So it’s funny I’m literally waiting to do a shoot out with an ISA vs a HA73 (and then buy the one I like) I wonder now if I’ll reject the HA73 haha. I currently have an Apogee Element 88 and a wa76 comp
Beyond its stellar sound, (thank you Lundhal 1538 XFO!) the ISA One is loaded with features that would make it a great buy even if the price was doubled; features that most of the expensive, iconic, or boutique preamps costing triple the price don’t have. It has LOADS of gain, (and with respect to the OP, his mention of 70db total gain is shy by 10db), by using the three different db ranges, and the +10db stepped increments in each range, the gain is 60db...but then there’s an ADDITIONAL +20db available using the variable trim, making the ISA’s total available gain a whopping 80db! This is more than enough gain for ribbons and low output dynamics - you’ll never need a cloudlifter or fethead with this pre. Yet with all this gain, the ISA is unbelievably quiet... no hiss, no circuitry noise, it’s virtually silent no matter how much you ramp up the gain. (Inserting late night tv commercial advertiser voice, LOL)... “But wait! That’s not all!” 🤣🤣 The ISA has four selectable impedance settings for the mic input (which can really make a difference with ribbon and dynamic mics), a 75hz HPF, and rear panel inserts for outboard processing (compressor, EQ, etc), which can be turned on/off with a front panel button, with another front panel button to set the insert path as either pre or post preamp. As if all that isn’t cool enough, the ISA has a separate DI channel for instruments (which has two impedance settings) and which can be used at the same time as the mic channel; rear panel pots for VU/LED meter calibration, and separate XLR and balanced 1/4” ins and outs for the mic and DI channels. There’s also a stereo mix input channel (with volume) for monitoring your DAW, and a headphone jack, allowing the monitoring of just the preamp if desired. There’s a slot for an optional digital I/O as well, should you want to make the ISA an interface. The ISA One is an awesome preamp, both in sound and features. I own several nice (and pricey) external preamps; one other transformer pre, one tube, and one transformerless/tubeless, and the ISA still remains my main go-to 90% of the time. As a side note, it’s not as heavy in “color” as other XFO preamps are known for (and often desired), so if you’re looking for a lot of color, you’d be better off looking at a Neve, or an API, or perhaps a good tube pre... but the ISA still has a subtle sweet sounding “mojo” to it when its driven hot. I’ve owned many good mic pre’s over the years (some very expensive), but the ISA One is the best pre I’ve ever owned, for both mic use and instrument DI. FWIW 😉
if you have noise it may be a ground issue or you are using cheap bootleg cables. It's not the box. i would disconnect everything and just test with the box and 1 mic with the onboard headphone jack. Good Luck!!
For voice you need to either boost the mic going in, or at the insert, or use a hot condenser mic. A Sm7b or a ribbon mic alone, you need to crank the pre to get decent levels and you'll get a lot of hiss. Everyone seems to gloss over this. The pre does have nice tone, you just have to be mindful of your source and what mic you're using.
just got one, and i have tons of noise when connected with just headphones and almost no gain.. not impressed so far. any ideas what might be wrong? my internal soundcard preamps are actualy much less noisy
@ Did you figure it out? Do you have the ISA ONE connected to an interface? How high is the gain on the ISA ONE? try turning down the gain on both the mic pre and interface; then dial in your gain 1 at a time using the ISA ONE first till it sounds nice. If you need more gain then turn up the interface a little. The SM7B does require a lot more gain than a condenser mic though.
Yes and No.. Turn down the gain on your cheap interface and turn up the gain on the mic pre. If it starts to hiss or make noise then turn the mic pre down while turning up the gain on your interface to make up for it. Hope that helps.
The warm, golden age, stam stuff etc. Is all just knock offs of neve. The Focusrite is literally the preamp straight off of a rupert neve designed console
For voice you need to either boost the mic going in, or at the insert, or use a hot condenser mic. A Sm7b or a ribbon mic alone, you need to crank the pre to get decent levels and you'll get a lot of hiss. Everyone seems to gloss over this. The pre does have nice tone, you just have to be mindful of your source and what mic you're using.
The unit has a gain button which increases the gain by 30 DB this unit handles ribbon Mics very nicely on its own but if necessary I will suggest buy a cloudlifter if you watch the video of our ribbon mic unboxing you will see the ribbon mic we used to record niva with the focusrite
cloudlifter gives your ribbon mic more gain before hitting the preamp. making your preamp more efficient. yes we us a cloud lifter with ISA one. you can hear the isa one with cloud lifter and MXL Gold ribbon on Niva the Soul Diva's song RED ROSE. Peace!!
Thankyou for your nice video. Can you show me how can i connect and get the best useful and good sound with: Focusrite ISA one Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 interface Yamaha AW 2400 recorder Can you teach me please?
Hi , do you think using the isa one is an improvement on using the preamps inside an audient id22 , that's if you have any experience with that interface , thanks
I feel my Isa one sounds alot better when i have the headphones in it. but when i then listen in the computer it sounds much more muddy. any idea why ? im using an apogee with line lvl +4 in and out.
I got you, I have this preamp attached to my interface and the headphones sounds different, I mean, headphones on my pressonus 192 sounds more boomy and ISA sounds more flat, it have more mids and highs frequencies sounds more “quality” on the isa, is not a lot but there are a difference between, I recommends you use it as secondary reference
RIP to my ears with that intro..
Guess you don't get out much huh lol!!!!
I was falling asleep at job..jump out the chair..btw good review
@@augustorodrigues6685 must not be an important job if you're scrolling YT at work.
DANGEROUS PERSON Yes, just a doctor facing Covid in Brazil at idle time
So it’s funny I’m literally waiting to do a shoot out with an ISA vs a HA73 (and then buy the one I like) I wonder now if I’ll reject the HA73 haha. I currently have an Apogee Element 88 and a wa76 comp
Choose the one that has the best form factor that you prefer and that makes for Less clutter in your studio setup😊
Beyond its stellar sound, (thank you Lundhal 1538 XFO!) the ISA One is loaded with features that would make it a great buy even if the price was doubled; features that most of the expensive, iconic, or boutique preamps costing triple the price don’t have.
It has LOADS of gain, (and with respect to the OP, his mention of 70db total gain is shy by 10db), by using the three different db ranges, and the +10db stepped increments in each range, the gain is 60db...but then there’s an ADDITIONAL +20db available using the variable trim, making the ISA’s total available gain a whopping 80db! This is more than enough gain for ribbons and low output dynamics - you’ll never need a cloudlifter or fethead with this pre. Yet with all this gain, the ISA is unbelievably quiet... no hiss, no circuitry noise, it’s virtually silent no matter how much you ramp up the gain.
(Inserting late night tv commercial advertiser voice, LOL)...
“But wait! That’s not all!”
🤣🤣
The ISA has four selectable impedance settings for the mic input (which can really make a difference with ribbon and dynamic mics), a 75hz HPF, and rear panel inserts for outboard processing (compressor, EQ, etc), which can be turned on/off with a front panel button, with another front panel button to set the insert path as either pre or post preamp.
As if all that isn’t cool enough, the ISA has a separate DI channel for instruments (which has two impedance settings) and which can be used at the same time as the mic channel; rear panel pots for VU/LED meter calibration, and separate XLR and balanced 1/4” ins and outs for the mic and DI channels.
There’s also a stereo mix input channel (with volume) for monitoring your DAW, and a headphone jack, allowing the monitoring of just the preamp if desired.
There’s a slot for an optional digital I/O as well, should you want to make the ISA an interface.
The ISA One is an awesome preamp, both in sound and features.
I own several nice (and pricey) external preamps; one other transformer pre, one tube, and one transformerless/tubeless, and the ISA still remains my main go-to 90% of the time.
As a side note, it’s not as heavy in “color” as other XFO preamps are known for (and often desired), so if you’re looking for a lot of color, you’d be better off looking at a Neve, or an API, or perhaps a good tube pre...
but the ISA still has a subtle sweet sounding “mojo” to it when its driven hot.
I’ve owned many good mic pre’s over the years (some very expensive), but the ISA One is the best pre I’ve ever owned, for both mic use and instrument DI.
FWIW
😉
WOW!!. Well said. thank you for that great comment!!
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Please tell me, what is best preset for akg414 b-uls ?
I own one of those pretty blue boxes... It's great! I love what you can do with the variable impedance on a dynamic mic.
I just bought one for Christmas and I love everything about the ISA 1
if you have noise it may be a ground issue or you are using cheap bootleg cables.
It's not the box. i would disconnect everything and just test with the box and 1 mic with the onboard headphone jack. Good Luck!!
So are you saying we can’t connect it to an audio interface into a laptop/pc?
Sure u can😏
Why would you run through the 76, now we are no longer hearing just the pre ?
For voice you need to either boost the mic going in, or at the insert, or use a hot condenser mic. A Sm7b or a ribbon mic alone, you need to crank the pre to get decent levels and you'll get a lot of hiss. Everyone seems to gloss over this. The pre does have nice tone, you just have to be mindful of your source and what mic you're using.
This was an excellent well thought out and thorough review, thank you!
Thank you very much
just got one, and i have tons of noise when connected with just headphones and almost no gain.. not impressed so far. any ideas what might be wrong? my internal soundcard preamps are actualy much less noisy
Mine also, in combination with SM7B - very noisy.
@ Did you figure it out? Do you have the ISA ONE connected to an interface? How high is the gain on the ISA ONE? try turning down the gain on both the mic pre and interface; then dial in your gain 1 at a time using the ISA ONE first till it sounds nice. If you need more gain then turn up the interface a little. The SM7B does require a lot more gain than a condenser mic though.
Would the sound be a lot different if I use a cheaper audio interface compared to an expensive interface to connect it to?
Yes and No.. Turn down the gain on your cheap interface and turn up the gain on the mic pre. If it starts to hiss or make noise then turn the mic pre down while turning up the gain on your interface to make up for it. Hope that helps.
Please can someone answer what impendence to put it on with the Tlm 103
The warm, golden age, stam stuff etc. Is all just knock offs of neve. The Focusrite is literally the preamp straight off of a rupert neve designed console
huh?
George Thompson isa one is based on the console isa 110 the other companies are clones what’s hard to understand?
@@georgethompson1535 Rupert Neve designed the original Focusrite ISA 110. Focusrite later used the design in their desktop & rack mount pre's
Thanks! Good feature with cue monitoring.
could you just use an XLR to Quarter Inch cable from the out?
Which of the "Z In" options is the more transparent and which one is the more warmer?
What is a cloud lifter?
A signal booster for low output dynamic mics.
@@tomkent4656 really clean sounding too.
How do I set this up with pro tools... I connected it to my focus write Scarlett I just can’t hear any play back on pro tools that I record?
Best thing I can tell you is do a search on how to use external preamp with Pro Tools you will figure it out
Symetrix 528e + Focusrite Isa One preamp = Showwwwww
For voice you need to either boost the mic going in, or at the insert, or use a hot condenser mic. A Sm7b or a ribbon mic alone, you need to crank the pre to get decent levels and you'll get a lot of hiss. Everyone seems to gloss over this. The pre does have nice tone, you just have to be mindful of your source and what mic you're using.
The unit has a gain button which increases the gain by 30 DB this unit handles ribbon Mics very nicely on its own but if necessary I will suggest buy a cloudlifter if you watch the video of our ribbon mic unboxing you will see the ribbon mic we used to record niva with the focusrite
I don't know any better. Why would a $150 Cloudlifter be better for a ribbon than the ISA One? Are you saying it would be better to use both?
cloudlifter gives your ribbon mic more gain before hitting the preamp. making your preamp more efficient.
yes we us a cloud lifter with ISA one.
you can hear the isa one with cloud lifter and MXL Gold ribbon on Niva the Soul Diva's song RED ROSE.
Peace!!
Thankyou for your nice video. Can you show me how can i connect and get the best useful and good sound with:
Focusrite ISA one
Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 interface
Yamaha AW 2400 recorder
Can you teach me please?
Don't worry you will figure it out it takes a little time but you will get there peace
excelente video. se agradece. me gustaria ver como suena una voz con el rode nt1 black
Hi , do you think using the isa one is an improvement on using the preamps inside an audient id22 , that's if you have any experience with that interface , thanks
I don't know the id22 but i would say get the isa if you can afford it or get a used one, you won't be sorry.
Anymore isa one preamp videos
I feel my Isa one sounds alot better when i have the headphones in it. but when i then listen in the computer it sounds much more muddy. any idea why ? im using an apogee with line lvl +4 in and out.
simple. its not the isa its ur room and monitoring system. EQ ur room!!!
I got you, I have this preamp attached to my interface and the headphones sounds different, I mean, headphones on my pressonus 192 sounds more boomy and ISA sounds more flat, it have more mids and highs frequencies sounds more “quality” on the isa, is not a lot but there are a difference between, I recommends you use it as secondary reference
great video my man. just bought one.
Is it good for vocals?
Hello,how do you connect the klark teknik 1176 to isa one?with insert?thanks!
I do not connect to the inserts i go straight out of the isa main out to the in of the 1176. thanks
How is it going do you need the digital card if you have a audio interface with dsp
How do you calibrate it for unity gain
lil peep used this
How do you know?
@@austinbeamish7797 real old go photos of him using it at the echo park apt
Neve and ISA are two totally different objectives. Another UA-camr that doesn’t know squat.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
When using a condenser do you just use phantom power or Danton power with the 30-60 button pressed as well I’m curious
hi ! can recoding a guitar in stereo ?
Hi i believe the trs jack and the xlr output jack both work simultaneously. if not you can always use a splitter cable adapter.