Focusrite ISA One Analog

This is the difference in a project sound and a pro sound... seriously. Mics I have used for 20 years have totally new life. Not because they sound totally different, but because they sound perfectly right, sitting snugly in the mix like my cat on a pile of clean laundry. There is a reason the circuitry here changed the recording field forever. If you're not quite ready to buy this, it should only be because you're saving up for two of them!
I learned a lot after buying this unit. One thing is that besides monitors, a preamp is the most important buy one can make for a home studio. This amp is not one to color your sound with any character. What I found is that it is crystal clear. I was able to change the sounds of my recording by changing mics, adjusting mic positions, etc, to get the sound I wanted. It picks up the full spectrum of sound that is fed into it and leaves you with plenty of room to eq what you don't want. . My recordings were immediatley improved and I can now hear the individual tracks more clearly and more pronounced.. The impedance matching feature is an amazing feature that will get the best sound out of your mic. Spend your money where it counts. This is an amazing preamp and you won't regret buying it

I recently decided it was time to upgrade from the built in preamps in my Focusrite Sapphire to a 'real' external preamp. My budget was about 600 EUR. Afer a LOT of online research, I narrowed my options down to 6 preamps, in roughly the same price range. The preamps were:


ART Pro MPA II
Warm Audio TB12 Tone Beast
Black Lion Audio B173 Preamp
FMR Audio RNP 8380
Warm Audio WA73
Focusrite ISA One Analog

As I will be using the preamp mostly for vocals and bass, I tested both those signals.
I plugged my Ibanez 600 in passive mode into my BSS DI, into the preamp. For vocals, I hooked up my SM7B straight into the preamp, into Logic X. The results:


The Focusrite ISA One is the biggest preamp out of the bunch, and built like a tank. Sound wise, it is the most clear pre out of the six. Compared to the built in preamps in the Sapphire, there is definitely more clean gain, with the base character of the tone remaining mostly unchanged. The tone shaping options are more than decent, and there is a lot of I/O. In the end, the ISA One didn't make the cut because it felt too clean, and not big enough of a palpatable difference with the Saphhire.

Great sounding unit. Love the separate DI. I use them for Kicks, Snares, Vocals and Guitars. Bass Di'd sounds great through these. Best to drive a little into the red for snares and hot is best for rock vocals too. Without the gain cranked they are super clean which makes them great all-rounders. While I love the science lab looking design they aren't the easiest to stack or find the right spot on the desk. They are rather a long unit and the feet could be taller so you could more easily stack numerous ones on top of each other. I bought 4 rubber doorstops fro a hardware store which conveniently made the feet long enough to stack them :)

Back in the mid-1980s, Sir George Martin commissioned console design legend Rupert Neve to build a series of new, ‘no compromise’ console modules for AIR studios. They were an enormous hit and formed the basis of the Focusrite Studio Console, widely regarded as the best-sounding analogue recording console of all time. Today, the descendants of those modules are used in leading studios around the world, and their sought-after Focusrite Heritage Sound lies behind thousands of hit records. Today’s ISA Range from Focusrite puts the classic sound of Focusrite into your own studio or live performance.

I borrowed these lines above from the official history of this product from Focusrite. I couldn't write it better my self. This "box" has to offer a lot of horsepower in those gain knobs. It's cabability of mixing the mic and the instrument input with a crystal clean headphone amp make this device a real asset ready confront repectivly greater beasts of its league.