This has been brought up in the past but I think its pertinent to this discussion-
I dont think there are any boxes that anyone here makes that are EXACT clones of anything that is currently commercially available that would thus result in a loss of revenue for a manufacturer. Please correct me if I am wrong. Take the popular things people make- 1176, SSL quad, API whatever, Neve whatever, etc. In the case of the Gyraf projects, the 1176 for instance is spec'd for lundahl transformers or a transformerless input, two things that you are definitely not going to get by purchasing the UA "reissue". This may seem like splitting hairs to some people, but Im sorry, if you want the classic 1176 sound, you arent gonna get it with a lundahl output transformer and also, the gyraf is a version of the 1176 (with the 1109 output) that if you wanted that output stage, you'd have to buy used anyway- the UA "reissue" uses the 1108 class A output stage. So, while you can look at it as a loss of sale, I think thats silly since youve built a box that is similar in name only. The same can be said for the gyraf SSL project, which has a different sidechain, different VCA's. There is also someone ALREADY cloning this to the same degree of "different" commercially. The same can be said of API preamps in the case of OSA and take your pick ad naseum with people cloning Neve circuits commercially.
The bottom line I have always thought and feel now more than ever is that any sale that a company claims to have "lost to DIY" was a sale they were never going to get, plain and simple. It does not save me a dime to make something myself than it does to go buy the thing pre assembled, I have built more than half of my input in my studio and can say with confidence that I have not saved one half of one cent by doing this shit myself. I DIY the stuff so that the only thing I have to answer to is the sound that comes out of the box, not the bottom line that an accountant referenced when approving parts selection for transformers and capacitors. I can put expensive parts in there that make me happpy and thats the end of it. Its not that Im too cheap to buy some commercial product, please adjust your ego and realize that I DONT WANT your commercial product that is full of Xicon caps and cheap pots and cheap switches. If a company either copied an old defunct classic companies design or a company built something based off a reccomended data sheet applicaiton or ressurected something cool from the pages of a radio engineer's handbook from the 50's- if someone can copy another's designs and capitalize on it, certainly I can copy that exact same design and build one for my own use with out having to worry about public opinion.
This certainly does not apply to everyone out there, as we all know, there are amazing people *designing* amazing stuff out there. Whats real wierd to note is that these guys that are busy desinging NEW designs and implementations are the dudes who participate here and are completely forthcoming with trying to help a newbie like myself pull up his bootstraps with electronics. Its generally the companies that dont have designers at the helm and are using widely published designs as their "own" who gripe about us building our own gear.
I dont know, perhaps my view on things is a little askew, but I just dont see how people like us appear to be points of loss of sale for manufacturers. I think anyone claiming that really doesnt understand the motivation behind this at all. Im not trying to build something because Im too cheap to go buy somebodys product. Im building something because somebody's product is too cheap to buy. Please try to understand this perspective. Im a recording engineer, Im a complete control freak and I like to know that the coupling cap that all my sound has to go through is in there not because I got a good deal on 10,000 parts that month but because I thought it sounded good, per MY taste compared to the six other caps I tried there. I built a box that is completely custom to MY tastes, what I thought sound good and all of this works with my business plan, people come to my studio because they know its filled with shit they can only use HERE because much of it is hand built and tweaked. Anyone can go anywhere and record on whatever commercial gear and get the same sound again and again.
Another perspective to consider is the fact that I actually ENJOY doing this. Yes, I really like putting the parts through the holes in the board, soldering them in, doing the wiring and reveling in a great feeling of accomplishment when I turn the thing on and it works. The problem that I have, unfortunately for now, is that while Im a smart guy, Im just an assembler and I couldnt design boo on halloween. If I want to build something for my zen hobby, Im more or less forced to build something that is proven to work, just so I know that when Im done, if it doesnt work, then Ive done something wrong because the design was proven to work. Believe me, I cant WAIT to have the knowledge to design my own stuff, if it wasnt for my ability to build and learn from others designs, I wouldnt be halfway down the road in that process.
Now, when I DO design something, if I intend to profit from that design and not give it away to the public domain, the last thing I think I would do would be to share it here, or anywhere else online. Posting something on the internet does constitute publication... Im not afraid of anyone HERE building my designs, theres actually nothing Id love more than to give back something concrete to all the folks here who have helped me so much, no, if I was intending to profit from my design, I wouldnt publish it online in fear of my competitors using something like it in THEIR designs and that is really the bottom line here- the people from commercial entities are not really concerned with guys like me building their shit, they are concerned about their designs floating around online so that their competitors can see what they are doing. As if to suggest that their competitors have purchased their products and back designed them anyway, but thats a different conversation... If more people would be more straight with this group, when this exact issue has come up in the past, I think more people would have more respect but screaming and yelling that WE are the problem is beyond absurd and shows a real lack of not understanding the TRUE economics of this situation, not the extrapolated and hypothesized economics coming from an accounting department.
What would really be a good poll would be a show of hands as to how many people here have built something for themselves that is commercially available in the first place. I think ultimately this is nearly a %100 non-conflict with any company that might be upset with the DIY community as the grapevine might suggest if you listen closely. There are VERY few things discussed here that you can roll out to the store and purchase in the form that we discuss them. As mentioned, the gyraf 1176 and SSL are different. The gyraf pultec is different and you cant go buy a new pultec anyway, anyone who is selling a new pultec is just cloning someone else's design in the first place. You cant go and buy an api 312. You can buy a 512, but I dont like the sound of that circuit at all with a 1:10 jensen, I dont want a 512. I want a 312.... You cant buy any melcor gear. You cant buy any Quad Eight gear. You cant buy a gyraf microphone, if its based on an old transformer balanced neumann design, you cant buy one of those from neumann, all the neumann tube mics are transformerless. You can buy a clone of a neumann design from a handful of manufacturers, but now we are back to that catch 22 once again. People are currently discussing FF's optical limiter which by the time we get done throwing ideas around will be unlike any optical limiter you can go and purchase today. Just about the only thing I can think of in regards to this group cloning a commercially available product would be a neve 1081. For the amount of time it will take me to build one of those, it woudl be cheaper to buy one....
I dont know, have I made my point? Am I completely off my rocker? We arent doing anything that screws with anyone's business outside of making DIY popular. Oh boo hoo to that. And the few occasions where someone has posted a schematic of something that was intensely proprietary it was immediately taken off this group accompanied with mass scolding and hysteria.
You know, there's only 7 notes in western music. There's only so much you can do with that. Thank god we dont have old blues guys crying from the rafters about nobody being able to use a 12 bar format or paul mccartney threatening to sue because you put a D chord after an A.
dave