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Focusrite 18i20 2nd gen. Any issues in CW?


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I hope I am posting in the right area. If not, I apologize and feel free to move it. I am using Cakewalk with my Focusrite Safire Pro 40. Once in a while I get weird tearing or ripping sounds in my audio. My PC is fine. I built T for video editIng and the specs are amazing (i7, 32 GB Ram, all SSDs, etc) so I don’t think it is the machine. I thought the issue could be the FireWire interface but I  have had three of them and the most recent wasn’t some cheap Chinese knockoff.  I use a more expensive cable, the problem could be with the Safire Pro itself. So, Focusrite offered me a replacement with the Scarlett, which seems identical to me aside from trading in FireWire to USB 2.0.  

Is anyone one using one of these successfully with Cakewalk? I am reading about midi issues and latency but a lot of that could be from users who have no idea what they are doing.  I am concerned with both of the above issues as I use a lot of midi and don’t want to deal with latency. I feel like going from FireWire to Usb is a backward step but with newer technology than the Safire, it may be a more lateral move. Thanks to anyone who can chime in.

Edited by TVR PRODUCTIONS
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20 minutes ago, TVR PRODUCTIONS said:

I feel like going from FireWire to Usb is a backward step but with newer technology than the Safire, it may be a more lateral move.

It most definitely is a move forward. Firewire is being phased out in favor of USB 2+3 and also Thunderbolt.

I cant speak for the 18I20 but I've owned a 18I8 for over 4 years now and its been rock solid. I've never even had to reinstall the drivers since moving to a better PC build 3 years ago (Intel I7 8700). Most of what I've read here on the forums have been positive in conjunction with Cakewalks Bandlab.

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The Saffire and Scarlett are indeed identical units, the only difference being USB vs. Firewire. Either should do the job. I'll continue to prefer Firewire interfaces until it's no longer an option, even though the slight efficiency advantage means little nowadays. 

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I would rather keep my firewire because I know that it has better sustained throughput than usb but I think my unit is defective. The mixer interface always shows there is no device (the saffire unit itself) even when it is connected. I still have sound but the faders on the mixer do not function.  I would go thunderbolt but I have an Asus ROG motherboard and the Focusrite support guy said they have an issue with Asus TB interfaces. 

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I'm using the 1st gen 18i20 and have no complaints whatsoever. 

Latency for me is no problem. I normally use a buffer size of 64, which gives me a latency of 1.5sec @44.1Khz (less than half that for 96Khz). I can go with a buffer size of 32, giving me a latency of 0.7ms @44.1Khz but this can cause clicks/pops with some more CPU intensive synths. I'm still running a 3rd gen i5 @ 3.4Ghz, so it'd probably cope much better with a buffer size of 32 on a faster CPU.

The best thing for me however is the sound of the mic pre-amps. The sound is almost identical to my GA Pre-73's (Neve 1073 clones), until I start driving it to distortion...that's when my Pre73's sound better.

The Focusrite pre's are extremely musical compared to my other interfaces. My Yamaha mic pre's (i88x, 01X and DS2416) are very clean, but perhaps a tad clinical. Great if you want no colour whatsoever though. My Behringer mic pre-amps are just plain harsh, but the line inputs are spot on.

But I digress. I really wouldn't worry about latency on the 18i20. They've apparently improved latency on the 2nd gen, and of course it'll do 192Khz as well. 

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I just updated BIOS from a Dec 2016 Beta version to one from 2018. Updated motherboard chipset drivers. I seem to have the latest Texas Instrument 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Contoller driver. I have a StarTech 3 Port 2b 1a 1394 PCI Express FireWire Card Adapter PEX1394B3. I cant find any drivers on their site and Update drivers from Device Mgr says I have the latest.  I will play around for a while and see.

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For your Saffire, I had an almost identical issue when switching to Win10 with my Saffire PRO 24 DSP, and solved it by rolling the MixControl back to version 3.6. I was incorrectly led to believe that a firmware update required version 3.7, but then couldn't get rid of it. On Win10, not only must MixControl be uninstalled as a program, but is also must be removed in the Device Manager (since it is seen as the driver there). At that point the older version of MixControl could be installed.

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I purchased the unit in 2017 and the only drivers I had access to is 3.7.. A few  months ago, their support tech remoted in and had me install version 3.7b, which had no real effect. Oddly, most projects play fine. I have one or two projects that I created in the last year that are full of weird sounds like tearing paper. It is possible that the project is messed up.  

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I went back through my email to find this, and I actually backed all the way out to MixControl v3.4. Tech support sent me a direct link to their cloudfront storage for 3.4, which is still valid, but I cannot remember if the PRO 40 and PRO 24 were apples-to-apples (but believe they were, HOWEVER, mine is first gen). Check with them on this first... Tom Harrington was the one who finally resolved this for me.

Below is the email from 6/13/2018. Be sure to validate the compatability and back out of the current installation before installing a different version.

"I believe the issue you are describing may also be resolved by cycling clock source and sample rate as well as firewire buffer size. To my knowledge this is present on Windows as well as Mac.

You cna resolve this by using 3.4. I think the reason 3.4 did not work for you is not firmware relate dbut is in fact related too the driver.

Please follow the steps in this article to fully remove 3.7:  Uninstalling Scarlett MixControl from a PC

And then install 3.4: https://d2zjg0qo565n2.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/focusrite/downloads/20454/saffire-mixcontrol-3.4.exe

Best regards,

Tom Harrington // Focusrite Technical Support Engineer"

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I know others have said they are using Focusrite 18i20 2nd gen. I do, too. It works very well.

When I need more than what the 18i20 mic preamps can handle, I use an M-Audio DMP3 mic interface, which I love for its clean-ness.

Thanks, Kevin

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