Passive Toolbox

[Peterson Goodwyn]

I have been looking at a few little projects lately and I thought, why not put them all together in a 1RU case?

So far I am thinking:
1: NYD Reamp (from the groupdiy forum)
1: Bo Hansen DI and (takes phantom power)
2: Classic API's t-pad line-level attenuators.

Seems like I might have room for a little more. Any ideas for something small and useful I could cram in there?

[CurtZHP]

How about a pair of 600Ohm isolation transformers?

[Peterson Goodwyn]

...for ground eliminating a ground loop? Cool idea.

[mrdibs]

Phase switch.

[Nate Dort]

"suck" and "rock" knobs

[Jed]

You probably know this already, but you can get a pcb for the Bo Hansen over at the prodigy-pro forum.

I just built one last week and it sounds great. I've got another on the bench waiting to be finished -- just missing the xlr connector.

The NYD reamp is the next on my list too...

[Marc Alan Goodman]

I'm in the midst of building a 6 channel unbalanced interface box using JLM pcbs. It's going to be 4 channels of balanced to unbalanced and back for our 4 tape echos, and two channels of Reamp and DI to interface guitar pedals into the mix. Plus it'll be an extra pair of reamps. I'll post some pictures when I get it going, but first I have to finish the 8 LAZ 1084s I've bitten in to...

[Dakota]

+1 on polarity flip as well.

Passive hi pass / rumble cut could be right along the lines of the tools you are bundling, discussion over here: http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopic.php?t=70957

[Peterson Goodwyn]

I work exclusively in DAW land, so I don't think I need hardware phase switches and hi-pass filters.

Can anyone explain to me why I might want them?

Thanks for the ideas so far...

[mrdibs]

It comes in handy when combining reamped signals with non reamped. Its the single easiest thing you can put on the box. There is no reason not to. Yes you could fix it with a plugin later, but why record it wrong when you can record it right in the first place...

Total cost: One DPDT switch and a couple of jumpers.

[eeldip]

meh. fix phase/polarity later. considering it takes about .1 seconds to flip/modify phase later in digital, compare that to the 30 minutes it would take to build that. it would take many years to get your time investment back.

i would add extra isolation x-formers instead. one pair hi fi, one pair lo fi.

[ashcat_lt]

Passive hi-pass filters designed to go between the mic and the pre can save you some headroom and get you more clean gain on the way into the box.

[Dakota]

I do want to hear polarity in real time, agreed it's much faster to get it right from the start. I also tend to check hardware fx returns with polarity flip, in some cases a flange or delay or reverb will sit very differently depending on polarity. A room mic will, most definitely. As far as a hardware hi-pass, agreed, it makes a big difference in headroom. And clarity, tossing out useless rumble. And getting compressors to behave nice. A lot of elements need hi pass for an impactful modern mix, so I'd rather do it in analog, and as early as possible.

[mrc]

Suck cut and Rock boost knobs, has to be a market

[eeldip]

i kinda take issue with this concept that its faster to work with phase on the way in. first of all, if anything its just as fast either way. that extra analog patching vs. loading up some sort of phase correction tool is about equal.

also, even if you "fix" it in analog going in, you might muck with it later anyway. with room mics... there is no PERFECT PHASE. its just a matter of picking what you like.

but more importantly, i think time is way more precious during tracking than with mixing. keep that session MOVING.