Hi All
Just doing some maintenance on a channel strip racking I did a couple of years back of a Neotek Series 3 (it could be a series 1 or 2) channel.
It was an early one - no connector, just a bunch of flying solid core leads.
I REALLY like solid core leads! I wish I had more of them.
----
I racked in with a JLM psu and added a bunch of cheap'n'cheerful 'repurposed' stuff, as is my wont
At the front end, I added :
- jensen mic traffo specifically for putting in front of pre-existing chip mic preamps
- haufe line in traffo
- Igor 'universal preamp' DI module
At the back end I added :
- beefed up the girly strength post-eq direct output with a Lawo DOA and Haufe 1:2 traffo
- added 2x balanced line amps to the stereo bus outs : transistor driver and Altronics 1:1 traffos
- added 4x balanced line amps to the aux bus outs : AKM 5532+1:2 traffo modules
As well as adding :
- led VU meter
- JLM 'Mac' Opto compressor (full wave recitified dual vactrol side chain/blend module)
Now this channel strip was an 'inline' architecture, with some overly complex select logic which was all burned up, so I untangled all the routing and added a 'sum amp' for the 'tape return' and whichever of the 'mic/DI' or 'line' is selected by Neotek switch.
It also had a 'record out' which I kept - a piss weak chip output.
I put the compressor just on the 'input' signal, and then summed that with the 'tape return'.
It uses the 'post fader amp' as the vactrol's 'shunt resistance coupled make up amp'
(the JLM mac is just a sidechain/blend unit - you need some amp to drive with it)
---
WHY I hear you exclaim?
First and foremost for the hell of it, and second because I wanted to use this as a 'guitar distro box'
ie. plug in a guitar to the DI (or mic or line!), and send to an effects box via the 'rec out'
Main signal goes to AWESOME eq, 4x full strength balanced aux outs for distribution purposes
Then to compressor for very nice limiting, LA4 style
Take the effects box as 'tape return' and mix it with the Neotek pot with the above
Of course, there is a 'flip' switch to .. flip .. the main and tape return inputs!
Finally, summed signal goes to :
- full strength mono output for desk/daw
- full strength stereo outputs for tube monitoring stereo (low input sensitivity) 7W SE 6L6 amp + speakers
Here's an inside pic
Just doing some maintenance on a channel strip racking I did a couple of years back of a Neotek Series 3 (it could be a series 1 or 2) channel.
It was an early one - no connector, just a bunch of flying solid core leads.
I REALLY like solid core leads! I wish I had more of them.
----
I racked in with a JLM psu and added a bunch of cheap'n'cheerful 'repurposed' stuff, as is my wont
At the front end, I added :
- jensen mic traffo specifically for putting in front of pre-existing chip mic preamps
- haufe line in traffo
- Igor 'universal preamp' DI module
At the back end I added :
- beefed up the girly strength post-eq direct output with a Lawo DOA and Haufe 1:2 traffo
- added 2x balanced line amps to the stereo bus outs : transistor driver and Altronics 1:1 traffos
- added 4x balanced line amps to the aux bus outs : AKM 5532+1:2 traffo modules
As well as adding :
- led VU meter
- JLM 'Mac' Opto compressor (full wave recitified dual vactrol side chain/blend module)
Now this channel strip was an 'inline' architecture, with some overly complex select logic which was all burned up, so I untangled all the routing and added a 'sum amp' for the 'tape return' and whichever of the 'mic/DI' or 'line' is selected by Neotek switch.
It also had a 'record out' which I kept - a piss weak chip output.
I put the compressor just on the 'input' signal, and then summed that with the 'tape return'.
It uses the 'post fader amp' as the vactrol's 'shunt resistance coupled make up amp'
(the JLM mac is just a sidechain/blend unit - you need some amp to drive with it)
---
WHY I hear you exclaim?
First and foremost for the hell of it, and second because I wanted to use this as a 'guitar distro box'
ie. plug in a guitar to the DI (or mic or line!), and send to an effects box via the 'rec out'
Main signal goes to AWESOME eq, 4x full strength balanced aux outs for distribution purposes
Then to compressor for very nice limiting, LA4 style
Take the effects box as 'tape return' and mix it with the Neotek pot with the above
Of course, there is a 'flip' switch to .. flip .. the main and tape return inputs!
Finally, summed signal goes to :
- full strength mono output for desk/daw
- full strength stereo outputs for tube monitoring stereo (low input sensitivity) 7W SE 6L6 amp + speakers
Here's an inside pic