Focusrite
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| Industry | Electronics, Professional Audio |
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| Founded | 1985 |
| Founder | Rupert Neve |
| Headquarters | Windsor House, Turnpike Rd, Cressex Business Park, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England |
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Key people
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Phil Dudderidge |
| Website | www.focusrite.com |
Focusrite plc (formerly Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd.) is an English audio equipment manufacturer based in High Wycombe, England. Focusrite designs and markets audio interfaces, microphone preamps, consoles, analogue EQs and Channel strips, and digital audio processing hardware and software. Many, but not all, Focusrite products are manufactured for the company in China.
Founded in 1985 by Rupert Neve, Focusrite's first contracts included a commission from Sir George Martin to build extensions to Air studios' custom Neve consoles, initially the vintage recording console in Martin's Air Montserrat studio in the Caribbean – specifically a no-compromise microphone preamplifier and equaliser.
The resulting module, named the Input Signal Amplifier (ISA) 110, consisted of a transformer-coupled microphone preamplifier, 4-band equaliser and high- and low-pass filters. The initial modules were delivered to Air Montserrat in 1987 and were very well received – as a result, Air London ordered several the following year. The ISA 110 was subsequently sold as an outboard system. The ISA130 was added to the range in 1988, a single-channel Comp/Limiter, De-Esser and Expander/Gate developed by Rupert Neve and Trevor Stride.
Focusrite decided to use these designs as the basis of a complete recording console, and the Focusrite Forte console was developed as a result in 1988. The concept was simply to produce the highest-quality recording console available at the time, regardless of cost. The prohibitively expensive design limited the production to just two units, however, after which Focusrite fell into financial difficulties. One console was delivered to Master Rock studios in London and the other to Electric Lady in New York, remaining in use for many years. The original Focusrite logo with its musically inspired italic “ff” is actually that of the console, standing for “Focusrite Forte” (as well as the musical term “fortissimo”, or "very loud").
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