The market for “pro” audio interfaces is pushing higher and higher. The "simple" quality of converters is no longer enough to evaluate a product.
It is a war that is now moving on to having more or less preamps, on the presence of plug-ins, on whether or not internal processors are needed, on digital connectivity ...
These new products are increasingly presenting themselves as Swiss army knives, offering the user a wide range of action, but often also complicating operations that could be much simpler to start with.
With the introduction of the Red 4pre, Focusrite had given the distinct feeling of wanting to look out into what is the "pro" sector of audio interfaces Thunderbolt, already touched by other renowned brands such as UAD, Apogee, RME and lately Antelope e Slate Digital, whose boards have carved out an important slice of the market, providing products of undoubted quality often associated with other “utilities”, such as internal or third-party plug-ins.
Focusrite, rolling up its sleeves and relying on its over ten-year experience, first placed the Red 8Pre on the market and, a few days ago, the Red 16. In this article we will analyze the model Red 8pre, direct competitor of Apogee Ensemble, UAD 8p, Antelope Orion Studio, etc.
As you can already imagine from the name, this new series of Thunderbolt interfaces of the English company is inspired by the historic Focusrite amplifiers, both the RED ones, introduced in the 1993, which models ISA110 e ISA130, in addition to the recent REDNET series, which offers extensive connectivity via Ethernet, based on the Dante protocol.
First contact
After unpacking the card, let's move on to examine the contents of the box. Extracting the interface, one cannot fail to highlight the very solid construction, with the aesthetically fascinating red aluminum front part, which brings to mind the RED and REDNET series. There are, then, two types of power cable (both European and American) and a coupon with which you can take advantage of plugin factory Red Eq and Red Compressor, as well as a series of various third-party plug-ins which, as we have discovered in the weeks of use of the card, change periodically, some times in the Lite version, others in the full version. So far, Focusrite has partnered with Drawmer, Softube, NugenAudio e XLN sound, to partly follow the path marked by UAD, and now also by Antelope and Slate Digital, that is, to also provide a discrete bundle associated with the product. Furthermore, an agreement has recently been signed with the company McDSP extension, known in the industry for the quality of its plug-ins, which will be available free to owners of Red series cards for 12 months. Finally, something not to be underestimated, a certified Thunderbolt cable of 2 meters is supplied as standard Apple , whose value is around 40 euros.
Returning to the interface, the front panel it is presented from left to right with 2 instrument inputs, 8 buttons for management small\line, through the large knob immediately to the side, a large display divided into three mini-panels, another knob for managing the volume of the monitor and headphones (in addition to other functions which we will discuss later) and four yellow buttons : the meter that allows you to associate the meters on the display to any type of input or output provided by the card, the monitor button and two headphone buttons followed by the two headphone outputs and the on / off button of the card.
Il back panel instead it differs from many other products on the same range. There are 5 connections DB25: the first concerns the 8 preamps derived from the original RED series (therefore precisely ISA 110 and 130); then, to follow, the one concerning Line 1-8 inputs, to be used alternatively to the microphone ones; to follow another similar one dedicated to Line 9-16 inputs; finally the last two for outputs 1-8 and 9-16. After the DB25, we find the two exits L&; R directed to monitors, two ports mini-DigiLink, which can be interfaced with Pro Tools HDFree S / PDIF, two Thunderbolt ports, 2 in and 2 out ADAT, 2 connections BNC for Word clock I / O and 2 BNCs for the I / O LOOP. The panel is completed by the two Ethernet connections to be used with the Dante protocol.
In short, Focusrite has left nothing to chance with regard to digital connections, the strong point of many series produced since the 90s.
The test
After installing the Focusrite Control software on iMac 27 " 2014 and having noted from the site that Focusrite has detected problems on the drivers of the Thunderbolt ports of the iMac series (aspect, the latter, also found on another Pro range card Ed), let's analyze the software control panel (Fig. 3).
We are faced with a very simple screen, unlike the old Saffire software, really complicated to handle. On left we have the main information we need to start, that is Sampling Rate, Clock Source, S / PDIF Source, Meter to display and the Host Mode function, which allows us to select the Thunderbolt ports or the mini-Digilink ports linked to Pro Tools.
Sulla right we find the whole panel relating to the first 8 channels of the board.
The first two can be set in the now usual triple mode Small/LINE/Instrument. In mode MIC, you can control the 48v power supply, the Phase, the High Pass Filter and the ability to link channels 1-2. Next, we find the function AIR, usable on all three modes, Focusrite trademark since the days of the ISA, which gives a boost di 2db a 10khz e -2db attenuation a 20khz with a reduced input impedance a 2,2 KOhm.
The function AIR is not a simple software addition applied by Focusrite, but acts at the hardware level: so much so that as soon as you switch to AIR mode, you can hear the snap of a internal relay which changes the configuration.
The third way, that Instrument, allows you to enable the inputs on the front panel, directly on channels 1 and 2 of the board for the use of amplified string instruments. In my opinion this solution represents a flaw, as other companies allow to have the Instrument inputs on separate channels from the Mic / Line ones.
Let's move on and go to view the I / O routing (Fig. 4).
Here Focusrite has really worked well, since the card is completely configurable with regard to inputs and outputs, starting from the analog ones, up to the digital connections. An incredible versatility that until now required the purchase of at least 2-3 products to achieve the same configuration.
We tested using it as software Logic Pro X 10.3.2.
Let's go immediately to view the latency times of this product, since Focusrite claims excellent performance of its converters, equal to direct rivals. Indeed, we are facing surprising times when compared to old products Liquid Sapphire, but also to the most recent Clarett.
A 192khz with Buffer Size set to 32 sample, the RED 8pre stands at a surprising 0,5ms of latency.
Below we report all the output values, while the value of is indicated in brackets Round trip in ms.
The card drivers are very stable, in our test we never experienced any synchronization problems with the software, nor any kind of digital glitch in playback. The interface works in "forklift" mode for hours without any problem. Some have detected an annoying noise from the internal fans, but I must say that in my personal opinion they do not appear so problematic. It is clear that, with all this goodness, a cooling circuit is needed inside that is different from the normal cards we have been dealing with so far.
But after all these numbers, how will this card sound?
Clearly, for anyone who has dealt with the recent ISA series, the sound of this interface will not be new. crystalline e defined, completely different from the previous Saffire, Scarlett or Clarett series. Focusrite states 63db di Maximum gain. The characteristics of these Preamps are very close to those of the Apogee Ensemble, perhaps slightly more colorful, but still absolutely linear and decidedly versatile.
Clearly, the "belly", for example, of a pre UAD or Antelope is not to be expected, but you gain a lot in linearity. We are talking about preamps definitely suitable for recordings of acoustic material, to lyrical voices and for pop voices. AIR mode tries to give that "hit" by trying to get a little closer to the sound SNOW of which Focusrite has been a partner over the years, but I think it should be used with great caution both in the presence of sibilants and too “ferrous” sounds, typical of stringed instruments. On a drum case it can give that extra something, as well as on a bass.
Personally, as the owner of two Heritage Audio 73jr 500 series, I prefer the latter if the need is to have a more aggressive sound.
Regarding the use of external preamps, the interface has 16 analog line inputs (of which we have already said that those 1-8 alternate with the PREs, but they cannot be used simultaneously, while only the first 8 lines can be AIR mode used). Furthermore, compared to the line inputs 1-8, those 9-16 have slightly different electrical characteristics: in fact the harmonic distortion of the first 8 is declared in -101db, while that of inputs 9-16 is -104db.
Conclusions
We are faced with a product with considerable potential. Focusrite with this RED 8pre offers features that make it attractive to many studios that are equipped with analogue instrumentation (with 16 line out the possibility of analog summing it is remarkable Ed), or in Live situations, perhaps using the DANTE connections in combination with the REDNET series modules.
Furthermore, the 8 RED preamplifiers are a guarantee of remarkable quality in the tracking phase.
In our test, however, we also found some flaws, which does not detract from the quality of the product, as these are some subtleties, which, however, would have been so convenient and it would have taken little to make it operational.
First, the Control Room, limited to a single pair of monitors, without the possibility of switching on the outputs (such as allow other brands).
Another sore point, already indicated above, concerns the first two channels, which in Instrument mode exclude their use as Mic / Line.
Finally, given the countless amount of DB25 connections present (and therefore also a considerable expense in cables) to make everything operational, why not leave the possibility of having microphone channels 1-8, separated from Line 1-8, so as to allow recording of 8 preamps and 16 Line inputs simultaneously?
In conclusion, the price of the card is slightly higher than that of its direct rivals, but it must be said that it is adequate compared to the connectivity and the quality it offers.
USEFUL INFORMATION
Producer Focusrite
Distributor: Eco Music Group
Model: Focusrite Red 8Pre
Advised price: 3.500 Euro including VAT
We want to thank you Ciaravola Musical Instruments, for giving us the opportunity to carry out the test in preview.
Audio Demo made at PLAY MUSIC STUDIO
Guitarist - Stefano Turin
Guitar - Taylor GS Mini in Mahogany
Single Coil Pickup - Magnetic Fishman without preamp
The recording took place live without any post production.
Microphone Neumann U89 in Wide Cardioid mode
AIR OFF arpeggio
AIR ON arpeggio
Neumann U89 - ARPEGGIO - AIR OFF
Neumann U89 - ARPEGGIO - AIR ON
