"Transform your audio with Transformers" Article

[tyler477]

I loved it! really inspired me! Also I have about 50 old hi-fi units collecting dust... I ca start ripping out transformers and wiring them up!! anyone else all about this technique?
Ty

[suppositron]

Agreed. Very cool. Hats off to TapeOp for the new issue. I loved that article and the one from Tom Day. I was gonna ask for more DIY projects and schematics and things for future issues. Definitely cool.

[PeterAuslan]

Agreed, it was a great article - and something that I want to experiment with. Was it written as a response to the color box thread a while back:
http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopi ... lor+colour

[plurgid]

Hey, thanks for the link to that other thread.
That answers a lot of questions I was going to have about this.

There's three questions I still have about this that I think are worth asking here though:

1) CAN I BLOW MY SHIT UP TRYING THIS?
I don't have a lot of what people in this thread would consider "expensive" gear, but it is expensive to me. I certainly cannot afford to buy it again. The idea of plugging some homemade shit into one of the line-in's on my audio interface gives me the heebie-jeebies. What can go wrong, and how can I be ABSOLUTELY certain I avoid it (other than not trying it at all?)

2) SOUND EXAMPLES?
Anyone who has done this: can you post audio samples with and without the badassed transformers in the path? It'd be helpful, not only to help me determine if it's REALLY worth my effort to try this, but also if it is, what the best transformers would be to seek out initially. Speaking of ...

3) WHERE TO GET TRANSFORMERS
from the article, it would appear I'm after 600ohm 1:1 transformers. Beyond that, where does one even find these? Maybe Radio Shack, I'm guessing, but then they're not exactly known for the awesomeness of their components.

[Mudcloth]

Hey, thanks for the link to that other thread.
That answers a lot of questions I was going to have about this.

There's three questions I still have about this that I think are worth asking here though:

1) CAN I BLOW MY SHIT UP TRYING THIS?
I don't have a lot of what people in this thread would consider "expensive" gear, but it is expensive to me. I certainly cannot afford to buy it again. The idea of plugging some homemade shit into one of the line-in's on my audio interface gives me the heebie-jeebies. What can go wrong, and how can I be ABSOLUTELY certain I avoid it (other than not trying it at all?)

2) SOUND EXAMPLES?
Anyone who has done this: can you post audio samples with and without the badassed transformers in the path? It'd be helpful, not only to help me determine if it's REALLY worth my effort to try this, but also if it is, what the best transformers would be to seek out initially. Speaking of ...

3) WHERE TO GET TRANSFORMERS
from the article, it would appear I'm after 600ohm 1:1 transformers. Beyond that, where does one even find these? Maybe Radio Shack, I'm guessing, but then they're not exactly known for the awesomeness of their components.

1] You just have to make sure you're using with 600ohm-600ohm transformers and you'll be fine. These need to be connected between your preamps and your recorder or after you recorder and to whatever you mix to, if it's otb.
2]+ 1 on someone posting some samples.
3] There are some on eBay. I'm sure we'll all be driving the market up a little bit on these. Here's one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT

[plurgid]

1] You just have to make sure you're using with 600ohm-600ohm transformers and you'll be fine. These need to be connected between your preamps and your recorder or after you recorder and to whatever you mix to, if it's otb.

I was thinking of hooking the transformers up on an effects send. Then presumably I could dial in as much or as little of the coloration as I want.

Would that be kosher do you think?

[suppositron]

You'd have to be careful about phase with that one. Some transformers invert polarity and there might be a slight phase shift if not.

[Z-Plane]

2) SOUND EXAMPLES?
Anyone who has done this: can you post audio samples with and without the badassed transformers in the path? It'd be helpful, not only to help me determine if it's REALLY worth my effort to try this, but also if it is, what the best transformers would be to seek out initially.

+1. O transformed ones, we await your double-blind wisdom.

[Andy Peters]

You'd have to be careful about phase with that one. Some transformers invert polarity

It's simple enough to wire it properly so that proper polarity is maintained.

-a

[Allen Farmelo]

I'm glad you all dug the article. It grew out of a quick review I submitted about how I like using old transformers, and our fine editors asked to expand the piece.

As for finding transformers, most of mine come from eBay, my tech and then some from the manufacturers themselves. Part of the fun is the hunt. After some eBay searches you'll know more about what you're looking for and what you're not looking for. Radio Shack doesn't have anything that I'm aware of.

Also, some transformers (UTCs in particular) list 500ohm to 500ohm, which is fine for line level. I use ATC A-21s with those ratings all the time.

You wont blow anything up, but make sure you've got matching transformers and that you've wired them up properly. If you aren't sure, ask someone who knows what they're doing so that you're getting the right performance out of them.

Not sure an effect channel with transformers would be the way I'd use them because they're fairly subtle unless you're overdriving them intentionally. Think of them more like a subtle filter you'd put on a camera lens - not a huge difference, but one that really does change how it all looks and therefor changes the impact of the image.

Best,
Allen Farmelo
www.farmelo.com

[suppositron]

You'd have to be careful about phase with that one. Some transformers invert polarity

It's simple enough to wire it properly so that proper polarity is maintained.

-a

Right. But you have to know if the transformer inverts polarity or not to know which is the right way to wire it up.

[germaniac]

Definitely an inspiring article, the kind you won't find anywhere else but TapeOp.

The timing was interesting for me: I had just finished wiring up a small box with two Tamura GA82830 1:1s salvaged from a Yamaha M1516 mixer, and then the new TO issue arrived. I patched the xrfrmr box semi-permanently behind my rack into the first two inputs of my Delta 1010. Seems to add a bit of lo-mid body to the sound, which I like, and also seems to filter out some very hi-freq hash. I highly recommend the Tamura's as far as audio quality. Also have a pair of Jensens (the very best audio quality), and some Edcors (very good for the price).

As others have said, watch out for polarity when hooking things up. Test by splitting your signal into xfrmr and straight, listen for cancellation with both channels at equal volume. Or build in a toggle switch and give yourself a polarity-change option!

Regards,
Joe

[W DeMarco]

Great technical segment, many props. The more segments like this the better. IMHO Maybe we could get a tranx prt two segment one of these days.

[JimiB]

can't you just put them between the mic and the channel input?

[route-electrique]

I'm building box with wet/dry control for sure . Great article.