Ten years of making records
Focusrite’s Scarlett range of interfaces is celebrating ten years of making music accessible to anyone, anywhere. Thanks to over four million users across 250 countries and territories, the high-quality audio offered by Scarlett has helped make more records than any other interface in history — and we’ve learned a lot in those ten years.
The First Generation
In 2011, Focusrite introduced the world to the Scarlett 2i2.
Back then, the user experience with audio interfaces was very hit or miss. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn’t. For Focusrite, this wasn’t good enough. So, we made it our mission to invest in technology that would enable us to make an interface that was consistently reliable and robust, allowing everyone — not just those with tech experience — to achieve great-sounding recordings.
Listening to customers has always been key for us, and we feel that the Scarlett community is where the answers lie if we want to provide the best interface that we can. To this end, we asked Scarlett customers for their feedback and invested in Customer Support, channelling the information we gleaned from our customers back into our design.
Making recordings sound good was, and is, the driving force behind everything that we do with Scarlett. When we were producing the first iterations of Scarlett interfaces, we decided to build our designs from scratch rather than creating a system from simple parts. We carefully chose the best components we could, in order to produce interfaces that would offer the best professional-level audio via USB.
Between 2012-2014 the range expanded, offering interfaces to suit every creator. We introduced the 2i4, Scarlett Studio, 18i20, 6i6, 18i8, Scarlett Solo and Scarlett Solo Studio — an interface for every recording situation. We also continued to refine our designs, adding more features that would benefit our customers, making them sound great with minimum effort but keeping them accessible.
The Second Generation
In 2016 the second generation of Scarlett interfaces was released. This new generation offered improved audio performance, and the ability to record at a higher resolution of 192kHz. It also included the Pro Tools First | Focusrite Creative Pack, so that customers would have all the tools they needed to record in one package. In addition, the OctoPre and OctoPre Dynamic were added to the family.
The Third Generation
Since 2019, Scarlett’s third generation has been available, with even more appeal for a wide range of artists. An Easy Start tool was added, making it even simpler to get recording — and stay recording. In addition, there were a significant number of upgrades: including USB-C connectivity and audio improvements. We also introduced Air, which offers a classic sound and adds another dimension to the superb level of recording already offered by Scarlett interfaces.
