Aharon:new member

Hi to all.I have been lurking for a while but the lure is irresistible.
Although I have 5 or 6 tube amps and 30 stomboxes under my belt I have never attempted anything of this complexity.
I'd like to know your opinion on which project would be a good one to start with.
Thanks in advance
Aharon

If youve built that much stuff, I think youd be able to tackle just about anything we dicsuss here with ease. The gyraf projects are great as lots of folks have built them so trouble shooting is a breeze and they sound good! What do you need to build?

dave

30 stompboxes and 5-6 tube amps is quite a bit to have under the belt, actually. :thumb:

Right now, I'm happily hacking away at a pair of API 312 mic preamps, a Paia FatMan kit, and soon, a Gyraf G9 mic pre, a pair of Gyraf G7 tube mics, and a pair of G1176 compressors. I want to fit an LA2a in there somewhere, too.

I keep myself busy.

I guess a good question is, what do you want to do?

Hi Aharon,

Welcome! What kind of thing do you need? If you've built tube amps and stompboxes then nothing should be impossible!

FWIW I think the single most useful bit of kit I've built to date is the G9 preamp.

Stewart

(soundguy & consul beat me to it!)

I have built 2 SSLs, almost completed 2 1176s, a number of mods to my mics, console, computer, tv, vcr, cars, tax returns etc. I took the leftover parts and built a singularity generator, that when activated, sucks the money right out of my wallet. I dubbed it DIY.

cheers!

Chris

Thanks for the welcome.
As far as what I need,I'd like to have a compressor an EQ and a pre,you know,hi quality like you guys build but which one would be a confidence builder and sure fire success for a newbie?
Maybe the Pulltec,maybe the SSL,Calrec?.
I have made PCBs with PNP but I don't think this is going to fly here.
Either I have to build the light box or buy them ready which seems like a good idea.
At any rate,thanks for the welcome and thanks for any input.
I have already started to see if my supplier stocks the switches and other parts.I know I'm going to buy the Lundaals over the net but if I can get away with local suppliers for the rest that's better.
Cheers
Aharon :green:

what would you like your audio to sound like? airy and clean? thick and warm? punchy compression? smooth compression? combinations of all the above?

each project will add or subtract qualities from your sound with items like transformers(trafos or iron as we lovingly call them) capacitors and inductors etc.

if you know what you want your sound to be then we can suggest something more precise for you!

edit: If you are unsure of your pcb making skills or haven't done it before i would stick with the PCBs that are already made until you have built a few so you don't get discouraged from building them. I have found the homemade ones hard to make and the setup costs for making good ones at home can cost more than a bunch of ready-made pcbs. further more, it makes troubleshooting much easier since you won't need to check the traces since most of these have been through many revisions and have been used so much that we've found and fixed all the issues.

Good luck!

[quote author="Svart"]what would you like your audio to sound like? airy and clean? thick and warm? punchy compression? smooth compression? combinations of all the above?

each project will add or subtract qualities from your sound with items like transformers(trafos or iron as we lovingly call them) capacitors and inductors etc.

if you know what you want your sound to be then we can suggest something more precise for you!
Svart


Combinations of all the above would be amazing but realistically I would have to choose something to start with,how about thick and warm,smooth compression?.
The recordings would be in the digital domain,I have no tape machines as of yet (gasp!).
Thanks
Aharon

Don't worry about tape machines. One of Keef's rants talked me out of ever wanting one of those. :grin:

aharon-

lundahls are *awesome* transformers, but if you dont have a tape machine you might be better off with something else as an output transformer regardless of what project you chose. Everyone of course has their own taste and you'll certainly find no shortage of guys tracking on computers that love lundahls to death, but if you are looking for smoothing and fattening, I personally would opt for a transformer that is slower sounding with more distortion and there's a big selection of stuff out there that could work for you. Lundahls are ultra clean sounding and really wide bandwidth, if you were to put a jensen with higher distortion specs in there, you might get more of the "waming thickening" effect you are after.

As far as tape machines go, they are not created equal, if you cant get a good pro level machine, dont bother...

dave

sounds like he might be wanting tubes....what do you suggest guys?

welcome!

I thought I recognized your handle from those other "stompbox" forums I used to frequent. :grin:

Not to toot my own horn but if you want simple, warm tube compression try http://www.conditionedresponse.com/DIY/C5/index.html for the PRR vari-mu.

cheers,
kent

for my 2 cents, I would bet that an la2a with lundahls is gonna sound cleaner than something like the gyraf ssl fed into something driving an LO1166. The la2a might be bigger sounding but the top I would bet is still faster with lundahls than you'd get with a slow monster like an LO1166.

there's a big part of me that thinks that the neve frenzy would never have reached the level it is currently at had music guys never switched to computers for recording. Sure, the stuff would still be in demand, but its SUCH a solution for digital recording with what it does, if we were all still on tape I think there would be a significant portion of peeps who didnt feel that they NEEDED it to get their sound.

I think the perceived "fatness" of an item is pretty well tied to its lack of high end response and how smooth the rolloff is, a U47 in lots of ways is a perfect example of that, those things tend to takke a nose dive right around where many other mics have a peak...

Im sure that whomever writes the code for all those "vintage" plug-ins now available for PT has the formula for the high end scribbled on a post-it somewhere.

dave

I see there's some old friends here too.(Kent)I was looking at the 12Au7 project today,looks good!.

What if I tell you what I have and then you maybe in a better position to recommend some toys to fill in the gap where I'm lacking the most?.
The chain would be Yamaha 01V and a Fostex 24/8 into a Fostex D160.
There's also the computer.
Aharon

I think I'm going for the SSL Compressor.Mostly off the shelf parts and seems like there's boards for sale too.This will get my feet wet I guess.
Thanks
Aharon