Hi All,
Has anyone experienced the Focusrite Clarett 8Pre interface with Cubase 9.5? Currently, the Thunderbolt version is available but I’m still waiting for the new USB version and wondering if anyone’s experienced any problems with the Thunderbolt.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Will
I heard this interface is pretty pristine for the price but nobody has stepped up to verify its performance with Cubase.
Anyone with experience?
Got a tech at Focusrite to verify the Clarett 8Pre works with Cubase.
I am waiting for the Clarett 8pre USB too.
I have a Scarlett 18i20 and it has been working great with cubase but GAS just hit me hard when I saw the Clarett line going USB.
I am very interested in a review too so the first to have it please post your experience.
Latency, audio quality, etc.
Will def post results. According to Focusrite, the Usb is supposed to have identical latency as the TB.
Almost went with the 18i20 because the 8Pre USB isn’t supposed to hit market till April and my current interface is failing.
I then saw the Roland Studio Capture which also had good reviews and for the same price as the 8Pre, comes with 12 pre’s with auto leveling, 16 analog inputs, DSP, individual channel phantom power, lo cut, phase inversion and a rock solid driver. A local sales tech talked me into waiting for the 8Pre.
Ok, I guess I am being told I am posting this in the wrong section. I would like to keep the continuity of this thread. Can it be moved to the proper section and keep it intact? Thanks.
Just heard from my distributor. The 8Pre is still 60 days out. Hope this works great with Cubase. 2 great entities at work here.
I got a call from Sweetwater and they have them in stock and mine will be here Tuesday. I’ll report back
Looking forward to your report.
I couldn’t wait, mine needed to be replaced before their projection. I ended up going with the Roland Studio Capture.
It’s also a great unit and I don’t think I settled.
I almost lost patience and jumped ship too but the Clarett tripped all the right triggers. What’s weird is that I got a call from Sweetwater on Thursday telling me they won’t be in until April 9th and then I got a call the next day telling me they had them and they were shipping. I will definitely report back
In order to match (the latest) Thunderbolt - they are invariably talking about USB 3.1 or USB-C which IS Thunderbolt 3 slightly repackaged (and in some cases identical) if your PC has not got the latest (USB 3.1 (not 3) or USB-C) spec ports then it’ll either not work - or it’ll work at much-reduced speeds. So be careful with the use of the term USB!
I have USB 3.1 but it does not come into play in this comparison. 3.1 has the same physical connection as TB but sonically is a different protocol so is not interchangeable. The Clarrett Pre is TB 2 so that is what the comparison boils down to.
As far as the latency factor that I mentioned, it all depends on who you speak to, even at Focusrite. One tech told me that the latency would be comparable between TB and USB and another told me there would be a slight difference but. The USB version is optimized for Windows and due to the fact that there were problems with the TB version and any Windows version including 10, the USB version seems to be a good choice.
I’m already getting a 1.7ms round trip latency with my 12 year old FW-1082 so I really can’t go wrong with the USB 2.0 connectivity.
"but sonically is a different protocol " What does that mean? Thunderbolt, USB - whatever are simply digital data connection and transmission protocols - they have absolutely zero influence on the sound.
Maybe I used the wrong terminology. The sound quality would be the same whether TB or USB but what would change would be the latency because TB will get you there faster.
This quote is what I was referring to when I mentioned TB 3 and USB 3.1 would not be identical in any case. They have the same physical connectivity but wouldn’t work because the transmission protocol is different.
What I meant is Focusrite must clearly be referring to the “thunderbolt3 variant” of USB when talking about USB latency matching Thunderbolt - ie they will be discussing USB3.1 or type C. Anyone with a USB 3.0 or older ports will be sorely disappointed/misled.
Focusrite tech support was referring to their USB 2 version of the Clarrett 8Pre vs their TB 2 version of the Clarret 8Pre. Those are the only two versions of the 8Pre that they currently offer.
I’m sure Focusrite will match the latency of OLD Thunderbolt, but I simply do not believe USB 2.0 connection can match Thunderbolt 3 or USB 3.1/C. It seems their interface is 2.0 regardless of the connection - all that aside I’m sure it’s a cracking interface - I love the sound of most Focusrite pre’s, this looks to be a fantastic bit of kit. I didn’t struggle with USB 2.0 with my old UR44 so I know you can get acceptable performance - but that didn’t have to shift eight channels’ worth of data. At around £730 though - it would certainly been at the top of my shopping list if I were looking for an 8 pre USB audio interface.
From the Forcusrite website:
“Regardless of which connection you use, the Clarett USB interface will still operate and function as a USB 2.0 device and so performance will remain the same.”
Yes, it pretty much comes down to latency performance and as you compared your UR44, my old FW-1082 ran along side of this USB 2 performance.
It had 8 channels but was firewire connectivity. With that said, all mentioned can get down to 1.7ms latency which is very acceptable.
This Clarrett was scheduled for an April release so I opted for the Roland Studio Capture instead which has 16 channels, 12 Pre’s, DSP, ‘separate channel phantom pwr, phase, locut and auto-sensitivity’ for the same price. Good sound and a lot of useful bells and whistles.