Great for drums awful dynamics 
by Warren from New York, August 2008
Music Background:  25 year professional musician and studio owner

I have used this pre to record drums. Although useful as a pre the dynamics are not that great. I also have the digital option and have found the drums to sound a little thin compared to the analog output.

  Previous Reviewers Got it Right 
by Aaron from San Antonio, TX, June 2008
Music Background:  Recording Engineer/Home Studio Owner

Great Pres - Especially for the price. What a deal! 8 channels of focusrite class A for $100 a channel. BOOYA! The reason these pres are so affordable is because they sound a little sterile compared to higher end pres like API and the ISA and Red series. But the best part is, they still sound GREAT! 99% of the time, you get what you pay for so no big deal anyways. A GREAT Prosumer piece of gear. Highly recommend. Sound great on drums. And I've got to confirm - the Dynamics are a bit stange... Still a good buy.

  Great sound, tasty dynamics 
by Morton from Mannheim, Germany, November 2007
Music Background:  Studio musician and producer

I can only confirm, what´s been written so far.
Great preamps, nice look -
but - as stated before - a very strange dynamics´ philosophy by Focusrite. I really wonder at these "testers" finding the dynamic section of the octopre that good. Even with little (say 1/3)compression you will find your acoustic gitar sound deteriorated (especially with chords). Do I own one of the first test versions, or how is that possible?
Result: I never use the dynamics
but am still happy with the pres.
Gonna buy me the ADAT option which can be used with the analogue outs simultaneously. Great for recording AND monitoring.

  awesome pre. awesome price 
by Joey from chicago IL., May 2007
Music Background:  piano player. project studio owner

i just purchased this pre weeks ago and used it on drums. it sounded great. useing neuman km184s for overheads and audix drum mics, ran kick through a avalon m5. great warm sound not harsh like the digimax. only use a little of the compressor/limiter to prevent peaking or turn compressor off. 125 bucks a channel for class A, you cant beat that

  Pleasantly surprised 
by Kurt from Texas, January 2007
Music Background:  Engineer/Musician

I have not used VERY high-quality pres, but compared to Mackie, Presonus, and M-audio, I think these sound cleaner and generally better. I suspect the frequency response is better with these because the other "prosumer" grade pres just lack high end to me. The compressor control is unique on these, if you just barely switch it on it will provide limiting to protect you from overs. If you turn it up much more than that they're not terribly good-sounding compressors. However, for my mobile setup the limiting is exctly what I wanted. I found this box to be a step up from all pres I had used previously, and I think they also sound better than the pres on the focusrite saffire pro 26 which I recently started using.

Perfect DAW Front-End 
by Tom Pollock (Pine Ridge Studio) from Lopez Island, WA, July 2004

I bought one of these along with the Multiple I/O (digital) option to use as a front end into my Digi 002R for live applications. I go into the OctoPre and out to the 002R's optical in via lightpipe. This unit is perfect! A couple nights ago I had to record without a sound check, and I had my levels set 1/2 way through the first song. The controls on the OctoPre are very simple and intuitive. But I've also ended up using this as a clean set of pres into my Pro Tools TDM system in my studio! An unexpected benefit, and I have happier clients. I can't find anything this good anywhere near the price.

Great Pre's/Horrible Dynamics 
by Mike Straus from Hartford, CT, July 2004

I borrowed a friends Octopre for a live Jazz session i was recording, he warned me not to use the compressor/limiter. .The gig was going great, but during the last song, which was more of a fusion piece then a typical jazz tune, the drummer really started hitting hard, It was clipping big time, so instead of turning down the gain, which would've created an audible dip, I eased in the compression, when i went to mix it, it sounded horrible, I've heard compressors "breathe", but this sounded like it was having an asthma attack. the compression has one knob, which i'm guessing is the threshold. the pre's sounded really great, I compared it to some tracks I did a while ago with Millenia Pre's and these defintly hold their own against the $500 a channel Millenia's. overall its a great box thats worth the money...but just pretend that the compression isn't even there....

Wow! 
by Kirk Fischer from Temple, Texas, April 2004

This thing sounds GREAT. Very warm and clear. I bought the digital I/O card and pump it into my FW-1884. It couldn't be easier to use or sound better without spending 5 times the price.


I was really concerned that for basically 125 per channel I'd get cheesy pre's... not the case. Class A stuff.


Highly recommended.

Incredible Pre's 
by John Gogan from Jacksonville, NC, January 2004

I recieved this gear last night along with the ADAT Option card to run with my Digi 002R. The card installation was a snap following the clear instructions included. I plugged it up with the optical cable to the digi and was tracking in minutes. It has great sounding pre's and 8 of them at that. A nice touch is the high pass filter and compression on the face plate. I have had no problems using this gear, it opened my Digi002R to 18 track input capability. Definitely worth the $$$$. Great job on this piece.

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