Spoke to Focusrite U.S. sales rep this week. He thought it might be available by March. I asked for the "price point", but he was unsure--at first he mentioned $600, which was confusing, to say the least. He was "sure" it would be under $1000...we'll have to see.

Having said (or written) that, the Foucusrite isn't neccesarily "better" than the Digimax, at least when it comes to the pres in the Platinum series. I've used the Digimax for live recording, and particulary for drum recording in various friends home studios, and it does a nice job with this. The limiting is musical and useful, and the A-D via ADAT is fine. Can you spend more and get better conversion or pres? Absolutely. But the Digimax is a nice tool, and props to them for getting it to market first.
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Thanks Jamie. Well, I hope the Octopre is really under $1K. That would be my choice. Presonus has the Digimax LT out, without the limiters for something around $700/800. I don't know why but I'll be more inclined to the Octopre instead of the Digimax... I've used some Red stuff and I was amazed (I know, I know, Platinum is NOT Red!!!). Because of that I have a very good impression about Focusrite gear. And I have nothing about Presonus. How do you like the pres on the Digimax? Clean or colored? Do you think the limiters are a must to the Digimax? Thanks!

Clean and uncolored; neutral. But much better than I'd anticipated. They would not be my first choice for critical vocals or "character" tracks..

Mine does double duty. I have it in a four space rack with an Alesis HD-24, which I take out and about to record at various friend's houses. Returning home I use it as an A-D front end for the RME 9652 card in my PC, on which I run Nuendo.
The A-D to my ears, is excellent. Can't afford a head to head comparison to Apogees, though!

The limiters, for me, are crucial, especially for drums. They thicken up nicely if I'm looking for that effect, but mostly they give me security. I never run more than four mics on the drums, and usually three, but the protection is great if the drummer becomes too enthusiastic.

8 pres in a box with limiters lets me record band/rhythm section basics, then import at home and play with the resulting mess to my heart's content. It was a good investment for the way I work.

If this box is really going to come in under $1000 then it might be a real sleeper. I owned a Voicemaster a while back; I was glad to sell it, and I've trashed it in a couple of forums, but only because I found the extra processing in it pretty useless and $500 is too much to pay for a single-channel preamp of that quality. The pre by itself, though, sounded half-decent--audibly better than my pre-XDR Mackies, though not a *ton* better.

A Digimax-type 8-channel box based on that pre for under $1000 sounds like a pretty good deal.

Brian, you think 8ch of platinum pres w/ limitin worth up to $1K...

Brian, you think 8ch of platinum pres w/ limitin worth up to $1K...

I think at around $100 per channel, with limiting and A/D, it's a pretty good deal. It was a P.T. Barnum deal at $500 per channel (and I can say that since I was one of the suckers).

It seems like it might be a good option for someone who already has a few higher-end pres and needs some "utility" channels to cover the needs of larger sessions, but who doesn't have a console or doesn't want to use their console pres for some reason. If you already have enough preamp channels and you want to upgrade some of them, though, you'd probably be better off going for "fewer & better."

I have a Tascam 2524 and I guess those pres on the Octo will be better than my onboard ones :confused:

Octopre: Is it really gonna be under $1K ? Maybe it's the version without digital outputs. I think digiouts (AES/SPDIF/ADAT) are optional, so final price could be much more. I hope not.