Kit to compliment focusrite ISA 428?

[ERIKSMUSICPRODUCTION]

Hi there.

I am looking for 2 channells to compliment my 428. I am curious as to which module sounds closest to the 428 so I am not getting something redundant? I assume the n72?

I am quite pleased with the 428, however I feel that something a little more open/airy would make a nice companion. I am leaning towards the j99 kit.

Any opinions? Thanks.

[dabo]

A friend and I compared his ISA 428's, Neve 160's, API 3124's and some Neumann PMV 70's against my Grace 201, Neve 31102's, Urei 2-610 and a pair of SCA N72's.
The test was admittedly limited, as we were trying to find the best sound for overheads (my friend is a drummer) and what "best" means is very subjective.
Our tastes ran to the Neve character being the winner. My 31102's sounded best to me. And, to Tim's credit, the N72 was so close to the 31102 sound they've become the mic pre I think of as "my 31102's without EQ" if that makes any sense. The Neve 160's (an unusual and rare designation) were nice but lacked a bit of the richness of the other Neves. My friend has since bought a pair of the new 1073's made by Neve and they have the magic.
The 428's were close in vibe to the Neve (bear in mind that the impedance control and filter settings will have much to do with this...) so your feeling that the N72 would be closest to your ISA 428 fits my experience in the context of this test. Imaging and apparent dimension was much better in the Neve test than rendered by the ISA's but I decided that the 428 would be a good mic pre for mono signals that need the Neve-ish flavor.
I like API's for drums (and everything else for that matter) because they feel really agressive and exciting. I tend to use something more open and smoother for overheads, but in the right musical context they can be perfect for OH's. They deliver one of my favorite sounds for electric guitar.
Again, on the subjectivity issue, let me say that we were looking for a sound that was pretty specific and deciding which configuration of his gear was the best setup for his sound. My friend is a fantastic drummer and his use of cymbals is very deliberate and "melodic" (in the way drummers know I mean) so the articulation of the overheads was our primary concern and the API's didn't feel elegant enough. They are fantastic on his toms.
For sort of the other extreme of the same reason, the Grace was not right for our overheads. It was too clean. It imaged beautifully and rendered the cymbals and snare acurately, but it's sense of effortlessness made it feel like the drummer wasn't really digging in. This mic pre starts to sound a bit richer when the red light is on a lot, but in our test we were going straight into Pro Tools and the output trim didn't give us enough headroom relief to hit the pre as I'd have liked.
The Urei was exactly what you'd expect. Really vibey and cool but less depth to the stereo image and somewhat darker sounding than everything else... in a really cool way.
We didn't have any Jensen topology (twin servo) mic pre's in our test, but I've used them in other contexts and they are more open and "airy" and still have the output transformer magic I dig. I will soon add a pair of SCA J99's to my rack for exactly that reason.

I hope this is helpful and not too limited in scope.

Cheers

[ERIKSMUSICPRODUCTION]

Dabo

Thanks for that awsome description and fast reply.

That really helps alot. So am I correct in thinking that the A12 is similar to an API type preamp? Is the API type of preamp fairly color'd but in a different way than the neve's?

I am trying to get a grasp on this as I can't try these out before I buy, so I hope you don't mind me asking all these question.

Thanks again.