The Focusrite Platinum VoiceMaster Pro Review
The Focusrite Platinum VoiceMaster Pro is an interesting mix of good, great, bad, and weird.
It’s a channel strip with all of the standard functions (preamp, compressor, EQ), some less common but still normal features (expander, de-esser), and two strange but very fun sections (Vintage Harmonics and Tube Sound). Normally with a channel strip like this the standard functions would be the most important variables you’d consider when thinking about purchasing the unit. However, besides the compressor which I really enjoy, the rest of the average features are just that, average. But the unusual features make this strip something special and worth your consideration.
I’ll start with the compressor because that’s the part I use the most on this unit. I was worried about it at first because the attack and ratio are only switchable between two preset values, fast or slow attack and hard or soft ratio. I’m a control freak so lack of control makes me really nervous, but once I started using it my worries melted away. The soft ratio and fast attack is perfect for vocals, so you only have to focus on dialing in the threshold and release values, making it quick and easy to dial in for a tracking session. For percussive instruments where you want to emphasize the punch the slow attack works quite well, and the hard ratio is great if you want to really crush it. I almost always track vocals with this compressor, singing or voiceover, and I’ve had great success with it on bass and drums.
Now I’ll skim over the “meh” bits so we can get to the really fun parts. The preamp is fine, nothing to brag about. I didn’t notice much of a difference between it and the stock preamps on the Focusrite 18i20, which is a bit of a bummer for a channel strip, although the unit has a line input so you can use a different preamp and run the signal into the VoiceMaster for it’s other functions. It does have a phase flip and a high pass filter, which are nice touches but those can easily be handled by plugins in your DAW. And of course it has 48V phantom power for condenser mics. The expander and the de-esser are both a waste of space in my opinion. Neither sound very good, the functions can easily be handled by plugins without much a CPU drain, and it seems foolish to commit either of these functions to tape when you can always go back and tweek a plugin. I have similar feelings about the EQ section. The parameters are bizarre and tie your hands in weird ways (what EQ has a sweepable low end but a fixed midrange??), and it doesn’t even sound particularly good as far as EQ’s go.
Ok, now to the fun parts! The Vintage Harmonics section is an extremely powerful tool that can save dull, lifeless sound sources, or be used as a sound effect to spice up a track that just needs something extra special to stand out. The manual describes this module as an emulation of a tape-based trick from the 70’s involving the intentional misuse of Dolby noise reduction units to add a pleasing emphasis to the sound source. This section simplifies the process by skipping the need for tape or a Dolby unit, and gives you extra parameters to really dial in the sound. You have variable thresholds for the independently processed high and mid bands, a depth button that’s like a turbo boost for the effect, and a post-comp button that puts the Vintage Harmonics after the compressor, it’s worth hitting that button to see which you position works best for each case. Now this trick really boosts the high and mid ranges respectively, so it’s easy to overdo it. I’ve used it pretty aggressively on bass and drums that need help cutting through the mix, but it sounds pretty obvious on vocals so unless you want to hear that sound as an effect I would recommend setting up the vocal on two channels, one with the vintage harmonics and one without, so you can dial in the right amount of extra emphasis without it being over the top.
The Tube Sound section is also pretty nifty, especially for the cold, sterile nature of digital recording. How much it actually sounds like a tube is debatable, but I like how it sounds so I don’t really care how exact of an emulation it really is. The Cool/Warm knob adds more saturation the closer the knob gets to Warm. The Tone knob is actually a low pass filter before the saturation circuit. At the Bright position, all frequencies are affected by the saturation circuit. The closer the knob moves to the Mellow position, the more high frequencies become unaffected by the saturation. This can help tame harshness introduced by the saturation, which is a neat bonus that you don’t get from most real tube circuits.
In conclusion, I wouldn’t describe the VoiceMaster Pro as a great channel strip, but it is a great compressor and effects processor. Just know going in that you’re probably not going to use all of the features on it, which is fine, you can just leave those ones bypassed and they won’t degrade the signal. Focusrite does not make these anymore, but there are plenty of them floating around online for resale in the $200 price range, which is quite reasonable. It’s hard to find decent compressors in that price range, let alone whole channel strips. It looks pretty sleek in the rack too, which is a nice cherry on top of this overall worthwhile unit.