FocusriteScarlett 18i8 (1st GENERATION) 18 In/8 Out USB 2.0 Audio Interface with Four Mic Preamps

So far so good, will update later but for now very good.Feels solid and quality. Direct monitoring through TWO headphone sockets solves a few problems I suspect.If you overstress the mic inputs a little green light turns red, simples.recording quality seems greatI can confirm that it does indeed come with Ableton Live Lite, its own mixer, and a few other freebies I don't understand yet but will. The download is easy enough and after 2 days I was recording multi track songs, great stuff.My fear was I would never learn my DAW, turned out to be easier than I thought, Ableton comes with a load of tutorials and on line support that are not perfect but you get there. Importing backing tracks is just drag and drop from download folders into the DAW track. Its not EASY and its not intuitive with odd buttons and pull down lists that are not obvious in their function but with a bit of trial and error and going back through tutorials the basics are achievable with a bit of thoughtNice piece of kit.

I would have like another couple of inputs, but can manage with 8.Originally tried the Behringer FCA1616, which would have been great if it had worked.Then the Tascam US-16x08 Audio Interface which would have been perfect.The unitself seemed fine, but I played with it the best part of a day and just couldn't get the software to work.Reading the forums I found that Apple users had no problems just those of us using Windows. ( I have Windows 7 ) I expected more from Tascam.The Scarlett has no gain control on the 4 inputs on the back, and it would have been so useful if the on screen mixer had the facilities of the Tascam US-16x08 Audio Interface ie - tone controls and compression for each channel.Very robust brushed metal case

Nice and compact for what it offers. I love the preamps, and the controls at the front are simple and handy. Coming from and old m-audio fastrack mobile-pre this is a huge improvement, 0 hissing and nice mixing software to control the device.

Great piece of equipment and aesthetically pleasing - so it is a sham it arrived with scuff marks over it.

Very impressed with the Scarlett 18i8 after a few weeks living with it. The key buying point for me was the ability to record 4 instruments at a time onto 4 different channels in the DAW. Not that I need this much but very handy when you have 2 musicians tracking instrument and vocals for a 'live' performance. Mic pre-amps sound good to my ears/setup (I use shure sm58s and some mid range condenser mics) The setup and use into Reaper DAW was easy and quick. This replaces a Mackie Spike (for whch the DSP s/w is not supported on windows 7/8 otherwise a very solid piece of kit...). The Scarlett control panel in windows has been rock solid so far and is easy-ish to use. It is necessary to use this as not all functions can be controlled form the hardware box (eg to select a HiZ instrument input on one of the preamps inputs).2 Headphone outputs is nice touch and so in most cases you will not need a separate headphone amp, and each hp output can have its own mix (again controlled from the scarlett software).Latency has not been a problem. Whereas the Mackie required me to adjust the recorded input in Reaper audio preferences by 50 ms the Scarlett has required no such tweaking at all.

popping and clicking, recorded to tracks

Works as it should, this review is a year and a half on since i bought it and it works exactly the same. Easy to use and great clean pre amp sound.

It's good, although 18 inputs is misleading if you're looking to multi-track record a band... it's really only 8 mic/line inputs, the other 10 are S/PDIF and ADAT.