What to start with ?

[Addni]

Hi there, been reading reviews about the SCA stuff and looks very promising! So I'm thinking I "have" to get one.

A friend is thinking about buying a full SCA rack, and has asked me to help building it. So I thought I'd start out also, getting the Chassis, Power supply and one or two pres.

I mostly do metal recording, and usually I do guitar and bass DI. I do around 50/50 drum recording sometimes, and just programmind drums othertimes. So in some project the only mic being used is for vocal (currently I'm using an M-Audio Solaris as my main Vocal mic)

First, how do you people like the D11 direct box ? Have you compared it to other DI's.
I own and use an F-Bass BN5 (active electronics) for most occation, but then i get some passive-crap bass in between.

How good is it reamping with it, i read some posts saying it is possible without doing any modding two it. But might I be better of modding one of the channels to be a DI and the other being Reamp (I don't think I will be needing two DI-s at once, and if I do I always have the Fireface DI's) would that work or be a problem. A friend has "the" reamp, so it's not a problem if i really need to reamp and the D11 can't be used to reamp without any mod, but it would be a nice option.

If i understand right i could make the DI output through both channels, thereby when I had more than one type of pre I could run my DI signal trough both of them for different color, mixing them together.

So I was thinking, maybe the DI + one pre to start with.

As said before, I record metal (both growl and Iron Maiden-ish vocals) and my primary vocal mic is the M-Audio solaris
My first pre would be used for vocals with the solaris, probably for the Kick mic when doing drums and then I'd run the DI trough it.

So what pre do you suggest to start with ?
Something is telling me the A12 for my kind of music, but the sound of the word "neve" (the N72) always has something that pulls me.
So, what would you suggest for me ?
Can anyone describe the different character of each (or even better, sound samples)

thanks for the help, and really looking forward to begin my trip to SCA land

[lynyrd]

Personally, I have 2 A12s and 4 N72s. I always recommend building an A12 first because it is a great sounding pre, and simpler to build than the N72 or J99. It is also very suitable for rock and metal music. Having said that, I really like the N72 for vocals, bass and distorted guitars. It is really great and I love the sound of that preamp. As for the direct box, personally, I use a passive one because I like to have all my preamps in pairs and that will allow me to put in another pair of A12s for my drum recording. I just can't justify taking up a space in the chassis for a direct box, but to each their own. If you really are sure you won't be needing all 8 spaces for preamps, I'm sure the SCA direct box will sound great. THis answer (and question) rings very familiar to me, I think you may have asked it over at Gearslutz.
Good luck on whatever you decide, SCA is really great sounding stuff, every client to record in my studio have loved them.