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Scarlett’s fourth generation introduced several major advances that build on Focusrite’s legacy in professional audio: best-in-class audio specifications, enhanced creative capability, powerful workflow tools, and more. The three new interfaces add more analogue inputs and outputs, front-panel monitor switching and mute control, S/PDIF and ADAT connectivity, additional headphone outputs, and a built-in talkback mic on Scarlett 18i20.
Focusrite Scarlett 4th Gen 16i16, 18i16, and 18i20 now feature:
- Huge 122dB dynamic range, using the flagship RedNet range converters – found in the world’s best studios.
- All-new, remote-controlled preamps with 69dB of gain for studio sound from any mic.
- Pair Focusrite Control 2 for desktop with Focusrite’s new mobile app; enjoy full wireless control over inputs and monitoring mixes, allowing the adjustment of settings without being tethered by cables.
- Re-engineered Air mode with Presence, and all-new Harmonic Drive, adding rich harmonics to recordings by emulating the characteristics of vintage preamps.
- New Auto Gain and Clip Safe modes can handle up to eight microphones at a time, making session setup simple, and ensuring every take is a keeper.
- Brand-new Custom-designed headphone amps for the best playback ever heard from Scarlett.
- Redesigned Dynamic Gain Halos now with output as well as input metering.
- Professional studio features included: A/B speaker switching, built-in talkback mic on 18i20, and more.
- MIDI in /out plus S/PDIF, and ADAT in/out.
- Refreshed Easy Start tool, making it easier than ever to get set up and recording in minutes.
- Includes Ableton Live Lite, Pro Tools Artist 3 months, and FL Studio Producer Edition 6 months.
- Huge bundle of plug-in instruments and effects; including Antares Auto-Tune, Marshall Amp Modelling, synths, keys, drums, EQ, compression, reverb, and more.
Three new Scarlett interfaces
Scarlett 18i20 4th Gen, an update to the flagship 3rd Gen model, is a rack-mountable USB audio interface featuring 18 inputs, including eight advanced fourth-generation Scarlett preamps, and 20 outputs. 18i20 not only has an impressive amount of analogue and digital I/O, but also features additional workflow enhancements that make it a perfect fit for even the most complex project studios: a built-in talkback mic; A/B speaker switching for instant referencing on different monitors; and eight channels of LED bar metering, assignable to inputs or outputs as well as master output metering.
Scarlett 18i16 is a desktop-format USB audio interface with 18 inputs, including four 4th Gen Scarlett preamps and 16 outputs. Ideal for multitrack recording and designed for producers, 18i16 is the industry-leading interface for project studios. It makes an ideal hub to integrate hardware with a DAW, providing enough analogue and digital I/O to connect a huge number of external instruments, processors, and effects. Plus, manage complex routing with ease via the included Focusrite Control 2 software for desktop and mobile devices.
Scarlett 16i16 is a desktop-format USB audio interface which shares the same feature set as 18i16 but is slightly more compact, with 16
Scarlett 4th Gen
A giant leap for the world’s most popular audio interface range, Scarlett’s fourth generation debuted in 2023 with the Solo, 2i2, 4i4, Solo Studio, and 2i2 Studio.
All Scarlett 4th Gen interfaces feature re-engineered audio circuitry and professional-grade converters (taken directly from Focusrite's flagship RedNet interfaces), which deliver up to 122dB dynamic range. With up to 69dB of mic preamp gain on tap, they are designed to get the very best sound from any microphone. Custom-designed headphone amps with independent volume controls drive high-impedance headphones louder and with more clarity than any previous Scarlett.
Scarlett’s 4th Gen mic preamps feature a re-engineered Air mode, based on the sound of legendary Focusrite consoles. Each one now includes a selectable all-analogue Presence mode, and a new DSP-based Harmonic Drive mode for added richness.
The range also introduced two new features designed to ensure artists and producers never miss a perfect take: Auto Gain analyses ten seconds of incoming audio before setting set the perfect level, while Clip Safe automatically readjusts it to prevent clipping. These tools help artists record themselves easily and let experienced engineers quickly set multiple gains in high-pressure environments.
The included Focusrite Control 2 software takes care of setting up routing, levels, monitoring mixes, independent outputs, and routing options. In addition to the desktop application, the iOS and Android Focusrite Control 2 apps enables engineers and performers to adjust monitor mixes and mic preamp gains while away from the computer.
To help users get up and running with Scarlett in record time, Focusrite has developed an Easy Start tool that quickly guides from initial connection to their first recordings.
All Scarletts come with Ableton Live Lite, three months of Pro Tools Artist recording software, and six months of FL Studio Producer Edition. Also included is a curated selection of essential production software from Focusrite, Softube, Native Instruments, Antares, and many more. In addition, there are five free masters from Landr that can be used at any time, plus a two-month subscription to Landr Studio, offering unlimited music distribution on streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and TikTok.
These interfaces will be available beginning mid-October 2024 with U.S. pricing as follows:
USD (excluding tax)
Scarlett 18i20: $649.99
Scarlett 18i16: $499.99
Scarlett 16i16: $369.99
For more information, please visit us.focusrite.com.
Focusrite Scarlett 18i16 Fourth Generation USB Audio Interface
I used to not care about using a compressor—unless I was in the studio and wanted to add a little zazz to a solo. The additional sustain and tightly focused mids that a compressor helped me achieve were inspiring. Eventually, I began to wonder if a compressor would help give my guitar the tone and response I typically enjoyed at louder stage volumes in smaller, quieter rooms. As I began hunting for a compressor for those gigs, I ran across the original, now discontinued, Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Deluxe. I was intrigued by its, um, origin.
The Cali76’s circuitry was inspired by the famed Urei 1176 outboard compressor, which has lived in the racks of some of the world’s finest studios and appeared on recordings by well, just about everyone. Although I was skeptical that so much squeeze-ability could fit in a 5 1/2" x 3" x 2" enclosure, the FET-based device proved to be a star—not only on my low-volume-gig board, but among many players in the world at large. Today, the Cali76 is recognized for getting about as close to a vintage rackmount 1176 as a stompbox gets.
Reduxed and Revamped
Over the years, the U.K.-made Cali76 has seen other iterations, but this new version is notably smaller—not nano- or mini-sized, but roughly the same size as a Boss pedal. The enclosure’s bedrock quality is the same as earlier Cali76s—a gleaming brick of brushed steel with six sturdy control dials that feels like it could be dropped from space and survive the impact. The controls remain dry, out, in, ratio, attack, and release. The dry function is crucial for tone hunters. It allows you to blend your guitar’s compressed and unprocessed signal—a technique often called parallel compression started at Motown for recording vocals that had a renaissance in New York City mix studios in the ’90s. There’s also a 9V DC input (sorry batteries, but you haven’t got the muscle or the room), a 200 mA draw, a solid and smooth on/off switch, and the usual mono in and out.
But the new, all-analog Cali76 FET Compressor also features a few important upgrades. The single flashing jewel light of previous models has been replaced with a 10-LED gain reduction meter, arranged in linear fashion, to present a more precise illustration of compression level as well as the duration and intensity of the gain reduction. There’s also a lot more headroom: The 9 volts flowing into the new pedal are increased internally to 24 volts, so you can let it rip while keeping your tone natural, responsive, and focused.
Side by Side
I thought it would be fun to place the Cali76 FET Compressor and its older sibling together in my pedal chain, after some overdrives and fuzzes, and before some delays and a trail-heavy reverb. Although both pedals functioned essentially the same, the more precise 10-LED meter was an immediate improvement over the flashing red (no compression), orange (activated compression), and yellow (heading toward maximum compression) colors of the single jewel light on my old Cali76 Compact Deluxe, which I’ve found confusing for its rapid changes of hue, as well as less-effective performance on colorfully lighted stages.
With its ability to internally step 9 volts up to 24, the extra headroom makes the new Cali76 FET sound much more organic and more like my guitar’s pure tone, and I even hear and feelimproved response to picking dynamics at low volume, which you don't always expect from a compressor. Tone is enhanced across the EQ spectrum. I heard richer mids and trebles and more sparkling presence than in my Compact Deluxe. I also heard more-singing sustain than with my older compressor engaged. It’s quite nice, but whether you prefer the potentially darker tone of the elder unit to the transparency of the new one is a matter of taste.
The rest of the control set still does exactly what you’d expect, and very well at that. The “in” dial increases the incoming signal and amount of compression, while the attack dial changes the setting from slow to fast by moving clockwise. Slow equals percussive and bright, while a fast attack time setting lets the compressor grab transients early on, making for a smooth, less percussive, and aurally soothing attack, which I prefer. Likewise, slower settings on the release dial provide more sustain. And the ratio control adjusts the amount of gain reduction on the compressed signal, ranging from a minimum ratio of 4:1 and a maximum of 20:1.
The Verdict
If you’ve never played with a studio compressor, you might experience a sharper learning curve with the Cali76 FET than with, say, a more affordable MXR Dyna Comp or Keeley 2-knob device. But if it fits your budget, it’s worth exploring the rich, complex, and essentially organic sounds that the new Cali76 FET Compressor can achieve.
