Hairball Audio, LLC - DIY Kits and Components. HairballAudio.com

[Echo North]

Completely balanced preamp?

Completely differential preamp.

Instrumentation, Cohen, fully differential kind of thing. 

Nothing too groundbreaking, but nothing I've ever seen with Neve style input/output and 990's in the middle.  Plus a few other features.  I'll try and post some details shortly.

 

[Echo North]

Here's a simplified block diagram.

Beyond that there are a bunch of cool features.

 

[ruairioflaherty]

Hi Mike,

I'm not in the tracking business right now but I want to cheer you on for not cloning a commercial product.  This is a really nice reworking of some well known ideas in a fresh new way.  I hope it flies off the shelf for you.

Cheers,
Ruairi

 

[Echo North]

Thank you Ruairi. 

It was definitely a conscious decision. 

I enjoy supplying the 1176 stuff for the MNATs PCBs and will continue to do that, but I've been really interested at starting down the path of my own designs for a couple years now.  I plan on pushing myself with each new design moving forward.  Hoping that A) the next one won't take so long and B) it will be even further in a new direction.

I have to add that I owe a lot to Ed Anderson.  It would have been intimidating to do this without his help along the way. 

Mike

 

[jsteiger]

Nice Mike! Lola's guts look purdy! 

 

[Echo North]

Nice Mike! Lola's guts look purdy! 

I'll go ahead and mark you down for 10 units Jeff. 

 

[gemini86]

Completely balanced preamp?

Completely differential preamp.

Instrumentation, Cohen, fully differential kind of thing. 

Nothing too groundbreaking, but nothing I've ever seen with Neve style input/output and 990's in the middle.  Plus a few other features.  I'll try and post some details shortly.

differential was the word I was looking for...

 

[Echo North]

differential was the word I was looking for...

Funnily enough, this was an ongoing thing for me in the development of the Lola.  I kept saying balanced when I meant differential and confused the crap out of people.

 

[acoustix]

Nice part.

 

[Echo North]

Nice part.

I'm excited to show the front and all the details.  Just pounding out a few details.

 

[earl]

Hey there Mike is the 8027 meter bigger than the 8025 meter so as to fit dans 2254 case? Nice on the Lola too  will be checking into

 

[Echo North]

i don't think I have an "8025" meter.  Each meter has a datasheet with measurements on the page.

8037 (AL29 type) is bigger than the 8027 (AL19 type).

Check the datasheet and compare it with your case.  The 8027 should fit in a 1U the 8037 will not.

Thanks!

 

[earl]

Sorry mike got the meter wrong i ordered the 8027b 1 ma 's and they are too small for the dan 2u case.  The 8027-wf 1 ma's must be the right ones? a bit bigger then?  Thanks. I will use the smaller meter's on another project btw...

 

[Echo North]

Sorry mike got the meter wrong i ordered the 8027b 1 ma 's and they are too small for the dan 2u case.  The 8027-wf 1 ma's must be the right ones? a bit bigger then?  Thanks. I will use the smaller meter's on another project btw...

The 8027-B and 8027-WF are the same sized meter with different mounting options.  The "B" needs a hole.  The "WF" needs a 47 x 24 mm cutout.  See here:
http://hairballaudio.com/docs/meters/8027.pdf

Thanks!

 

[Echo North]

I'm please to reveal Hairball's new product "LOLA"! 

Check out this page for all the details and to be notified when it's available. Pricing is coming in about 2 weeks.

http://www.hairballaudio.com/lola/

Mike

 

[useme2305]

awesome! i guess this would be a great companion for ribbon mics or quieter sources?

what sources/mics did your test crowd dig this on?

 

[Echo North]

awesome! i guess this would be a great companion for ribbon mics or quieter sources?

what sources/mics did your test crowd dig this on?

65 dB should be plenty of gain for ribbon on most sources.  I've done some vocal and guitar stuff with a Shiny Box ribbon and that sounded great.

I need to compile my notes and get more details the testing.  I haven't done a good job os asking what mics they used.  So far people have noted that it has plenty of clean gain.  I know one user loved it for recording acoustic bass using a U195.  I know another user has recorded vocals, Keys (di) and electric and acoustic guitar with great results.  I'll see if I can get more info or get them to post.

Overall it seems like people are finding plenty of uses for it.  Since it sounds really good when the gain is pushed, there is a another dimension of sound available to the user.

Thanks!

 

[okgb]

I'll buy one for fun  [ I'm still compiling an order for you ]
you should update the first page always [ it's where i start ]

It's like a character / anti character  pre with the xfmrs but differential ?
and it is still balanced , no ?
[ I meant  , was thinking that the xfmr  may add color where as the differential
keeping it clean ........... ]

Nice work

 

[Echo North]

I'll buy one for fun  [ I'm still compiling an order for you ]
you should update the first page always [ it's where i start ]

It's like a character / anti character  pre with the xfmrs but differential ?
and it is still balanced , no ?

Nice work

Thanks, will do.

It definitely goes from clean to colored depending on the gain/output settings if that is what you mean

Yes it's balanced and differential.

 

[bieckmusic]

I've been given the opportunity to test out the Lola pre-amp in my studio the last few weeks.    I've recorded guitars, vocals and keys through it on various projects I've been working on;

Here are some acoustic guitars (collings), double tracked, using a Neumann/Geffel UM-57 and the Lola into a Digi 192 at 44.1.
I added 2dB of 10K and a HPF at 80hz.  The mic positioning is what a great Country/Bluegrass engineer in town taught me.  Take the microphone point it right at the guitarist's nose, about 6 inches away, with the capsule pointed straight down towards the floor.  I find I often get a smoother sound this way instead of pointing the mic straight at the 13th fret...etc...

The second clip is a Gibson 335, with a SM 57.  The Lola is panned to the left side.  Then it was double tracked with an Api 312 on the right side.  I found the Lola side a little "hairy-ier" and slightly more bass.  Pretty cool 

I don't want to get too into verbose descriptions of audio characteristics, nor do I want to insincerely hype a particular product.  But, I can honestly say, my client (a singer) and my regular session guitar player were really impressed with the sound, as was I.  My engineer friend also says, "A good sound walks in with the talent when they enter the room", and I believe that's true.  But, having the right tools for the job is also a big part of it. 

This is definitely on my list of upcoming DIY projects for this year.

greg

the audio clips can be found here ----

http://www.mediafire.com/?ekiga48mb4etx