To produce six different Focusrite quality functions for just £379 is quite an achievement. Of course, you're not getting the same circuitry as you find in the Focusrite Red range, or even their Green range — that would be financially impossible. But the Focusrite engineers have shown that it's possible to take carefully chosen standard components and incorporate them into well‑designed circuits in such as way as to produce results that are several cuts above the ordinary.

The Platinum range is aimed at musicians. Focusrite describe the units as "results orientated", which is why the EQ controls are named after their effect rather than their place in the audio spectrum. Similarly, the artificial warmth generating circuitry would be quite out of place in a high‑end professional mic preamp, but for the musician who wants more control over the results, it's a great idea.

Not only does the unit have a quiet, transparent and very classy sound (if that's what you set it to do), it also behaves very smoothly and predictably, which is worth a lot to the recording musician. For example, the expander is about as smooth as I've ever heard — you just set the threshold, then increase the depth until the low‑level signal has been attenuated to an acceptable degree. Similarly, the de‑esser manages to make a significant improvement to vocals afflicted with over‑pronounced 'S' and 'T' sounds. If you push it hard, you can just about hear it working, but you really have to work hard to spoil a sound with the VoiceMaster unit. I also found the de‑esser good for removing sibilants over‑emphasised by the various enhancement and EQ options provided by the unit. Switching in either the saturator or de‑esser with their controls set for minimum effect causes a very slight level rise, which sometimes makes it difficult to judge exactly what effect you're getting, as louder signals always sound more impressive. It pays to be aware of this.

Like the compressor in the ToneFactory I reviewed last month, this one is flexible enough for most jobs yet very easy to use. Both the mic amp and compressor have an open, transparent sound, though the compressor starts to become more obvious if much more than 10dB to 12dB of gain reduction is applied. The equaliser is quite ingenious in that it gives you control over the key areas of the human voice without you having to know much about EQ. I was particularly impressed with the Warmth and Breath controls. Where corners have been cut, it's been at the expense of in‑depth parameter twiddling or metering rather than sound quality. The VoiceMaster provides the tools to create a pure vocal or a creatively enhanced one. I think the only problem Focusrite are going to have is making enough of the things!