If you heard Podcast 31, you may recall our puzzlement at the decision by Focusrite to give their new USB2 interface the Forte name. I put a call into Simon Halstead who offered to explain their thinking.

We appreciate that Forte shares it’s name with the two desks we made in the 80s – clearly that’s not an accident. The new Forte is obviously a very different prospect but we were so pleased with the way it sounded that Phil Dudderidge (big boss) decided to give it the Forte moniker.

The fact is that at Focusrite we see a lot of interfaces but this one in particular got us all quite excited (everyone in the building wants one…) We also reasoned that it deserved to be Forte’s namesake because countless contemporary hits are recorded on compact audio interfaces, whereas in the 80s it would have been huge consoles. The rationale being that given Forte is the best USB 2.0 recording interface available, so we want it to represent the same values in the eyes (ears) of the audio world as the million dollar desks we made 25 years ago.

Thanks Simon, we’ve got one winging its way to us and we’ll be reviewing it shortly.