Focusrite ISA One Microphone Preamp and DI

130 Guitarist April 2009
FOCUSRITE ISA ONE MICROPHONE PRE-AMP AND DI
£499
RECORDING
Bottom Line
We like: Sound quality; dual
input (DI and Mic Amp)
architecture; portability
We dislike: Strange
headphone monitoring
configurations
Guitarist says: If you can
afford it, you’ll get a high
quality mic pre-amp and DI
that oozes class
Focusrite ISA One
PRICE: £499.95 (SA Stereo ADC
digital card £249.95)
TYPE: Microphone pre-amplifier and
simultaneous FET DI box
OTHER FEATURES: Easily portable
and flight-cased. Variable impedance.
Various headphone monitoring
options
CONNECTIONS: Front Panel: DI
input, amp out, headphone jack. Rear
Panel: XLR Mic, XLR and jack line
inputs, XLR main and DI outs, send
and return jacks; cue mix and external
inputs on jacks; mains connector
OPTIONS: SA Stereo ADC digital card
– 24-bit 44.1 to 192kHz AES/EBU,
ADAT ADS or S/PDIF analogue to
digital conversion
TEST SYSTEM: Apple Mac Pro 2.66
running Logic 8 through a Motu 2408
Focusrite
01494 462246
www.focusrite.com
Test results
Build quality
Playability
Sound
Value for money
GUITARIST RATING
Focusrite ISA One
Microphone Preamp
and DI
£499
Need an instrument and mic preamp/DI? Well, why not
go to a certain Mr Rupert Neve… by Mike Westergaard
T
he Focusrite brand has
an outstanding pedigree
in the audio world and
was formed in 1985 by Rupert
Neve when George Martin
asked for a microphone preamp
that could be retro-fitted into
the Neve desk at Air
Montserrat. The result was the
ISA 110. This design was also
used in the Focusrite Forte
mixing console, a desk that was
so expensive to build that only
two were made and the
company became bankrupt.
However, the company was
resurrected in 1989 and this
year, Focusrite launched the
ISA One, featuring the original
preamp designed by Rupert
Neve over 20 years ago.
The ISA One comes in a
custom-made flightcase. It has
a front panel bristling with
knobs and switches, dominated
by a classic VU meter, giving it
the appearance of a piece of lab
gear. As well as the expected
gain knobs and input selector,
there’s a +48V phantom switch,
high pass filter, phase reverse
and a useful insert switch,
enabling you to patch in your
favourite EQ or compressor.
Unusually, there’s also an
impedance selector so you can
match the impedance of the
preamp with a microphone,
particularly useful with ribbon
microphones. There’s also an
independent FET DI circuit
with its own level control,
impedance selector and feed
out to an amp. This means you
can use the ISA One to record a
clean guitar or bass through the
DI and simultaneously capture
the amp or a vocal through the
mic preamp.
There’s also a headphone
socket with its own level
control. The ISA One has a
rather convoluted monitoring
system. With the ‘cue mix’
button in, the headphones will
only monitor anything arriving
at the ‘cue mix’ inputs on the
back. If this is the output from
your DAW, you will then suffer
latency problems. The
alternative is to de-select the
‘cue mix’ and connect a mono
feed from your DAW to the
external input. This creates a
latency free environment but
because the external input feed
takes up one of the inputs, you
can’t then use the two channels
to record. It would be great to
be able to hear the ‘cue mix’
inputs in the headphones as
well as the other inputs and
have a control to balance them.
Sounds
The ISA One is a breeze to use.
Input level is adjusted using a
stepped gain and trim system
with a switch to throw in 30dB
of extra gain if needed. The mic
The Rivals
Avalon has the U5 (£429)
with mic, line and
instrument inputs. The
Summit Audio 2BA-221
(£459) has variable
impedance and filter
controls. Universal Audio
has the Solo 610 (£657) and
the Twinfinity 710 (£599).
Both have a tube stage and
high quality audio.
amp, as you would expect from
Focusrite, sounds exceptionally
good. It’s clean, pure and solid;
almost three-dimensional in
its delivery, in fact. The detail
on both picking and
strumming acoustics captures
all the subtleties and nuances
of your playing. The DI was
tested against a variety of DI
units and equalled or out-
performed them all.
As an optional extra, you can
buy the SA Stereo ADC digital
card. It gives you two channels
of very classy sounding A/D
conversion in AES/EBU,
ADAT ADS or S/PDIF formats.
The ISA One can either control
the clock from 44.1Khz right
up to 192Khz or receive clock
via the BNC on the back panel.
Verdict
The ISA One is a seriously
classy piece of kit. Both the mic
amp and DI sound fantastic
and will only help to make your
recordings sound more
professional. It’s great to be
able to use one unit to record
both the DI and a microphone
simultaneously and the
variable impedance selector on
the mic preamp will be a boon
if you have an eclectic
collection of microphones. A
portable, high quality unit that
is priced fairly, not cheaply, and
well worth saving up for.
GIT314.rev_focusrite 130 26/2/09 1:13:58 pm