Focusrite Tone Factory

THis is a follow up

I would not get one of these if you are looking for a one for all mic pre. This unit is great for DI apps. Distorted guitar mic'ng cab is good. THe problem I had was trying to get a good clean guitar tone mic'ng the cab. For clean tones I just use the direct instrument input. Which works wonders for the bass guitar/ and synths. Guitar is good but, I am now on the search for a tube mic pre with quality. Avalon? I will keep the unit as I it is still very useful.

This jewel takes a little while to dial in your sound. There are many options which drew me in to this unit for a instrument mic pre.

This thing sounds amazing. Although this is my first outboard mic pre I am in heaven. I have been searching for a while time after time tring to get a great overdriven guitar recording. I have well exceeded my expectations. I'm mic'ing my marshall 4x12 1960 cab with
a Sennheiser 421 (brand new), connecting to the tone factory via monster xlr cable, that is feeding my m-audio 1010 a/d converter which feeds cubase. By the way an sm-57 is lousy for getting a loud overdriven guitar tone. The 421 holds up outstanding allowing me to crank my boogie dc-5 tube head. Sm57 is a toy for this app. Back to the tone factory. Compression is easy to dial in and sounds great. The eq section will really open up your tone to make it come alive. The gate section is fairly tricky. I didn't have much luck with it with the guitar. But who cares that is a easy fix in cubase editing. The kick drum will be my next test with the tone factory. Hopefully the gate will be of good use in this test. The tone factory filter section can be routed to the gate which i hope will be an asset for the kick drum low freq. I was looking at the trackmaster as well which has some similar features but the tone factory had a little more for an overall instument mic pre. Ive done a lot of online research on different models and makes and this one seemed to be the best bang for the buck as well for a used unit sense this model is out of production. I would have got'n a joe meek vc6, or the presonus eureka, but the price was better on the tonefactory and I'm sure the quality is fairly equal of the three.

i wouldn't know i just got it.

Fairly easy to use. Has many option but after a while it all makes sense.

If you don't buy it for its distortion you'll be a happy camper. EQ is very musical and I really dig the opto comp. A great alternative here at the studio - it is patched in together with some LA4's, RNC's, ADL, DBX and such and sure has its place. It's mainly used for its compression and soundshaping. - Wish I would have a pair, but I dont think it's even stereo linkable. Mic pre is decent, I believe its the same as in the Digidesign Control 24, someone told me. Only used it once for an effect voice , which came out great. Tracked some lightly distorted bass a couple of time, also did well on that.

No problem - no backup needed.

Never had a reason to contact Focusrite.

Used only in recording studio which I believe was not its intended place . The extra instr. input on the front sure is a great bonus, or is it its main reason of existence? I am recording for 20+ years and this box is a keeper ! Don't know why it became such a hidden and secret gem.

this is a follow up to my previous post. I recorded vocals and drums through the tone factory and it was just amazing. sounded really nice, the compressor worked like a charm, very musical. and having all the tone control options really came in handy. I added a bit of low end on the vocals, dialed in some compression and it all worked very nice. this is one rack unit that's a keeper!

very easy to get a good sound out of it, although there are a lot of options. I was a bit worried that it would be a bear to learn and use, but since there are no menus, just knobs, changing sounds is really pretty easy. I don't know if it's true bypass or not, but it doesnt seem to color my sound when its in the signal chain and all the things are turned off. it has a preamp, a filter than can be sent to the gate, a top notch opto compressor, overdrive, tone controls like an amp, a parametric eq and a noise gate. it can take balanced or unbalanced inputs - you can plug your guitar right into the front of it which is nice in a rack setup.

The tone factory by focusrite is really meant for guitars and bass. it has a wonderful opto compressor that really fattens up the sound and it can get either really pumping or it can be subtle depending on how you set it up. I'm actually surprised there were no reviews of this on HC, since it is such a killer tone/compressor module for guitars. I run this right into my fender deluxe reverb after running my fulldrive 2 into it. it plays very nicely with pedals and it doesn't seem to mind the occasional overload, well at least it doesn't make a terrible sound when it dips into the red, like my lexicon does. I also really like the eq on this. I use it to further fatten up my sound. I like adding a bunch of bass and trimming some of the treble and boosting the mids a bit. This seems to give my sound a really fat round clean sound with lots of sustain. I haven't used the parametric eq much, but it's nice to know it's there. I tried using the overdrive, and although I prefer my fulldrive, the option is there and it doesn't sound terrible, but it's not something I would rely on as an overdrive. it actually sound more like a fuzz than an overdrive but it does clean up a bit with the guitar volume. overall, I think the reason to get this would be for it's compression and the eq, it's a focusrite and it sounds really musical - top notch gear

I think I can depend on it. it's very heavy and well-built, the knobs have a sturdy feel to them and I looked inside and there were some thick wires inside. better built than a behringer or something similar.

I don't know about customer support, I haven't used them. their site is pretty nice, you can download the manuals no problem.

Focusrite discontinued this model and I think they replaced it with the trakmaster, but I'm not sure. These are a steal on ebay and are a great find. I think they originally listed for well over 500 bucks. No one seems to know about these as they seem to have flown below everyone's radar, which is kind of weird, since focusrite has a such a great rep for making quality gear. Anyway, I really like it, it helps smooth out my guitar sound and gives me a lot of options to mold my sound without making it sound digital or crappy.

I would recommend this if your looking for a compressor/eq module for your rack. I wouldn't rely on the overdrive for serious guitar work. I haven't tried recording vocals, bass or drums but I imagine it would work superbly for that.

Overall, I think it's a great swiss army knife kind of thing that would be great to track just about everything, and when your done recording it can go right in the rack and you can plug your guitar or bass right into the front of it and away you go.