FOCUSRITE FORTE REVIEW

You can read more reviews like this, listen to Tony’s productions, purchase synth patches and more at his personal site -> Tony Long Music.

FOCUSRITE FORTE - INTRODUCTION

I am sure that my first thoughts when looking at the new Focusrite Forte are the same as everyone else's, in that it looks like Focusrite have taken Apogee's Duet 2 interface and improved it somewhat.

If you are wondering what the Forte is, it is a 2-in/4-out 24 bit/196 kHz USB 2.0 audio interface for Mac or PC (try saying that when you're drunk)! It has two high quality remote-controlled mic preamps, which amazingly are the same mic preamps that feature in Focusrite's top-flight RedNet range, so this is certainly something to get excited about. The Forte also has the highest-quality precision 24-bit A-D and D-A converters - sounds good so far.

Focusrite, with their wealth of experience in this field, believe that this is their 'forte' and so they have designed a very compact high quality audio interface for audio professionals to provide them with the best possible signal path into and from a DAW. I wonder how much better this sounds in relation to my existing audio interface and whether it could convince me to change to it. I certainly think that this looks the ideal solution for laptop users and for musicians on the move.

FOCUSRITE FORTE - NEAT PACKAGING

The Focusrite Forte is neatly packaged to protect it during transit. It has a real quality air about it, which fills me with confidence as I take it out of the box. In fact, it reminds me of unpacking an iPad except that the lid is lined with dense foam. The Forte is tightly packed in a close-fitting polythene bag and supported centrally. Its size is 116 mm wide, 170 mm deep and just 36 mm high and it only weighs 487g, being only slightly larger than the Duet 2.

The Forte has a very solid, smart polished aluminium case with non-slip strips on the base. It comes with a small 'Getting Started' guide, a one meter USB cable, a 5V DC Power Supply Mains Adaptor and an input loom to make your connections with two female XLR sockets for microphone inputs and two standard jack sockets for line or instrument inputs. Interestingly, the balanced line and headphone outputs are located on the Forte so the input loom is not needed when you are just playing back. The included external power supply is only necessary when you are singing and require Phantom Power for your mic, else the Forte runs on USB bus power.

There is no software enclosed with the Forte as you have to download this from the Focusrite website before you can start using your product. I downloaded two files with no fuss, one called 'Forte Control 1.0 exe' and the other called 'Midnight Plug-in Suite exe'. I usually like to have a CD or DVD for all my software but someone said to me the other day, 'how many times do you load the software only to find that the company has released an update?' So you end up having to download anyway! There is a download card in the box that explains how to access and download the Control Panel software and drivers using the product's serial number from the Focusrite website. It is great that you can also download the Focusrite Midnight Plug-in Suite because these plug-ins accurately model the classic ISA110 EQ and ISA130 compressor.

FOCUSRITE FORTE - GETTING CONNECTED

The small helpful manual states 'IMPORTANT: Before you connect Forte to your computer, please complete the software installation according to the instructions. This will ensure that the hardware uses the correct drivers and will prevent unexpected behaviour'. I clicked on the file 'focusrite-usb-2-driver-2.4', downloaded the driver and then connected the Forte via USB.

On your computer you are now able to run the Forte Control application. This is a piece of software designed to help you configure low-latency monitoring, mic pre levels and other features. It shows inputs on the left, outputs on the right and the Digital Monitor Mixer in the middle with options to select either 'Speaker Mix' or 'Headphone Mix'. If you click on the icons at the top of the input faders you can select the type of input for each channel.

It is good to know that you can get near zero latency with the Forte. This is due to the fact that it uses something called 'Direct Monitoring'. Focusrite say that this is because the Forte's inputs have their own channels in the two monitoring mixers and Forte Control will thus route your input signals directly to the headphone and main monitor outputs.

There is also a third tab, which mysteriously just displays a question mark. If you select it, it shows a very useful and clever flow diagram of your routing from Ins to Outs.

What I found also to be a useful addition is that you can Save and Load Presets. There is a facility to store all the mixer parameters as a preset anywhere on your PC or Mac and reload it at a later time and you can store as many presets as you wish. The operation is very simple in Windows: just click on 'File', 'Save As' and name your preset and it will save it with a *.forte file extension. On a Mac, just save as a snapshot file.

FOCUSRITE FORTE - CONTROLS

On the face of it, the Forte does not seem to have many controls, but it has a clever design that doesn't take long to become familiar with. The front panel basically has a large and very smooth moving dial and an OLED (Organic LED) screen with four touch controls. These four touch buttons control the functionality of the dial. It all looks very smart, professional and futuristic, especially as the OLED gives you moving graphics of your Input and Output signals.

If you touch the first control (the Input icon), you are immediately taken into Digital Metering Mode, which displays your input levels. If you press and hold the input icon, this will take you to the Input menu where you can select the type of input you need; Mic, Line or Instrument. Here you can also add Phantom Power if you need it. Just remember that if you add Phantom Power you will need to attach your mains cable to the Forte if you are only using USB power.

Pressing the next control (the Speaker icon) allows you to adjust the overall volume of your outputs. If you press and hold the Speaker icon you will access the Speaker menu where you can mute, dim, create a mono output or clear the meter and exit.

The third selection (the Headphone icon) works in the same way as the Speaker icon, giving you access to the same menus etc. Lastly, the forth selection (the Tracking icon) gives you DAW control, for example Play, Record, Forward, Rewind, Mouse and Zoom. If you press and hold the tracking icon you can determine precisely what you would like to control in your DAW.

As you would expect, if you are a DJ, the two separate outputs make it possible to monitor the cue mix on headphones via the headphone output while you simultaneously send the main mix from the speaker output to the PA, so the Forte isn't just a useful studio tool.

FOCUSRITE FORTE - PUTTING IT TO THE TEST

I recorded some drums with the Forte onto my DAW (Sonar X2) and all I can say is that it sounded just great! The drums sounded crisp and detailed and I have to admit it was better than my existing TC Studio Konnekt. The Forte supports the following sample rates: 44.1kHz / 48kHz / 88.2kHz / 96kHz / 176.4kHz / 192kHz. If you look on the Focusrite website, they have produced a list of real world specifications, which really highlight the quality of this product. They state that they only use strict AES17 standards to measure their audio performance specifications and if these mean something to you, they show key performance figures as follows:

When it comes to vocal recording - in a word, 'wow'! Maybe it is the excellent RedNet pre-amps but the results were very pleasing, perfectly recreating the unfortunate sound of my own voice. I felt that there was however, a slight degree of flattering, which I was more than pleased to have.

I did, some time ago, have a Saffire LE, which I thought was an outstanding product for the price. I particularly liked the software as Focusrite do make it very user-friendly for the tasks that you need to undertake. This is also very true of the Forte and Focusrite do carefully consider that you may well be the same person who has to do the recording, setup and carry out a vocal and/or instrument performance. You therefore need all the help you can get and the OLED and its touch controls are very helpful in this respect. What also surprised me is how good the playback sounds are, offering excellent high-fidelity.

FOCUSRITE FORTE - CONCLUSION

I found using the Forte was an interesting and very pleasant experience. It certainly has a professional quality about it and I would recommend this as a great solution for mobile recording. Its size and portability means that it will fit into any setup. If you take it on the road, possibly the only worrying aspect is potential damage to the breakout cable. I would therefore suggest you obtained a spare at the outset of your purchase if indeed you are planning on transporting it around a lot. The Forte itself is solid and very roadworthy.

When you play back music, you will certainly be aware of the high fidelity of the Forte - it sounds great. Their high-end RedNet preamps are also fantastic and offer an improvement on the already impressive preamps that you get with Focusrite's Saffire and Scarlett interfaces.

There are other alternatives to the Forte, such as the RME Babyface, the Apogee Duet 2 and the MOTU Track16, but personally, after my experience, I'm sold on the Forte!

For more information on the Focusrite Forte, click the links below or give us a call on 01202 597180.

Focusrite Forte - More Info/Buy

Focusrite Forte & Sontronics STC-20 Mic Bundle - SAVE £64!!! - More Info/Buy

](https://www.absolutemusic.co.uk/focusrite-forte-usb-audio-interface-and-sontronics-stc-20-microphone-pack.html)

******If you're interested in buying and you have seen it cheaper elsewhere, please call us or use our

As well as receiving our first rate customer service you can also claim money off your next purchase with our loyalty points scheme and receive a 3 year warranty if you sign up to our FREE VIP Club (click here for more infomation). Many of our items also come out on a FREE next-day delivery service to mainland UK customers, so you won't be left waiting!

Also, if you want to keep up with all our latest offers, competitions, news and videos, why not follow us on Facebook and Twitter?