Bad hissing sound and overdriven tone on Rode NT1-A recordings

I’m using a quality condensor mic and cable with my Scarlett Focusrite Solo to do voice work. However, I am getting a bad hissing sound in the background, that lingers even after noise reduction, as well as an overly “hot” sensitivity on the mic. Like picking up every mouth sound very loudly along with anything in a very dead room.

Could it be that the drivers need to be reinstalled? What else might it be? I’ve tried switching out chords, checking connections, making sure my harddrive is in good health.

What you’ve described is consistent with dynamic-range-compression, (with make-up gain), being applied.

I does not look like Scarlett Focusrite Solo can do compression

Windows “audio enhancements” can apply compression to recording & playback.
Need to disable those (recording & playback) audio enhancements for faithful recording & playback.