Focusrite Scarlett 2nd and 3rd Gen mixer driver

[geoffrey]

Hi George,

Hi guys.

I purchased a new Focusrite Scarlet 2i2, the geoffrey's driver installed now without problems and the gui works as expected too. In ubuntu 22.04 GUI input device defined as "Analog Input: Scarlet 2i2 Camera". Why "Сamera"? But may be this name is not so important.

That's great news! The camera thing is irrelevant, that's just a bug in lsusb I believe. It's got a list of USB vendor and product IDs, and it's got the wrong name in its database for the 2i2.

I have problems using microphones. I can't use my old microphone Trust with jack 3.5 connector. I tried to use 3.5 => 6.3 and 3.5 => 6.3 => xlr adapters. "48v on" or "48v off" - without success. Perhaps it is simply incompatible with this device.

The 2i2 is designed to work with dynamic, condenser, or ribbon microphones with XLR connectors. Headset microphones with 3.5mm connectors have different requirements. See this Focusrite article for more information: https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/ ... adset-mic-

My new xlr microphone Lewit 440 pure sounds into the left stereo channel only, if it is connected to the left input connector of the device, and into the right stereo channel only, if it is connected to the right input connector of the device. This problem worries me most of all; with audio card inside my computer, stereo is recorded immediately from any mono microphone.

That is no problem to worry about. This is just about your recording software configuration.

The 2i2 has two channels, so you can plug in two microphones for a stereo recording. If you only have one microphone you need to change the configuration of your recording software to do a mono recording instead. There is no such thing as recording stereo from a mono microphone, only duplicating one channel onto the left and right channels, which any recording software will do automatically for you if you record onto a mono track.

Please check the documentation for your recording software, or if you're having any trouble you can post in the Software Support forum: viewforum.php?f=1 as what you describe indicates you've got the hardware all working now!

Regards,
Geoffrey.

[tseaver]

@George G

My new xlr microphone Lewit 440 pure sounds into the left stereo channel only, if it is connected to the left input connector of the device, and into the right stereo channel only, if it is connected to the right input connector of the device. This problem worries me most of all; with audio card inside my computer, stereo is recorded immediately from any mono microphone.

I wouldn't be worried: the choice to route signal from a mono mic into both stereo channels by default is questionable, at best: your setup is working as designed. If you are using Jack, then you could route the output from the channel with the mic to both "capture" input ports, but be aware that you will be making the sound louder without adding any "stereo width" to it.

As a choice during mixing, panning a mono track "up the middle" so that it appears in both stereo channels is a different matter.

By the way, what software are you using to record the Lewitt mic?

[George G]

By the way, what software are you using to record the Lewitt mic?

Usually I use Audacity for music and voice recording.

If you are using Jack, then you could route the output from the channel with the mic to both "capture" input ports, but be aware that you will be making the sound louder without adding any "stereo width" to it

It could be off topic here, sorry. I created a virtual mono device in pulseaudio and remap the sound from the left channel of 2i2. When recording, everything is ok, but I still hear the sound of mic from the left channel only in headphones at 2i2. I find it strange that the 2i2 by default does not allow use the microphone inputs in the standard way. For example, when I talking via the Internet, my interlocutor hears my voice only from one channel (by default). If that normal? What happens if I connect a non-microphone to the second input?

[bluebell]

By the way, what software are you using to record the Lewitt mic?

Usually I use Audacity for music and voice recording.

If you are using Jack, then you could route the output from the channel with the mic to both "capture" input ports, but be aware that you will be making the sound louder without adding any "stereo width" to it

It could be off topic here, sorry. I created a virtual mono device in pulseaudio and remap the sound from the left channel of 2i2. When recording, everything is ok, but I still hear the sound of mic from the left channel only in headphones at 2i2. I find it strange that the 2i2 by default does not allow use the microphone inputs in the standard way. For example, when I talking via the Internet, my interlocutor hears my voice only from one channel (by default). If that normal? What happens if I connect a non-microphone to the second input?

A 2 channel interface is not stereo and a 4 channel interface is not quadro. It's simply 2 or 4 independent channels. They become stereo or quadro by your assignments.

Recording:
No matter if you connect a micropone or a synth to one channel of your interface: it's one channel of your interface. With Audacity it can be convenient to connect each input to a 2 channel jack_thru instance (or a jack aware software mixer) so you can select the approppriate jack_thru instance and record a pseudo-stereo signal. If you work only with stereo signals this simplifies your workflow.

Example: I started 2 jack_thru instances and chose "jack_thru_2" in Audacity. When recording, Audacity creates 2 PortAudio ports and connects them to the selected "jack_thru_2".

qjackctl.jpg (31.19 KiB) Viewed 8628 times

Playback:
What you get is what you assign. Of course you can assign a mono signal to 2 system outputs (on the computer) and connect a spaker to each interface's outputs. Then you hear it on both speakers.

Some interfaces offer to create a mono monitor mix for the headphones output.

[geoffrey]

By the way, what software are you using to record the Lewitt mic?

Usually I use Audacity for music and voice recording.

If you are using Jack, then you could route the output from the channel with the mic to both "capture" input ports, but be aware that you will be making the sound louder without adding any "stereo width" to it

It could be off topic here, sorry. I created a virtual mono device in pulseaudio and remap the sound from the left channel of 2i2. When recording, everything is ok, but I still hear the sound of mic from the left channel only in headphones at 2i2. I find it strange that the 2i2 by default does not allow use the microphone inputs in the standard way. For example, when I talking via the Internet, my interlocutor hears my voice only from one channel (by default). If that normal? What happens if I connect a non-microphone to the second input?

Hi George,

When you say "I still hear the sound of mic from the left channel only in headphones" are you referring to direct monitoring, or are you referring to playback of something you recorded?

If you're referring to direct monitoring: For the 2i2, the Direct Monitoring button on the front of the unit toggles between "Off", "Mono", and "Stereo". In "Mono" mode it mixes together what it gets from both inputs and sends that to both outputs (that's what you want). In "Stereo" mode it sends input 1 to output 1 (aka left) and input 2 to output 2 (aka right).

If you're referring to playback of something you recorded, then this has nothing to do with the 2i2, but only with PulseAudio and/or Audacity treating the first input channel as "left" and the second input channel as "right".

You ask about the "standard way" and if this is normal. Well, there are three kinds of normal .

These are the three normal/standard options for a 2-channel recording device:

1. Plug a stereo mic/keyboard/whatever into inputs 1 & 2. Then you want to record inputs 1 & 2 to a single stereo track.

2. Plug a mic into channel 1 and a guitar into channel 2. Then you want to record input 1 to one mono track, and input 2 to a second mono track.

3. Plug a mic into channel 1. Then you want to record input 1 to one mono track.

You want option (3) there but PulseAudio and Audacity are defaulting to option (1).

(an aside, going completely off topic here, what app are you using for talking via the Internet that supports stereo transmission of audio? I have been looking for such a thing)

I've got to say, I never got PulseAudio to work right back in the day with my 4i4. If I wanted to record a microphone then it would record from all 4 channels and mix that down to mono and the microphone level was 1/4 of what it should have been (amongst other problems). When PipeWire became usable, I was so happy. My recommendation: if you've got a choice, use PipeWire instead of PulseAudio.

Try using "pavucontrol", the PulseAudio Volume Control. Maybe there is a configuration profile that you can select which will make things "just work" for you.

This is what I see in pavucontrol when using PipeWire with my 2i2 (I'm running Fedora 38):

Volume Control_002.png (23.79 KiB) Viewed 8579 times

See how there are three options (besides Off) there? Those correspond with the three options I listed earlier:

1) When I select "Direct Scarlett 2i2 USB" then PipeWire makes it look like a stereo recording device.

2) When I select "Pro Audio" then PipeWire makes it look like a multi-channel recording device.

3) When I select "Default" then PipeWire makes it look like two mono recording devices (this is the option you want).

This is how those options look in qjackctl/qpwgraph:

Screenshot from 2023-10-21 02-43-21.png (227.18 KiB) Viewed 8579 times

If you need assistance with setting this up, I would still recommend you to ask in the Software Support forum, as the assistance you need is with PulseAudio (and perhaps Audacity) configuration, nothing to do with the 2i2, and nothing to do with the Scarlett Mixer Driver. All the people who can help you with PulseAudio configuration are unlikely to be watching this thread.

Regards,
Geoffrey.

[George G]

If you're referring to direct monitoring: For the 2i2, the Direct Monitoring button on the front of the unit toggles between "Off", "Mono", and "Stereo". In "Mono" mode it mixes together what it gets from both inputs and sends that to both outputs (that's what you want). In "Stereo" mode it sends input 1 to output 1 (aka left) and input 2 to output 2 (aka right).

Thank you very much, this is exactly what I need!!! If there was a button like this for every mic input, I'd be happy.
Thanks for the very detailed and informative answer. I will detail study it and try to use your experience.

As for the concept of "stereo", I do not mean true stereo here, that is, different sound streams in the channels. A person has 2 ears and he needs 2 channels in headphones or speakers, not one. Therefore, the standard behavior of an audio card for a mono microphone is to duplicate the stream into both channels.

I will also add that I chose 2i2 rather than Scarlett solo because I wanted to use one microphone for vocals and another for an instrument (accordion), which plays too loudly and drowns out the voice if only one microphone is used.