Soundcraft Ghost LE 24 mod

[alexadilardi]

Hello,

I own a Soundcraft Ghost LE 24 which is going through recap very soon, and I am thinking of trying to upgrade at least the master section in the way CAL do.
Is there anyone knowing what exactly needs to be swapped? I'm doing a lot of research online, but I'm still finding nothing more than controversial opinions and partial information.
I hope someone has done it already!


Thank you!

 

[Whoops]

what is the "way CAL do"?

 

[alexadilardi]

Creative Audio Labs is a company known for their mod of the Soundcraft Ghost

 

[cyrano]

Never heard of them. No website?

Unless it's Creative Audio Research Labs? They have a FB page, but that's no help either.

PS
Stopped looking when I ended up on an OnlyFans page that offered me the choice between "I'm a female" and "I'm a female"

 

[Brian Roth]

Not trying to be an A$$ here.....but why spend time "upgrading" a Ghost?? OK, I guess lipstick might make a pig more attractive......

Bri

 

[alexadilardi]

Sorry, It was actually Creation Audio Labs

https://www.creationaudiolabs.com/ghost

 

[alexadilardi]

Not trying to be an A$$ here.....but why spend time "upgrading" a Ghost?? OK, I guess lipstick might make a pig more attractive......

Bri

Well, actually you can find very very good reviews of their modded consoles - and on reverb you can find them for around 7 to 10 thousands dollars so I am curious about it

 

[Brian Roth]

Curious to read those reviews.....

To me, a Ghost is an "entry level" desk. It will never be a SSL, Amek, Neve....or even an MCI....no matter how much lipstick is applied.

Just saying...I like learning new info,

Bri

 

[alexadilardi]

Well, I guess you are totally right - but being obviously on a budget and not knowing if I'll ever have the money for a better console I thought that trying to mod at least the master section could be a way to improve my mixes... I am not saying that this would make the Ghost comparable to big names but still, if you read around you'll find very nice words about this mod. But I've never had the chance to try such modded consoles so I actually don't know

 

[Brian Roth]

Hi Alex....I am still curious about where you find the websites with these mods you mention.

Bri

 

[alexadilardi]

Sorry I have no time at the moment to search for them - but it was just some threads on SOS, GS and so on - and there are some measurements on the CAL website. Once again, I can't take for granted any of this information - I'm just curious and I was hoping to find someone knowing more than myself about this mod

 

[cyrano]

"Creation Audio Labs" and "Creative Audio Research Labs" seem almost identical. Both offer the same services and comparable products. Strange coincidence?

Neither provide any detail about upgrades, except very broad marketing claims. You even have to sign an NDA if all you want is schematics.

The people involved seem to have long experience in audio, though. Still, my BS detector went off.

But how would you expect any of us to be able to offer any guidance?

 

[alexadilardi]

I have found many older threads about this mod, from people who have tried to do it themselves - but nobody were able to provide exhaustive information about it. So I wrote here hoping to find someone having attempted it themselves. Of course, if you don't own the console and don't know about this mod, it's hard to help. Anyway I thank you all for your time and replies, I know it is a weird and uncommon topic.

 

[jensenmann]

I have no idea what these mods are, but having modded a load of consoles I sure have an opinion:
All coupling caps between amplifier stages basically create a highpass filter. This filter introduces phaseshift to the circuit which sets in a decade higher than the corner frequency of the highpass filter. On top of that electrolytic caps, which are used as coupling caps, create distortion if there´s a significant amount of voltage drop across them. These effects can be weakened by increasing the value of coupling caps. You´ll get less distorion, less phaseshift and this will result in a cleaner sounding lowmidrange and an extended lowend. Furthermore it´s a good idea to recap a console anyway after >10odd years of heavy use. Electrolytic caps, esp the smaller values, will dry out and lose their capacity and change ESR in this ageing process.
All that leads to the conclusion that recapping generally and increasing the values of coupling caps will help to improve the performance of a used console. In my experience this improvement is way more significant than chipswapping, which is the fashion du jour at GS or other audio forums.

 

[alexadilardi]

Thank you, this is gonna be very valuable information being this my first attempt to mod any console! I had no time yet buy as soon as I will open It and begin the job I'm gonna ask for more details