Production expert Gil Gowing has added a Focusrite Red 8Pre 64-In/64-Out Thunderbolt 2 and Pro Tools|HD compatible audio interface to his studio’s hardware, as well as making the decision to include a number of RedNet components in his infrastructure.

In February of this year Gowing started his own consulting and training firm, Digimidi Technical Services, after spending two decades helping audio professionals navigate complex workflows and incorporate the latest technology in their creative process.

For one of his central Florida-based studio’s computers, he also purchased a Focusrite RedNet PCIeR Card, which offers up to 128 channels of Dante I/O via a Gigabit Ethernet port. The interfaces joined RedNet AM2 stereo audio monitoring units already in use.

Gowing got involved in music production in the early ‘80s as a guitar and bass player at the advent of MIDI and digital recording. Since then, he has watched the industry embrace and move toward audio-over-IP.

“Cutting-edge technologies really interest me, and I saw the value early on in what Dante can do for modern recording studios, no matter how big or small,” he remarked. “The first thing that got me into the Focusrite RedNet arena was looking for a satellite monitor headphone solution for my studio. I do consulting and training for the end users, and I’m also doing consulting, training and media asset creation for industry companies that lack the internal infrastructure to handle those tasks on their own.

“Once I got into the AM2,” Gowing continued, “I started exploring some of the other Focusrite RedNet devices. I have multiple computers in my studio to test different scenarios to make sure I’m up on all the latest technologies, so I was looking for a very versatile interface to allow me to not only hook up to an existing Avid based card system like HD Native, HD Native Thunderbolt or HDX, but to be able to use it in another scenario where I could connect it straight to a computer via Thunderbolt and just use it as a core audio or ASIO type interface. The only thing that fit that bill was the Red 8Pre.”

Sonically, Gowing noted, the Red 8Pre has a lineage tracing back to the original Focusrite Red range, which he and his former Digidesign colleagues were intimate with, as Digidesign was the North American distributor of Focusrite products for a number of years.

“The Red 8Pre sounds absolutely amazing, and, in my opinion, it and the Red 4Pre are the most versatile interfaces on the market,” said Gowing. “With the Red 8Pre’s Thunderbolt and/or DigiLink compatibility, you have the choice between two low-latency connection protocols. It can integrate into the most complex systems that you want and work seamlessly. It’s killer. You can change scenarios at the drop of a hat.”

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