
Screenshot_2021-08-31_00-40-20.jpg
Screenshot_2021-08-31_00-40-20.jpg (243.75 KiB) Viewed 30420 times
Screenshot_2021-08-31_00-40-32.png
Screenshot_2021-08-31_00-40-32.png (51.21 KiB) Viewed 30420 times
Stay tuned!
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

Post by geoffrey »

wolftune wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 3:19 pm When people get the 5.14 kernel in a fully-supported OS version, will the modprobe settings still be needed as an extra step?
Yes, the driver is still disabled by default and needs the modprobe settings to enable it. There hasn't been enough feedback that I'd feel comfortable having it automatically enabled for everyone yet. I'm thinking let's see how things go with 5.14 and get it enabled by default for 5.16 if all is good.
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Re: Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

Post by DarkPoubelle »

geoffrey wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 3:36 pm
DarkPoubelle wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 8:48 am - Is a GUI planned for this sound-card, i mean like the Focusrite Control Center, for a more user-friendly management than the raw alsa mixer and the thousands of faders. ? I know how to use Qt kinda well and i might be able to recreate the same GUI as the original control software, but idk how to interact with the soundcard .
Yes, there is a GUI planned, and it's almost ready to share! Here's what it's looking like with a Gen 3 18i20:

Screenshot_2021-08-31_00-40-20.jpgScreenshot_2021-08-31_00-40-32.png

Stay tuned!
Amazing ! That's a crazy patchbay haha
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