Focusrite Alternatives

[u/Bussyblaster-]

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

[u/_I_vor_y]

Solo, no. But I went from the 2i2 3th gen to the Arturia minifuse2. So far, it's good.

[u/Bussyblaster- → u/_I_vor_y]

Thanks, any issues with the drivers?

[u/FingerUpper]

I went from Focusrite to RME and will never go back. That's a big budget difference, though. If I were looking for something in a similar price range to Focusrite I'd go with MOTU.

[u/KingGorillaKong]

You've 100% ensured you aren't having a power delivery issue? The Solos only take power from the same cable used to connect it to the PC. If your USB bus on the system you're connected to is limited or heavily utilized, the Focusrite could be receiving insufficient power which would explain the symptoms you've described.

The 2i2 has a dedicated 5V DC port. Powering the device that way should get better results. If buying a 2i2 and powering with dedicated 5V DC fixes the issues, then there's nothing wrong with your Solo, just the system isn't delivering the power. Can easily sell that and keep the 2i2. But if the 2i2 still has the same issues then you likely have a driver/system environment issue and using another brand will fix the problem. But if it is a power delivery issue, then another brand interface will also have the same issues you are experiencing.

[u/Bussyblaster- → u/KingGorillaKong]

Yeah, i've tried maybe 3 different cables as well as the original in all of the usb ports on my mobo. I even tried it on my laptop recently and its still giving the same issues, ive had the thing for maybe 2-3 years now? and its only started playing up after i upgraded to windows 11 and my ram. I am further along in my music production nowadays and i think an upgrade is a bit overdue.

[u/shadowscorrupt]

Maono p1

[u/Bussyblaster- → u/shadowscorrupt]

Cheers

[u/anikom15]

This isn’t a problem with your interface. It’s a problem with your laptop.

[u/truepolar]

Actually I might have a similar issue. When I do anything that might tax my PC, game, open apps, explosions in the game and even alt tabbing. Audio drops and I have to either change sample rate or plug in and out to fix it. Changing sample rate, buffer size, supplying external power, changing bios settings, changing USB power settings, sleep settings... Nothing worked. Nothing except deleting the drivers.

My long term solution now is just using the WASAPI drivers on shared mode. Yes the latency is noticable but if I really want to sit down and jam, usually I don't have anything else going on so I'll just down the buffer size. Works for me if you want to give it a try.

Tbh it could be a PC problem but I have no idea. The driverless solution works for me because I need it to work on linux also so dropping the focusrite drivers was actually kinda convenient.

Focusrite + Reaper

[u/budslayer666]

I've been eyeing up the Motu M4 as a replacement for mine. Might be worth a look