B
Bipolar Boogieman
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Hey all... I have a small home studio setup for doing voiceovers and
sound work, mainly for video/PC games. Nothing especially demanding of
"audiophile" quality but at least decent. For a long time, I used an
ancient mono Gates Studioette 80 console, but I finally needed to upgrade
to something stereo with little to no money to work with, thus a new
console was simply out of the question. So, before you flame me for the
following hack job, this was the best I could do with what I had at the
time!!
I really needed to have both AUD & PGM output busses in stereo, so I
gutted the Gates completely and mounted two identical Radio Shaft stereo
mixers inside the Studioette chassis. Sorry, but I'm "old Skool" and find
the rotary pots much easier to work with, blame that on my radio
experience back in the 70's...
Considering the hack job that it is, it does the job quite well, except
for ONE little bug...
The RS mixers originally had a pair of those typical "cassette deck"
style VU meter movements in it that I'd guess were about 50uA FSD. I
found a pair of Modutek 4" meters, complete with mounting bezels, so I
used them to replace the large Weston movement in the Gates. However, it
seems to take a *lot* more to drive these to full-scale, and they're
reading at least 10dB below "actual" levels.
Anyways, I've maxed out the meter trimmers on the mixer and it's still
pinning the VU meters on the compressor following it when the Modutek's
are indicating only +1dB, and there is great distortion anywhere beyond
that. The metering circuit inside the RS mixer rectifies the signal to DC
via a half-wave bridge. The Modutek meters are also DC movements (nio
internal rectifiers) and I have even tried disconnecting one side of the
internal 600 ohm shunt, with no effect.
The console does has an unused 1-amp variable PS as well as an extra
stereo headphone amp in it, with volume and tone controls.
-IDEA # 1... run the existing metering signal into the headphone amp and
using the output to run to the meters, but I'm not sure if it would work
very well with the pulsating DC as an input.
-IDEA # 2... I remove the meter lines from the mixer circuitry
altogether, run them to the actual audio outputs coupled through a series
150uF electolytic. I can run that into the headphone amp, it's output
feeding to a full-wave bridge across the meters. Calibrate with
volume/tone controls accordingly to match the input level shown on the
compressor's VU meters.
I'm toying with idea #2... sounds easiest to me and probably more
accurate in the long run. I don't really need it to be 100% accurate, but
I do want it to be at least within a dB or so of "actual" rather than the
convoluted mess which I have now.
Ideas? Comments? Free stereo console you're sick of tripping over??
Thanks
sound work, mainly for video/PC games. Nothing especially demanding of
"audiophile" quality but at least decent. For a long time, I used an
ancient mono Gates Studioette 80 console, but I finally needed to upgrade
to something stereo with little to no money to work with, thus a new
console was simply out of the question. So, before you flame me for the
following hack job, this was the best I could do with what I had at the
time!!
I really needed to have both AUD & PGM output busses in stereo, so I
gutted the Gates completely and mounted two identical Radio Shaft stereo
mixers inside the Studioette chassis. Sorry, but I'm "old Skool" and find
the rotary pots much easier to work with, blame that on my radio
experience back in the 70's...
Considering the hack job that it is, it does the job quite well, except
for ONE little bug...
The RS mixers originally had a pair of those typical "cassette deck"
style VU meter movements in it that I'd guess were about 50uA FSD. I
found a pair of Modutek 4" meters, complete with mounting bezels, so I
used them to replace the large Weston movement in the Gates. However, it
seems to take a *lot* more to drive these to full-scale, and they're
reading at least 10dB below "actual" levels.
Anyways, I've maxed out the meter trimmers on the mixer and it's still
pinning the VU meters on the compressor following it when the Modutek's
are indicating only +1dB, and there is great distortion anywhere beyond
that. The metering circuit inside the RS mixer rectifies the signal to DC
via a half-wave bridge. The Modutek meters are also DC movements (nio
internal rectifiers) and I have even tried disconnecting one side of the
internal 600 ohm shunt, with no effect.
The console does has an unused 1-amp variable PS as well as an extra
stereo headphone amp in it, with volume and tone controls.
-IDEA # 1... run the existing metering signal into the headphone amp and
using the output to run to the meters, but I'm not sure if it would work
very well with the pulsating DC as an input.
-IDEA # 2... I remove the meter lines from the mixer circuitry
altogether, run them to the actual audio outputs coupled through a series
150uF electolytic. I can run that into the headphone amp, it's output
feeding to a full-wave bridge across the meters. Calibrate with
volume/tone controls accordingly to match the input level shown on the
compressor's VU meters.
I'm toying with idea #2... sounds easiest to me and probably more
accurate in the long run. I don't really need it to be 100% accurate, but
I do want it to be at least within a dB or so of "actual" rather than the
convoluted mess which I have now.
Ideas? Comments? Free stereo console you're sick of tripping over??
Thanks
