With all this talk about stepped attenuators....

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bitman

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 30, 2005
Messages
500
Location
Keystone, Colorado
Why can't I just use a Dual Pot between my daw and my active speakers?
Why would I want a stepped attenuator in this instance anyway?

Thank You.

:LSB
 
You could use a dual pot, but the stereo image may shift as you turn the volume up and down, unless the two sections track one another very well.

I haven't used them myself, but the Alps "Blue Velvet" pots are claimed to be good in this respect.
 
[quote author="bitman"]And 1% resistors in a stepped attenuator will generally track better?

:LSB[/quote]

Oh sure. . I've measured expensive stereo pots like black beauties or Alps and they vary as much as 7% for the BB and the fancy 50K Alps measured an actual 42K on one one track and 49 on the other. That's over 10%.

Kiira
 
[quote author="bitman"]And 1% resistors in a stepped attenuator will generally track better?

:LSB[/quote]

Resistors isn't expensive, you can buy 5 times the needed quantity, and then handmatch them with your ohmmeter.
I don't know much about the Blue Velvet but I think a stepped attenuator would "outperform" it pretty good.
 
Wow!

Ok then.
Just one more question though. Most mixers anymore use 1 dual slider
to control the mains output. Given the data that's just been provided,
(Thanks NYD and Kiira), Is'nt that bad?!

Right now I'm running the DAW output through a mixer and taking the
main output to the hr824s. I want to get all that extra ciruitry out of my
signal path, and did'nt see why a dual fader or pot would be any worse
than what I'm doing now.

Enighten?

:LSB
 
:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

Like I said before , I experimented alot with passive attenuators, resistors, and other blahblah,
even with relais kits offered here.
In the end , I bought myself the Cranesong Avocet. average priced, excellent controller, perfect stereo image, Mute, dim , phase, L/R cut , and on top of it a pair of excellent sounding DA convertors.
Add this all to the DIY bill, including Cases, labeling and cabling and I bet you won't finish that much further away from the Avocet.

Hey, I'm talking specifically DIY monitor controller here.
Other than that, my studio is full of self made preamps, compressors, EQ's
Thanks to this community :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:
 
Cranesong Avocet
yes good
also the new'ish Dangerous unit looks good

none seem to give me the controls I want and for these prices I want some specific features that are user set



to bitman
expensive mixes that tried to get a degree of calibration used very expensive faders .. $100 to $200 per channel and more
look at the P & G Faders of the past
they had remote roll and pre listen micro switches and more

this was a big part of the reason these things were so expensive
 
It would not take much to use a basic PGA2320 (±15V Volume control with 0.1dB gain matching) along with a PIC or an MSP430.

The MSP430 already has example code to use it's onboard ADC (for getting the position of your control pot) and example code to push that word over the serial port.
 
do I have too ??

if it is a pic or processor controlled unit
why can't I have a software drive set-up application like any of the Everets, Vistec ... Practel ... ProVideo stuff
this is expensive and should

not what I would call a talkback to musicians system
I would need to buy extra main units to get that and it is goofd that it is cascadable ... but where is the software to set it up the way I want.

the digital path will be out of date before you know it

yes 3 speaker systems
but some of us may have two in the control room and one in the lounge
... sends line level balanced audio to one of three outputs.
I want independant outputs that I can set
the hardware is inside and it's just the way it is configured

no Alpha/Numeric read out

I could go on

don't get me wrong
Dave has done a great job and the Draft copy of the manual looks fine

I just think we will see many more items in the market very soon
then
I have been saying this since PT 4.0
we have desperately needed the master monitoring section of a real desk for years

My Auditronics from 72 has stuff this doesn't.
 
[quote author="Rochey"]It would not take much to use a basic PGA2320 (±15V Volume control with 0.1dB gain matching) along with a PIC or an MSP430.[/quote]
correct

and stay tunned for the JLM volume control board
I hope to be able to tailor something to suit my needs
 
I have a bunch of P&G Stereo faders.
I was just hoping for a big knob to spin.
I have 1 2.5" black knob that came from the wife's toasted surround amp,
and man, did I want to use that!

It's a whole lot easier for me to drill a pot hole than cut a fader
slot (which I've never tried, and won't likely get right).

Thanks everybody

:LSB
 

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