 The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, probably the world's most popular audio interface, has just been updated to Gen 4, but how does it compare to Gen 3? Hi folks, I'm Mike and I hope you're well. So why are these products so popular? Well certainly Focusrite have a lot of credibility with their decades of experience in producing high-end audio equipment for recording studios and they bring some of that experience to the table with these very affordable small mobile devices. However these are not complex devices to use, they're actually pretty easy so they really appeal to musicians who want to record but don't want to be recording engineers and people like podcasters and youtubers who want to upgrade their audio to a pro level without all of the bells and whistles that some other products may offer. And I really feel that Focusrite know their audience in this way and that's been reflected with some of the new features with Gen 4. Now before we get into that I want to point out that Focusrite are not sponsoring this video in any way, they haven't paid me and they have no control over what I am saying. However this video is sponsored by DistroKid and if you follow the VIP discount link in the description down below you'll get 7% off an already amazing price to distribute your music around the world. So let's dive in and compare some of the hardware and specs of Gen 4 and Gen 3. Now although the overall aesthetic is still very similar with that iconic metallic red casing we can see with Gen 4 that it's now got a matte black finish to the front panel as opposed to the glossy finish of Gen 3 and if you care about fingerprints on your devices at all that's a big improvement for you. As we can see with Gen 4 it's ever so slightly wider but quite a lot deeper. Now that's probably because they've removed those XLR quarter inch combo jacks from the front and instead opted for two quarter inch line inputs on the front with two XLR inputs for microphones on the back but I should point out these are still two in two out devices. Now talking about our inputs we now see a massive 69 decibels of gain range from mic and line levels that's as opposed to 56 for the previous generation and we've got 62 decibels of gain range for instrument level again as opposed to 56 for generation 3. We also have a completely new headphone amp which has got a dynamic range of 116 decibels and the main outputs now have 120 decibels of dynamic range as opposed to the 108 from generation 3. Now both of these devices connect up to your computer or your mobile devices using a USB-C connection and they can use that for both data and power as well. However with Gen 4 they've given you an additional USB connection for power alone so you can use this with a power brick. Now that can be useful because sometimes when you want to connect up to mobile devices especially they don't quite deliver enough power for the device and people end up having to use sort of dongles and things like that so it's nice to see that as an addition there for those times when you can't quite get enough power. With Gen 3 we had a regular gain knob on the front with a white marker to show the current setting and the halo would glow green amber and then red when things got too loud. With Gen 4 we have an endless encoder on the front now as we turn this the halo indicates the current gain setting and when we release it the halo becomes a four meter so it shows the current level as well as turning green amber and then red when we start to clip. This brings us to two new features for Gen 4 auto gain and clip safe. Now setting the correct gain for recording is an incredibly important part of the process you especially don't want to set it too loud with that you get something called clipping which sounds awful and you can't fix that later on so that's why these new features are ever so useful. With auto gain what you do is you start off by selecting the channel that you're actually using or the input you're actually using you press the auto gain button the halo turns blue and you start playing preferably a loud part of the song or singing or whatever it is you're doing. Now it's analyzing the level and setting it to a really healthy gain level for you and when it's done the halo turns green and you can start recording now what focus right found is that sometimes people actually set the gain to a healthy level at the beginning but then as they get more enthusiastic the level starts to creep up a bit they perhaps play a little bit louder which is why they introduce the clip safe feature as well now with this it's continuously analyzing the input and making adjustments to dramatically decrease the chance of you actually clipping while you're recording. Now with gen 3 we saw the introduction of the air feature on this range of devices and essentially it was an attempt to emulate the sonic characteristics of the focus right consoles which are in recording studios. For most of us the main thing you would notice is that there was a lot more sort of top end or high frequencies which does actually help if you want something to cut through in a mix and you want to have a bit more presence. With gen 4 they've now added an extra stage to this so we've got the presence stage and then we've also got the presence plus harmonic stage which is an attempt to emulate the characteristics of the console when things are being driven a bit harder and i have to say in the tests that i listened to with with focus rights examples i could hear a pretty clear difference which i enjoyed so something that is worth exploring if you get one of these especially of course if you're an instrumentalist or a vocalist. So i just want to point out some things which have actually stayed the same both of these devices use 48 volts of phantom power for condenser microphones you can switch that on but only for both inputs at the same time you can't do it independently that has remained the same from generation 3 to generation 4. Also the direct monitoring system has stayed the same now this is when you are say singing into your microphone and you want to hear that sound directly through your headphones rather than that sound going through the computer which can create latency or a delay in the sound and you can switch this between mono and stereo modes. Also both of these devices have knobs on the front for the main output and also a control for the headphone outputs however with generation 4 they're saying that the level between the main output and the headphone is independent apparently with generation 3 it was not independent which caused some people some problems so if that was you then that's an improvement for you. Now if you're a musician who's just getting going with your first recording setup one thing worth considering is the software which comes with this you get things like a version of auto tune you get some virtual drums virtual piano synth and a whole bunch of effects processes as well great for mixing and great for mastering and honestly if you total up the value of all of these plugins that you get it probably comes to more than you're actually paying for the product itself so definitely something to consider before you purchase. Now don't forget if you want to distribute your music to places like Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music etc sponsor DistroKid make it incredibly easy you just upload your track with some album artwork fill in a simple form and DistroKid do all of the rest for you at a very cheap price just follow the link in the description down below for that. Talking about really easy I think that is what is so appealing about devices like this and these new features with Generation 4 make it even more so as well as that the quality is there and it's also a very affordable price exactly what the price is you'll have to find out by following the link in the description down below. I think that probably the most controversial change is going to be the fact that they've moved those microphone inputs from the front to the back however if you're the kind of person who has this as a permanent setup on your desktop with a microphone permanently plugged in you may appreciate the fact that you no longer have to have cables dragging across your desk anymore also I feel that some people are still hopeful that one day they'll make it so that you can switch the phantom power on and off independently with each input however I also think there's a whole bunch of people who buy interfaces like this who don't actually care about that at all let me know in the comments down below what kind of person you are and what you care about love to hear from you on that thank you so much for watching this video don't forget to like and subscribe and I'll see you in the next video