TRIDENT EQ

Homemade Trident EQ based on the kickass S80 series

thanks to PeterC (!) and to all the the prodigy-pro guys

studer 169 upbrush

Salute to passionate audio engineers all around the world! Guess what? I found a 10channel Studer 169 at a flea marked. Covered in sand and trash. The electrolytes and some of the film-caps were no good. Hope to test it on an upcoming mix here at the Wrongroom ...real soon.

A supergreat source for servicemanuals, mods and other interesting documents can be found on studers ftp. ftp://ftp.studer.ch/Public/Products/Mixing_Analog/169-269/

The pre-amps sounds absolutely stunning, just brilliant!, both clean and overdriven. Kinda like API desks? This desk will be on every mix from now on, in some way or another.

I did almost every mod documented in the papers from studer. The insert-outs were moved to after- the filters, mute and faders - so that each channel can be used separately in a mix.

PULTEC MIDTONE EQ

LAWO & SRPP HAND IN HAND,

New build. Two MEQ5 equalizers in one! Both sounds cool, and very different from each-other. The LAWO is a slightly modded DV973/3 board. (Had to change a few resistors to get the same gain as the SRPP). Had some troubles with hum, but some unexplainable experimental grounding-cabling removed most of it. The power-toroid was put in an external box. And I had to swap the 3K3 2W resistor into a 20K to get the correct voltages on the PSU part of the SRPPboards
The eq-inductors are from Sowter
Under the large caps, there are 560K bleeder resistors
The AC/DC PSU for the LAWO is from JLM. it takes the 12VAC to 24VDC

DIY 33609

A Neve 33609 is born. 10000 thanks to Igor (tech-genius) for the pcbs and for all the group-diy guys! Got me some old Belclere trannys on the inputT1 & int.T2 and Carnhills on the output. Aiai, I still cannon believe how unbelievable cool it sounds, and how veritable it is.

homebuilt vacuum tube compressor

Fuck I'm starting to get fat from sitting here doing electronics all day. So I decided that I'd rather spend some time on an update than soldering and crying, picking at the scabs around my genitals. Here is my new home assembled compressor. Sidechain for lowend and saturation control build in. Thanks to everyone at the prodigy-pro forum for valuable info and inspiration

AMS RMX16

My adventures in the exiting world of audio-electronics continues with an upbrush in my AMS rmx16 - the all time favorite reverb, ever!... Its an evergoing project to keep this thing alive, and every year another component goes down. The chips are a nightmare to swap. And sone of them are almost impossible to find. Thanks to David Kulka for all the good tips

I've searched and looked for the schematics for the AMS rmx16 for two years now. It seems like it was never released. So I just had to jump in, and see what could be done with my limited knowledge. After cleaning the unit for old stuff and sticky glue (thanks to degreaser)
After cleaning, I changed almost all the capacitors. probably around 100! I even took out some of the pF caps. Ugh... Found some nasty tantalums in there plus some really rusty ribbons. Then I cleaned the buttons and swapped some of them, +swapped the battery, and rebuild the PSU plus the components placed below the battery.

look! new tantalums!

- Got the new fan, buttons and ribbons from www.studioelectronics.biz. .... Wonder how long it will last before it goes down.... again

DuKane Limiter (model 2A80B )

It was time to try to make an old stocked DuKane limiter work again.  It was unfortunately impossible to find schematics it, so by trial and error I did some mods, and swapped out most of the old components. Here's what I did : 1) All caps swapped, and the big 0.47 filmcaps was changed to smaller types, to adjust attack and release to normal lengths. 2) Installed new transistors on input and output 3) new grounding 4) new PSU parts 5) The 5K trimpot in the compressor psb was moved to a new pot on the tront where the channel2 was before. 6) The socalled noise-gate was dropped (the psb to the left) 7) The limiter on/off button and the ratio button on the back was dropped cause they did nothing good. 8) shelded cables on the audio-cables 9)installed stereo-jack in and outputs

after "fixing"  (click to enlarge):

AND THE RESULT OF MY STRUGGLING AND AMATEURISH FIXING : Well,.... though the sound got cleaner, I dissembled the DuKane again after one week of testing. There was an snap-sound in the compressor-attack that made it too uninspiring to work with. Hopefully, I learned something. This one goes in the trash. What a shitty compressor, what a waste! 

ASHLY SC-66a EQ

Now this is a special EQ! When something needs an edge, or some lo-fi eq'ing, I might reach for this one. It's rough on brassstuff, samples, and especially guitar. It 's got a notch filter from hell. They come pretty cheap these days, so I've bought two.

With the orginal caps in it, the frequenzies that I usually played arund with was 2.0 - 2.5 KHz and 90-120 Hz

I've been working on one of mine for quite some time, experimenting with different caps. Plus I swapped all the 4558 opamps with 5532's. It is now more versatile than before, sounds warmer and more organic. The other one I've just kept the 4558 opamps. They distort in a compressed way when driven hard, like a good overdrivebox - only limited to a sertain frequenzy, which is one of the things I like to try when I use it.

edit / UPDATE warning : the 5532s gave too much gain, so I swapped back to 4558 on the freq-pcbs. Later I plan to get rid of the bigger film-caps that I installed- cause they made the sound to eh....bloppy/boomy in the low-midrange. Also on the try-out list is to test out the OPA2604AP which are supposed to kick-ass!

AM864 mod

Here's what I did to my old fav, the AM684 federal limiter.

As you'll see, I've put four controls on the front, instead of only one. If you own one of these, I'd recommend you to do the same. It makes a big diference in the way you'll end up using this fabulous compressor! They are ratio, input attenuation, and threshold and output-leveler. They are actually not Rato and threshold in a traditional sense. I see them more as tone shapers. but on the front I choosed to label them as opposite from the original. So the limiter threshold is my ratio pot. makes more sense.

All the caps were swapped out, off course, and some of the rotten old cables changed.



The last page of the instruction manual is funny. It's got a list of the ten best ways to destroy the unit if you suspect that it will fall into enemy hands. explosives are recomended.

TAPCO 4400 Stereo Spring Reverb

Todays project was to remove some of the noise from my Tapco 4400. It's a stereo-spring-reverb with character and eq. Here's what I ended up doing :

Handled the grounding first and wired grounding wires to one star spot close to the power-entrance to remove hum. There was several potential ground-loops, so I also removed the screws that made contact between pcb-ground and chassis.

Next, I put in +/- 18V-regulators and bigger caps in the powersupply, plus a 100nF filtercaps to ground. didn't hear any difference, but a cleaner DC power doesn't hurt.

The VU meter looks cool, but unfortunately it brought distortion back to the audio (on one side), so I decided to disconnect it. Maybe there's a short somewhere to the audiochain.

Last, but not least, the caps were changed and the 5K sliders was changed to 10K sliders. The unit dates back to 1976, and the connectors needed a good cleaning. The Tapco4400 is a brutal kind of spring reverb. And with a strong boosted input - it goes SPIOOOONG. With the 4band EQ you can shape it's sound, and since the actual springs are so big, it is mainly used here for extreme reverbs and 'creative'-effects. - I dig it on perc stuff, woodblocks etc. and dessert-guitars

Waves Of Infinite Harmony

At the moment, I’m really into springreverbs. I collect them, and I’ve bought both organs and amps, just to get a hold on those springs. I’ve got them in all sizes, and I’m dreaming of building a big spring-reverb chamber, where I can route the signal into the springs that will make the best fit with the mix.

If you like the sound of a trembling springreverb, you should check out the reverbs in the old houseorgans. The ones that hangs in a wire are the coolest. On my Philicorda organ, I have installed extra inputs and outputs, so that I can use the springreverb separately. I’ve used it on everything from vocals to drums.
Here's a picture of the inside of my RA-500. Notice the speaker glued on the metalbox in the middle. I did the filmmusic to a 70'ties inspired spagetthiwestern film once, and I ended up placing sending deep sounds through the metal into the stereo springs. It was so cool, that I installed it permanently with a jack-input for the speaker on the front.

Here's a picture of the front of the unit. Four additional jack inputs, going to strange circuits making the springs go bananas.

oh and, The old trick with running the sound through a piano while holding some keys down still works - if you are up for it. That way, you can play and extent the harmonies in the reverb.

filtered distortion

Everything sounds better with a small touch of distortion.

The MS10 has an unbelievable cool and unique overdrive sound, which blends well with other sounds, and with the filter you can put it where you want in the soundscape.

waveshaper = 100% PWN.
pitch = +5
peak = 0
and a jack in "trigger in", to keep the external input going

Fantastic on vocals and bass, oh and very cool on double bass. wohoo!