Spending a lot of time doing live sound lately, decided to get some tools together. Built myself a little rack out of lumber from the Home Depot. Orban 622B, 2 dbx 166A's and a dbx 166 so far. Another Orban coming in the mail soon. Vertical patchbay on the side all wired up nice and proper with side chains properly normaled and everything.Total cost for 4 channels parametric EQ and 6 channels comp/limiter/gate: $750

I'm thinking of normalling the inserts sends on my console to my DAW's inputs and the DAW inputs back to the insert returns. That way I can monitor the recorded signal on the same channel strip instead of monitoring it through the monitor returns on the right.Any reason why I shouldn't do it?

Thanks for the replies guys. I use a Soundcraft S6000, which I believe isn't much different from your S800 Scott.I don't mix in the box because it's alot more comfortable for me to do it on the mixer.The insert points will be on the patchbay, so I can use them as inserts if needed.The reason I want to do this is that the console has only 16 tape returns and 24 outputs, so when using all 24 channels I'll be only able to listen back to 16. Also, the returns are on the right side of the mixer and while it's not a huge desk, it's easier when it's all, eh, in one place.

I've re-ribboned a few mics in the last few days. A couple of 50's GEC models, and three Oktava double-ribbon models.Two of the Okatavas were given to me by Tarandfeathers as a trade for some transformers. Here's the motor from one, an ML-52:One of the original ribbons is still intact on the left. You can see the corrugations look a little different on the replacement ribbon on the right. The Oktava foil is not that nice; some of it had slight pinholes in the material due to inconsistency in thickness.The motor in this model is odd as hell. The black box on the right is like a radiator made out of fins which fits over the assembly I am holding. This radiator forms the pole-pieces on the outer sides of the ribbon and also forms a "magnetic return circuit". The sound reaching the ribbon has to travel through thess ~1cm thick radiator fins, but surprisingly it doesn't seem to affect the sound greatly. I would have guessed it might have caused some comb filtering. It's very tricky to assemble.Daniel, since I've got three of these mics now, I'll fire you one back for you to have back once I've dug out your address and made the rare trip to the Post Office.

madraso\_ wrote:Rodabod-the output section setup like a vintage Sunn 100W with 4 kt88's running into a Hammond 1650 series 100W UL OT (my voltages tend to run a shade higher than SUNNs.) I can post a schematic, or a link to what I am working off of. Since this is my first attempt at an output section, I tried not to stray too far at the beginning. http://sunn.ampage.org/site/schematics/modelt.gifI can't see why it shouldn't work if you are directly copying both output sections from existing designs. Next time when you fire it up, make some measurements and check to see if they sound reasonable I suppose.

Just make sure to disable the EQ on the channel strips, and that would let you A/B the channel inputs up against the A-D and D-A of your box. If you're mixing inside the box, I don't know why you'd want it set up like that. And on my board, the inserts are pre-EQ and pre-fader, so using the insert outs to get to the DAW in means loss of the ability to EQ with the board when tracking, which I infrequently but sometimes do. I never mix outside the box, not with digital recording. If your board is good enough, and you're mixing down to actual tape, then your insert-based setup is a good way to go, although I don't know why you wouldn't just use the line inputs for the DAW outs.

The only thing that springs to mind is to make sure the latency of your system is low enough that you can monitor effectively. I would perhaps think about bringing it all up on a patchbay or set of EDACs so that you can change how it's configured easily, the idea of having an interface permanently attached to the inserts of the desk seems a little inflexible to me.

I showed up at the practice space to do a bunch of work and I found David, Guitar vs. Gravity drummer, playing drums and getting some gear to sell to Starving Musician. We got to hang out and talk and ended up working on some mixes, which wasn't planned, but was a nice thing to do.While all this was going on, I put my Ampeg V-4 on the variac to try and re-form the filter caps.After that I started working on a fuzzy bunny pedal (the$inmusic's) which I had previously started, and then I found I was out of 10k pots. I began working on a custom bunnydrive/booster for a friend. While doing this I found that I had ordered more 10k pots, but they were just still in the shipping box, and not in my drawers.So I just hammered ahead with both pedal and tried to work evenly on each to hopefully save time in the long run. All that time I was slowly ramping up the voltage on the V4. With about a half hour left, I stopped where I was on the pedals and tried out the Ampeg. No luck on a three hour re-forming. In good news, though I should be able to finish both the pedals on my next build day.Ben

Ordered a 12" radius sanding block, and arranged to borrow a diamond crowning file from a friend. I just need to find an 18" straightedge (shouldn't be that hard, and I'm stopping by the hardware store today or tomorrow anyway to get a replacement spool for my weedwhacker) and I'm in business. Will be attempting a DIY fret level/dress on my Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Custom. I'll post pictures and stuff if it goes well. Will buy my own fret crowning file as well if I pull it off. The wiring on my Iceman is shot don't know if it's the shitty stock pots or my shitty soldering or what, ordered a wiring harness with 500k long-shaft CTS pots. Hope that shows up soon. I hate soldering. Need to find my lost soldering iron so I don't have to keep borrowing Adam's. Tangentially related, practicing with USS Horsequit has reminded me that I really really really miss playing heavy music, and there will be some windows of opportunity as Police Teeth kicks into low-gear for what looks like the remainder of the year, if not longer. What this really means is that I have to shove humbuckers back into several of my guitars. Did I mention that I hate soldering.

I rescued an Apple Studio display to replace my huge, honking pod Studio display (the 60 pound one, that looks like this) but to my dismay do not have the proper adapter for it. It's not a standard DVI, but rather an ADC.Does anyone around here have one of these that they are not using?