Yesterday Focusrite issued another update for the Windows drivers on their 2nd gen Scarlett USB audio interfaces.
This is like the fifth or sixth update since the new interfaces were released in June, so at least Focusrite’s developers are dedicated to improving things.
The new driver version is 4.15. More specifically it’s 4.15.0.172.
This is the first update since 4.11 that I actually like and plan to use.
They’ve made it so that the 64 samples setting runs smoothly at high CPU usage again like it did with the 4.11 driver.
The latency is a couple of milliseconds higher at 7.79 ms overall but at least it’s not right on top of the 32 samples setting anymore. If you want to run at 5ms overall latency then 32 is the setting to use, no need for 64 samples to run at around 5ms as well.
Here’s the list of changes from 4.14:
– Major improvements on performance in DAWs at high CPU usage.
– Sample-rate is retained after computer start-up.
The updated 4.15 driver can be downloaded here from the Focusrite website.
Just curious, do you know what the latency is at 128 and 256 respectively? Or, how would I find that information for this driver specifically and how its affected the other sample rates?
For 4.15 it’s 12.4ms (128) and 23.7ms (256) at 48kHz. 44kHz is about the same, less than 0.5ms higher. More latency numbers can be found here. The previous drivers had a couple ms less but they didn’t run smoothly at higher CPU so I’m glad they changed it back.
Thank you! Sadly I found I could run it at 128 without issues on my machine with 4.11, but after updating from 4.11 to 4.15 im finding it doesn’t run as well and I might have to switch to 256 for it to run stable. It seems to crackle randomly for no discern-able reason even with minimal cpu usage and sometimes there isnt a problem and it runs perfectly fine with high cpu usage, which is confusing. Though switching from 128 to 256 then back to 128 fixes the issue and it stops crackling (when the issue happens to arise). I would imagine they will have it working efficiently overall… eventually… hopefully.
Which DAW are you using? For some reason I always have to toggle the buffer size with Pro Tools to get it to run smoothly with the 2nd gen Scarlett 2i2 but it never has a problem with Ableton Live, and I’ve used Bitwig and Cubase without that issue either so I don’t know what the deal is with PT.
I’m using Pro Tools. That may be the problem. I’ll try it out using studio one 2 and see if the issue pops up on that. Oddly enough with this driver update it runs about the same on 64 and 128. I’m thoroughly mind boggled as to what the problem is. Maybe it’s the driver, maybe it’s pro tools, maybe I just need to upgrade my rig to something with a better processor lol. I’m thinking one of those high end AMD FX 8 core CPU’s. Process of elimination I suppose lol.
Hello Nathan, do you have the old drivers for Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 2nd Gen (“Focusrite USB 4.12.0.88 “) on the hard drive?? or othe older 4.11? I updated drivers and dosent work as well on my computer..And have deleted the old that works.. If so could du plese share it on zippyshare or dropbox? Would mean alot to me.. /Dennis
Here’s the 4.11 Driver Download Link. I don’t have 4.12 but I think if you change the 3 to a 4 at the end of the link above it’s that one. They changed the url at some point for the newer ones so that may or may not work.
I still can’t get the second gen drivers to work with the first gen 2i2, even this new 4.15.0.172. Incredibly frustrating and made worse by the fact that Focusrite promised new drivers for us months ago that would equal the latency of the second gen. Yet the latest driver is still from 2014.
@T.J.:
Go with the quad core Xeon 1231v3. I got one a couple months ago and it is an absolute beast, especially with music production. I have been an AMD guy forever, and I have to admit now that these Intel CPU’s are light years ahead. Do some research on how much better this Xeon (roughly an i7-4770 without a GPU) chip is for multi-threading DAW applications than AMD. And the 1231v3 is at such a great price point right now that it is not much more than an AMD octo anyway. Of course you would have to get an Intel mobo that is Xeon ready, if you don’t have one, but it is still by far the way to go.
I think the 4.11 driver was the only one that worked with the 1st gens. I still can’t believe they haven’t released an update for the 1st gens after they said they would way back in June. I guess they didn’t specify which year…
Yeah, patiently waiting for 1st Gen driver improvements. I bought my 1st Gen 2i4 only a few months before 2nd Gen released, bad timing. Badly hoping that 1st Gen would remain relevant vs 2nd Gen.
I had the 4.11 working at one point, but the latency didn’t seem to improve much at all. Plus I was getting the BSOD that everyone has been raging about, a couple times a day. Everything was supposed to be fixed on this latest driver but nooo. It seems like they don’t want first gen owners using the second gen drivers. I am about ready to update to a Clarett or iD22, but that seems like a waste — when/if the new drivers come out. So we are kind of in limbo here.
Im actually upgrading to a computer with an intel 6th gen I7-6700. Thanks for the info though! It made me decide to just pay the extra bit and get an Intel processor over an AMD. Its also got 16 gigs of DDR4 RAM, 2TB of space, and a Nvidia GTX 950 graphics card. $1000 CAD + tax. Going to be doing Youtube stuff as well in hopes of getting a little extra profit on the side with my music and gaming.
Nice!! That rig will be amazing for video editing/rendering and Pro Tools. You won’t even believe how relaxed and cool i7/Xeon’s run. Nothing that happens alarms them in the slightest. I have a similar set up to yours with a Samsung Evo 850 for the Windows drive and it is a rocketship.
Perfect! Now I really can’t wait!
If I can run at 64 samples I’m going to be so happy!
Only thing I’m not looking forward to is switching all my plugin licenses over from the old rig to the new one. But it should be worth it by the sounds of it!
Thank you for tip on going intel. I’m really glad I did.
I’ve managed to get all of the beta drivers to work with my first gen 2i4. The key is to follow the instructions on this page carefully:
https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207546105-Installing-Scarlett-Forte-iTrack-USB-Drivers-on-Windows
Step 1: disconnect your interface.
Step 2: uninstall all of your current interface drivers.
step 3: (optional?) Restart for the heck of it.
step 4: install the beta drivers.
step 5: (optional?) Restart for the heck of it.
step 6: now when you are back to your Windows desktop, connect your interface and wait. Just wait wait wait.
Now I don’t know if I did some modding to my Windows back when I first got the interface to make it more compatible (who knows?) or something but I went through the whole fiasco of getting blue screens trying to update drivers and the like. The step-by-step disconnect/uninstall/install/reconnect method made it work for me.
For reference I am on 64-bit Windows 7. I have a bunch of Windows updates in the pipeline that never installed but I will attempt to install ’em and see if it screws up my situation. If it does, I’ll give you a list of all of the updates I haven’t installed and maybe you can isolate some issue-causer.
I recall a Focusrite rep commenting that the 4th series beta drivers are intended to work on 1st gen 2i2/2i4’s, which is why the driver page doesn’t specifically mention 2nd gen 2i2/2i4’s. Good luck guys. Like the previous beta driver update, it has only improved my workflow.
P.S. I just realized after reading some of your other posts that everyone is trying to download the official 2nd gen drivers from the focusrite site. I’ve been using the BETA drivers this whole time.
Here’s a link to where I got the 4.15 BETA driver.
http://beta.focusrite.com/releases/focusrite_usb2_drivers/