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sr1200

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 6, 2010
Messages
2,094
Location
Long Island, NY USA
I've done a few mods (couple of MXL to Royers and some eprom/chip swaps for other units) And in those cases there was either a complete rebuild in the royers case or a functional difference (eproms).  But what about mods in the sense of just replacing a few chips to make things more clear or "right".  I dug up a pair of original 3630's this past week to sell, (which apparently are very IN-STYLE for EDM folks in europe).  After seeing some of the responses to it, I got to thinking about some of the mod folks did on them.  One in particular was Peter Purpose's mods.  Has anyone actually done these mods (Peter if you're out there and wish to chime in, please)? And if so, was the effort/cost worth it for such a "low grade" piece?  I understand that the original stock pieces have a "sound" (albeit a "bad" sound depending on who you ask), but a sound none the less.  I'm considering doing the mods to one of the two units as a comparison, but don't want to waste time on a piece that im probably not going to use anyway unless the mods actually make the unit worth it.
 
sr1200 said:
I've done a few mods (couple of MXL to Royers and some eprom/chip swaps for other units) And in those cases there was either a complete rebuild in the royers case or a functional difference (eproms).  But what about mods in the sense of just replacing a few chips to make things more clear or "right".  I dug up a pair of original 3630's this past week to sell, (which apparently are very IN-STYLE for EDM folks in europe).  After seeing some of the responses to it, I got to thinking about some of the mod folks did on them.  One in particular was Peter Purpose's mods.  Has anyone actually done these mods (Peter if you're out there and wish to chime in, please)? And if so, was the effort/cost worth it for such a "low grade" piece?  I understand that the original stock pieces have a "sound" (albeit a "bad" sound depending on who you ask), but a sound none the less.  I'm considering doing the mods to one of the two units as a comparison, but don't want to waste time on a piece that im probably not going to use anyway unless the mods actually make the unit worth it.

All that most of these rebuilds -- "mod" seems inadequate -- do is save you money on an enclosure and a PCB.

You're probably better off building a better unit from scratch.

Or buying a better unit in the first place.

-a
 
At best you can transform a low grade unit to mastering or even sonar/dolphin grade with increased flexibility. It's mostly a technicality and it's questionable whether its worth it: you were probably looking for some other design/unit in the first place. I wouldn't trust anyone elses "mods" in the whole world. Not unless it was part of actual design discussion. Only change anything when you understand the design/schematic quite completely.

Otherwise you are still shooting in the dark.
 
Some low grade stuff has nice design (copied from somebody else) but bad components, maybe caps are the most seen as worse of the chain. I'm thinking in recap an ADA8000 to see if it get's any better... It depends on the original design, if you know the desing from somewhere else and it's good maybe changing the most critical parts will make it better, probably not as good as the original because changes would be major but still something can be done, sometimes.

JS
 
If you are changing "low quality" caps to whatever the salesman or some random forum guy told you, you probably should stop whatever it is you are doing and get back to the drawing board. The figurative version of learning more about said craft, and the very literal drawing board of this forum.
 
As far as having a better unit... ive already built a pair of 1176s, a pair of SB4000's, Abes CLX's, The SA3a from ruckus, and a point to point LA2a, so im not going WANTING for compression lol.  Just was looking for something to do with some crap i had laying around the place.  Peter suggests replacing most of the IC's in the unit, doesn't make mention of any cap replacements, but a better power supply is suggested. (which the wall wart this thing uses im sure is barely adequate as most alesis units that use this same PS are).  If the unit still isn't "good" after teh mods then its just not worth it.  If it turns the unit around to where its decent, then I'll take the time to play around. 
 
I'm not doing anything, just searching what would be best thing to do...

I don't know if the alesis circuit worth it, you won't be changing the kind of compression or it's charecter but you could make it sound cleaner and maybe quieter with more or less effort depending on what's happening inside. A friend change resistors of a comp because it was noisy and it did get much much quieter...

JS
 
there was a3630 mod where you removed some jumpers ultimately taking the gates out the audio path. I did it but the difference was not as nearly as orgasmic as they made it sound.  The 3630 mod or no mod to  me is one of those units that is what it is, not a bad or good thing, just a thing.  Every piece of gear has a purpose no matter how bad or good it sounds. 

as far as capacitor mods, I find that swapping the types of caps does more to change the sound  then the brand of caps.
 
My buddy spent several hours doing the Symterix 202 mods (caps, bypass, chips) and the only noticable difference was the led he changed from green to red  ;D

A lot of work but the unit sounds just the same, even if it does have better specs. Makes me wonder about BLA's mods..
 
pucho812 said:
there was a3630 mod where you removed some jumpers ultimately taking the gates out the audio path.

That's not really possible, since the one VCA in the channel works for both the gate and the compressor.

-a
 
There are a couple of jumpers to clip to do that "mod" all it does is take part of the circuit out of the equation.  I dont think it was possible on later revisions of the compressor though.
 
sr1200 said:
There are a couple of jumpers to clip to do that "mod" all it does is take part of the circuit out of the equation.  I dont think it was possible on later revisions of the compressor though.

What part of the circuit is bypassed when the jumpers are removed? Again, there's only one VCA.

Is the detector logic for the gate bypassed? You can achieve the same thing by setting the threshold to minimum.

-a
 
It's always surprised me that none of you guys doing the small runs of PCBs and kits for some of the popular DIY projects have attempted any "retrofit" boards/circuits for some of this common junk gear that everyone seems to have laying around. Many seem to feel that the best thing some of it has going for it is the enclosure and panel, which is coincidentally an obstacle for many when building from scratch.

The 3630 might be a bad example due to the number of controls and lights, but stuff like that original ART Tube MP (or Behringer's version) would seem ideal for a single channel of something nice like the Green Pre. I've thought about doing that myself, but I've already done the BLA mod to the one here, so I'd need to buy another. Better yet, would be if someone could squeeze an actual respectable tube circuit into one of those enclosures and run a small batch of boards for that.

Take Care

PS @sr1200- You probably already know this, but keep in mind, there appears to be several "versions" of 3630 out there. I think I've read of preferred rev's, but can't remember much more than that.
 
I agree with you.  I buy crap units on ebay all the time for their enclosures.  $12+shipping for a case isn't bad.  I make my own front panel anyway and its a bonus when the back panel already has the IEC and i/o
 
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