good line amps and mixing buss for today's music

What would you think would be the best line amps and mixing buss for today's music, like modern rock, hip hop, etc.. ? Let's say most of the tracks have been cut with Neve and API preamps, some tube gear etc.. so some mojoistic tone shaping has been already applied.

If you build a passive mixer like the summthing, it gives you mic-level outputs, so you can then run it into any preamp you want, "colorful" or neutral.

+1 to what mitsos said.
Into a G9 with it, run hot input, low output, or vice-versa, for what color you want.

True, but this is maybe a bit different in that it is a block of EQs, busses and auxes, all with faders and pans. In short, it's a mixing console of a sort. I'm not sure line amps are absolutely mandatory, but it must work from unbalanced sources, balanced sources, transformer or servo balanced.. different impedances, that's why I thought line amps would do well here.

I'm not an electronics expert, I know a few that are, but are not into audio, especially not from a subjective sound and ergonomics (in mixing and recording) view. So, I'm doing my homework before we get into anything serious and try to get ideas on what kind of line amps and mix busses would be nicest to do for this music. It doesn't need to be without colour, just reasonably free of noise.

We are pretty much sold on the DIY / custom idea as opposed to buying a new console, though I understand there are quite a few good reasons why the opposite would be a more prudent decision.

i must say i really dig the hardy 990

a very muscular device.

Going to test it soon in a differential setup

baadc0de said:

True, but this is maybe a bit different in that it is a block of EQs, busses and auxes, all with faders and pans. In short, it's a mixing console of a sort. I'm not sure line amps are absolutely mandatory, but it must work from unbalanced sources, balanced sources, transformer or servo balanced.. different impedances, that's why I thought line amps would do well here.

Click to expand...

Where is the EQ? - per channel or just on the stereo bus? With faders, AUXes and pans it's a mixer without any mic pres.

Cheers

Ian

The problem is that the target wasn't entirely fixed when I started this thread. I thought of it as a sort of short inquiry that would produce a few schematics with endorsements, maybe even references or sound examples. Hence, the choice of Studio A forum.

Now it's pretty much fixed what I want and as soon as I finish a few other projects and get some more education on how to go about it, I'll just do a few blocks and see how they work. The target now is a modular, digitally controlled analog mixer with balanced active summing, a few auxes and panning. The SSL Duality was a big inspiration, concept-wise. The channel modules themselves could offer EQ or whatever..

Console design is a pretty mature technology with most of the recent activity toward operating fully in the digital domain.

You mention digitally controlled analog. There are several automated consoles using VCAs for gain elements, and even one I'm aware of that uses DPOTs (literally digital pots ).

They all have pros and cons so it kind of depends on what you are interested in.

JR

Yes, I'm interested in digitally controlled analog. I see many projects here, like 1081 or certain kinds of API EQs that seem to have a problem mainly with the "user interface" elements being either prohibitively expensive, rare to find or just hard to execute. So I'd like to explore that a bit and see if maybe digital control could do something here for me and maybe others. I have a few engineers interested and a few EE favors we intend to call in for this, so maybe something will come out of it. From preliminary discussion, it seems we'll try quite a few concepts, including DPOTs, CMOS switches and VCAs... The crowning result of which would be a digitally controlled analog mixing engine ala Euphonix. If all goes well, of course

I believe there was a thread on that exact topic here within the last couple years (before this recording sub forum existed). The old dogs (like me) mostly advised the OP that he didn't appreciate the scope of the project, but discussion went on for a while, then died off.

I have a passing interest in gaining the technology to host an effective webpage in hardware, so the interface can be simple web or computer connection and product operated from a browser. But this is not at the top of my list at the moment.

ideally somebody else will do the legwork so i don't have to. I feel like I would have more to contribute where the digital and analog audio interfaces in hardware.

JR

I did read a few relevant threads on this forum and I think I can appreciate at least the coarse breadth and scope of this subject. If nothing else, one can look to the products that we see from real manufacturers of audio processing hardware that actually have R&D departments with full-time people working on their products with good funding. Not a lot of them seem to make use of this paradigm, so it's probably either hard to get right or hard to sell or a niche thing..

I'm not against the web interface idea, though I'd rather have a very simple protocol between the hardware unit and a computer which could then have a web server installed on it to facilitate this feature. A matter of taste, perhaps.

For a one off do what works for you.

I am looking for a broad commercial solution and hosting a web page, allows easy interface with all kinds of devices, and avoids the need for computer specific drivers, etc.

JR

In my searching the net, I kind of liked this one .. http://www.systronix.com/tini/tini_simm.htm

again OK for a one off, I won't pay $50 for a module to put inside a product. Chips should be a couple bux...

JR