jtdeans wrote:i'm curious as to why you went with 2 ISA428s - I've never used one, though ive heard mixed things about them. (although i assume since you have 2 units you must love them) no?
I fell in love with the original ISA (mic pre/eq) about 10 years ago when the studio I worked at had a custom 12channel purple Focusrite side car next to our SSL. I also really enjoyed the original (racked) ISA 215's too. The preamp in the 428 is (to my ears) very similar to that original.
Focusrite is walking up a slippery slope with it's older (original) Rupert designed High-end gear being slowly replaced by low priced, Chinese made gear that's made for budget studios and DAW integration. Although the name still draws in the Guitar Center crowd, the true gearslutz seem to be turning their backs on Focusrite for selling out.
Personally, I never cared for the "Green series" (their first attempt at a budget product), the "Red" series (all faceplate, no tone) or their "Platinum" stuff. The ISA range and the original "Blue" range (mostly mastering stuff) was always exceptional.
When I was picking out the other mic pre's for this room I went with Amek, Aurora, & Daking for their character, color and contrast. The ISA's were picked last to fill things out when we need multiple "uncolored" inputs (we're console-less in this room) and they excel in this capacity. While they wouldn't make many desert island lists, the 428's are clean, have LOTS of gain, switchable impedance, DI's, selectable Hi-pass filters and VU meters. Not too shabby for about $325 a channel.
If I had more cash on hand, those 8 channels would have been a buffet of 500 series API, Germanium, Shadow Hills & Purple Biz pre's. If I had less to spend they would have been Syteks.
