Sound vs. cosmetics

The late, lamented, and oft-maligned Green series deserves special notice. The Green mic pres used a Class A transformerless design (new for Focusrite at the time, and very different from the ISA line), but the compressor and EQ sections are essentially the same as those of the legendary ISA series. Predictably, in my opinion (and those of various reviewers, including Sound On Sound) they sound fantastic.

They were about half the price of their big brothers, the Red series. This was still fairly expensive; adjusted for inflation to 2009 dollars, the channel strip’s MSRP would be over $2k. Even so, they were somewhat disruptive in their affordability, causing people to question whether they were truly “professional.” As someone who works for an audio manufacturer, I thought it was clear that the savings came from the absence of transformers, use of more modern and economical manufacturing techniques such as surface-mount components, and less bling-oriented cosmetics (the Red line features gorgeous metalwork, which I would guess adds substantially to the cost).

Perhaps because of the Red’s metalwork, the Green series was also designed to be attention-grabbing. This succeeded, but probably not in the way that the company had intended. Some say that they look like miniature golf courses; I’ve always thought that they look like the fake rocks from old movie sets.

Cosmetics don’t pass audio, and you can’t hear a faceplate on a finished song. So, none of this should matter to a professional engineer. However, research has shown that people can be quite poor at distinguishing the subjective judgements of their various senses. Brandy in a nicer-looking bottle is described as “tasting” better. Similarly, I think that good-looking gear may be perceived as “sounding” better, if you’re looking at it in the studio.

I first encountered the Green series in a channel strip and mic-pre shootout. I had bought a very expensive high-end channel strip, but was unhappy with it; a very experienced engineer friend had confirmed that it just didn’t seem to sound that great, at least on my voice. So, my brother and I did a shootout between that high-end piece, his Green 5, and one of his vintage Neves. At first, even knowing what we did about the confusion of the senses described above, it was impossible to consider the Green 5 as the equal to the others; it just looked like a cheap toy in comparison. So, we recorded the results and judged them blind from the playback.

We only tested lead vocals through my favorite vocal mic, the Manley Reference Cardioid. For the preamps alone, the Neve came in first, but the Green 5 was only slightly behind – and the high-end piece came in last. The Green 5’s compressor really blew us away, though; it was stunningly transparent. So, I sold the high-end piece, bought two Green 5s, and had plenty of cash left over.

Whenever I read someone on a forum dissing the Green series, I think of this and sigh. At least it means that they’re very affordable now!