Review: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB2 audio interface

The Scarlett 2i2 caught my attention right away. Compact, striking appearance and simple layout. I have recommended the interface to dozens of people.
While I appreciate the extra i/o my TC Impact Twin provides, its just too big and bulky for a mobile interface. At a third of the size of the Impact, and less than half the cost, the 2i2 jumped to the top of my gear wish list, and made the purchase last week.

This will be a fairly quick review, sort of a ‘first impressions’ look at the interface as I’ve only had it for a few days, but I don’t want to put off writing something about it.

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Review: TC Electronic Impact Twin

Overview
The TC Electronic Impact Twin is a mid-level firewire interface with 14 inputs and outputs. It has two preamps, onboard effects, S/PDIF, ADAT Lightpipe and MIDI I/O. It’s not as compact as some other interfaces but packs a ton of features and i/o yet still small enough to fit in a backpack.

The Impact Twin caught my eye in spring 2011. I was looking for a more compact replacement to my M-Audio Profire 2626 (see review here), or a way to expand the I/O of my system, or at least a portable option so I don’t have to tear apart my studio all the time I go out to record. I trust TC Electronic to make nice clean digital gear, for about $400 it had pretty much every feature and function I wanted. I ordered one through Revolution Audio (note: I work for this company and got dealer pricing) and when it arrived I started writing my review. I don’t really have a good excuse why it took nearly a year to write, other than that l got busy being awesome in other aspects. Jump down to the end if you’d like to see what I think of it after about 8 months of owning it.

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This is smart: adater for useless Delta 1010 rack

What is the adater?

The ADATer is an easy-to-use connector-size box designed for use with a rack unit of widely spread M-Audio Delta 1010 soundcards.

ADATer turns your DELTA 1010 rack unit into a stand alone 8-IN 8-OUT Analog-to-Lightpipe / Lightpipe-to-Analog converter. It provides two Lightpipe (TOSLINK) connectors, one Input and one Output and is designed to work without a computer. It uses the ADAT™ communication protocol which allows the use of 8 channels of 16 or 24 bit encoded digital audio each way.

More info: http://www.dangerousdevices.co.uk/dangerousdevices/adater.asp
More info: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/622702-using-delta-1010-rme-drivers-totalmix-via-adat-adater-explained.html

This is fucking smart. M-Audio abandoned the Delta 1010 (for a short time they made a similar ADAT expansion but it still required the PCI card connection to the computer) and Dangerous Devices creates a simple product to keep them from going to waste or filling the tech garbage dumps.

I don’t have a Delta 1010 rack, BUT there is always a ton of cheap ones on eBay (~$100). There aren’t many ADAT devices without preamps, and there aren’t ANY inexpensive options. The Delta 1010 is not a pro unit, but certainly useable. I’m considering ordering a 1010 and adater to use as a line level digital patchbay for my cheap rack gear.

Posted in Audio Interface, Gear | 4 Comments »