Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen USB Audio Interface

Furtozon

September 29, 2026

Great product, good sound! Not a professional solution long term.

Honestly a solid product. Got almost 1k hours of recording time over five years.

Unfortunately the unit recently started failing internally or has decided not to work anymore. Driver crashes, control software fails and restart is triggered in windows.

Will buy a new 4th gen when money is available. Great product.

Took one star because it has no mute button and the air feature is pointless. Otherwise very happy the past five years.

This is my second solo in 8 years. They tend to fail after prolonged use.

Awesome

Really small and portable, i really like the quality and color of the product

No la recomiendo

En un inicio era muy buena, pero desde hace unos meses cuando enciendo mis monitores Presonus 8’ no da sonido, me toca desconectar la Focusrite y volverla a conectar, haciendo a un lado ese problema, funciona bien.

0:17

Great

It’s perfect

0:03

Utterly crap. Purchase a Rode or something more professional.

Utter piece of crap. Worked fine at first but periodically I lost audio on my headphones, and I had to powercycle the solo. It was intermittent at first, then constant then it worked for only a few seconds before quitting. I decided to just use the audio from my PC and keep the mic on the solo. Then today I discovered the solo was doing the exact same thing with the mic except there was no intermittence. The solo utterly crapped out so I ordered a Rode interface instead.

To the thing's credit, it was very durable when I decided to drill two holes into it then proceeded to smash it's face in with a hammer. It was otherwise a bad product, considering the fact this thing's destruction brought me more satisfaction than this product's actual function.

Marianne Joy

December 24, 2025

A bit fragile for the price

This worked perfectly until it didn’t. One of my cats knocked it off of the desk and the usb-c port bands broke. So the whole port is broken and the device is not currently useable. Obviously things break, I just feel like, for the price, my cats being cats shouldn’t break it.

Defective, doesn’t work

The one I received was defective. I would plug it in, the display would flash on and immediately off. This thing wouldn’t stay on. I tried to plug into a separate usb power stove just to check and still…flash on then turn off. Very disappointing

0:32

Dollfaceash

September 26, 2025

Amazing Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen USB Audio Interace👍

I bought this for my husband because he is a streamer and also a recording artiste. Sound quality is beyond compare for the price and setting up the audio interface was extremely easy. Grade A product 🥹

Awesome lil guy! 😭✋💛

Use to record on my Mac book super easy to use after set up I use a sure mic to lock it all up! Highly recommend to any artists very affordable!!! USB c connectivity and I use with my Mac completer very adaptable and functional easy to set up the recording quality is 🔥 design is lightweight and very compatible to any software program you may use!

Buena para empezar, recomendado 🙏🏼✨

La mejor inversión de mi vida, la calidad es indiscutible y vino muy bien empaquetada.

La mejor interfaz para ir conociendo más sobre producción de audio. ✨🔥

It works

Rapida entrega

El paquete llegó con antelación y en perfecto estado.

High recommended for condenser mic!

If you have a condenser mic or just want a good audio interface with good output and volume control then I highly recommend this! It's low latency, very light weight, and just something I've overall been in love with since I've gotten a condenser mic

0:50

Excelente producto

Muy buena calidad, 👌 excelente sonido, lo uso en mi estudio de 🎵!!!

Bad Santa

August 21, 2024

Customer support 24/7

I clicked on chat from Focusrite website at 2:00 a.m. A tech person fixed my (user)problem straight away. I was surprised. It is hard to explain problems through a chat box, but the technician wouldn't let me go until it was solved

Dual channel?

I've been in a sort of Heisenberg state about whether the reason my voice was only coming from one channel was because my mixer was splitting the stereo that way or because the Focusrite was.

My solution was to cross-patch so the channels blend the input signals across both channels. This doesn't explain why, when I patch it the other way, voice is only on one side. I've concluded it doesn't matter. What matters is I was able to end up with the mix I wanted, whereas the straight patch into a USB capture card from the mixer wasn't working at all.

ricardo fredes

November 24, 2023

good sound and easy to use

The interface is very easy to install, use and connect to your instruments and microphones, the audio quality for the preamp is quite good and the voice recording with the air option is incredible

Amazing audio interface

Great audio interface, works great, very easy to install, came with everything you need, works great with guitars and mic. Very versatile to work with almost any DAW, do I prefer use it with Protools than Ableton Live.

Not five stars because I receive got interface the same day that 4th gen was released and brand doesn’t have upgrade/recall program for really new costumers, and dont shows any warning about the generation upgrade.

WOW Totally Plug and Play

The balanced inputs on the back are great. I was having speaker buzz then I bought this. Totally worth the money and no more speaker buzz. It is a little smaller than the 2nd gen solo I had which is just fine with me. I abused the 2nd Gen for five years and now I'm looking forward to many, many years of satisfaction from this one. If you have pro studio monitors then get balanced 1/4" outputs.

EidonFreeman

July 25, 2023

It's good

Please keep in mind the configuration, it depends about if you use a cludlifter and what kind of microphone do you have, because there's a few one that don't need cloudlifter and the 48v power, in my case I was doing wrong and I didn't notice that my set up need that 48v power to make it work, works well with a rode mic.

0:09

La mejor interfaz calidad/precio del mercado. 🌟

La verdad que todo en esta interfaz es simplemente una genialidad, desde su material hasta la calidad de grabación, las perillas, las luces, su color, todo es muy bueno. Recomiendo esta interfaz mayormente si eres usuario de Mac, en Windows he notado ciertas inconsistencias con la conectividad. De resto está interfaz definitivamente elevará tus grabaciones a otro nivel.

DOES NOT WORK

I have installed all the drivers and rebooted multiple times, there is the green USB light on so it is supposedly working; however, with my guitar plugged into the box, it does not output any audio to my computer.

As you can see in the screenshot, there is no audio signal coming from the output. I see some videos on YouTube talking about some green light showing up behind the gain nob, there is no light.

This is so unnecessarily complicated. I work in IT and have a graduate degree in the field. There is no reason it should be this complicated.

It is a box that takes in audio on one end then then output audio as USB on the other end. The Real Tone cables from Activation JUST WORK, but they die constantly so I though this could be a permanent fix. I will take works but breaks after 6 months to does work.

Awesome...love it!

So many people in my voiceover group kept saying to get this brand. I went with a solo because I do not use 2 microphones. It's really easy to use. Definitely make sure you are in a sound proof room.

Definitely sign up through focusrite's website to get technical support, if needed, and watch any videos to make sure you set it up correctly. I use it with Adobe Audition software and it works great with it!

XLR Mic the best for this Product. Less CPU work, Better Sound!

3rd interface I’ve had and for what I do, this is the best for the price. Need a guitar track? Just plug it in the instrument input. Need your voice for a podcast? Use an XLR Mic such as the Shure MV7X. It allows for good volume control so you don’t have to put that load on the computer. The less the computer has to work the better sound you get. So that’s why with this and the Shure MV7X you don’t have to do much to the recording application to get great sound.

¡ME ENCANTÓ!

Es mucho más pequeña de lo que pensaba pero me encanta 😍 tiene mucha potencia y es sencilla para aquellos que no tenemos mucha experiencia. Viene con el software y un daw para grabar y editar tus audios. Solo hay que tener paciencia en el momento de configurar todo, y más si tienes una computadora de poco procesamiento. 10/10 ❤️

0:08

elephish

December 10, 2020

This is so much better than the 2nd gen.

If you have used the 2nd generation, you must know there is a really annoying problem, sometimes the audio quality just goes really bad, and you have to restart the pc to fix this.

Even this still happened to me once on the 3nd gen, but this is so much better, it's smaller and lighter, the button is better, and it can be control in the software.

Simple designs and features (Solo 3rd Gen)

FYI: Probably will update this review soon cause I order a new mic to test this out. If the new mic doesn't fix my current problem, I'm probably just going to find a different audio interface.

Current Mic: Shure SM58 (I'm coming to an assumption a Dynamic Mic compatible with this audio interface...)

Pros:

-Really simple design that if you know a little about audio interfaces, it's not hard to setup

-Looks cool with the glossy front and semi-matte red coating

-Small so it doesn't take much space on your desk

-Direct Monitoring is a great way to know how much input is coming from your mic and instrument of choice (acoustic guitar for me)

Cons:

-Your xlr mic input catches as stereo, so if an application supports stereo input, you'll only hear from the left side (there is are solutions by changing input to MONO if you're using DAWs and most applications for gaming change automatically to MONO input so this isn't a big problem but it is kind of wanky)

-If you install Focusrite's application, your mic input is EXTREMELY quiet, and the only solution I found is to not use Focusrite's application, but rather keep it with your default Microsoft. Which honestly is still quiet...

-Your instrument input is EXTREMELY LOUD on the other hand, it almost clips if you turn your knob to the recommended setting of the 2 o'clock 3 o'clock position.

-The awesome feature "AIR" button doesn't really make a big difference with the mic. I recorded multiple voicing of singing, and simple talking, but the difference isn't very obvious. This may be because I don't currently use the Focusrite application, but like I said, the input becomes absurdly minimized that there's no point in using it...

-I never heard it myself, but in a Discord call with my friends, they sometimes say my Mic Audio is "garbage' which they probably mean they heard lots of static distortion noises. It is from the mic and not the 1/4 inch input because when I play with my friends, 1/4 inch input knob is turned all the way to the left, INST button is turned off.

I found myself running into the problems more than finding myself impressed with the audio interface. Then again, I didn't contact support (because I saw reviews that they don't have great customer support, so why bother right?) so maybe if I contact support, they may help out but I don't really want to bother. I did come to a conclusion as I stated in the beginning that the dynamic mic isn't really the best option for this audio interface (which I read some other reviews which mentioned that) so I ordered a Condenser Mic to see if that really solves the issue of "quiet input" and "random static distortions during game calls" I will update this review as soon as I test the condenser mic and depending on the results, I will move to a different audio interface (probably sell this one at guitar center or something cause return window is long past HAHA). Honestly, I probably will move to a different audio interface regardless of results, not because I think this audio interface is absolutely garbage but more because this audio interface doesn't meet my NEEDS. No offense to Focusrite, it probably is a really good product as all the reviews go, but just doesn't fit my environment and needs.

Worth every penny!

Loving this thing! Much better audio quality than my super old and broken down m-audio fast track audio interface. Had to go buy some new cables for it but I'm very happy with the upgrade and for the price I'd highly recommend it for anyone using studio monitors. Installation was not idea cause I had to sign up and give up my info which I don't like to do.

iCkEdMeL

May 15, 2020

Love It

Great product, pretty easy to setup though I ran into some audio issues with windows 10 which I was able to fix.

2:21

A. Hunt

February 15, 2020

My First Interface!

I’m an indie artist, and for me to not simply use my iMac, alone, for everything is a step forward! This device has improved my sound immensely! I sound so professional. It’s easy to install, thanks to YouTube videos provided by the site. The Instructions Were clear and precise, ensuring I made no mistakes and I was up and running, literally in minutes.

I’m no techie, so to give specifics in numbers and all isn’t going to happen with me, but it is an amazing tool to have in a home studio. Or for me, my office.I have it paired with the NT1-A Rode microphone and my producer has sent me praises! So yes, this interface is a game changer.

Every now and then, I get a bit of static in my headphones when I turn the device on, but it does go away. I have. No idea why it happens, but it’s a great device for me as a first-time, indie artist looking to grow. Hope this helps!