Operation Manual

5
The Clarett Mixer – basic principles
Your Clarett interface contains an internal audio mixer which allows you to create one or more mixes
of the various audio sources in your system, and send them to the physical outputs of your interface.
These sources include tracks that you have recorded on your DAW as well as the sources connected
to the Clarett’s various physical inputs. Before starting to use Focusrite Control, it is a good idea to
gain an understanding of the basic principle of this mixer.
The basic idea of an audio mixer will be familiar to most users: a large number of input signals
are combined to a smaller number of outputs – often just a stereo pair. On a traditional analogue
hardware mixer, you will find a number of identical input channels in the form of vertical strips with
faders and other controls, and switches on each channel let you decide where its signal is sent. This
is called “routing”.
The mixer in your Clarett is no different – its inputs are the various physical inputs on the interface
itself, plus DAW tracks that you may have already recorded. The outputs are the interface’s various
physical outputs plus two “loopback” outputs which feed back into the DAW. The diagram below
shows this principle using the Clarett 8Pre as an example:
MON 1 & 2
LINE 3-10 S/PDIF 1 & 2 ADAT 1-8 LOOP 1 & 2
VIRTUAL MIX BUSES
Any combination of inputs
can be mixed together and
the sum routed to any of the
mix buses.
Maximum simultaneous
mixing capacity:
30 inputs to
16 outputs
CLARETT 8PRE
INTERNAL MIXER
RECORDING
INPUTS TO DAW
Thunderbolt™
interface
Thunderbolt™
interface
Thunderbolt
™
interface
Monitor outputs
DAW loopback
S/PDIF outputs
Line outputs
ADAT outputs
Analogue inputs 1-8
DAW tracks
S/PDIF inputs
ADAT inputs
Focusrite Control provides a visual representation of the mixer on your screen. A big advantage of
Focusrite Control is that it only displays the inputs you actually want to use.