Discover the Best Microphone Preamps
1. Focusrite ISA One
Desktop Microphone Preamp
Transparent with a hint of...
Reviewed by Vivid Studio on Guitar Center
This thing is great, just gotta throw that out. It has a character you can't mistake. Because of the lundhall transformers, you get this sort of sizzle that you have to hear to understand. When ABed with some less expensive preamps you will notice the effects immediately. I also enjoy the fact that you can use it as a latency free piece. During a session, the singer was having trouble singing through pro tools and my latency. I didn't want to sacrafice plug's to improve latency, so we ran it through the ISA. This really is the centerpiece of my pro tools rig. I find myself running everything through it. I would say it is a great value that can stand up to all the other big name pre's. ... More
Worth 15k back in the day, best value preamp on the market
Reviewed by Noah L. on Reverb
This thing is a beast. Recorded some acoustic guitar and bass with it and instantly my mix sounded "proffessional". Very flexible tool. You can listen back to it with headphones making finding the perfect mic placement a breeze and select different impedances to tweak it from a modern to a vintage sound. The sound is one of a kind. Tight punchy bass, shimmering high end, and on drums it adds a very unique and somewhat addictive "rattle" sound to the snare. I got into this thing when I started hearing records with that "rattle" like Metallica's Load, and Weezer's Blue Album, almost as if the drummer was hitting a bean bag along with the snare. A bit obsessive I know. But what really drove me to buy this thing? It's "the new sound". This thing was made back in the 80's and the consoles while state of the art barely got to see the light of day because immediately after it's invention the advent of digital consoles came around and stole the spotlight. The sound of it was foreign to the world drowned out by 1073's and SSL's, so when new players like Mac Demarco and Bully started using it in 2014, it gave the world something not a lot of people heard before, the sound of it is old but completely new to the world. It came back like a pheonix and if you don't own one then what are you even doing with your life. ... More