In this test James Richmond introduces a Focusrite R1 monitor controller into his hardware-heavy Red series equipped studio and finds a lot to like about this configurable desktop monitor controller

For some time now I’ve been a fan of the Focusrite Red series interfaces, I first had a Red 8 Pre when it came out and then upgraded (side graded) to a Red 16 Line when I needed more analogue inputs. I’m my opinion the Focusrite Red series is one of the most fully featured Pro level audio interface series currently available, affording fairly large channel counts with a multitude of connectivity formats: Thunderbolt, Digilink, ADAT, S/PDIF and Dante all onboard. 

When I heard that Focusrite were making a dedicated Desktop Remote Controller, The Focusrite R1, I practically begged our esteemed editor to let me do this review. Fortunately, he agreed. I’ve been using the R1 for the last couple of weeks in my studio and prised myself away long enough to write this review of the unit. As my current focus is on stereo mixing only I will make that the focus of the review. One of our contributors, Graham Kirkman, has reviewed the R1 from a surround sound focus, those working in surround formats may wish to check out his review: 

The R1 is marketed primarily as a hardware monitor controller and headphone output device that is compatible with the Focusrite Red series interfaces (Red 4Pre, Red 8Pre, Red 8Line, Red 16Line). 

Physical Description

The unit is fairly compact, measuring 265mm (10.43") width x 135mm (5.31") depth x 58mm (2.28") height and weighing just over 1kg.  The front of the unit has two large TFT screens surrounded by 12 soft buttons each and 4 function buttons. A large alpha dial is on the right of the unit with separate mute/dim/preset buttons and the headphone output has its own pot and mute buttons.

The rear of the unit has a headphone output, talkback mic input, should you not want to use the inbuilt one, with a switch to select between internal, external or external with +48v phantom power. A foot-switch input, network port, 12v DC input and power switch round out the controls.

It ships with a power supply but as my studio has Power over Ethernet (PoE) throughout, and the device supports this standard, I simply plugged the R1 into my network switch and turned it on. I especially like that it has a physical switch too. One of my complaints about the Focusrite AM2 and X2P headphone monitor units is that you can’t turn them off at night without pulling out the network cable, which you then inevitably step on the next day. A physical switch on a PoE device of this type is very welcome indeed. More of this please Focusrite!

Configuration:

Initial configuration of the R1 is done using Focusrite’s Rednet Control application where you pair the R1 with your Red series interface and the R1 takes over the ‘Custom Mixes’ page of the interface.

The device’s two TFT screens are split into separate section for Input and Output.

The left Input screen has 12 soft buttons and 4 function buttons marked ‘Headphone’, ‘Sum’ ‘Spill’ and ‘Mode’.

By default the R1’s input section will control the sources being monitored off hardware to the currently active monitor profile. Selecting ‘Headphone’ will switch it to allow you to control which input sources are being monitored in the R1’s headphone output. I couldn’t find a way to have the headphone output follow the main monitor profile, so you just need to remember that any source sent to the monitors may not be sent to the headphone by default- they are essentially separate outputs. It might be helpful for a future version of Rednet Control to allow the headphone  output to follow the monitor output, for this of us who work primarily alone to not have to select/deselect different input sources when moving to headphones.

The ‘Sum’ allows you to sum those input sources. When Sum is deselected the R1 will switch input source monitoring, which can be helpful when, for example, you just want to head what is being monitored from the DAW (such as when you start recording.

The Spill button allows you to expand individual input sources giving you the ability to mute individual channels of a source.

The Mode button access a page where you can switch between Monitor/Mic Preamp/Setting pages. It is particularly useful to be able to control the interface’s microphone preamps. My own Red 16 Line sits in an equipment rack close to the computer on the other side of the studio, having hardware control once again is very welcome.

One additional feature is the Talkback capability of the R1, which affords four separate talkback destinations to be configured. Very helpful when tracking bands.Moving to the right side TFT, you have a similar arrangement of 12 soft buttons and 4 function buttons labelled Mute, Solo, Outputs and A/B.

Mute allows any currently selected output channels to be muted.

Solo either solos or un-solos individual speakers channels.

Outputs allows you to access the speaker output configuration menu where you can switch between different monitor groups.

A/B allows you to toggle between two predefined output configurations the most sensible would be between your two most used monitor configurations, in my instance this is for switching between my ATC and Kii Three main monitors.

In Use:

There is so much flexibility with the R1 that it has the potential to be many things to many people. It is so flexible that you can configure it quite freely for your own needs. My own use, primarily working alone, in stereo and with a lot of hardware synthesisers I set up the R1 to allow me to assign my most used devices directly to the monitors.

I am also currently using 4 pairs of stereo monitors so the output section was configured to give me individual monitor switching of those. Working with the R1 for the last few weeks has been a real joy. Typically, when using my Red series interface, I spend most of my time switching between my DAW and Rednet Control. 

This constant Command-Tabbing is a real workflow buzzkill but something I had accepted as I didn’t think there would be an easy way of taking the full capability of what can be done with Rednet Control and putting it into some sort of hardware controller. For Focusrite to have done so and done it so well speaks highly of their product design process.

The main issue I had over the last few weeks was more to do with the limited number of hardware inputs that can be sources simultaneously with the Red 16Line. 30 channels is not really enough when you have a large number of input sources. I understand those working with surround sound are likely to feel the pinch even more acutely. I’d love Focusrite to make a Red series interface where the full number of inputs could potentially be monitored at once. None of this is to do with the R1 though, which just gets on doing the job, and doing it so well. I’ve become very used to it over the last few weeks.

Conclusion:

The Focusrite R1 is an excellent device. Any drawbacks are more to do with a few limitations of the Red series, rather than with the product itself. If you are using a Red series interface and are currently not running out of hardware monitoring channels then I would urge you to check out the R1. It will make using your Red series interface much easier with far less window switching required to enable or disable hardware monitoring, control monitor outputs. The headphone amplifier sounds good and having on-device talkback is very welcome indeed. At a retail of around £749 it isn’t cheap but considering the level of configuration and capability on offer I’d argue that the value is there. Granted you could simply use the Red series interface itself, or Rednet Control to manage a lot of the same functionality but the great thing about a dedicated remote is you can position it where you want, separate from all your audio IO.

Pros:

• Comprehensive and capable monitor controller for Red series interfaces.

• Excellent level of control in a compact package.

• Dedicated headphone level pot is a nice touch.

Cons:

• None.