Better. Faster. Easier.

Excellent sound is the quality Clarett owners love most. With up to 119dB dynamic range, superbly low noise, precision 24/192 conversion and eight specially-designed mic preamps with a unique analogue “Air” effect, Clarett 8Pre is the Thunderbolt audio interface that simply sounds great, easily out-performing others in its class and beyond. Meanwhile, its astonishing 1.67ms round-trip latency* simplifies your workflow and lets you use your favourite plug-ins in real time.

 

Outstanding versatility, speed, and sonic performance

The Clarett 8Pre's eight newly designed Clarett mic preamps deliver a truly impressive dynamic range. 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. With its sonic performance, leading edge round-trip audio latency and ease of use, the Clarett 8 Pre is an excellent value.

• Eight Clarett mic preamps with Air Effect

• Accurate digital conversion and sync

• Generous I/O, enough for the whole band

• Accessible metering and monitoring

• Intuitive, easy-to-use software mixer

 

 

 

8 Clarett Mic Preamps with Air Effect

Newly designed Focusrite mic preamps bring your recordings to life

Focusrite fitted the Clarett 8Pre with mic preamps that were designed exclusively for the Clarett range with loads of pristine gain and vanishingly low noise. In addition, these preamps include Focusrite's proprietary Air feature that switches in an analog model of Focusrite's acclaimed classic transformer-based ISA mic pre, breathing life into your recordings. If you've always wanted vocals that shimmer with presence and silky air, then try recording with the Clarett 8Pre. You will be impressed.

• Eight newly designed Clarett mic preamps

• Copious headroom, vanishingly low noise

• Focusrite's proprietary Air feature

 

Intuitive and Easy-to-use Software Mixer

Easy configuration of monitoring and routing setups

Your Clarett comes with Focusrite Control, a brand-new software mixer that makes short work of configuring your monitoring and routing setups. Simple and intuitive to use, Focusrite Control offers an easy-to-grasp traditional mixer workflow and gives you immediate access to dim, mute, and other internal hardware functions.

• Makes short work of configuring your monitoring and routing

• Traditional mixer workflow

• Quick access to internal hardware functions

Accessible Metering and Monitoring

The monitor section provides a clear view of input and main monitor output levels, via a 6-segment, multichannel hardware meter. Monitor features include an assignable level control, plus back-lit dim and mute buttons, alongside dual high-power headphone outputs.

Enough Channels for the Band

18 audio inputs and 20 outputs within a 1U rack space, including eight analogue inputs, 10 analogue outputs, stereo S/PDIF I/O and eight channels of ADAT I/O. The ADAT ports are ideal for sending audio to an external D/A for line output expansion, or adding eight channels of digital mic pre.

Tech Specifications

 

The world is full of innovative software companies creating a wealth of powerful plug-ins. With such variety, you’ll want to find exactly the right plug-ins for you, and use them in real time, thanks to Clarett’s ultra-low latency environment. To help you on this mission, we’ve formed the ‘Plug-in Collective’, working with the very best to bring you exclusive plug-in offers and content every month.

Supported Operating Systems

• OSX 10.9 Mavericks or 10.10 Yosemite

• Windows Compatible 64-bit 8.1 or 10 windows

The popular Clarett range of Thunderbolt™ interfaces are now compatible with PCs with the release of the Clarett Windows driver. The driver enables users to run these interfaces with the growing number of Thunderbolt-equipped Windows computers, delivering identical functionality to that experienced on the Mac. Windows users can enjoy sub 3 milliseconds round trip latency, and the same reliable, stable operation as Mac-based Clarett owners already experience. The low latency allows users to record and monitor while using their favourite plug-ins in real time, as well as other DAW workflow benefits.

The first release of the driver will support the Thunderbolt 1 and Thunderbolt 2 protocols for all Clarett interfaces. The driver is compatible with the latest 64-bit updates of Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. Further details of the driver specification and compatibility can be found. Future iterations will add support for Thunderbolt 3 Type C connectivity and the range of Red interfaces.

The driver also supports Focusrite Control, Focusrite's included software mixer designed for easy configuration of monitoring and routing setups, which is now available in a Windows version, again with identical functionality to the Mac version, including support for Focusrite Control iOS.

Focusrite’s Clarett audio interfaces are widely praised for their sound quality, performance and value for money. They feature specially-designed high-performance, low noise, low distortion mic preamps, which include the unique analogue “Air” effect, emulating the sound of Focusrite’s heritage transformer-based mic preamps. The interfaces include precision 24-bit/192 kHz conversion and offer super-low latency.

WHY THUNDERBOLT?

Thunderbolt differs a little from interfaces like USB and FireWire. It brings the PCI Express interface – used for super-fast graphics cards and other slots inside the computer – out to external devices. It’s not so much an interface as a bus that gives you direct access to the machine’s inner workings. And as a result, it’s ideal for audio, with exceptionally high speed and correspondingly low latency – making possible the astonishingly low round-trip latency figures that Clarett offers – and unparalleled flexibility. The Clarett range demonstrates many of the significant benefits that Thunderbolt provides.

ROUNDTRIP LATENCY PERFORMANCE

Round Trip Latency (ms) tested at 96 kHz on Windows 10 and a Molten Music Technology X99 machine

Buffer Size	Cubase Pro 8	Ableton Live 9	Pro Tools 12	Reaper 5
32	2.9	3.2	n/a	2.8
64	3.6	3.6	3.5	3.4
128	5.3	5.3	5.3	5.2

Round Trip Latency (ms) tested at 48 kHz on Windows 10 and a Molten Music Technology X99 machine

Buffer Size	Cubase Pro 8	Ableton Live 9	Pro Tools 12	Reaper 5
32	4.1	4.8	4.1	4.0
64	5.8	5.8	5.8	5.6
128	9.8	10.5	9.8	9.6

 

Focusrite's Clarett line includes two multi-channel rackmount models, the Clarett 8Pre and the Clarett 8PreX. If you're configuring a mobile recording setup, you will appreciate the svelte 1U Claret 8Pre and its blend of performance and portability. If, however, you're seeking a preamp/interface for permanent studio installation, the 2U Clarett 8PreX offers an expanded range of professional features you'll find extremely valuable.