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SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 4:52 pm
by gimmeapill
Fresh from the Focusrite newsletter:

https://focusrite.com/news/introducing- ... a455ae6c5d

Re: SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 6:20 pm
by bluebell
"Take command of your Scarlett 3rd Gen interface from your Mac®, PC, iPad®, iPhone® or iPod touch®. Our Focusrite Control application makes light work of audio and cue routing, monitor mixing and more."

That sounds bad. I am afraid that features like "Air" and routing cannot be used with Linux because they omitted hardware controls and "forgot" to make them available via MIDI.

Re: SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 7:42 pm
by Linuxmusician01
bluebell wrote:"Take command of your Scarlett 3rd Gen interface from your Mac®, PC, iPad®, iPhone® or iPod touch®. Our Focusrite Control application makes light work of audio and cue routing, monitor mixing and more."

That sounds bad. I am afraid that features like "Air" and routing cannot be used with Linux because they omitted hardware controls and "forgot" to make them available via MIDI.
Judging from the amount of posts here about Scarlett products one might start a completely separate forum just for Linux-Scarlett discussions. :mrgreen:

Re: SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 9:32 pm
by Michael Willis
Linuxmusician01 wrote::mrgreen:
Guilty as charged. I'm wondering if this announcement will result in a slight price drop on the resale of the 2nd gen Scarlett devices...

Re: SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 6:30 am
by gimmeapill
Michael Willis wrote:
Linuxmusician01 wrote::mrgreen:
Guilty as charged. I'm wondering if this announcement will result in a slight price drop on the resale of the 2nd gen Scarlett devices...
You're reading my mind ;-)
So far, 3rd Gen doesn't seem to bring anything really groundbreaking (except apparently new problems), but some destocking prices on the 2nd Gen would be way more compelling.

Re: SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:51 am
by bluebell
Who thinks he can set up the interface with the iphone/iPad app will encounter a bad surprise if I understand their concept correctly: The app can't control the interface, it controls the control software running on PC or Mac.

So they have to develop for three (or four, I guess the app is available for Android) platforms and the result is support for Windows and Mac only.

Maybe that's their definition of "doing it right".

Re: SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 11:08 am
by bluebell
I've asked Focusrite support if features like "Pad" and "Air" can be controlled without Windows and Mac. Maybe they have some foil keys on the front panel.

Re: SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 12:27 pm
by Linuxmusician01
bluebell wrote:Who thinks he can set up the interface with the iphone/iPad app will encounter a bad surprise if I understand their concept correctly: The app can't control the interface, it controls the control software running on PC or Mac.

So they have to develop for three (or four, I guess the app is available for Android) platforms and the result is support for Windows and Mac only.

Maybe that's their definition of "doing it right".
With all due respect, but why would anyone want to own a product like that? Even if you don't use Linux. Hardware that requires special (proprietary) drivers and/or software to work is bound to become obsolete before it is "end of life cycle" for the user.

Re: SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 1:27 pm
by bluebell
bluebell wrote:I've asked Focusrite support if features like "Pad" and "Air" can be controlled without Windows and Mac. Maybe they have some foil keys on the front panel.
As expected, the dumb answer was: We don't support Linux.

It's a dumb answer because following standards (Class Compliance, standard protocols) has nothing to do with "supporting Linux" but with "doing it right".

Buying a MOTU UltraLite AVB was a good decision. Focusrite just doesn't understand the difference between supporting and breaking.

Re: SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 1:38 pm
by bluebell
Linuxmusician01 wrote:
bluebell wrote:Who thinks he can set up the interface with the iphone/iPad app will encounter a bad surprise if I understand their concept correctly: The app can't control the interface, it controls the control software running on PC or Mac.

So they have to develop for three (or four, I guess the app is available for Android) platforms and the result is support for Windows and Mac only.

Maybe that's their definition of "doing it right".
With all due respect, but why would anyone want to own a product like that? Even if you don't use Linux. Hardware that requires special (proprietary) drivers and/or software to work is bound to become obsolete before it is "end of life cycle" for the user.
Windows and Mac users are used to it. Many of them accept everything, even hardware and software that becomes unusable when the vendor switches off the license servers. They install "phone home"-software, they buy(!) iLoks although licensing should be the vendor's problem, not the user's. So I can't stand reading forums where they whine about products they payed for but refuse to work beause of license issues. I couldn't resist to blame them for their stupidity so I don't register there or deleted my accounts.

That gave me some peace.

Re: SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 5:54 pm
by GuntherT
I didn't see in the announcement any mention of the 3rd generation units being compatible with iOS, so it may not even be Class Compliant. It is difficult to say from the control panel's release notes, but even if it is, who knows how long it will be before the internal mixer software is reverse engineered to work on Linux, if ever.

Re: SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 7:41 pm
by sysrqer
bluebell wrote:"Take command of your Scarlett 3rd Gen interface from your Mac®, PC, iPad®, iPhone® or iPod touch®. Our Focusrite Control application makes light work of audio and cue routing, monitor mixing and more."

That sounds bad. I am afraid that features like "Air" and routing cannot be used with Linux because they omitted hardware controls and "forgot" to make them available via MIDI.
It may not be as bad as it sounds. I just picked up a 6i6 2nd gen and it's the the same, it has focusrite control. I find it interesting that they exclude not only linux but android as well. There must be some technical reason because it's crazy not to make it available for android if it can work. Or am I misunderstanding something basic here?

There is someone here making a patch for the 6i6 (and some other versions) which gives you, I assume, the same control as the focusrite control so perhaps there is hope that it won't be too long before they or someone else does the same for 3rd gen.

Re: SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 8:02 pm
by ufug
Linuxmusician01 wrote:With all due respect, but why would anyone want to own a product like that? Even if you don't use Linux. Hardware that requires special (proprietary) drivers and/or software to work is bound to become obsolete before it is "end of life cycle" for the user.
I agree and I have shared that opinion with Focusrite. Everyone should.

It is obscene how much physical hardware for musicians is no tied into proprietary (and almost always crap) software. Things like guitar amps and pedals and interfaces should either be free-standing (ideally) or editable through some universal interface (maybe text files).

I just sold an otherwise nice Fender Champ that had developed a noise problem which was apparently fixable by editing a bad reverb parameter, but it needed to be plugged into "Fender FUSE" (which apparently has been abandoned anyway) and... too many hoops. No thank you.

Re: SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2019 8:54 am
by bluebell
It looks as if at least Scarlett Solo and 2i2 of the 3rd gen are still both class compliant and with hardware controls for all features.

I am waiting for confirmation from Focusrite's support.

Re: SCARLETT 3RD GEN just announced

Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:01 am
by Linuxmusician01
sysrqer wrote:[...]I just picked up a 6i6 2nd gen and it's the the same, it has focusrite control. I find it interesting that they exclude not only linux but android as well. There must be some technical reason because it's crazy not to make it available for android if it can work. Or am I misunderstanding something basic here?[...]
You're not missing something here, manufacturers are.

Musical equipment manufacturers seem to think that musicians do not use Android, just like Adobe (Photoshop) assumed in the past that graphical artists use an Apple Macintosh and never a PC. Take for instance the company 'Teenage Engineering' with their (stupendously overpriced piece of shite) OP-Z: there's only iOS support for the thing so all of the billions of Android users can not become a customer of theirs. Some Korg stuff will only work on iOS. The VCS3 emulator iVCS that I'd like to use is iOS only. Musical equipment manufacturers still live in the 80's when one had to choose PC or Apple. Those days are gone, but apparently not for some who live in hole under the ground. I hate that. :evil: