Lets meet today with external professional studio sound card Focusrite Scarlett 2i4; it can work with 96 kHz sampling rate and 24 bits per sample precision; to its microphone inputs Focusrite preamplifiers are connected. Its frontal panel has : 2 combined XLR/TRS ( 1/4″ jack ) inputs, which can work in linear, microphone and instrumental Hi-Z modes, their amplification levels control knobs with backlight, linear/instrumental switches, and PAD switch with backlight; phantom power +48 V switch for these inputs with backlight and MIDI and USB connections indicators; TRS ( 1/4″ jack ) output for monitor headphones, their Direct Monitor function switch, headphones signal sources switch, stereo/mono switch for Direct Monitor and volume control of main sound card outputs. Its back panel has : Kensington Lock slot; USB port, through which it is powered and communicates with computer; MIDI input and output; 4 linear unbalanced RCA outputs; and 2 linear balanced TRS ( 1/4″ jack ) outputs.
For it drivers are released for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10 and Mac OS X with ASIO 2.0 and Core Audio interfaces support, through which it tightly integrates with modern DAWs : Avid Pro Tools, Ableton Live, Steinberg Cubase, FL Studio, Cackewalk Sonar, REAPER and others. Noise level of its microphone inputs is -120 dB; linear -90 dB with 100 dB signal/noise ratio; and instrumental -87 dB. Dynamic range of analogue to digital conversions is 105 dB and digital to analogue is 104 dB. Card’s body is made from scarlet anodized aluminum; its sizes are 210 ( width ) x 140 ( depth ) x 48 ( height ) mm, and mass is 890 g. Package contains : Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 sound card itself, USB cable, optical disks with drivers and software ( DAW Ableton Live Lite 8, Focusrite Scarlett plugins package, software Novation Bass Station and Loopmasters sounds samples package ) and user’s guide. It is good professional sound card, it is weaker than Steinberg and Behringer devices in sampling rate respect, but it has balanced outputs and MIDI connectors; so, sound card of this manufacturer and others for purchase should be chosen, based on specific task, for which it is bought, and prices of available devices.
