Potato Cakes
Well-known member
Hello friends,
A couple of years ago on tour I managed to pick up a TAC Scorpion 24x16 for silly cheap. Idea was to do all the updates for fun then sell it and move on to the next project. However it has sat in my garage for some time under a blanket since then. This year I am redoing my studio and the thing I have been wanting figure out is how to pay lots of money for a new shiny console. Struggling with that decision, it occurred that I should look at the Scorpion one more time. Turns out it will do pretty much what I would need a console to do. So once again I will start looking at what helpful and unnecessary mods can be made. It is to be understood that a new power supply with more than enough amperage to accommodate any and all mods will be acquired for this project.
First is the input section. I have a mountain of preamps of all different types of flavors, so I really only need this to be a line level mixer. The Langley line cards that Colin sells seem to be a great option, but a DOA circuit like Eli-Audio has is also attractive. This seems to just be a preference decision, but I would be curious if anyone here who has worked on these channels has any opinion.
Second is the EQ. There are four bands on the channels with HF/LF being selectable shelves and fixed three band on the busses. This circuit seems to be a weakness for this board from what have read from the infallible and all-knowing internet peoples. I had thought about changing out with another EQ board and some how strapping it to the channel PCB. But after comparing schematics, it seems that Mid 1 and 2 sections from the W492 and the HPF/LPF from Harrison console overlay pretty close to the EQ schematic on the Scorpion. I believe with some minor adjustments, I can have both mid sections from the W492 with slightly wider frequency ranges and the Harrison filter sections without the need for crudely attaching extra boards. For the busses it would be nice to do some sort of 553 style EQ, or even a Studer 169 with a fixed mid band. If I can do all of this without buying additional boards that would save me a pile of cash.
I had seem that changing some resistor values for the master fader would change to the SSL style of all the way up is unity as that is to reduce noise. I do not know if it would be wise to do this for all of the bus faders.
The last thing I guess would be what do regarding the busses. The first thing that comes to mind is making the stereo master clean and then having all or some of the busses having character options. I haven't really looked at the bus sections to see if any of that is remotely possible.
The good news is that when I am on tour I have several days at a time when I am off, so once I verify that one channel modded how I am describing works, then I can just take a number of them with me at a time and have something besides sleep to do during my down time.
A new shiny console would be nice, but I don't see it being a financial option at this point. Plus, I feel that the Scorpion has a lot of potential that hasn't fully been explored. Starting next month I hope to begin the arduous process of cleaning and recapping while simultaneously testing my ideas.
In the meantime, I am looking for the schematics for the bus and master section of the TAC Scorpion (I) if anyone has them handy.
Thanks!
Paul
A couple of years ago on tour I managed to pick up a TAC Scorpion 24x16 for silly cheap. Idea was to do all the updates for fun then sell it and move on to the next project. However it has sat in my garage for some time under a blanket since then. This year I am redoing my studio and the thing I have been wanting figure out is how to pay lots of money for a new shiny console. Struggling with that decision, it occurred that I should look at the Scorpion one more time. Turns out it will do pretty much what I would need a console to do. So once again I will start looking at what helpful and unnecessary mods can be made. It is to be understood that a new power supply with more than enough amperage to accommodate any and all mods will be acquired for this project.
First is the input section. I have a mountain of preamps of all different types of flavors, so I really only need this to be a line level mixer. The Langley line cards that Colin sells seem to be a great option, but a DOA circuit like Eli-Audio has is also attractive. This seems to just be a preference decision, but I would be curious if anyone here who has worked on these channels has any opinion.
Second is the EQ. There are four bands on the channels with HF/LF being selectable shelves and fixed three band on the busses. This circuit seems to be a weakness for this board from what have read from the infallible and all-knowing internet peoples. I had thought about changing out with another EQ board and some how strapping it to the channel PCB. But after comparing schematics, it seems that Mid 1 and 2 sections from the W492 and the HPF/LPF from Harrison console overlay pretty close to the EQ schematic on the Scorpion. I believe with some minor adjustments, I can have both mid sections from the W492 with slightly wider frequency ranges and the Harrison filter sections without the need for crudely attaching extra boards. For the busses it would be nice to do some sort of 553 style EQ, or even a Studer 169 with a fixed mid band. If I can do all of this without buying additional boards that would save me a pile of cash.
I had seem that changing some resistor values for the master fader would change to the SSL style of all the way up is unity as that is to reduce noise. I do not know if it would be wise to do this for all of the bus faders.
The last thing I guess would be what do regarding the busses. The first thing that comes to mind is making the stereo master clean and then having all or some of the busses having character options. I haven't really looked at the bus sections to see if any of that is remotely possible.
The good news is that when I am on tour I have several days at a time when I am off, so once I verify that one channel modded how I am describing works, then I can just take a number of them with me at a time and have something besides sleep to do during my down time.
A new shiny console would be nice, but I don't see it being a financial option at this point. Plus, I feel that the Scorpion has a lot of potential that hasn't fully been explored. Starting next month I hope to begin the arduous process of cleaning and recapping while simultaneously testing my ideas.
In the meantime, I am looking for the schematics for the bus and master section of the TAC Scorpion (I) if anyone has them handy.
Thanks!
Paul
Last edited: