To my eyes, the 8Pre’s 1U metal front panel is more crimson than claret, but its layout is significantly cleaner and smarter than that of its Saffire or Scarlett predecessors. As the name suggests, the 8Pre features eight combination mic/line pre-amps, each offering up to +57dB of gain and with phantom power arranged in two blocks of four input channels. To me, this fully justifies Focusrite’s decision to keep their new control–panel utility simple: if you do need to set up complex cue mixes with effects and processing, there’s really no penalty for doing so within your DAW with this sort of low–latency operation available.

If you've always wanted vocals that shimmer with presence and silky air, then try recording with the Clarett+ 8Pre. Now — effective on purchases from 1st January 2018 onwards — the warranty period is 36 months from the date of the original purchase. Eight high-performance Clarett+ preamps - Hear every nuance and capture the clearest and most powerful sounds with preamps that bring masses of headroom, low distortion and ultra-low noise.However, it should be pointed out that this beautiful simplicity has been achieved partly by not including features that are available on some competing products.

The high frequency lift made the signal easier to hear and more flattering in foldback mixes, introducing the kind of processing you’d invariably reach for later when mixing anyway, but instead in the analogue domain. The unit’s front panel carries physical controls for phantom power (switchable in two groups of channels 1‑4 and 5‑8), preamp channel gains, headphone volumes, and the dedicated monitor section (with its own volume control and dim/mute buttons). There are optical In and Out sockets supporting up to eight–channel audio transfer using the ADAT protocol, plus separate stereo coaxial S/PDIF In and Out, MIDI In and Out, and the ubiquitous BNC word clock input.Focusrite Control - Easy-to-use and feature-packed software for computer and iOS devices give you complete control over all aspects of Clarett+. With every Focusrite Scarlett and Clarett+ purchase, you'll get the new Hitmaker Expansion for free. Plus, you get a 3-month subscription to Avid Pro Tools Artist, access to Abelton Live Lite, and a free 3-month Splice Sounds subscription. The features that were a big step up from the cheap tascam I was using is the monitor section (lovely), the preamps, and the adat possibilities.