Potato Cakes
Well-known member
Hello, everyone,
As I have been fixing up my Scorpion, I am finding that coming up with a replacement channel board with completely different (and hopefully much improved) sound and feature set is fairly feasible. But before I do take on such a challenge and employ a designer I would need to know if there are enough Scorpion I & II owners or prospective buyers that would be interested in such a project. Keep in mind that this would be for the PCB and faceplate only. I would also see about a new card for the physical inputs. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up as this would take all year (or longer) to complete and require a group buy for an initial order, but would anyone here want such a product?
I would try to make the circuit somewhat customizable with transformers and opamps as well as EQ style, using the obvious suspects of API and Neve as the circuit frame of reference. I have built numerous version of both and they have provided me with a high level of success in recording amazing sounding tracks, so I'm sticking with what I know. There won't be physical space for any 500 series silliness so don't mention or ask. I'll probably have to settle on a specific design for the EQ as having several options could dramatically increase time and money spent developing this. I would like to add a compressor of some sort as well. It would be very simple with something like a threshold control and maybe a ratio with auto make-up gain. The purpose would be for a general yet pleasant sounding dynamic control, but that's only if there is room. For simplicity, I would probably adhere to the bus structure of the console and not try to add or modify that feature set.
The preamp would be setup so there is no need for a separate line input so that all the way down is unity. This would allow me to change the physical I/O cards so that the line in jack becomes an additional insert point making separate balanced insert send and return. The direct out would be balanced as well.
This would be for the channels only. If this initial offering went well I could look at the bus and master section as well. But honestly adding an ACA-Bo to the master and recapping and changing ICs with added bypass caps the buss and master sections would be really great.
Again, just an initial see what people want/need to gauge whether or not pursuing this will at least break even. This would be a ways off from doing if there is enough interest to even get started. If this would be something you would buy let me know and I'll start making a list.
Thanks!
Paul
As I have been fixing up my Scorpion, I am finding that coming up with a replacement channel board with completely different (and hopefully much improved) sound and feature set is fairly feasible. But before I do take on such a challenge and employ a designer I would need to know if there are enough Scorpion I & II owners or prospective buyers that would be interested in such a project. Keep in mind that this would be for the PCB and faceplate only. I would also see about a new card for the physical inputs. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up as this would take all year (or longer) to complete and require a group buy for an initial order, but would anyone here want such a product?
I would try to make the circuit somewhat customizable with transformers and opamps as well as EQ style, using the obvious suspects of API and Neve as the circuit frame of reference. I have built numerous version of both and they have provided me with a high level of success in recording amazing sounding tracks, so I'm sticking with what I know. There won't be physical space for any 500 series silliness so don't mention or ask. I'll probably have to settle on a specific design for the EQ as having several options could dramatically increase time and money spent developing this. I would like to add a compressor of some sort as well. It would be very simple with something like a threshold control and maybe a ratio with auto make-up gain. The purpose would be for a general yet pleasant sounding dynamic control, but that's only if there is room. For simplicity, I would probably adhere to the bus structure of the console and not try to add or modify that feature set.
The preamp would be setup so there is no need for a separate line input so that all the way down is unity. This would allow me to change the physical I/O cards so that the line in jack becomes an additional insert point making separate balanced insert send and return. The direct out would be balanced as well.
This would be for the channels only. If this initial offering went well I could look at the bus and master section as well. But honestly adding an ACA-Bo to the master and recapping and changing ICs with added bypass caps the buss and master sections would be really great.
Again, just an initial see what people want/need to gauge whether or not pursuing this will at least break even. This would be a ways off from doing if there is enough interest to even get started. If this would be something you would buy let me know and I'll start making a list.
Thanks!
Paul
