Watch: ISA preamps as the backbone of Steph Marziano’s studio
From piano to first take — here’s how ISA 428 MkII supports Steph Marziano’s recording philosophy.
“I spend about 99% of my time here,” Steph Marziano states as we joined her in her East London studio to talk about creative processes, the importance of speed in sessions, and how ISA 428 MkII quality and flexibility pairs perfectly with her approach to recording and choice of microphones. As a Grammy-nominated songwriter and record producer, Steph has written and co-produced for Hayley Williams, produced the latest Sir Chloe, and Vundabar albums, and started out as assistant engineer for the Prodigy, amongst others.
Starting out, and before settling in her own space, Steph learned her craft in commercial recording studios. During that time, and while tracking in Strongroom Studios in Shoreditch, Steph tells us ISA made an appearance early on in her career, “I’d use those pres all the time”, and knew they sounded great from that point.
Fast forward to today, there’s an air of familiarity with ISA 428 MkII being a core piece of Steph’s studio, enabling her to capture musical ideas quickly with the assurance that audio quality isn’t compromised in anyway. “So, when I got these, […] it stepped up this room sound, but also it was like, ‘cool, I know where I am — I know the sound’.”
Capturing lightning in a bottle
Working quickly is an essential part of the creative process for Steph for a few of reasons, including capturing the spark of ideas in the moment before they are lost and keeping artist energy levels up during a session. That ethos doesn’t come at the compromise of quality; high-quality audio is essential.
While speed is important to the songwriting process — with less time to re-record takes once the ideas are captured — it’s paramount that the audio recorded is of top-quality as Steph informs us, “There's no sort of “oh, it's just the demo we’ll capture it again”. A lot of the times that demo is 70% of it is the final production.”
Often Steph’s writing and recording sessions will have multiple musicians playing simultaneously. Being able to capture the moments of inspiration without the need to set up tech and take attention away from the creative flow is essential, Steph explains, “having it always ready to go is really handy. So, that might be like it might be a four-piece band in this room […] sort of doing a thing and just knowing, ‘All right. Cool. Everything's input monitored. Let's just go — let's capture it’.”
“There's no sort of ‘oh, it's just the demo we’ll capture it again’. A lot of the times that demo is… 70% of it is the final production.”
“Always on and always ready to go”
The song comes first for Steph; no matter the genre, the pace, or other factors, her role is to push the track to greater heights. As a result, the equipment in the studio serves a specific purpose — “to elevate the song”. It’s incredibly important that technology plays a supporting role in the songwriting and recording process, not to play the main character in a session within Steph’s workflow.
Steph avoids moving or unpacking gear where possible, to enable musicians joining her to play their ideas and write all at once. Having the recording set up ready to go means the sparks of the song are not lost, “If you lose it, it's like, what could have been, you're always chasing like, ‘I had that amazing idea, that amazing piano part in my head, but then I forgot it. That could have been the best thing I ever thought of.’ And I never want someone to have that thought so, I just always have everything ready to go.”
But it’s not solely the ‘always on’ mentality that ISA is good for; it’s the reliable sound and plenty of headroom that explains its place in the studio. Whether the audio signal is quiet and clean or distorted and warm, Steph knows that ISA 428 can handle it all.
Sat at her trusted piano, Steph explains, “I always have my ribbon [mic] plugged into the Focusrite, and I don't even have to change settings. I just know it works. So, when the idea strikes, I can just go, ‘okay, here we go’. Record, then that's the part and 90% of the time it stays there.”
“ISA just captures high end really, really nicely that […] honestly, it sounds like a little bit of a warm blanket over you.”
Let the ribbons sing with ISA
ISA truly makes ribbon mics sing, and this had a big impact on Steph’s studio and recordings, “So before I got the ISA, I just had the ribbon mics plugged into my interface presets, which sounded good. I thought that was kind of all I needed — and then I got the ISA's and it was just instantly clear, bigger and like, just so much easier. There was way less noise, way more headroom. It made such a difference.”
By switching between four input impedances, engineers can affect how a microphone interacts with the ISA preamp. It’s a small and instant adjustment that can change the feel and character of a recording. This instant way to bring mics to life is synonymous with Steph’s creative approach: fast moving with reliable recording technology for incredible audio capture, no matter the session.