Focusrite TwinTrak Pro

The unit is/was pretty easy to use. It's a straight forward preamp with compression. All the changeable parameters are right there on the front, and with a little background knowledge on preamps, can be fairly easily adjusted/used as needed.

Sound quality was good on this. Not $2000 fabulous, but definitely $500+ good. I especially liked the quality of the compression.

Notice I've been using past-tense on a lot of my comments. That's because my TwinTrak doesn't work so well now. After about 18 months, the phantom power started having problems with a lot of "snap, crackle, and pop" additions to that "good sound quality". It started as an occasional problem and has grown to an almost-constant problem. Learning a few weeks ago I was moving to Europe (from the states), I thought I would try to get it fixed. I took it to a local (and reputable) "Musician's Tech" store to have them take a look, and they warned me in advance, "Focusrite is VERY unhelpful about repairing their stuff." And sure enough, when the store sent Focusrite an email asking for some schematics to help troubleshoot where the noise was coming from in the signal chain, their reply was "not a chance!" (verbatim). They explained that they only have ONE authorized repair facility and they wouldn't help.

SO, now my options are to send it to the one-and-only repair facility in the states (in Las Vegas) where the projected repair costs are about $300 (half the purchase value of the entire unit), or scrap it, and buy something else.

SO, were I to repair this through my only option (thanks Focusrite), I will have spent about $1000 on this thing. Were this a really high-end piece from Focusrite's line, I might understand this, but this is part of their middle-to-low-end line, and I'm still stuck paying high-end repair costs for it. Again, thank-you Focusrite...I will never recommend your products to another living soul.

Given the kurt, less-than-sympathetic response I got from the Focusrite rep about my repair options, and the email my repair tech got from Focusrite, I can only simply say..."for me, they sucked!"

Let's hope you have a better experience, because my tech actually said they USUALLY have a decent reputation for making good stuff.

Well, as you can see with this product, this will be the 3rd of 4 reviews where the customer had problems. I would at least stay away from the TwinTrak.

If it worked dependably, I'd say it's an 8 or 9 for the money, but obviously if it's not working, I have to score it MUCH lower.

Simple to use. If you can't figure it out look at the manual.

Transparent enough. Doesn't color which is nice. Decent cut eq. Excellent clarity on the compression.

After less than 2 years of minimal use sitting in a well ventilated rack and nothing above it, the unit fried out. Something in the power supply according the the Focusrite techs. Cost more to fix than the unit was worth. I would not recommend the Twintrak Pro based on this failure.

Well, when a company want to charge you as much for repair as the unit was new, I would call that poor customer support.

I've had good luck with the higher end focusrite stuff. As usual, when a high end company scales down to build the cheaper stuff, sacrifices are made. Unfortunately the sacrifice here seems to be reliability.

I bought the Focusrite TwinTrak in 2002 from Musician's Friend. I also got the A/D converter add-on card. Setting it up was easy and it worked perfectly fine at first.

This was my first mid-level preamp. I used it in my home studio to record acoustic guitar, guitar cabinets and some vocals. It was very clean and transparent and sounded great for everything that I did. I used it with SM57's, AKG and Rod microphones. A have a pair of Rode NT1a mics that sounded great through this unit.

Here's the tricky part. While the unit sounded really good, I started having some intermittent problems with it after about 3 years. The main monitor volume pot was scratchy from the first day. I'd clean it with contact spray and it would be okay for about 2-3 months.

A month ago, the headphone jack literally fell apart one day as I was pluggin it in. I popped the hood and it was a cheap platic jack. I found a replacement and soldered it in and this was fixed.

About two weeks ago, I started getting some loud hums when I powered the unit up. I would 'reboot' the TwinTrak and the problem would go away. After about two days of this, the unit finally stopped working one day. I have pegged-out LEDs with no backlighting, no signal in or out and all panel lights are on steady. I have disconnected everything, checked for loose connections or cold solder joints inside, but no help. I contacted the ONE service location in the United States, and they quoted me about $300 to repair it. Sorry, but I can't see putting another $300 into this box. For the first few years, it worked like a dream, but for the money I spent, I would expect this unit to last longer than this.

Customer Support has been adequate, but I guess I expected more service within the US. Only one US repair shop in Las Vegas? Not a good sign.

Like I said, this was a very good sounding unit and I had good luck with it for a couple years. I am, however, very disappointed in the construction and the reliability of this box. I really did like the features of this preamp and the sound was great, but unfortunately, it started falling apart on me and the repair costs are too high to justify getting it fixed. I'm in the process of ordering a different model of preamp that costs the same as the TwinTrak. But this one is made in the States and at this point, support and repair are an important factor my purchase decision.

The thing is clear and does not colour your sound very much at all. The Air feature can REALLY do some amazing stuff--make the preamp sound much more high-end than it probably actually is. And when this is true, it's like, "why pay more then?" *I give it an 8, only because, technically, if you spend 3 to 4 times the money, you should be able to get a better sound. However, honestly, most people won't know the difference, and like most situations in life, it ends up being HOW you use what you've got, not so much "I've got a UA 610," or whatever. Every piece of equipment has its own sound. Personally, I feel that almost anyone could benefit from this piece, regardless of what else that's good/junk they've got.

Very clear. Very clean. Variable Impedence, again, is such a huge function to be able to use. It not only affects the gain structure of your signal, but the tonal qualities of the microphone you're using as well. *This can only be used when using a mic, to my knowledge.

The opto-compressor definitely sounds like an opto-compressor, but every type of compressor has its sounds, and you'd be suprised how useful this one's can actually be. It just helps you fatten up the sound right off of the bat, but the attack buttons are very useful for different "speeds" and "intensities" of guitar tracks, for example.

I just tried running a 57 and a NT-2 on either side of my 2x12 cabinet last night, and between fixing the two sounds up with the opto, low cut, and Air function (on the 57), I get a SUPER fat sound with just the right amount of compression.

When I got mine, it had a problem with the XLR jack for whatever reason. Sent it to Focusrite, and they fixed her right up.
No problems now though.

They're a decent company.

The thing works well. If it sounds like something you need, I'd recommend it. If not, then get something else that you need. You know how it is trying to describe audio with words... it's pretty much pointless, but this didn't have a review on it, so I thought I'd be the first.