Scarlett MixControl

Control panel for 1st-generation Focusrite Scarlett interfaces

Focusrite discontinued MixControl, and on current versions of macOS it no longer recognises the hardware. The matrix mixer and output routing the cards still have became unreachable. Scarlett MixControl is an open-source, native macOS app that keeps first-generation cards usable, with a new, modern interface.

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Project details

What we delivered

An 18 × 6 matrix mixer — level, mute, solo and stereo position on every channel
Output routing, and inputs into your DAW
Live level metering, and saving settings into the card
Presets and automatic reconnection
A menu bar panel with output volumes, meters and preset switching

Technologies used

Swift

SwiftUI

Solution description

A native macOS app in Swift and SwiftUI. It can run from the menu bar only, start at login and tell you when there's a new version.

The project is open source and the community is part of it — card owners test it and contribute code. The 8i6, 18i8 and 18i20 are confirmed; the other first-generation cards are waiting to be tested.

What was hard

Focusrite never published how the cards are controlled. We pulled the per-model signal tables straight out of the original MixControl binary and confirmed the meaning of every command by disassembling its code.