Focusrite Vocaster One Studio

One fatal, frustrating flaw that renders this nearly unusable without extensive workarounds for me.

Let's start with the positives:
It's easy to use. Software is simple, setup is minimal. Getting started with this equipment isn't hard. Also 60£ for a mic, headphones and an audio interface is insanely cheap, no matter how you look at it. Also the audio isn't shabby, certainly better than what you'd expect from a product this cheap.

So what's wrong with it? Well, it seems that Focusrite decided to cut corners with the features. I don't expect a piece of equipment this cheap to be incredibly flexible but why, I reiterate, WHY- can't you shut off direct monitoring into your headphones? This seems like such an oversight, and downright lazy. Certainly there's a use for direct monitoring, but I don't want it turned on all the time. I would honestly have thrown another 20£ at this product if it would have had this feature.

It genuinely frustrates me that they decided to leave this feature out, as it basically renders this piece of equipment unusable for conference applications, such as Zoom or Discord, as you can't have input from your mic without having it blasted through your headphones as well. The only viable solution would essentially be to use your inbuilt audio in your PC (if you have it), or alternatively another audio interface for your headphones. Such an amazing and affordable product undone by this lacking feature, which would have been tolerable on a cheap audio interface from 15 years ago, but not from one this new.

I bought this as I had started guest appearing on live streams. I wanted something all-in-one that would allow some level of mic processing, could handle a dynamic or condenser microphone, was compact & gave great quality audio. I also needed loopback functionality. When I saw the price of this package, I could not believe it. I watched reviews & it appeared to be everything I needed. At 1st it worked brilliantly & did everything I wanted. Unfortunately, since the release of driver/software version 1.4, the accompanying app which you need to use it's to it's fullest has been buggy on my Windows 11 PC. The app freezes and refuses to function. Focusrite have made available version 1.3 for users to roll back to but it is difficult to find. It does work as a standalone class compliant device, so I am not stuck. It does have that familiar Focusrite sound quality at least. I now have to go for another device.