Completed Channel Strip (Pics)

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matta

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 11, 2005
Messages
1,640
Location
Cape Town, South Africa
It is finished! Behold the Ghetto Rack, master of low cost DIY and sucky metal work, but boy does it sound sweet :thumb:

I have been working on this for far too long. The initial plan was to build a channel strip comprising of a Green Pre, What Compressor and Calrec Eq, each with independent I/O that could be patched through a Patch Bay.

After building one V14 Green Pre with better quality parts from my prototypes I decided I just had to have a pair and so the channel strip is now a pair of Greens and a Calrec Eq, and the Comp was lost.

The electronics were the easy part! My metal working skills suck, so pardon the homebrew front panel? I couldn?t spring for the cost of an engraved panel, but kind of think it looks retro this way.

I must thank you all for your support, I could not have done this without your help, guidance and willingness to share. I want to thank Peter C for the boards and flury of e-mail responses to my questions and 2 dear friends, Fabio and Nino for their support in the creation of a channel strip.
There are too many other to name, but you know who you are :thumb:

Cheers

Matt

ghetto_front.jpg


ghetto_alt.jpg


ghetto_inside.jpg
 
Thanks guys for the kind words. Radiance, they are indeed latching switcheswit some good old Red Buttons, they came out of an old MCI tape machine I think, I got them and the board from Peter C who had it lying around.

I drilled oversize holes to get them through the panel and then picked up some galvanised washers and glued them to the panel to make the buttons look a bit more elegant and to cover up my bad metal work :green:

Cheers

Matt
 
[quote author="matta"]

.....I drilled oversize holes to get them through the panel and then picked up some galvanised washers and glued them to the panel to make the buttons look a bit more elegant and to cover up my bad metal work :green:

Cheers

Matt[/quote]

90% of DIY is this kind of stuff....

now it looks even better :thumb:
 
Nice Matt!!
How move on to the next ones !!!! :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:


:guinness:
Fabio
 
Hey Chris,

Thanks for the kind words. That Box is going strong and am loving it. I don't use the EQ as much as I had hoped, but not done alot of mixing of late, so hopefully in the future.

Most of my time is spent making these boxes, need to spend more time using them :thumb:

I got an SSL Comp of the way and then an 1176, this is addictive.

Cheers

Matt
 
[quote author="matta"]
Most of my time is spent making these boxes, need to spend more time using them :thumb: [/quote]

Ha! How true!!

Nice work Matt, and that sounds like just the beginning...

:grin:

Mark
 
I was just wondering on this channel strip, where exactly does the Calrec EQ circuit get inserted?

I was thinking of building a 1272 with the Calrec EQ. My guess is it would go after the BA183 output and before the Output transformer.

Of course I'm wrong all of the time...Just ask my wife!!

Mike
 
Hey Mike - your BA183 needs to go straight to the o/p transformer... there's a bunch of DC & a feedback loop going on there (or something like that :grin: ) that needs the gapped transformer to work properly.

So the Calrec would go after the transformer. You may find it a little difficult combining those 2 in a box - the Neve needs 24v DC & the Calrec is +/- 15-18v DC I think!

Justin
 
Thanks for the quick response JustinS!

After further thought...Perhaps it would be best before the preamp circuit? Otherwise wouldn't I be entering the Calrec with too hot of a signal?

Agreed that it would be tight in one box! Perhaps the power supply would have to be outside the box. I'm really just brainstorming right now as I have just built my first dual 1272.

The thought being that the Calrec looks much easier than the 1073 or 1081 type eq to build. thus I could still have a N@V@ish pre with a 4 band parametric at a fraction of the cost. And hopefully fewer headaches.

Mike
 

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