Where to buy -db pads in L.A.?

[Leopold]

Where can I find -10 and/or -20 db pads in L.A.? I tried Ametron and they didn't have any, they are able to order some Shure pads but they wanted around $50.



Thanks,
Eddie

[jazzchef]

I've always been a satisfied customer at Coast Recording at Hollywood and Vine. Their site is www.coastrecording.com (if not mistaken).
However, I'm sure they'll quote you almost the same price for the inline pad.

Moko

[supafuzz]

are those maxi pads or lightdays?









"what's wrong with being sexy? no not sexy..SEXIST"

[@?,*???&?]

If Karl at Coast doesn't hook you up, check out Pacific Radio (both Hollywood and Valley locations) and also Electronic City in Burbank.

[Kevin Kitchel]

Make your own.

[kylethompson]

I just made a few -20ish pads. Super cheap - just 60 cents worth of resistors per pad from el Radio Shack and 5 minutes soldering. The way I did it was a 680 Ohm down both the pos and neg legs and a 150 Ohm (for mic level applications) across the two. You can fit them in those little switchcraft female to male XLR barrels or do like I did and build them into a short turnaround cable.
Good luck.
Kyle

[soundguy]

Location sound corp in burbank or coffey sound usually have doodads like that in stock on the floor. The shure pads really arent that cheap though, if you can make them yourself, it will cost you maybe $10 max if you put it in a barrel connector, but time is money, so...

dave

[eh91311]

Kyle,
I've looked all over for the Switchcraft XLR tube (the one with the male on one end and a female on the other) to use for making pads.... can't find them in L.A.. Do you know of an online supplier or a store where I can order 'em?

[kylethompson]

If you do a google search for s3fm (the switchcraft part number for the female to male xlr turnaround) a number of vendors show up as well as a few schematics for pads and other gadgets that can fit inside these barrels.

Here's one vendor: http://www.avcable.com/Pages/catalog/pricelist.pdf

Here's another :http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:f1 ... n&ie=UTF-8

These guys sell the premade pads in the s4fm barrel for 24 bucks http://www.blackaudio.com/inline.htm

All this is pretty pricey. Would reccomend just doing the xlr cable deal. If you use neutrik xlrs the resistors will fit inside the connector, totally hidden and protected.

Kyle[/url]

[soundguy]

I have been meaning to write this up as an article for tapeop for eons but dont have the time to feed myself...

If you need to make a bunch of pads, a really easy way to do it is to buy a blank single rack panel punched for XLR connectors. Middle atlantic makes them and they are about $30. You can use either XLR connectors, or Neutrik makes a panel mount TRS connector that will fit an XLR panel mount hole. If you have a TRS patchbay, it makes more sense to use those. anyhow, I think the panel is punched for 10 holes, so you can make 5 pads. Take the two connectors that are next to each other and just build an H pad right on the connectors. 2 resistors connecting pin 2 across both connectors, 2 resistors connecting pin 3 across both connectors and the H resistor between the 4. Then pin 1 goes to pin one on a copper wire, whatever. Your resistor values will be determined by the amount of dB reduction that you require. You can find some H pad calculators online. I did this for my studio and it works like a charm. If you are gonna buy three of those prebuilt shure pads, it pays to take that money and dump it into a project like this if you have the time and you use pads alot. I think I have a 30/ 25/ 20/ and two 15 dB pads in my rack. You can also of course take two positions and wire it as a simple phase reversal if you dont have that in your console, etc. Its a cool format to work in with lots of options. and you cant lose it like a barrel connector...

dave

[Leopold]

Thanks everyone for your posts. I ended up buying them at Sam Ash over on Sunset and Crescent heights..what a drive. For some reason, Coast didn't have them, neither did Ametron (except for the more expensive ones) but I must have called 5 places before I found them. Anyway, I would have made them but I don't have the time. It would be great to have an article in TapeOp to make them though..

Thanks again,
Eddie