The Focusrite Trackmaster has a preamp, mid scoop EQ and compressor along with the usual associated connectivity options and a slot for an A/D converter. The Tampa has a preamp, optical compressor, analog and digital outs and boasts M-Audio’s proprietary “Temporal Harmonic Alignment” technology, which is supposed to make it sound like or better than a tube preamp. For this review, I recorded male and female vocals, bass, electric guitar and electric acoustic.

"Temporal Harmonic Alignment" anyone?

Vocals

The Focusrite is relatively clean, but nothing special by any means. Of course, you get what you pay for, but I was hoping for better clarity. The EQ is worthless on vocal applications but the compressor is decent. Overall, nothing to write home about but superior to most budget interface preamps.

The Tampa is a little dark, but gives vocals a nice touch that sounds unique. I can’t quite place it, but what it does for voices is not at all bad. For female vocals especially (and granted, that will change from vocalist to vocalist), it added a sultry sheen to the track.The compressor is quite nice and easy to manage. It sounds like a better compressor than what I expected with this unit and no pumping was audible until we pushed it far beyond the limits necessary for our purposes.

Advantage: Tampa

Bass

The bass recordings surprised me a lot. Both units performed admirably well on DI’d bass tracks. Both were warm and punchy and in my opinion, would stack up nicely to just about anything out there. Then again, direct recording bass isn’t the hardest thing in the world. While the Tampa was again unique in its effect on sound, I have to give this one to the Focusrite. Though its EQ is just a one know mid scoop, tweaking it helped with getting a better variety of sounds.

Advantage: Trackmaster

The faint knob I tried to get a close-up of in the middle is the entire EQ section of the Focusrite Trakmaster Platinum Pro

Electric Guitar

Hmmm…how best to describe either of these units on this application…I think “ho hum” sums it up best. Neither floated my boat, but the “Temporal Harmonic Alignment” on the Tampa made for too much mud. The Focusrite wasn’t much better, but passable as it was discernably cleaner. Either would be fine as part of layered guitar sound recorded through multiple preamps, but the problems would be compunded on a layered track with either unit alone.

Advantage: Trackmaster

Acoustic Electric Guitar

Hands down, the Tampa was far better sounding on acoustic electric. The high end notes were less shrill and the mids and lows were much deeper. Because of its far superior compressor, the Tampa was able to give me very useable sounds that I wouldn’t hesitate to put on a track for a client. The Focusrite made the guitar sound like fingers on a chalkboard and the EQ didn’t help matters a whole lot.

Advantage: Tampa

So, what can we learn from all this? Both units (as is the case with any gear) have their strengths and weaknesses. I think the Tampa is a better value overall despite being 25% higher, but between the two, you could make a nice demo that would pass muster. The biggest difference was on vocals, where the Tampa shined quite well. Preamps such as these are entry level, but they can serve a purpose in the studio depending on what's being recorded and how prevalent those tracks will be in the final mix.