Building a passive mastering console. who's in??

[glazer56]

Greetings!

I am currently adding a dedicated mastering room to my recording studio, and will need to build some sort of mastering console to control all the DIY gear that I have built, and am building  ;D I have learned quite a lot from this forum, and hopefully I can give back a little by offering up some schematics for review, and possibly offering a group buy on PC boards if there is any interest. I certainly don't claim to be an expert designer, though I've completed many successful projects, including some custom preamps and EQ's. So please excuse the schematics if they are a little hard to follow!

My goal for this build is to create a passive relay based mastering console to switch in and out various hardware units, as well as to enable a M/S encoder/decoder. In addition, I am adding a full monitoring section, with a separate attenuator, L&R Mutes, polarity reversal, L/R swap, mono and a bypass. I am thinking of adding an attenuator before and after the inserts, though these can be easily bypassed. All the switches and attenuators would be connected to the PC board via terminal blocks, allowing virtually any type of switch to be used, or to allow certain features to be bypassed if you so choose. Since there will be quite a few i/o points, I was planning on using these dual TRS jacks to save real-estate:

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Amphenol-Audio/ACJS-MHD/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvlX3nhDDO4AIjVaYpuavU1dYROEEZH59E%3d

The main inputs would be panel mount XLR's, (or your connector of choice) which would be hardwired to the input selector switch and the input attenuator before the signal hit's the PC Board. The monitor attenuator i/o's would also be panel mounted, since these could simply be hard-wired in, saving PC Board space and saving on manufacturing costs. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I plan to use a JLM power supply, though you could use any power supply you wish, as it only needs to supply power to the relays, and possible switch LED's

Here is the initial schematic, any suggestions, comments, critiques and criticisms welcome! thanks!  ;D ;D ;D

 

[king-rb]

looks good! i build something like this a few years bevore but used xlr conections instead of trs and recommend to use omron g6k relais. also it would be great to integrate the ms-matrix and psu on this board to get it simple. if you sell some boards i would take a few.

 

[king-rb]

another idea:
it would be great to change the position of the ms matrix so maybe ther sould be ms insert pints bevore the second and third insert. and maybe it should be posible to use insert two and three with the ms matrix at the same time.

 

[Viitalahde]

There's no need for such a complicated console. I would start off with a separate monitoring box, daisy-chain the tools you use and see how you feel about your workflow. It's easy to overthink it.

My passive console is revision 3. I'm happy now. The previous one was more complicated with 6 inserts, this one is pretty much perfect.

2k5 bridged-T Shallco attenuator. Inserts 1 and 3 can take either route A or route B. Right now I've patched my Neumann W495stb to insert 1A, the BPEQ-->Knif Pure Mu compressor to Insert 2, and the LCEQ passive EQ to insert 3A.

 

[creal]

Interesting project ;D
I think it just missing the possibility to switch between three out in the monitor section.
It's usefull if you like check your mix on different monitors like auratone, krk and other bigger...

Cheers
Cyril

 

[glazer56]

another idea:
it would be great to change the position of the ms matrix so maybe ther sould be ms insert pints bevore the second and third insert. and maybe it should be posible to use insert two and three with the ms matrix at the same time.

Hmm.. right now, the M/S insert points affect all six inserts, are you suggesting that there should be a few inserts that stay L/R?

 

[pucho812]

The idea is interesting.... I would be curious to see how this develops

 

[druu]

Did anyone proceed with this project? I'm looking into building something similar but still need to get my head around it, unless someone has made one and is willing to share the info?

 

[glazer56]

I haven't yet, I got busy with the Drip Fairchild. I do need to get crackin' on this though, maybe next month after I move. I'll keep you posted on what I come up with!

 

[druu]

Sweet, look forward to it!

 

[druu]

Bump!