Focusrite Red 1 (1993–)

Little is documented about the Focusrite Red 1 as a standalone product. The name has been applied to more than one thing, and the record mixes them up. What survives in the period press is the Red Range as a family - the Red 1, Red 2, and Red 3 arriving together in late 1993 as Focusrite's designer outboard line, finished in the anodised aluminium that gave the range its name.

Studio-Sound (August 1993, p.27) called the Red range "designer outboard" with a lustrous anodised aluminium finish and integral power supplies. It noted that the main difference between the two ranges came down to manufacturing process - the red units were assembled using more modern methods. In October, Studio-Sound (October 1993, p.35) announced the Red 3 as the newest addition, the "ultimate limiter/compressor," and invited readers to check out the Red 1 and Red 2 alongside it. That same issue's advertising copy was Focusrite's own, not editorial. It positioned the family as classic Focusrite analogue design.

What the Red 1 itself did is where the trail goes cold. The surviving manual excerpts attributed to the Red 1 describe a substantial equaliser, not a preamp. It has a lift/cut control with ±18 dB of range, reducible to ±9 dB. A "Glow" mode reshapes the EQ curve for warmth without altering character. An "All EQ in" master bypass requires the MIDS IN and LF & HF IN switches to be engaged for any band to operate. The low-frequency section switches between bell and shelf. The low-mid band has a Q control sweeping from 0.65 to 2, plus a notch mode that turns the LMF section into a band-stop filter for removing narrow-band whistles. Whether that manual belongs to the original rackmount Red 1 or to a later namesake is not something the available sources resolve.

The name resurfaces in 2014, when Mix (2014, p.64) reviewed the Focusrite Red 1 500 Series Mic Pre, explicitly framed as the modern return of the mic preamp design and sound of the original Red Range line of 2U processors. That review references the original Red 1 Quad Mic-Pre, the Red 6 Mono Mic-Pre Equalizer, and the Red 7 Mono Mic-Pre & Dynamics. That suggests the original Red 1 was a four-channel rackmount preamp, not the EQ unit the manual excerpts describe. Barry Rudolph's review in the same issue (p.66) notes the 500-series unit's machined aluminium knob, recessed switches and VU meter seen through chamfered holes in the red anodised faceplate - a cosmetic lineage traced directly back to the 1993 range.

So the confirmed facts are a 1993 launch alongside the Red 2 and Red 3, anodised aluminium construction, an integral power supply, and a name that has since been reused at least once. The precise function, channel count, and specifications of the original Red 1 are not reliably documented in the sources available here. Anyone claiming otherwise is likely working from the 500-series module rather than the 1993 original.