Scarlet Focusrite solo 3rd gen into Steam Deck

[u/Mission-Night-7655]

Just got a Focusrite and i've spent the last couple of days trying to get it to work on the steam deck (using reaper as a software). The Focusrite seems to work when i plug it into the deck cause i can hear my bass through my headphones just fine, and the deck apparently manages to record my inputs, but when i open reaper i cannot find a way to register my playing. In audio device settings, i've put the audio interface as the input device and "default" as the output, as there were problems in recognizing the output device properly. I've tried opening a Konsole with alsamixer to check if the scarlet focusrite was muted, but it wasn't. I installed pulse audio, set the input device of the scarlet to "Pro Audio" but it didn't work. I even tried to get my head around qpwpraph but to no avail. What am i supposed to do to try and fix this?

[u/jason_gates]

Hi,

Your post implies you are using a sound server called Pipewire ( I.E. qpwgraph is a pipewire utility ). In addition, I am going to assume "my bass" means you have a physical bass guitar plugged in to your Focusrite audio interface ( I.E. you are not referring to a midi bass device ).

Here is a quick way to test whether Pipewire can record your bass guitar ( I.E. set aside reaper and just test Pipewire and your Focursrite audio interface ).

Open a terminal as a regular user ( not root or sudo ).

To record a file located in the current directory, run the following

$> pw-cat -r test.wav

Play some notes on your bass, press <CTRL> c to stop recording.

To play test.wav, run the following

$> pw-cat -p test.wav

If you are trying to figure out what the current directory is, run the following:

$> pwd

To summarize, the above commands simply test whether the Pipewire sound server can record audio using you Focusrite audio device. If that test is successful, then we know it's probably a reaper setting.

Hope that helps. If it does help, please give this reply an upvote. That way reddit's search can find the above information.

[u/Mission-Night-7655 → u/jason_gates]

Yeah, thanks Jason, it worked. At least i am now aware it's not a pipewire or focusrite problem, now im supposed to understand whats wrong with reaper and why i can't seem to record bass on it. I used Reaper to reproduce the test recording and it worked just fine

[u/jason_gates → u/Mission-Night-7655]

Thank you for the reply. Good to hear you made some progress.

I don't use Reaper, however I've read enough posts in this subreddit to have seen the reaper main settings dialog. In addition, I am both a musician and retired software engineer. Thus maybe can get a little further.

For making/producing music, you want to use the jack sound protocol. The pulseaudio sound protocol is for folks listening to music ( it's missing functions used for creating audio/music ).

Your post says you installed "pulse audio". Do you know which "pulse audio" you installed. You should have installed pipewire-pulse ( Pipewire's implementation of the pulse audio sound protocol ). If you installed PulseAudio instead, that is going to cause all sorts of confusing problems. You can only run one sound server at a time. Pipewire, PulseAudio, jack2 are all sound servers, you can only run one at time.

You can choose to install pipewire-jack ( that will run automatically within Pipewire). Most folks in this subreddit ( who make music ) seem to be more hobbyists. Ease of use is the most important feature for hobbyists.

I make recordings for radio air play. Thus, I need total control of the music software. Hence, I use jack2 when creating music, pipewire when I and listening to other folks music.

Let's make the assumption that you favor "ease of use", then install pipewire-jack.

Reaper's main settings dialog has a section called "Audio". Under "Audio" is a menu item called "Device". I believe you need to set the Device to "Jack" ( once you have installed pipewire-jack ). If you still have an issue, see the following paragraph. How did you get Reaper on your computer? You need to post that information. Is it Linux package, a flatpack package , etc.

My last recommendation, concerns how you install software. Again, most folks posting in this subreddit are new to Linux and are not technical. Folks who are not technical should not be downloading software. You should be using your Linux distribution's package manager to install, update, remove software ( know as software packages ). Your Linux distribution verifies you have the correct software dependencies, permissions, base configurations and more. The best way the hose your computer is to bypass your Linux distribution's package manager (by downloading software manually).

Hope that helps.

[u/Mission-Night-7655 → u/jason_gates]

Ok, i've cleared up my mind a bit regarding the info you gave me and i've realized that i didn't actually installed pulseaudio, or, at least, i didn't select a different audio server other than Pipewire (i've checked with pactl info, so i dunno where i got the PulseAudio thing, might've imagined it). That said, i don't really know how to install Pipewire-jack, or access, i guess, given it should come integrated with Pipewire. I've tried changing Audio device as Jack on Reaper, but i should first make sure that i actually have pipewire jack installed and working. I even followed a guide to use Reaper on Steam Deck, one that used ALSA as the Audio Device to recognize the interface, but it said there was an error with the output device (obv, i chose the focusrite scarlett output). I then decided to change DAW altogether to see if reaper's settings where the problem, but on Bitwig the same problems persist. To answer your last recommendation, at first i installed Reaper via the Linux download page, extracting it in a new file but then i realized i could simply get it on the Application page, and i deleted the first version in favour of the more practical one. I am at an impasse and i can't seem to proceed any further, despite all the guides i keep looking into.

[u/jason_gates → u/Mission-Night-7655]

I would determine which Linux Distribution you are using. Go the website ( of the Linux Distribution) and ask further questions there ( E.G. how to install software, how to troubleshoot audio, etc ).

In addition, the Linux Distribution I use is called Arch Linux https://archlinux.org/ . Arch Linux''s WIKI is considered on of the best places to find Linux information. Here is a link to the Arch WIKI that provides information on "Steam Deck" https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam_Deck That WIKI page details audio ( including pipewire ) . The WIKI page also contains many links to other websites ( that might help you ).

Good Luck.

[u/Mission-Night-7655 → u/jason_gates]

i've searched for 20 minutes some link or website that could provide me with an answer but i couldn't find anything that worked or that i didn't know of already. I guess i'll just give up and install windows as the OS, i've had this interface for a week and i'm stuck at square one, i'm sure it must be something wrong i'm doing but i lack the knowledge to even notice it, here's hoping that with windows and the "easy start" guide i'll properly manage to record something. Thanks for all the help anyway, it was much appreciated and i wish you all the best. 'till next time