New life for my old GSSL (PICS)

[gerardmanvuca]

/i just finised re-moding my GSSL and am loving the upgrade. I changed all the caps to wimas and nichicons and replaced the THAT 2180 VCAs with DBX 202s (apart from the sidechain). I also added the Oxford/Turbo board, Supersidechain board, CRC board and changed sum resistors to give it a shorter release time (no 1.2 setting now, i never used it). The shorter release time is really cool. And last off i painted and printed the front panel with safmat film. Its the 1st time i've used safmat and i really wish i had sprayed clearcoat on the plate before adding the safmat as there are some tiny bubbles underneath in between the flakes of the spraypaint....but fak it!.. looks gd enuff and i cant be arsed to strip it and redo it. I'll do my neve ez1290 plate better.  As for sound...well after adding the caps and VCA there is a HUGE diffrence in sound...hard to explain exactly but it seems to focus the mix better and really nice kinda lush mids. pushing it a bit really brings out some beauty and sum nice solidstate crunch i guess.  The new boards are also great.....its soooo much quieter now thanks to the CRC board.

 

[rob_gould]

Nice work - great job on the front panel

 

[gerardmanvuca]

cheers mate...ah a fellow prodigy pro-er from Reading...cool

 

[syn]

Very nice. Have you changed any components to make 202c work?

 

[signalflow]

That looks fantastic!  Did you end up changing any component values for those DBX black cans?

-Casey

**Ha! Syn you beat me to it**

 

[strangeandbouncy]

202c is gold, not black ±ithink . .

 

[syn]

I don't know where the "c" came from ;D. mine are marked 202 only (no suffix).sorry. 

 

[rob_gould]

cheers mate...ah a fellow prodigy pro-er from Reading...cool

I am in Tilehurst.  You in Reading these days, or just from there originally? 

What kind of music do you write / produce?

 

[gerardmanvuca]

cheers guys.......the black cans are 202 only....202c are gold cans. I havent changed any resistors for the black cans but they sound fine as is. Although i am guna try sum difrent resistor settings just to see which work best (im thinkin swap the 127k in the sidechain for a 100k 1st off). I havent run any ratio tests or anything like that yet but will get on it.

Rob, im not from Reading but i've been livin between reading and london for the past 10 years. I'm up oxford road ways...I produce and write Rock,hiphop,dubstep,dnb.  I dont have much of the club stuff online at the mo but u can hear my bands stuff that i produced here www.myspace.com/shadowarmy (im Patch the guitar player..... gerrard is a phseudo name thats stuk with me over the years...long story hehe8) We aint dun anythin much in a while.......wat kinda stuff do u do/build?   

 

[phishman13]

Nice work!  That looks really great!  My GSSL is forming up to be almost exactly like that one.  How did you mount that front control board to your case?  I ordered a case and didn't even think of it until after stuffing my lorlins on the board that the switch spacing was different, so I had to UNstuff them, and now I'm wondering how to mount a board with no mounting holes!  And keep us updated on how those 202's work out.  I (and I'm sure many others) would like to know how they turn out in this circuit.

 

[rob_gould]

Rob, im not from Reading but i've been livin between reading and london for the past 10 years. I'm up oxford road ways...I produce and write Rock,hiphop,dubstep,dnb.  I dont have much of the club stuff online at the mo but u can hear my bands stuff that i produced here www.myspace.com/shadowarmy (im Patch the guitar player..... gerrard is a phseudo name thats stuk with me over the years...long story hehe8) We aint dun anythin much in a while.......wat kinda stuff do u do/build?   

Just down the road from me then...

I have mainly done comps so far for my small home studio.  I write dance music mainly, breakbeat and tech house for the most part but I want to get into live recording as I know a couple of people who can sing and I used to be a keen guitarist so there's potential for some colabs there.  It's more for fun than fame / profit for me though.

I'll check out your tracks

Anyway, back to the compressor... ;D

 

[livingnote]

Yeah solid. I like the concice-ness of the appearance, it's like "right there".

Are those Nichis originally SMD that I see there?

 

[Silvas]

Nice...

Love the blue illuminated meter.

 

[phatmateo]

Looks good!  I plan on doing about the same setup.  What caps and vca's did you replace that improved the sound?

 

[gerardmanvuca]

Yeah solid. I like the concice-ness of the appearance, it's like "right there".

Are those Nichis originally SMD that I see there?

yeh they look like smd but they are through hole...theyre the only nichicons caps i could find rated at 25v at farnell

http://uk.farnell.com/nichicon/plf1e220mcl7/capacitor-22uf-25v/dp/1580596?Ntt=1580596

 

[gerardmanvuca]

Nice work!  That looks really great!  My GSSL is forming up to be almost exactly like that one.  How did you mount that front control board to your case?  I ordered a case and didn't even think of it until after stuffing my lorlins on the board that the switch spacing was different, so I had to UNstuff them, and now I'm wondering how to mount a board with no mounting holes!  And keep us updated on how those 202's work out.  I (and I'm sure many others) would like to know how they turn out in this circuit.

i mounted the daughter board by drilling 2 small holes in the spare switch pads on the left and the right of the board, making sure not to pertrude into the circuit lines. Then just bolted on to mounted spacers.

edited# THe 202s are working fine......and are sounding real nice

 

[gerardmanvuca]

Looks good!  I plan on doing about the same setup.  What caps and vca's did you replace that improved the sound?

        the vca's were THAT 2180LC pre trimmed. The caps arnt evan worth mentioning..i cant remember tthe actual make of them but they were pretty crappy