Focusrite Clare 4Pre USB

Focusrite’s latest Clarett interfaces mark a return to USB: a backwards step ? Jon Musgrave investigates

- Jon Musgrave

A couple of years ago, Focusrite’s original Clarett interfaces introduced premium quality mic pres, ISA transformer mic pre mode (Air) and super-low latency operation at a great price. They also required a Thunderbolt equipped computer – fine for Mac users, but not for Windows. Thankfully, the Clarett Thunderbolt interfaces are now joined by USB versions.

Much like the Thunderbolt version, this is an 18-input, 8-output interface with MIDI I/O. On the input side, that’s achieved via two combo mic/line/instrument inputs, two combo mic/line inputs, four line-level inputs, stereo S/PDIF and eight channels of ADAT optical. Meanwhile the eight outputs comprise four line-level and two stereo headphone outs.