I find Red-X is still a pretty good orange, rather than fire engine red.
My standard red uses high color crystal, dark Munich and a toasted malt. The red color comes from a little Carafe III. I get about 11 SRM from the specialty malts, then add the Carafe to get to 15 SRM. I want to minimize roast character, so I go with the darkest debittered malt I can get. One secret is to mill the carafe to almost a powder so that you need to use less to extract the same color.
Recently, I had a chance to update my recipe for the first time in a looong while. I switched from Thomas Fawcett 120 L to Simpson's Double Roast (115 L) and the flavor is amazing.
Baseline Recipe:
84% Pale Malt
5% TF 120 crystal
5% Munich 10 L (I like Briess Bonlander)
5% Briess Victory malt
1% Weyermann Carafe Special III
I find it is balanced at 30 - 35 IBU overall, with a generous whirlpool addition. American C hops.
Updated Red:
Same basic framework, but what a differnce ingredients can make!
84% Pale Malt
5% Simpson Double Roast Crystal (115 L)
5% Weyermann Munich (6 L)
5% Simpson Amber Malt (45 L)
1% Weyermann Carafe Special III
I used English EKG and Progress. Same IBU target.