In his role as chief engineer at Electric Feel Entertainment, Nick Mac has made extensive use of Focusrite’s ISA 428 multichannel microphone preamplifier and ISA 430 channel strip. More recently, he has added Focusrite’s ISA One desktop mic preamp to his mobile rig.
Mac, a California native, has been working with 24kGoldn for the past couple of years, both travelling and in the studio. Two or three months ago, he slimmed down his mobile rig to a Pelican case containing a recording interface and his new Focusrite preamp. ‘It’s one of the most feature packed devices I’ve ever seen, with a quality that I really like,’ he says. ‘The tactile control that I have on that front panel for the mic preamp and the headphones is unbelievable. I’m in love with the thing.’
Not every brand of mic preamp pairs well with the Sony C-800G vocal microphone favoured by many of today’s artists, Mac says. ‘But I like the ISA; it’s a little bit weighty but it’s clean, and I think it rounds off the edges of the 800. It’s nice and warm and a little bit muscular, but it’s clear and clean. It’s just a nice colour that I like.’
The monitoring on the ISA One has become central to his workflow: ‘One of the key features that gets me really excited is being able to switch between monitoring the mic input by itself and the cue mix. So, if we get a dirty signal or something in a studio, I can isolate the microphone and listen to that before any processing. It’s really, really helpful.
‘I’m a big meters person, so I’m watching a Durrough meter plug-in inside of Pro Tools, watching my crest factor, watching how it hits the converters and drives into the compressor,’ he continues. ‘24k’s a loud singer, but there’s enough gain on the ISA One to where, when he does go quiet, I can jump it up with the step gain and use the trim. Conversely, when he does get loud, I can knock it back, and use the trim to bring him up. It’s all right there within reach.’
Mac’s personal Focusrite ISA 430 was in a rolling rack that spent most of 2020 in Utah, where he worked with Post Malone on the recently released Twelve Carat Toothache album. ‘I started the record using the 430 and I would use it in front of my interface and go line-in to Pro Tools. It was that simple,’ he says.
That mobile rig houses everything he needs for a session: ‘There’s a computer, an interface for conversion, a Tube Tech, 1176, a Distressor, a pair of Neve-style BAE 1073s and an ISA 430 vocal pre that I would use every time. I used it on Post and I used it on Travis Barker’s snare drum. And there were two pairs of Genelec monitors – 8351s and 1032s – and a sub.’
‘I think everyone wants a Neve pre,’ he adds. ‘The 1073 is great; it’s a classic. But don’t forget that Rupert [Neve] designed the Focusrite ISA 110 module. I feel like a lot of people sleep a little bit on the ISA stuff – I hope more people do start using it for vocals, or whatever. But for me, when people are going one way, I want to go another way that’s unique, a little bit different, that’s going to give my artist a different sound. It’s a little secret gem.’
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