Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

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

Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz

madmalkav
Established Member
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2020 2:05 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by madmalkav »

I have tried to run the Interface Simulation mode to see if the spif outputs can be routed separately to the analog outs 1-2 for the 8i6 -the Focusrite manual says they are routed together but I don't know if that is a hardware or software limitation-. But the app closes as soon as I load the .state file. Can I make the app to log somewhere to see what is failing?
geoffrey
Established Member
Posts: 252
Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2018 2:08 am
Has thanked: 33 times
Been thanked: 169 times

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by geoffrey »

madmalkav wrote: Tue Aug 30, 2022 6:42 pm I have tried to run the Interface Simulation mode to see if the spif outputs can be routed separately to the analog outs 1-2 for the 8i6 -the Focusrite manual says they are routed together but I don't know if that is a hardware or software limitation-. But the app closes as soon as I load the .state file. Can I make the app to log somewhere to see what is failing?
Hi madmalkav,

There's no HW or SW limitation in routing the analogue outputs separately to the S/PDIF outputs on any 2nd or 3rd Gen Focusrite interface. What Focusrite manual are you looking at? The 8i6 3rd Gen User Guide https://fael-downloads-prod.focusrite.c ... e%20V2.pdf page 20 shows the S/PDIF outputs routed separately to the analogue outputs.

The 18i8 does have a limitation in that there are fewer USB PCM channels in the host→device direction (8) than there are physical outputs (10). The 18i8 3rd Gen User Guide https://fael-downloads-prod.focusrite.c ... ide_EN.pdf shows USB PCM channels 1&2 shared between Analogue Outs 1&2 and S/PDIF 1&2. I don't know if that particular configuration is just the default setting or a limitation in Focusrite Control that they have to be configured that way, but there is no hardware (or alsa-scarlett-gui) routing limitation stopping you from assigning the Analogue Outputs and S/PDIF outputs independently from each other.

This is what the GUI shows; 8 PCM Outputs but 10 Hardware Outputs:
18i8-outputs.png
18i8-outputs.png (56.3 KiB) Viewed 11536 times
As to why the GUI is failing, can you create an issue at https://github.com/geoffreybennett/alsa-scarlett-gui ? To help debug, you'll need to run it under gdb, like:

Code: Select all

gdb --args src/alsa-scarlett-gui demo/Scarlett\ Gen\ 3\ 8i6.state
Then "r" for run, and when it crashes, "bt" to print the backtrace.

Thanks,
Geoffrey.
madmalkav
Established Member
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2020 2:05 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by madmalkav »

You aer right,I was looking at the wrong manual. Also, cloning the repository and compiling works OK versus installing the package from my distribution and downloading the file from the github repository. Weird...

In any case, I was considering this card as I will need all the analog outputs it have and also the digital in/out, but the digital in/out is coax SPDIF and I need to interface that to another computer and seems there is no easy/cheap way to connect two coax SPDIF to a computer by USB, unlike optical that can be done with a cheap USB soundcard :(

PS: ok, seems the problem lied in the .state file I downloaded, it works ok with the one cloned from repository. Mistery solved :)
geoffrey
Established Member
Posts: 252
Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2018 2:08 am
Has thanked: 33 times
Been thanked: 169 times

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by geoffrey »

madmalkav wrote: Wed Aug 31, 2022 1:42 pmPS: ok, seems the problem lied in the .state file I downloaded, it works ok with the one cloned from repository. Mistery solved :)
👍 If you could send me the .state file that makes it crash, I'll take a look at it. Thanks!
madmalkav
Established Member
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2020 2:05 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by madmalkav »

I probably did something silly when downloading from GitHub, have ocurred to me on other occasions to be honest, I don't think it deserves your time but if you sre still curious I will open a ticket on Github and attach the file.

PS: was secretly hoping this reply was someone providing a link for a cheap USB to coax SPIF IN and OUT adapter :lol:
juki
Established Member
Posts: 92
Joined: Sun Mar 29, 2009 10:45 pm
Has thanked: 22 times
Been thanked: 6 times

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by juki »

I just received a Scarlett 18i8 2nd gen. today and installed your Panel GUI on my Ubuntu 22.04. It works great, thanks a lot !!! :)

Unfortunately, to record music i use a Debian Stable on the same PC (so no GTK4 as far as i know), so can i copy somehow the settings from the Ubuntu to the Debian ?
geoffrey
Established Member
Posts: 252
Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2018 2:08 am
Has thanked: 33 times
Been thanked: 169 times

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by geoffrey »

Hi Juki!
juki wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 3:53 pm I just received a Scarlett 18i8 2nd gen. today and installed your Panel GUI on my Ubuntu 22.04. It works great, thanks a lot !!! :)
👍
juki wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 3:53 pm Unfortunately, to record music i use a Debian Stable on the same PC (so no GTK4 as far as i know), so can i copy somehow the settings from the Ubuntu to the Debian ?
No need. The Scarlett remembers the settings it last had, and if you don't have a new kernel with the driver on Debian (or if you haven't enabled the driver), then the settings will stay as-is as the kernel doesn't know how to change them!

If the driver is enabled on Debian though, then alsactl might automatically save and restore the settings from /var/lib/alsa/asound.state and undo the settings you did in Ubuntu. In that case, I'd try removing the asound.state file and disabling alsactl.

Also, you can do "alsactl -f somefile.state store USB" and "alsactl -f somefile.state restore USB" to save/restore the settings yourself and you can transfer that file between Ubuntu and Debian (this is exactly how the GUI saves/restores the settings).

Regards,
Geoffrey.
juki
Established Member
Posts: 92
Joined: Sun Mar 29, 2009 10:45 pm
Has thanked: 22 times
Been thanked: 6 times

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by juki »

I use the Liquorix kernel on the Debian, so i'll try what you advised, thanks a lot :)
User avatar
oldrabbit
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2022 1:45 pm
Contact:

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by oldrabbit »

Fantastic bit of software, thanks!
On Ubuntu Studio, had to edit the desktop file to the following to pick up the icon:

[Desktop Entry]

Encoding=UTF-8
Value=1.5
Type=Application
Name=ALSA Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel
Icon=/usr/local/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/alsa-scarlett-gui.png
Exec=/usr/local/bin/alsa-scarlett-gui
Categories=GTK;AudioVideo;Audio;Mixer;
Bass/Vocals After27 https://after27.com/
bendecaf
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2022 6:44 pm

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by bendecaf »

Yep thanks so much. It's really very good and helpful.
User avatar
wvi
Established Member
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2021 1:12 pm
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by wvi »

@geoffrey Thanks a lot for putting this out. I was using Solo for quite a while because I did not need to record almost anything and now I am back in fiddling with 18i8 3 gen. The panel starts but it is not detecting the card I am getting "Sorry don't recognize the controls ..." error message. Any pointers to what and how I can debug? I am trying to get into the linux audio world but I think I still lack the understanding for many things so I am not able to debug it myself I don't know where to start.

linux7070
Established Member
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2020 11:17 am
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by linux7070 »

geoffrey wrote: Tue Sep 20, 2022 12:46 pm

Hi Juki!

juki wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 3:53 pm

I just received a Scarlett 18i8 2nd gen. today and installed your Panel GUI on my Ubuntu 22.04. It works great, thanks a lot !!! :)

👍

juki wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 3:53 pm

Unfortunately, to record music i use a Debian Stable on the same PC (so no GTK4 as far as i know), so can i copy somehow the settings from the Ubuntu to the Debian ?

No need. The Scarlett remembers the settings it last had, and if you don't have a new kernel with the driver on Debian (or if you haven't enabled the driver), then the settings will stay as-is as the kernel doesn't know how to change them!

If the driver is enabled on Debian though, then alsactl might automatically save and restore the settings from /var/lib/alsa/asound.state and undo the settings you did in Ubuntu. In that case, I'd try removing the asound.state file and disabling alsactl.

Also, you can do "alsactl -f somefile.state store USB" and "alsactl -f somefile.state restore USB" to save/restore the settings yourself and you can transfer that file between Ubuntu and Debian (this is exactly how the GUI saves/restores the settings).

Regards,
Geoffrey.

Hi Geoffrey, I went to your github but don't see the install instructions

I am running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with kernel 5.19

Can you kindly point me to everything I would need to install to get my 18i20 3rd Gen working please?

Where all the steps are

Much appreciated

geoffrey
Established Member
Posts: 252
Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2018 2:08 am
Has thanked: 33 times
Been thanked: 169 times

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by geoffrey »

linux7070 wrote: Tue Aug 29, 2023 11:08 pm

Hi Geoffrey, I went to your github but don't see the install instructions

I am running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with kernel 5.19

Can you kindly point me to everything I would need to install to get my 18i20 3rd Gen working please?

Where all the steps are

Much appreciated

Hi linux7070,

The installation instructions are at https://github.com/geoffreybennett/alsa-scarlett-gui — read that page and follow the link to USAGE.md.

Regards,
Geoffrey.

linux7070
Established Member
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2020 11:17 am
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by linux7070 »

Thanks found it and got it working

Has anyone at Focusrite thanked you?

They should be sending you 4th Gen models to work on (and for you to keep as gifts )

geoffrey
Established Member
Posts: 252
Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2018 2:08 am
Has thanked: 33 times
Been thanked: 169 times

Re: Focusrite Scarlett Gen 2/3 Control Panel GUI

Post by geoffrey »

linux7070 wrote: Thu Sep 07, 2023 3:36 pm

Thanks found it and got it working

Awesome, that's great!

linux7070 wrote: Thu Sep 07, 2023 3:36 pm

Has anyone at Focusrite thanked you?

Yeah, one guy said "thanks for the message (and the code!)" when I explained the situation and requested assistance with access to hardware. Unfortunately I didn't hear anything further back.

linux7070 wrote: Thu Sep 07, 2023 3:36 pm

They should be sending you 4th Gen models to work on (and for you to keep as gifts )

You would think so, and that would be nice. Alas, no. I've contacted them a few times over the years but no assistance of this nature provided yet.

Post Reply