Focusrite have announced their new flagship Red 4Pre, a 58-in, 64-out audio interface that offers a whole wealth of connectivity making it ideal to sit at the center of any high-end studio, or indeed many larger scale applications including many live audio scenarios.
Key headline features include four newly-developed, digitally controlled ‘Red Evolution’ pre-amps offering a clean 63dB of ultra clean gain and high-headroom instrument inputs all routed through the newly developed high-performance conversion system, that in itself offers 121dB of dynamic range to work with.
Software control allows recall of settings and stereo linking, plus configuration of HPF, polarity invert and individual phantom power. The pre-amps include Focusrite’s unique ‘Air’ effect, recreating in the analogue domain the sound of the transformer-based mic pre-amps in the classic ISA range — suitable for bringing out the breathy quality of a vocal or adding presence to an acoustic guitar. Red 4Pre also includes high-headroom instrument inputs, instantly accessible from the front panel.
The Red 4Pre’s new high-performance conversion system features ‘parallel path summing’, where two matched converters are run in parallel to increase the signal to noise ratio. They operate at up to 24-bit, 192 kHz sampling — ideal for high-resolution audio — with a dynamic range of 118dB(A-D)/121dB (D-A). The Red 4Pre delivers ≤0.0009% THD+Noise and a stated frequency response flat from 20Hz to 35kHz ±0.25 dB or better.
Rounding off the package the are dual Thunderbolt 2 ports to connect to any DAW while allowing daisy-chaining of drives and displays. Dual DigiLink ports connect the Red 4Pre directly to any Pro Tools | HD system and in addition the Red 4Pre features built-in Dante network audio connectivity: use the dual Ethernet ports to connect any Dante-compatible product such as units from Focusrite’s own RedNet range, adding up to 64 channels via audio over Ethernet.
The Focusrite Red4Pre should be shipping around the end of March 2016.