ASIO Drivers Not Working

[Neskobar]

I'm having an incredibly frustrating problem that I can't find an answer to.

I have a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Gen 1 audio interface, which I'm trying to use with Ableton. The interface works just fine, and I have all of the appropriate drivers for it. In fact, Ableton is able to register an input signal when I'm using the MME/DirectX driver, and I was able to record and output a track using that driver. As soon as I switch to the ASIO driver, Ableton no longer registers input from my interface, and will no longer play the tracks. The track marker doesn't even show up or move to indicate that the track is playing. Also, I know that Ableton is registering the interface through the ASIO driver, because if I disconnect the interface and try to select Focusrite USB Audio under ASIO, it tells me that it failed to open the device.

So my question is: Why is Ableton registering this device, but not taking any input through the ASIO driver specifically?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm at my whit's end.

As an extra bit of information, I'm on 64-bit Windows 11 Home version 21H2, have the latest version of Ableton Live Standard (11.2.10), and the latest version of the Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 drivers (Focusrite Driver 4.102.4 + Scarlett Mix Control 1.10 - Window 10 + 11)

[Rivanni]

Did you select the right inputs and outputs in Focusrite Mix Control? There is a DAW preset you can select. Something similar to what you can see in this image.

http://static.cakewalk.com.s3.amazonaws ... trol+2.png

[Neskobar]

Hey Rivanni, thanks for the reply!

Yeah, my output monitors were configured that way in Mix Control at one point. I think I changed them during my troubleshooting process, but I'll go back and set it to this and see if it fixes the problem. My understanding was that this was mapping the output from the DAW to the monitors, not from the interface inputs to the DAW. Is this understanding flawed? I'm honestly not entirely sure what exactly everything in the mix control does. As an aside, I also had my analog inputs mapped the same as yours were, and was getting signal in Mix Control's "Anlg In 1" channel.

[Rivanni]

I didn't understand Mix Control either when I used a Scarlett. I only know it's needed as an intermediary to set the routing. It's also the place where you can set the buffer size (Settings button bottom right). I never touched anything else.

[Neskobar]

Just to update this thread, I tried configuring my Mix Control the exact same way as yours, Rivanni, and still nothing. I also tried installing ASIO4All and using that, and same issue there. It's recognizing the correct number of inputs for my interface, but Ableton isn't registering any signal from any of them.

I also tried running Ableton as an administrator, wondering if it was some sort of permission issue, and that didn't help anything, either.

Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to be contacting Ableton support.

[Rivanni]

Other than 'don't use ASIO4ALL but use the ASIO driver from Focusrite' I don't know either.

The only thing I can think of is the device's physical connection. I always had trouble with it. Using third-party USB cables caused issues, and connecting to the some USB port did as well.

You can look in Device Manager to see if the device is recognized. But I think it does since Mix Control recognizes it if I'm not mistaken.
https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/ ... Connected-

[Neskobar]

Yeah, I didn't intend to use ASIO4all as a solution, I just wanted to see if it would work as a test point. ASIO4all also sees the Focusrite and displays it on the list, but Ableton still doesn't take input from it. Also, I tried using Audacity, and it works just fine. It's taking input from the interface and tracking. I'm also able to play the track back through my monitors using the interface, so it's definitely an issue with Ableton. The interface is working as intended.

I realized that I'm on Windows 21H2, and the current version is Windows 22H2, so I'm going to update that. Hopefully that's my problem.

[fishmonkey]

maybe it's an audio device exclusivity issue? i.e. another app on your computer is already accessing the Scarlett.

https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/artic ... interfaces

[Neskobar]

Hi all,

Just wanted to update this thread one last time. I never solved the issue, but I managed to fix the laptop that had died that I was previously using for Ableton, and that laptop works just fine. It takes input from the interface, and is able to track all of the channels just fine through the ASIO driver. It's on Windows 7, and it's about a decade old, so maybe that has something to do with it? Anyways, it's not worth me trying to fix any more. I've already put so much time and effort into this and just want to be done with the whole process, so I'll just be using the other laptop.

Thanks for all your help.

[rdan76]

I wonder if the problem has more to do with Focusrite's ASIO driver? It's possible that, since Windows 11 is still fairly new, Focusrite haven't made certain necessary updates to their driver to ensure that it works correctly on Win11. I only suggest this because I use a Focusrite Sapphire Pro 40 interface -- and man is its ASIO driver glitchy! It's possible the driver worked better under Windows 7, but I've only ever used this device on a Win10 pc, and I had a lot of problems with it at first, until I contacted Focusrite and they sent me an unreleased "beta" version of a newer driver which had been configured specifically for Windows 10. I wouldn't say that the new driver works "perfectly," but the glitches which still exist are non-critical issues which I can work around.

I've read a lot of complaints about Focusrite drivers over the years. It would seem the company designs great hardware, but often has problems with the software side of things. Anyway, you should probably contact Focusrite support if you haven't yet, and if you still want to get your Scarlett ASIO driver working on Win11.

[Neskobar]

Hey rdan,

Yeah, it may very well be an issue on Focusrite's side, although this webpage (https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/ ... Windows-11) states that Focusrite's 1st gen line is, in fact, compatible with Win11 22H2. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was on version 21H2 during my troubleshooting process, so that may have had something to do with the issue, but I haven't tested it on my Win11 computer since I updated my OS version, so I'm not sure whether or not that was the issue to begin with. If the old laptop I'm using to record now ever dies, I'll likely return to this topic, but at some point I'm going to consider just getting rid of the old interface and buying a newer one (possibly from a different company).

[AbletonMASCHINE]

Hi, I've go a relatively new Clarett Pre+ and the drivers work flawlessly on Win 10.

Today after Covid, war, chip crisis etc. IMO the availability of the shiny RME or MOTU interfaces is an additional hassle.
I would have loved to get an RME instead (particularly because of their appreciated drivers) but it was not available for month.

[longneckjim]

I am experiencing this same exact issue on windows 10. Yesterday my setup was working perfectly. Started it up today and my Scarlett 18i20 2nd gen would not connect. The only thing that changed was I incorporated a usb hub yesterday which worked until today. I updated the focusrite control and firmware but I still have issues. Downgrading to the last version of focusrite control helped a little bit but not a full fix. I am going to see if focusrite can help but would love to hear if anyone found a solution.

[longneckjim]

@neskobar I resolved the issue. I followed the instructions on this focusrite help article - https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/ ... on-Windows

But the article leaves out two locations of data you need to delete before downloading focusrite again. I had a folder in my device list named "focusrite" that I had to remove and I had a folder in my hidden appdata that needed to be removed. Neither of these locations are mentioned in the article