I can’t remember who it was over on the old forums but they recommended the below, so I was wondering. If I buy this would I be able to use if for the open mic as well as any recordings I do for Youtube?
I was going to buy a USB mic at £80 but then thought I might be better just buying the piece of kit that was recommended to me a while back.
Thanks. 
Yes you should be able to use it for the Open Mic. As long as it shows up as an audio input device in Windows then it’ll work (which I’m pretty sure it does). It’s the best way to get nice clean audio. The easiest way to check - assuming you have it - is just to setup your own meeting in zoom, select the 2i2 as your audio input and then record your meeting.
Yes all works fine I use it and probably half of forumites does 
Thanks guys.
What is the benefit of the 2i2 over the solo, do you know?
The 2i2 has 2 inputs the solo has 1.
Thanks Stitch.
Would I need two, if it’s just one guitar and a mic?
The Solo has 2 inputs: 1 XLR and 1 instrument
The 2i2 has 2 inputs, both of which can accept either and XLR or instrument cable.
The 2i2 will thus provide greater flexibility but if you don’t anticipate recording with two mics then a solo will allow you to plug in your guitar and record vocals with a mic.
Thanks David.
I can’t ever see me needing two mics, I have no friends. 
I think the solo should do just fine.
Thank you everyone.
Thanks for clearing that up David I have the 2i2 and thought the
solo just had 1 but it makes sense to have 1 fo mic and1for guitar
Sorry, one last question. Would the mic from the Focusrite fit in this stand, does anyone know?
Thanks.
It depends. If it’s the focusrite package and it’s the same a it used to be (mine is an old version now) it comes with a condenser mic which wont fit into that mic holder as it’s much fatter…typically you’ll have to buy a different mount for it PLUS be careful if it’s budget mic stand the condenser mic is pretty heavy and will pull that boom down.
Thanks Ross. I’ll skip that mic stand then.
I’ll have a trawl of the internet to find a stand.
If you look online for a condenser shock mount that will be what you want. This will then screw on to the mic stand. But you just need to look at what the mount fitting is that’s provided on the mic stand itself as there tends to be two sizes.
Would you perhaps need two mics if you wanted to mic up an acoustic guitar and also sing? I’m no expert but from what I can gather from others, a miced acoustic sounds better than one that’s plugged in.
I would go for 2i2 which has the possibility of connecting two mics, one for acoustic guitar and one for vocal. A little more expensive than the solo, but more flexibility for different scenarios.
Personally I have a Focusrite iTrack One, which is single channel allowing either guitar or mic. I bought it because of its easy iOS connection and had no idea at that time about what scenarios I might have in future. I will update to 2i2 one day for more serious recording on PC.
I would get a minimum of 2 inputs. Odds are very great that you’ll want a second input sooner rather than later. If not guitar and vocal then two mics on the guitar. Once you start recording it will happen…
My 2cs worth …
Acoustic guitar certainly sounds better recorded with a mic.
But what you need also depends on what you want to achieve, which is hard to know in the short-term and lots can change in the long term.
For simple play and sing, you may find that a single condensor, well positioned to achieve a good balance between guitar and voice is sufficient. The downside of this that you are limited in terms of post-recording processing, such as adding EQ to polish either guitar or vocal, since you will have only a single recorded track. But for many people that may never become an issue. I make my videos using OBS now and do no post-processing on the recorded vocal. You can do that using a phone as the camera and produce a simple video with better audio quality than achieved via the phone mic. And that may be sufficient for years to come.
I found recording it challenging to make a two track recording of me playing and singing using a separate mic for guitar and vocal. My issue was guitar bleed onto the vocal track. Back then my singing was so poor in terms of level that once the mic gain was appropriate for my voice level I never found a way to setup that it didn’t pick up the guitar strongly. I expect it would be better today now that my singing is better. Maybe I should try that at some point.
Recording an acoustic using two mics two make a truly stereo recording from two mono recordings is, in my opinion, a long term prospect. For me personally, don’t see it on even my long term horizon. I have a dynamic and condensor mic so could try it, but the need to setup carefully to avoid phase issues plus the acoustics of my room, the quality of my playing, quality of my guitar, make me wonder if it would be worth my effort. I could compromise on this and record one channel using guitars built-in pickups through (in my case) my Play Acoustic and a second track using the condensor, to create a stereo recording with different sound quality on each, but again not sure for my needs and aspirations it is worth it. But something to try.
So at the end of the day, the 2i2 will offer more flexibility but may be some time before you need more than what a Solo offers. All depends on what you plan to do in the short-medium term and your finances. For example, perhaps a Solo and a better quality condensor mic and headphones may be a better option than the 2i2 starter kit. But if you can afford it, a 2i2 and separate mic purchase would be the way to go, especially if you have decent headphones already (noting that mixing headphones would have a flat frequency response vs HiFi headphones that would be coloured to enhance listen to music).
Hope you now are not suffering from opinion overload.
The problem you describe @DavidP is the general issue with a condenser mic… to put it simply they capture EVERYTHING although the sound is very warm and full compared to a dynamic mic. That is why generally I think you are best to use a dynamic mic if you want some separation between tracks. You get very little bleed with a dynamic mic as the pattern it captures is very tight.
Thank you everyone for all your input. It’s that wormhole thing isn’t it?
I’m the kind of guy that likes to think ahead, so I’ve decided on the 2i2 starter kit and hopefully that should see me right for a good few years to come.
A decision that makes sense and it has served me well, Stefan.
Next decision, perhaps a digression from the Topic, will be which DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) to start off with.
I assume that the kit will come with access to light versions of both Ableton and Pro Tools.
My choice the day I came home with my kit was Ableton. Honestly not sure why, perhaps it was presented as Ableton and Pro Tools, so I went with it because of alphabetical order.
It worked for me, though in my time using it I always struggled with some things. At a point, I forget after how long, I hit one of the light version constraints. At that point to upgrade to the next version without the limits would have cost hundreds of US Dollars. That plus the recommendation of LBro who is one of the Community members who helped me a lot with recording, mixing etc led me to switch to Reaper for a cost of 60 US Dollars.
@Rossco01 is an Ableton user and am sure would be happy to help you to get going, if you choose to use it.
In hindsight, I think Pro Tools may have been a better choice, for two reasons. Firstly, one of the internet sources I used to aid my learning demonstrates everything in Pro Tools and I found his content extremely helpful. Secondly, I think Ableton is geared towards live music performance, and some of its features that confused me (not suggesting the features are inherently confusing, remember I was a total newbie) may be geared towards that use case. I think Pro Tools is more geared towards song production. But I stress I did fine with Ableton until I hit the limits, which I would also have ultimately hit (I expect) in Pro Tools light, and the cost to upgrade would also have been 100s of US Dollars.
That all said, you could also get started with something as simple (and free) as Audacity. I am almost 100% certain that you’d be able to make a recording with two tracks, based on the two input sources provided by the Solo in Audacity.
While Reaper is super good value in terms of cost vs functionality (it is not free, contrary to what some people posted in the old Forum, but does have the option to install the fully functional latest version for free for trial period) plus has a fantastic catalog of video tutorials. There are other options, to consider used by members of the Community. I stand to be corrected but pretty sure there are free DAWs that are fully functional, comparable to a Pro Tools or Logic.
Of course I may have typed this essay for no reason. If your intended device is an Apple laptop then GarageBand that is free to use is the way to get started.
I guess I should have asked that question before rambling on, oh well.
If not an Apple user then maybe post another topic to get further input on that choice. I think it is worth giving it some thought to make an informed choice.