As both staff and a freelance producer/engineer at leading New York City studios like The Hit Factory and Quad Recording in the 1990s, Chris Curran has accrued credits on recordings for artists such as Foreigner, Ice Cube, Jeff Buckley, Philip Bailey, and many others. Curran discovered a passion for podcasting several years ago, and as a podcaster and educator, he has brought that deep knowledge and technical understanding to the podcasting world.
After relocating to Colorado Springs in 2015, he decided to exchange ideas with the proliferating base of podcasters through his Podcast Engineering School, disseminating practical audio understanding through live interactive online training and mentoring from his studio, Fractal Recording. And one constant piece of the podcast puzzle for Curran throughout his podcast career has been Focusrite’s Scarlett USB audio interfaces.
“I discovered Focusrite microphone preamps when I was still an assistant engineer, working my way up,” Curran said. “When the Scarlett range became available, I knew that’s what I wanted to use, because it’s Focusrite, which automatically means it sounds great.” He’s used several of the Scarlett models, including the first-gen 8i6, and second-gen 18i20 and 2i2 (of which he has four) units he currently works with, along with a Focusrite Red 3 dual compressor/limiter. But he said that the Scarlett 2i2 is the unit best suited to the broadest range of podcasters. “It’s small, it’s affordable, and it has two microphone inputs, which is exactly what the vast majority of podcasters need,” he said. “And you know you’ll have great sound right from the start, because of the audio quality that Focusrite brings to it.”
Curran also praised the simplicity of design and operation of the entire Scarlett range, which enables podcasters to get good sound out of the box, allowing them to focus on their content. “When I started podcasting, I’d see other podcasters sticking a microphone on a table between four people and just going for it, so I knew there was a need for education around how to get the best sound for podcasting. With the Scarlett 2i2, they can spend more time on the podcast itself, knowing that Focusrite is helping them get good sound quality. It has the basic functionality they need, and with those Focusrite mic pres, the sound they want, at a price they can afford. It’s solid and reliable. There are other interfaces out there, but Focusrite did it right.”
