FocusRite Scarlet Solo

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dchurch24
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FocusRite Scarlet Solo

Post by dchurch24 »

Hi all,

My laptop sadly died a few weeks ago - not quite sure why. I have a 2tb HDD and had 3 OS's installed: Mint, Ubuntu Studio and Win10. Mint was the first to go (after a year), then Ubuntu Studio, then Win10.
So, I did a hardware check; everything was fine, so re-installed the latest Ubuntu Studio, and purchased a new FocusRite Scarlet Solo.
The problem is, I now have quite a bit of audio latency when playing anything through it (keys, guitar, bass), making it very difficult to record.

I've had a play with the latency settings after googling the symptoms, but nothing appears to help all that much.
The Laptop should be fine, as I used to use a Behringer X-Air x18, and could record fine. I left the band I was in, and as such an 18 channel digital desk was overkill for home recording so sold it and bought the FocusRite.

Is this a known issue with that hardware, or have I simply got some setting up to do?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Dave.
asbak
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Re: FocusRite Scarlet Solo

Post by asbak »

I don't know much about Ubuntu-Studio but a typical out of the box Linux has terrible audio latency. It's fixable but requires effort. There are endless threads on here and on Linux audio sites which detail many of the steps that need to be taken to bring down latency.

If this seems like too much work then installing AV Linux may be the quickest and easiest way to get a low-latency and stable user experience.
Some Focal / 20.04 audio packages and resources https://midistudio.groups.io/g/linuxaudio
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bluebell
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Re: FocusRite Scarlet Solo

Post by bluebell »

The Solo runs fine on my Xubuntu. When I do only play music I can use jack with a buffer size of 32 and 3 buffers without xruns, that gives a very low latency of 3*0.7 ms. With Qtractor and plugins I have to increase the buffer size of course.

Important hints:
- You need a lowlatency or realtime kernel. A lowlatency kernel is ok for most purposes.
- The Focusrite Scarletts run best with a sample rate of 48000 as many class compliant USB interfaces do. Performance at 44100 is worse and you get some clicks.

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

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wjl
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Re: FocusRite Scarlet Solo

Post by wjl »

I have a bigger Scarlett on my self-built Debian box, and our daughter runs Ubuntu Studio on her older notebook.

You should have the right kernel and setup already, since Ubuntu Studio brings all that just like any other music-orientated Linux version. The user should also be in the audio group already as per setup.

What you could check are indeed the settings within qjackctl or in cadence (for the latter you need the additional kxstudio repositories) as mentioned here already. Both my machine at home like our daughter's notebook and also my notebook at work run Jack with a sample rate of 48000, buffer size of 512 or 256 (depending on your programs like others said already), and 3 periods/buffer which is better for USB devices than just 2 (the default setting).

Let us know if that works for you. And if you can, cross-check with another device like your Behringer in case you still have that.

Cheers,
Wolfgang
more about me on my blog
dchurch24
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Re: FocusRite Scarlet Solo

Post by dchurch24 »

Thanks chaps!

I will hopefully have some time this week to try what you've suggested.

I'll post back with an update either way.

Thanks again, truly appreciated.
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