I’m looking to upgrade my home studio setup to get the best out of my Shure SM7B. Right now, I’m using a Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen, and it’s just not cutting it—definitely a stupid choice in hindsight because I didn’t do enough research beforehand.

I’ve been reading here that the Focusrite ISA One is a solid choice, but I’m not sure if the AD conversion on my Scarlett would let me fully experience its potential. On the other hand, I’m also considering upgrading Scarlett to a Babyface Pro FS because of the solid drivers that RME has, which might be a more all-in-one solution, but it is pricier.

Pickup the ISA one with the digital card and get a Behringer UMC1820 interface. Go SPDIF out of ISA one to SPDIF in on interface. Should give good quality.

Plus you get a newer affordable interface with eight other inputs.

How about getting the analog ISA One now and upgrading to a better interface later?

Doesn't seem reasonable to invest >1000 EUR (ISA One with digital extension) to feed a <400 EUR dynamic mic into a crappy (Behringer 1820) USB interface.

The Babyface Pro FS will be a good move IMHO. You get two good clean mic preamps probably comparable to a 200-300 EUR per channel standalone preamp. And you save wiring up two devices just to get your microphone into the computer.

Why not? You're using the best converter possible and simply going digital into the computer. Great! Plus there's eight Midas preamps on the behringer. It has good reviews, despite how affordable it is.

The Babyface is probably $1400.00.

Thing is, I'm guessing the digital card is the best sounding converter for it. It is pricey. Without the digital card you'll simply be going analog into the interface and the interface will do the conversion.

But the 'best' sounding option I think would be to get the digital card and go digital into the computer...for a purist approach.

I didn't notice at first the Behringer has eight 'Midas' preamps as well. Pretty cool for multi-miking, doing drums, full bands, etc. It's affordable but has good reviews.

I have the chance to buy a Babyface Pro FS for $700.

There is a natural limit as to what your fabulous preamps (which must cost around 16 EUR each at the total price of the box) are. An audio interface is not autonomous, it will talk to your computer through drivers, possibly mixing software, latency etc etc. You will go out of the box at some point, engaging your D/A converters, to your monitors, to your headphones. The Behringer UMC will wear and fail at some point physically (knobs). I once had a UMC204, and soon one channel failed. The warranty case was a nightmare, the time I invested in this I should have invested in any other decent company.

Try to create a signal chain where the quality of all components are matched.

If you are going to spend that amount of money in the end, just get a single box like the Babyface (half that cost) or UCX (only slightly more, there you have your 8 in/out) or the new SSL 18 (slightly less, more preamps), or a Sound Devices MixPre-3 (woohoo, also a mobile recorder now)...

Also note that the Focusrite ISA ADN2 is expensive because Dante is expensive, which you are not going to use. If you go for the ISA, I would definitely stay analogue and use the converters of the USB interface; first try the ones you got, and if they suck, you can upgrade the USB interface afterwards. But as said, I don't think the standalone mic-pre is the best choice here.

I had a listen to a couple clips and the Babyface pro fs sounded excellent. Also, apparently it's really solidly made.

But for me, I wouldn't invest $700 into a 2 channel interface....just because, personally I need more channels than that. If you only want a two channel interface the RME looks good.

Hopefully it makes the sm7b sound better.

Just a side note: The Babyface is not a 2-channel interface, but 12 channels (4 of which are analog). 2 mic-pres, 2 line level, and an ADAT. Since OP has *one* microphone, I think this is a solid foundation, and if you need more high quality mic-pres, you could add a box with ADAT out. With the ISA One I would just be worried that I might want to record a stereo situation, and then I'm lost with a single channel preamp.

The baby face is generally a small 2 channel looking interface. It has two mic preamps...is what I was referring to.

Too small for me. I need minimum 6 mic pre's with polarity.

The Apogee Boom is the way to go for single mic use. 62db gain. Apogee quality. Apogee plug.

I use an RME madiFace and have have used Multiface for 25 years. Great gear. My MADIface is amazing. It allows for 100s of channels of audio i/o using multiple SSL alpha links. RME software and routing is true wizardry. But these generations of boxes aren’t boutique sounding. They are utility dynamos. It doesn’t seem like you need Totalmix. You want a great preamp and converter solution. Apogee does both well. I’d even recommend the Apogee Mini-me but the Boom does it all.

Or spend more money and get into Prism, Metric Halo, API A2D, Neve DPD

Babyface Pro (make sure it is the FS version) and don’t look back. Can grow with your needs and headphone amp sounds incredible. Great in studio and on location. And don’t get me started on totalmix!

Just got a new Babyface Pro FS from Thomann for about $675 new including shipping. No customs fees. Ready to run it through its paces. I bought it to be used as a semi-portable rig since it is bus powered. And reiterating that you can use an 8 channel ADAT preamp with it. Of course I still have my UFX II for my home rig so I can hook up a bunch of stuff…

Babyface Pro FS is cool and works well so far. Supposedly it uses the same headphone preamp technology & output op-amps as ADI-2 Pro. However, my UFX II still sounds better on the headphone output. Still it is a keeper…

Id upgrade interface first.

1. The digital card for the isa one is twice the cost of an actual used isa, making the digital card what id call obsolete unless you already have an isa one, and have 2 final spdif that are dying to be filled. If you can find an isa one cheap that has the card, def pull trigger, id love the card myself for mine but damn right not worth 600 bucks.

2. The isa itself is one of the better bang for bucks on used market imo. $300 gets you a nice cleanish pre with lundahl input transformer, a solid DI, and a really good headphone amp that you can send your mix to. Would be an upgrade in your monitoring too! The pre and DI have their out balanced outputs, effectively making it a 2 channel box as well. Find something cheap with 2 line inserts. Maybe the behringer thing is an option here, not sure.

Actually in my early days i had a focusrite sapphire 6, predecessor to the scarletts. When i got some money i went out and got an isa one and a ksm32. Plugged right into interface pre at 0. Some of the best vocals ive recorded to this day.

Id still upgrade interface, something with line ins. Later id just get a 500 case. If i could do it all again it skip all the inbetween stuff.