Yet another passive summing box! (Pics Included)

[Marc Girard]

Hello again all,

A friend of mine heard my passive summing box and freaked out.  He wanted one.  So, I built another one...  Man, it's funny how much easier it gets the second time around.  So, here's the obligatory pictures:

It's by far the cleanest DIY thing I've managed to build!  I'm quite happy, even tho it's so easy to do, the hard part is to drill that damn Middle Atlantic case because it's sturdy!

Used all Xircon's 1% 1/4watts everywhere (10k ohms and 220 ohms as New York Dave so kindly suggested).

So, comments and flames are welcome!  Cheers!

 

[Not_So_New]

Hi Marc

Looks cool.... so why did you build it with piano keys?

LOL just kidding.... looks great.

 

[matta]

Hey Mark,

What puzzles me, and only cause I've not looked into it myself, but on the none switch version like you have now, how to you put something up the middle, I.E center of the mix?

If my understanding is correct then with this version of Dave's design you hard wire a channel left or right, with is great if you buss out stereo pair panned left or right, but say you want to buss out a vocal and have it be dead center in the stereo field, who does it translate, or doesn't it?

Would love to know how you use your passive network, I've thought about building one, and thanks for sharing it looks great!

Cheers

Matt

 

[tommypiper]

Looks good. I gotta build one soon.

Matta, I think the way to put a mono center track in this situation -- without a dedicated center input -- is to duplicate your mono track and send one to L and one to R. Takes up an extra input, otherwise cool. Same thing to pan a mono source.

Marc, what is your source for the copper wire? How'd you get it so straight, man?

 

[Kit]

err...where´s the knobs?

 

[Milkmansound]

cause those middle atlantic rack cases are steel - they are a bitch but so cheap its worth the struggle I guess.

why not just use a Y cable for centering a vocal buss? Eliminating the switches cuts cost down big time - same with eliminating knobs. What, was that thing $50 to make all said and done?

 

[keefaz]

I would assign the mono track to a stereo output in the daw,
or send it to a stereo bus in the daw mixer, there are many
ways...

 

[madriaanse]

Hi Marc,

That looks really neat! Where did you get those bus-bar mounting brackets? (part # would be sweet!)

Many Thanks,

M.

 

[madriaanse]

Hi Marc,

That looks really neat! Where did you get those bus-bar mounting brackets? (part # would be sweet!)

Many Thanks,

M.

 

[Luny Tune]

[quote author="keefaz"]I would assign the mono track to a stereo output in the daw,[/quote]
Exactly...!?? Why are so many wondering about that?? It's no different than routing to a normal stereo buss like when you mix and bounce ITB. these are simply four stereo busses. Also, that's the simple beauty of it. You can just mix exactly like you're used to and then just map your tracks evenly across the outputs available and obtain better separation. (And then run it through a GSSL with trannies in it's outputs for the final spank and extra yummieness from the trannies. THAT'll rock!!) :razz:

 

[Marc Girard]

Not_So_New: Thanks for the kind words... I thought that some piano keys would make it sound more musical! *Grin*

Matta: The trick is to use stereo busses in your DAW. I want to be able to use full recall capabilities when clients want to do updates without having to touch anything. I mixdown stems with my box (4 stereo pairs). I goes like this-> 1&2 = Drums, 3&4 = Guitars, 5&6 = Keys, 7&8 = Vocals. So, no need for switches or mono inputs... All is panned inside the DAW. I hope to helps, thanks for the compliments!

Tommypiper: Thanks for the kind words too! Here's my trick for the copper wire: I went to my local hardware store and bought a house ground (I don't know really how it's called, but it's 10 copper wires twisted together and it's made for grounding electricity boxes and stuff on houses). It's like 50 cents a foot. I bought two and I was covered! They're real easy to take apart but the trouble is that it's all twisted. I tied up one end to my good ol' drill and held the other side with a wise-grip. Put the drill counterclock wise and gave it a few turns, slowly, until the wire comes straight! Voila! Heavy gauge and straight copper for one buck!

Kit: The knobs were back ordered! (Who needs freakin' knobs!?) *Grin*

Milkmansound: Yes, those Middle Atlantic cases are a bitch to work with but they're easily available for me and they're really cheap! (40$ CDN). With a good press-drill and some patience, it's do-able!

Madriaanse: Thanks for the compliments! I bought those brackets at a local surplus store. I guess they're old (like in VERY old) stereo terminals or something. I bent them to suit my needs. The store had a box full of those terminals, 10 cents each! I grabbed a couple seeing the potential! Glued them with "No-More-Nails" glue, it's great and holds strong. I'm sure you can find similar items near your place, good luck!

Cheers!

 

[matta]

Marc,

I think from the sounds of it this sets and all time record for the cheapest passive summer created thus far, Hah hah!

Well done again, despite the cost, it still looks top class.

Thanks for explaining the stems, it makes more sense now, and to others who explained it, I'd just had a hard time visualizing how it worked, it makes sense when it is hooked up to a DAW and recall must be cool and not touching knobs to remember your setting from the previous session, one less thing to think about

Cheers

Matt

 

[therecordingart]

How does it sound.

 

[Marc Girard]

[quote author="therecordingart"]How does it sound.[/quote]

Fabulous with a good mic pre. My favorites: Neve 1272 (originals, not clones) McCurdy AU300 and Buzz Audio SAC2.2. Gotta try a Millenia HV-3C soon.

 

[ruairioflaherty]

Marc I'd love to hear your findings with the Millennia. I just sold all nine channels of HV that I had in the studio. After 3 years of intensive full time use I came to the conclusion that they are technically very impressive and musically very poor. It's been a big lesson (and disappointment) to me that what specs well doesn't necessarily capture the vibe - even when recording acoustic instruments.

This topic has the makings of a long thread at the Brewery - capturing sound accurately versus capturing mood/vibe/emotion/artists intent.

Love your summing box btw,

cheers,
Ruairi

 

[Siegfried Meier]

Ok, so you've got each input going to separate copper pairs - sort of staggered. Is it possible to build a 32 channel of these, which is the supposed limit of passive busses? How many runs of copper would there be, and how would each input be connected?

Thanks,
Sig

 

[mfdu]

presumably the layout remains the same regardless of how many input channels there are - provided it is all summing down to a stereo pair!

chris.

 

[therecordingart]

One really dumb question....

Tip - Pin 2
Ring - Pin3
Sleeve - Chassis/Pin 1

Correct?

 

[Valery]

I'll tried to check this idea to, this is one of my experiments. It has two outputs one pair goes throuh transformers, another bypassed it.

 

[Siegfried Meier]

I have another dumb question. Will thicker copper change the sound in any way? Or does it even matter? What gauge have you been using, or have others been using?

Thanks,
Sig