Focusrite Clarett+ 8Pre Studio-Grade 18-in/20-out Audio Interface for Established Producers —Eight High-Performance, Low-Noise, Low-Distortion Mic Preamps Capture Audio with Precise Clarity

Product Information

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. Perfect for your studio or mobile recording rig, the Clarett+ 8Pre gives you a wealth of connectivity — including ADAT and MIDI I/O — all in a sleek 1U form factor. Wherever you happen to be in the world, you can rely on a two-year warranty if any Focusrite hardware needs repairing or replacing due to a manufacturing fault.

Two high-impedance JFET instrument inputs preserve your guitar’s true character and feel just like an amp.The 8PreX's rear panel is more spacious than the 8Pre’s and adds additional optical ports and a word-clock input.

When I used to do live recordings, it was a lot more crucial to be able to make minor adjustments quickly. Clarett+ is Focusrite’s new range of premium-quality USB audio interfaces, built from the top reputation and the strengths of the previous Clarett ranges. That translates in the real world to a marginally clearer, cleaner, and more transparent source recording, especially if tracking with generous headroom margins. The eight Air-enabled mic preamps can reproduce the input impedance, clarity and frequency response curve of Focusrite’s original ISA mic preamp. One final quibble is that the pre-amp gain doesn’t really extend upwards enough to comfortably handle the likes of the gain-hungry Shure SM7B without becoming a little noisy or running out of headroom when maxed out.Create studio-quality vocals, powerful guitars, dramatic synths, and huge drums, then mix and master with iconic Focusrite studio hardware — all in the box. To provide some real‑world context here, an AES17 dynamic range figure of 124dB (A‑weighted) — which the Clarett+ scores for its balanced line outputs — means it rates in the top five of all the interfaces and converters I’ve measured to date, alongside high‑end products like the Benchmark DAC2 HGC, and outperforms RME’s ADI‑2 Pro. Of course, the original Clarett was hardly a slouch in this regard, but the improvements are not only measurable but audible too, especially when working in challenging conditions. Most of the Thunderbolt interfaces available at present are more upmarket devices than the 8Pre and 8PreX, but a possible competitor for the latter might be MOTU’s 8M, which offers a similar complement of I/O, with the plus of USB and Ethernet connections as alternatives to Thunderbolt.