SSL channel strip Comps (not L/R comps)

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cactus

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 14, 2004
Messages
64
Location
Mobile, AL
i'd be interested in making some of the compressors from an SSL channel strip. i don't know which one (i've only used a 4000-series), but i'd be happy with any.

has anyone ever attempted these? i'd like to have a bunch of em.

thanks
 
All the E and G-series channel stip comps used the 82E10 card. The only revision was the switch from 1537 VCA to DBX 2151 VCA in the early eighties.

The J-series added a gate hold time control and a Peak/RMS detector switch, but s otherwise the same. It's a feed-forward.

Keith
 
right....

so is that 82E10 card something i could get my hands on? ("I" being a non-PCB-making kind of guy). along with a schematic, maybe?

(btw, i'm really new to this)

thanks, SSLtech
 
I think these MTA1537A aren't available any more.

Some german guys did a reverse engineering of the complete SSL console some years ago. I have some prototype channels at home. But before they are able to earn money with that, SSL accused them.

It seems that the Comp/Gate fits on a double sided eurocard.
As iam afraid of etching double sided pcbs, so I haven't copied the
layout. Furthermore i need infos about the pin assignment of the pcb.
The console had have many contact problems so I decide to make
standalone channels of these pcbs whenever...
[I didn't own a complete console ever]

178-7827_IMG.jpg


backside:
http://www.nrgrecording.de/assets/images/178-7831_IMG.jpg

compressor/gate and EQ
http://www.nrgrecording.de/assets/images/178-7830_IMG.jpg
 
[quote author="Michael Krusch"]Frank, your pictures exceed the allowed size. Now the forum police will come and punish you. :grin:[/quote]
I don't know what you mean!? :green: :green: :green:

:roll: Frank.
 
having ruled that out...

Is there a plan here for a good DIY mono comp, but without Gate/Exp ?

i could really use the Comp/experience

thanks again
 
Ya know, that's interesting that you should also want the compressor without the gate. I, myself, have been wanting to jump into this design sans gate.

If you regularly mix in the analog world then I'd recommend you build the gate and compressor together since the gate's sidechain uses the uncompressed signal while the compressor can be smashing the crap out of the signal independently... hard if not impossible to do with two analog units. AND both processes share the same VCA, so there's less signal path... pretty cool.

However, I gate in the digital domain when I'm mixing, and (with drums particularly) I regularly copy the track(s) to be gated to adjacent tracks and assign those output to the sidechain of the plug-in gating the other signal (thereby triggering the gate from an unaffected version of the same signal..... like the SSL design). For this reason I too am interested in only the compressor section. (It also makes for easier PCB layout without the gate portion).

I've got a buddy who does prototyping for Texas Instruments that I'm getting to help me lay this thing out, but it won't be for a few months at least since I'm working on several other things at the moment (racking six channels of Neve mic pre's, finishing my LA-2A, a line mixer for a friend, another SSL bus compressor, and a pair of tube mics).

THEN.... I'll get to it. If you have any progress on this, Cactus, please keep me posted. Otherwise I'll contact you when I start putting it together.

BTW, I was planning on adding the Peak/RMS switch that Keith mentioned. Keith, you told me once before how to accomplish this, and I remember it seemed rather simple, but I no longer have that post. :oops:

Could you go through it one more time for me on THIS forum?

Thanks, and peace,

JC
 
Frank,

I have the schematic for the 1537-version of 82E10 (with pin numbers), if you're interested. because of the LED's for metering, this card takes ridiculous amounts of wireing though...

Jakob E.
 
I have a board that was layed out for me for the DBX 2151 version where the pots were board mounted and there's a little extra board for the LEDs that was ribbon cabled to the main board. The problem is that the guy who laid it out made several errors and I have never gotten it to work. If anyone is up to it, I will send you a board free of charge as long as you get it to work and tell me all the problems. Sadly, among the errors is messing up the wiring to the board mounted dual pots that would hold the board. Since this was the plan, there are no mounting holes. I guess the LED board would have to be forfitted in order to use it's mounting holes to mount eh board and wire to the pots!

Also a bummer, the RMS follower an AD536 which is more than $10 each.

any takers?

Mark

PS. The scans up here are of the one with the other VCA, not the 2151 version. I have one of the cards with the DBX VCA but no scanner. That may be the better solution, getting IT scanned.
 
http://img56.photobucket.com/albums/v172/gyraf/SSL_82e08_1537_VCA.gif

maybe also:

http://img56.photobucket.com/albums/v172/gyraf/1537typeChComp.gif

Jakob E.
 
looks like literally the only thing that changed was the VCA.

Do you think the RMS follower chip is critical to the sound? I mean could you put the attack and release timing controls onto some THAT chips and get a similar sounding compressor? Just a thought. I bet the reaction of the AD536 is different from the THAT RMS chips, I know....

Mark
 
[quote author="verbos"]
Do you think the RMS follower chip is critical to the sound? [/quote]

Yes, it is. Very much so.

The integration wave form from the RMS-converter is a very important part of this compressor's sound. But the cheap versions of the AD536 works as good as the expensive ones..

Jakob E.
 
[quote author="gyraf"]he integration wave form from the RMS-converter is a very important part of this compressor's sound. But the cheap versions of the AD536 works as good as the expensive ones..[/quote]

Cheap meaning $12 each! Unless you know somewhere to get them for less. I know the Metal Can (AD536JH) ones seem to be less expensive, and cooler looking. ANyone know of a surplus source where they're 50 cents?

mark

PS. Jakob, you want to build one from the circuit board i have? I'll mail you onw for free.... all you have to do is promise to get it working.
 
Hi Mark,

Thanks, but no thanks. We already have many of both the originals and Danfield's clones in our studio.

If troubleshooting this, note that the 1v5 Zener is marked wrong on most the zeners you buy. I have no idea of why. But this is a possible source of errors.

Jakob E.
 
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