Poor Man's LA2A

[LeftyStrat]

So the REDD.47 is an EF86 (with sane plate resistor) into paralleled 12ax7.

I'm assuming the Altec 436 was an insert? Or would it have been first in the chain?

Might be an insane fake memory, but didn't Lennon record the guitar for Revolution straight into that board, overdriving it?

Did I mention I love tubes?

But some of those old transformers are part of the magic, I think.

[Reeltarded]

Compressor after mic amp. The transformers do make a huge difference.

[cap217]

I was going to say that the transformer matters here. We have mic in to line out to line in and transformers are needed.


Quick question. Where are there la2a clones?

[LeftyStrat]

I was going to say that the transformer matters here. We have mic in to line out to line in and transformers are needed.


Quick question. Where are there la2a clones?

Group DIY is the hot bed of cloning studio gear:

http://www.groupdiy.com

Drip Electronics sells boards for a lot of the old compressors:

http://www.dripelectronics.com

These guys make the opto T4B module:

http://www.kenetek.com/T4AT4BUnits/Abou ... fault.aspx

Sowter has repro transformers. Supposedly you can expect to spend ~$800 building a clone.

I've done a lot more research. The clip I posted above was most likely processed by a Pye compressor. It seems to be a favorite of Eddie Kramer (he was associated with the modeling of a software plugin clone).

http://www.waves.com/Content.aspx?id=10420

[Structo]

Is a leveling amp the same as a compressor?

[img336]http://www.uaudio.com/media/assetlibrar ... ont_hq.jpg[/img]

[LeftyStrat]

Is a leveling amp the same as a compressor?

[img336]http://www.uaudio.com/media/assetlibrar ... ont_hq.jpg[/img]

I took a double take also. But different spelling "Teletronix."

Leveling amp I think may be the old broadcast term. It's a compressor/limiter.

[Structo]

Is a leveling amp the same as a compressor?

[img336]http://www.uaudio.com/media/assetlibrar ... ont_hq.jpg[/img]

I took a double take also. But different spelling "Teletronix."

Leveling amp I think may be the old broadcast term. It's a compressor/limiter.

Ah, I didn't even notice the different spelling.
Carry on.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Altec 436 - nice unit but it's a suzy homemaker bake oven inside. I've seen 'em get so hot they melt the solder off the circuit board.

Ed Kramer used to carry his own Neve stereo compressor to production gigs, plus a couple of Telefunken/Neumann U-47's. Somebody nicked some of his mics much to ALL our chagrin.

Unterseeboot U-47 was one of the first to torpedo British ships (sunk HMS Royal Oak with loss of all hands at Scapa Flow 14 Oct 1939). Not everything "47" is nice. Could have done without that one.

"Leveling amp" - Iron it flat as a playing card. No starch in my shorts please. Try not to overmodulate your transmitters, gentlemen. The FCC don't like it. Rock the Casbah!

"Revolution" Yes old Johnnie crushed the mic pre's on that one, dinnee? I'm a fan of the slow version, sort of a predecessor of Steely Dan, a subversive message delivered in a velvet glove. But I dig the up tempo overdriven version too.

I thought for sure Abbey Road had Fairchild 670 across the 2-mix. Could well have had Altec, Pye, etc as inserts. Some of those Beatle mixes sound as if they let the compressor do it's "thing" pushing the loudest instrument to the top of the mix, responding to vocals by pushing the band back in the mix & then whooshing the band back up at the end of the vocal lines. I've occasionally managed to get that effect (with much less famous compressors on the stereo bus) in live FOH mixes. When I achieved that sort of balance I could relax & enjoy a bevvy, and ogle the fillies.

Thanks Lefty for the leads on present day sources for FX boards.

Tonight's this season's first FM broadcast "Live from Tanglewood" with the Boston Symphony. I don't know what's in their compression chain but it irons the orchestra flat as Missus Murphy's kitchen table. It's sorta funny but annoying too, the lack of dynamics. The loud bits only get so loud, and during quiet passages you can hear the hair grow on the conductor's head, almost overshadowed by the sound of clouds passing by.

Let me put in a good word for the dbx 165A, a "king of compressors." One of my favorites. A little less sophisicated but also notable, dbx 160, a studio & live workhorse. Caution about the 160 - if there's a dip in line voltage, it will mute the output. Don't find out the hard way - with 160's across the stereo mix they will mute the mix with every hit of the kick drum (if the FOH AC power is allowed to sag due to insufficient system supply) - a bizarre effect if ever there was one. Saw this happen on somebody else's system. Learn from others' mistakes, it's cheaper that way.

Does anybody have experience with the Eventide Omnipressor? I was always intrigued that you could select a NEGATIVE ratio. Saw one way back when in Jerry Garcia's guitar FX rack - he was getting "backwards guitar" effect out of it using that negative ratio.

[LeftyStrat]

Thanks for all the info Leo. I'll have to check out that Neve compressor.

I'll admit I have an ulterior motive in that I'd like to come up with something that could mimic sag. I don't think it can be done with a feedback compressor.

This is my baseline for perfect sag:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ehn/ax84/sounds/Jtm45_2.mp3

I'd love to not have to depend on a tube rectifier, and have the player be able to dial in the amount of sag.

[LeftyStrat]

I have a couple of choices for the gain module. I've been collecting LDR's for many years, so I have many of these to go through. I also have a few SSM2164 chips laying around, which can be useful when this is applied:

http://www.sdiy.org/philgallo/EDN-072402.pdf

Lastly, the Arduino doesn't have real analog outputs, they're PWM, so some type of FET control might be interesting. Of course, PWM works well with LED/LDR combos also.

[Reeltarded]

1176-ish and be happy. Trust me.

You don't need all the ratios and you don't need the VU or the meter switching.

[LeftyStrat]

One more resource of kits:

http://www.hairballaudio.com/

[Leo_Gnardo]

1176-ish and be happy. Trust me.

You don't need all the ratios and you don't need the VU or the meter switching.

Ah but on the 1176 you can press multiple ratio buttons and they add up. Ever try that one Miles? I don't know if they tell you that in the manual. If you have one try it. But it may be hard to tell by ear once you get past a 12:1 or so.

[Reeltarded]

All you need is 4:1 though. Yeah, I use the all button thing. Big male vocals love that. Acoustic guitar in a rock mix.

All these are too complicated for me to even think about building, except the 1176. Looking in any of the other ones reminds you of a '60s TV.

omg

[LeftyStrat]

Yeah, but I think those two stages after the opto in the LA2A might be interesting to play around with.

Then there's the stigma of putting transistors in a tube amp if I go the 1176 route.

I've spent a couple of days now looking at all the kits for great compressors and mic preamps and channel strips and eq. I want to build them all.

I need to win the lottery so I could build a recording studio that didn't need to make money and could house all the gear I'd love to build.