Focusrite Red 8 Pre 64-in / 64-out Thunderbolt Audio Interface

The Red Range features Focusrite's flagship interfaces with ultra fast Thunderbolt and Dante connectivity and specially designed mic preamps so that you can get the best sound with minimum stress.

Red Evolution Mic Pres

The Red 8Pre features eight specially designed mic preamps called the Red Evolution preamps. These Digitally-controlled preamps are designed to be "clear and honest" to transfer the detail and nuance from your live performance onto a take.

The preamps feature -129 dB EIN and 63dB of gain so that you have plenty of headroom to get the perfect take and add external processing without the worry of peaking.

If you want your preamps to add a little character to your sound, you also have the option of adding Focusrite's unique "Air" Effect. This analogue feature recreates the natural tonal effect of the transformer-based mic preamps in the ISA Range. The Result is a tight low end and a specific mid to high range boost that gives the preamp it's light and "airy" tonal characteristics.

Mastering quality Digital Audio Converters

Another key element in the Red range is it's fantastic conversion; using selected, high-performance, precision conversion chips to get the best accuracy from the sound source to your DAW. Not only that, Focusrite uses 2 conversion chips in parallel to significantly enhance the signal-to-noise ratio. This means that the signal/noise ratio is improved by 3dB!

Versatile connectivity

Focusrite's Red series includes Thunderbolt 2 connectivity for ultra low latency, in whatever DAW you use; enabling you to track and overdub with your preferred plug-ins and effects in real time and in turn simplifying your workflow. Drop your Red system immediately, directly and seamlessly into any Pro Tools | HD system, or use it with existing Avid® interfaces, thanks to its twin DigiLink™ connectors.

Dual Thunderbolt 2 ports allow daisy-chaining of additional components such as hard drives and displays. Plus you're network audio enabled right out of the box; with dual Ethernet ports for Dante audio-over-IP networking. With this you can expand your recording capability over Ethernet for up to 64 additional channels anywhere on your network. Additional Red or other Dante-compatible components can be connected to the Ethernet ports to provide additional channels.

Dante networked audio

The way in which we interconnect audio equipment has hardly changed since the early days of the technology. Each audio path is represented by a single cable that runs from one piece of equipment to the next. In modern telecommunications parlance, the logical and physical paths are the same: one cable equals one channel. Signals are routed via individual copper cables, and implementing unplanned – or even planned – changes in a system, such as moving or adding channel capability, can result in extreme expense, time and effort.

The advent of digital audio networking, also called "audio-over-IP" means the removal of much of that time, effort and expense, by separating a system’s physical and logical connections. A single network cable or fibre-optic path carries multiple channels, thus making it possible to make infrastructure changes relatively cheaply, quickly and inexpensively, and without the requirement for major building changes and works. At one end of the network, a single connection is made to the music workstation(s) that will be used to work with the audio. At other points on the network, a single interconnect links each interface, which can provide multiple analogue and/or digital I/O wherever they are required. Multiple analogue cable runs and expensive, heavy multiway cables are things of the past as multiple channels are carried digitally between locations.