r/Focusrite

Has anyone got any better alternatives than the focusrite solo 4th, i was having problems for months and months with audio and the device just sometimes not powering on and recently the audio has begun to cut out within 5 minutes of me either plugging it in and out or changing the sample rate and i am genuinely sick of it.

TIA

Almost a whole second microphone delay through windows. The ASIO is perfect but I think I should have gotten another interface than the 3rd gen 4i4 if I can't use it to stream with OBS, game, or talk on discord without an almost entire second of latency.

If you're searching google with the same problem, it's because Focusrite apparently has notoriously bad WDM drivers (what Windows uses, DAWs are fine because they use ASIO)

Windows 10

4i4 3rd gen

I have a Focurite 4i4 4th gen, but the supplied Ableton Lite software seems like overkill. It looks like my signals: Guitar amplifier emulated out in channel 1 set to instrument, and Beat Buddy drum machine going into channels 3 & 4. The meters show the signals and I can hear them in my headphones but I can't get the Ableton Lite to work...too many things to configure and it has me striking out.

Is there some simpler software to use with the Foucusrite 4i4?

Saw similar on Universal Audio Volt just before Gen 2 came out. Could Scarlett Gen 5 be coming, or is this simply a GC glitch?

I purchased a Solo 4th gen and use it connected to my pc running through Elgato Wave Link.

Recently is start to randomly just disconnect and the audio cuts out. I have to physically disconnect my device and reconnect it before it works again and it is driving me insane.

I have tried a different cable, updating the firmware, installing the software, different usb port. I don't know what else to try.

Can anyone help me out?

Edit 1:
Thanks everyone for the help it is much appreciated, I currently have the following "fixes" implemented to see how it goes:
- Disabling USB power saving in Control Panel (Thought I already had this but I guess not)
- Switching physical USB from a 3.0 (colored) port to a 2.0 port
- Switched the buffer size to 1024 <- This messes up my mic in Discord so this doesn't work for me
- Switched to original Focusrite cable
- Updated the Elgato Software (did this a bit ago and it made it happen a tid bit less)

I will post an update on how well it works in a couple of days.

P.s. A small tip for people experiencing the same with having to unplug the thing, install USBTreeView, it let's you restart the usb port and it basically does the same as reconnecting the cable

Edit 2:

None of the above did anything, Im going insane

I am currently having issues with my focusrite and I am running out of fixes. My focusrite currently cuts audio output when using it. It does not turn off, direct monitoring still works, the lights still stay on. Changing buffer settings, changing audio output and changing back to the focusrite fixes the issue.

The issue happens faster when on a discord call, and it will almost always happen when on a discord call and recording on reaper. This issue only happens on my desktop, the focusrite has no issues on my laptop.

I reinstalled windows, upgraded to win 11, updated my motherboard drivers, reset the bios settings, and tried different sticks of ram and it still happens.

I have a i3-12100f, rx6600, ASRock B660M Pro RS Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard, Silicon Power (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory, and a Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold.

Did anyone else come across this issue, I don't really know what to do without spending a bunch of money testing different components.

Edit 1:
I saw a different post with the same issue, someone in the comments said the power surges from alt tabbing and such with a amd gpu is causing the issue. Im going to try downgrading the graphics driver and see if that works.

Edit 2:
I downgraded my gpu driver to version 25.12.1, so far the issue has been fixed. Only took me a month to figure it out lul.

hello maybe i could get some advice about this because i was trying to upgrade my 2i2 2 gen, in summary the 4 gen is better, i liked things like better preamps and loopback, modes like "Air" for the microphone, software like focusrite control 2 is nice,

BUT, when i plugged my headphone senheiser HD 280 PRO into the 4 gen, the sound is not as good as on my 2 gen, on my 2 gen i get very clear sound. i like rock music, very clear drums, detailed electric guitars when i listen to .flac music files. when i tried the 4 gen with the same .flacs, it lost a bit of quality, it is a subtle difference but i can hear it, even mixing inside studio one i notice a subtle difference, worse clarity on 4 gen. i am not new to recognizing clear sound, i have used the 2 gen for about 7 years and i also had the 1 gen,

So maybe i could get some advice about choosing another model to upgrade and maintain the rich sound on my headphones from the 2 gen. i investigated and found a possible cause could be that the 4 gen has 50 ohms impedance and the 2 gen is not documented but clearly has a lower value, so it seems that 50 ohms could affect some headphones. i read people here recommending DT 770 pro or other headphones, so i would have to spend more, but what if i buy those and the problem is not solved? even if it is solved i would have to stop using my HD 280 PRO.

i think there is a chance that the 4 gen is not as good in terms of headphone sound quality as the 2 gen, so i feel stuck about which interface should upgrade, greetings

Hi everyone,
I recently bought a Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen and I’m having a very strange problem on Windows 10/11.
At first, everything seemed normal, but then the interface started disconnecting after a few seconds.
Here is everything I have experienced so far:
When I connect the Scarlett, the USB LED turns green.
Windows detects it and it appears under Device Manager → Sound, video and game controllers as Focusrite USB Audio.
Focusrite Control 2 detects the interface for a few seconds, then suddenly loses the hardware.
Sometimes the Scarlett disappears completely from Device Manager, even though the USB LED remains green.
I changed the USB cable and tried different USB ports, including the rear motherboard USB ports.
I restarted the PC multiple times.
I reinstalled the Focusrite drivers/Focusrite Control 2 several times.
With the Focusrite driver installed, FL Studio sometimes gives errors when selecting Focusrite USB ASIO, including:
Couldn't initialize rendering in shared mode
There was an unexpected error opening the selected device
The needed sample rate (44100 Hz) couldn't be set or is not supported by the ASIO driver
FL Studio can see Focusrite USB ASIO, but when I select it, it may freeze or fail to initialize.
Windows itself also sometimes cannot play audio through the Scarlett. When I try to play music, Windows gives an error related to unsupported encoding/settings and no audio plays.
Focusrite Control 2 sometimes says that no Focusrite hardware is connected, even though Windows may still show Focusrite USB Audio.
I also noticed multiple Focusrite entries in Device Manager, such as Speaker (Focusrite USB Audio) and several Analog / Focusrite USB Audio entries.
At one point I completely removed the Focusrite drivers. After doing that, Windows automatically detected the Scarlett using its built-in USB audio driver, and the Scarlett actually worked and produced audio, including in FL Studio without the Focusrite ASIO driver.
This made me think the interface itself was probably working.
However, after I later installed an older Focusrite driver that I found online, the problems came back. FL Studio stopped working with the interface, and after restarting the PC, even the Scarlett’s USB LED disappeared.
I removed the Focusrite drivers again, but now Windows sometimes detects the Scarlett by name while no audio comes out, and Windows audio playback itself can fail.
The interface is brand new, so I’m really trying to determine whether this is a driver/Windows/USB controller issue or a hardware problem.
My PC is a desktop PC, and the Scarlett is connected directly to the motherboard USB ports (not through a hub).
At this point I’m completely stuck. I mainly want to use the Scarlett with Ableton Live, but I can’t get the Focusrite ASIO driver to work reliably.
Has anyone experienced this exact behavior with a Scarlett Solo 4th Gen on Windows?
Any ideas for fixing the driver/USB/Windows audio issue would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

thank you for any help