A preamp for George Martin.

Focusrite was founded by Rupert Neve, the engineer whose consoles had already made his name famous. His company’s own history says that “in 1985 Rupert and Evelyn Neve incorporated a new company called Focusrite Ltd,” which launched a range of rack-mounted equalisers, dynamics processors and microphone and line amplifiers.

The first commission came from the producer George Martin. Focusrite says Martin asked for a “no-compromise mic preamp,” and that the result was the ISA 110; English Wikipedia, citing a 2006 letter from Focusrite, describes the job as extensions to the custom Neve console at Martin’s AIR Montserrat studio in the Caribbean — a microphone preamplifier and an equaliser. Focusrite still builds its ISA preamps around the Lundahl LL1538 transformer it says was chosen in 1985.

Consoles followed, and nearly ended the company. Neve’s history says Focusrite Ltd took orders for eight large consoles, the Forte; the audio design was finished, but the digital control system ran late, and “the company ran out of time and money that resulted in liquidation in January 1989.” The group’s own timeline also says only eight of these consoles were made.

The same Neve history adds a line worth keeping: “Rupert has never designed products for Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd,” the company that bought the business. The ISA 110 and the early outboard range are Neve-era designs; almost everything sold under the name since 1989 is not.

Phil Dudderidge rebuilds the business.

The buyer was Phil Dudderidge. His biography on the group’s website says he started as Led Zeppelin’s touring soundman in 1970, set up a PA business in 1971 that grew into Soundcraft, the console maker sold to Harman in 1988, and in 1989 “acquired the assets of Focusrite Ltd. and rebuilt the business as Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd.” English Wikipedia dates the purchase to April 1989. He was chief executive from 1989 to 2012, then executive chairman, and non-executive chairman from January 2022; in August 2026 he stood down as chairman but stayed on the board as a non-executive director, the website says. He was appointed OBE in the 2024 New Year Honours, according to the London Gazette.

The new owner kept the Neve circuits working. Focusrite says it introduced the Studio Console in 1990, built around the ISA 110 and ISA 130 circuits, and that “just ten consoles were ever made.” In 1993 came the Red Range, analogue processors the company describes as known for their “bright red design” — the colour that has stayed with the brand.

Growth came from cheaper products. Focusrite bought the synthesiser and controller maker Novation in 2004; Novation’s Launchpad controller followed in 2009. In 2012 the company launched the first Scarlett 2i2, the small red USB interface it calls “a revolution in the at-home recording studio movement.” The Scarlett line reached a fourth generation in 2023.

On 12 December 2014 the group floated on London’s AIM market as Focusrite plc. Tim Carroll, a former Avid vice-president, became chief executive in January 2017, and Ian Barkshire, a former chief executive of Oxford Instruments, became chairman after the August 2026 annual meeting.

Design and documentation.

The makers in this guide build the equipment that turns sound into numbers and back again — analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, clocks, and the audio interfaces that connect microphones to computers. Their reputations were made in recording and mastering studios, and several now also sell to home musicians.

They are spread across Europe and the United States. Weiss Engineering is in Uster, near Zurich, according to its website. Prism Sound says it has been based since 2008 in the former SADiE building at Stretham, Cambridgeshire, after buying that company. Antelope Audio is the trading name of Elektrosfera Ltd. of Sofia, Bulgaria, according to its privacy policy.

In the United States, Benchmark Media Systems ships its orders from what it calls its factory in Syracuse, New York; Lynx Studio Technology gives its address as Costa Mesa, California; and Universal Audio is based in Scotts Valley, California, according to the companies’ websites.

Ownership varies more than location. Focusrite, of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, is the only listed company here: shares in its parent, Focusrite plc, trade on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market, and the group also owns brands including Novation and ADAM Audio, according to Wikipedia. Universal Audio is privately held, Wikipedia says. Prism Sound’s studio business has operated since 2019 under Audio Squadron, alongside Tracktion and SADiE, while the original 1987 company is controlled by its founders’ firm, Companies House shows. For Weiss, Benchmark, Lynx and Antelope we found no parent company in the sources we checked.

This guide sets out what can be checked about each brand — who founded it, who owns it, and what it says about where its products are made — and marks clearly what rests only on the company’s own word.

From one brand to a group of eleven.

Since the flotation Focusrite has bought brands quickly. The group’s timeline lists ADAM Audio, the Berlin monitor maker, in July 2019; Martin Audio, the High Wycombe live-sound loudspeaker maker, in December 2019; the launch of Optimal Audio in 2021; Sequential, the American synthesiser maker led by Dave Smith, in April 2021; Linea Research of Letchworth in March 2022, for £12.6 million according to The Business Magazine; the rights to the Oberheim name in April 2022; the Oxford plug-in maker Sonnox in December 2022, which the company says took it to eleven brands; OutBoard Electronics, maker of TiMax, in December 2023; and Innovate Audio in 2024. In 2025 it folded Focusrite Pro and Ampify back into the Focusrite and Novation brands.

The group is still based in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Its annual report for the eighteen months to 28 February 2026 gives revenue of £245.5 million for the period, with about a third of sales in the United States. On manufacturing it is direct: “Over 70% of the Group’s products are made through long-standing relationships with contract manufacturers in China, Malaysia and the US,” while its own sites in the UK and Germany make ADAM Audio, Martin Audio and Linea Research products. The report does not break that out brand by brand, so we do not say where any one Focusrite interface is made. The company lists Queen’s and King’s Awards for innovation and international trade among its prizes.

There is a naming trap: focusrite.com is the interface brand, while focusriteplc.com is the listed group that also owns Novation, ADAM Audio and the rest.

For a design guide, Focusrite shows how one colour — the red of the 1993 Red Range and the Scarlett interfaces — can carry a brand from studio racks to bedroom desks. Compare Novation and ADAM Audio, two of its sister brands. For this guide we use red, black and aluminium grey with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Focusrite’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.