Latest gear you've acquired.....

[Scodiddly]

brand - but I think I bought one of this specific one and it worked OK)

https://www.amazon.com/BENFEI-Drive-Ada ... B07F7WDZGT
dongle.png

Those sorts of things are probably the best IT money I've ever spent. I've had kits going back to the IDE days. Remember you left something on the old hard drive? Need to dump a bunch of data somewhere? Computer motherboard fried and you need the data right now?

Really super handy.

[digitaldrummer]

Whoah what? I did not know this! SSD's aren't long term? Fuck. I just spent $150 on a couple of SSD drives to use as my back ups.

they aren't if they are sitting on a shelf with no power. But I've had drives sitting offline for over a year and had no issues. Every once in awhile I will power them up and just let them sit (those little USB dongles are great for that too - all they really need is power).

[digitaldrummer]

brand - but I think I bought one of this specific one and it worked OK)

https://www.amazon.com/BENFEI-Drive-Ada ... B07F7WDZGT
dongle.png

Those sorts of things are probably the best IT money I've ever spent. I've had kits going back to the IDE days. Remember you left something on the old hard drive? Need to dump a bunch of data somewhere? Computer motherboard fried and you need the data right now?

Really super handy.

although I should probably mention these only work for SSDs that run off 5VDC (which is most). They will not work for spinning hard drives because those require 12VDC. But that's what the "SATA dock" is for.

[Nick Sevilla]

An Epiphone 1958 Korina Flying V (left hand). I ordered it thinking it would take until December to get to me, as they are in demand. Someone canceled their order, so their change of mind is my joy. Early Christmas present!

[Mark]

From actual 1958 or is that just part of the model name?

[ubertar]

Just picked up a few of these, off Craigslist, they look brand new: Shure SCM 810 8-Channel Automixer
https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/mixers/scm810

It's meant for conferencing... you can plug up to 8 mics into it, and it uses a compander/limiter and gates to auto adjust the levels. The guy was asking $10 each, and had three, so I figured why not? I had a 20 in my wallet, so I went for two, figuring if the output was mono (which apparently it is) I could use one for left and one for right, and use these to record drums with a shitload of mics arrayed around the kit, and even if the placement were kind of random, it should do a pretty good job.

We met up and he ended up giving me the third one free... I guess no one else was interested. These things go for close to $2K, new. They're a lot less used... the main clientele are probably corporations, and those folks don't generally buy used stuff.

The one negative is it doesn't have XLR jacks... it has 1/4" plus these odd rectangular balanced things, with three male prongs in a horizontal line inside the rectangular hole. So I'll either have to figure out what those are and get some and make some adapters, or just wire up some XLRs directly to them. OTOH, I've got some XLR to 1/4" cables... that might be all I need. I don't know if these are T/S or TRS. I would guess they're TRS. I should probably read the manual...

[ubertar]

[Scodiddly]

Just picked up a few of these, off Craigslist, they look brand new: Shure SCM 810 8-Channel Automixer
https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/mixers/scm810

The market for those dried up when much better sounding automixing (Dan Dugan and the various clones since his patents expired) became ubiquitous in digital mixers and system processors. Dunno if they're all that great sounding even with the auto feature turned off, but they'll probably last forever.

The connectors are generally known as "Phoenix" or "Euroblock". The original manufacturer was Phoenix Contact, and you can buy the plugs at Mouser. The ones in those Shure units probably have the 5.08mm pitch.
I think it's probably this one but you'll have to do a little more checking:
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Ph ... TuFA%3D%3D

(edit - those 1/4" jacks are helpfully labelled "direct out")

[ubertar]

Just picked up a few of these, off Craigslist, they look brand new: Shure SCM 810 8-Channel Automixer
https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/mixers/scm810

The market for those dried up when much better sounding automixing (Dan Dugan and the various clones since his patents expired) became ubiquitous in digital mixers and system processors. Dunno if they're all that great sounding even with the auto feature turned off, but they'll probably last forever.

The connectors are generally known as "Phoenix" or "Euroblock". The original manufacturer was Phoenix Contact, and you can buy the plugs at Mouser. The ones in those Shure units probably have the 5.08mm pitch.
I think it's probably this one but you'll have to do a little more checking:
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Ph ... TuFA%3D%3D

(edit - those 1/4" jacks are helpfully labelled "direct out")

Thanks! I asked Shure, and they called them "block connectors", and the pitch is indeed 5.08mm, and Phoenix appears to be correct too. Found a set of 50 on amazon for $15. I've got some xlr connectors I can connect wires to, and the inputs of the block connectors are screw-tightened, so I won't need to solder that part. Not that I need more projects, but this should be easy enough with possibly good results. I don't expect Shure preamps would sound bad.

I'm imagining an array of 16 mics around the drum set, which is a weird contraption set, not conventional, though it does have kick, snare, toms, ride, hi-hat, crash. But a lot of other stuff too. The auto selection might do some interesting things. The 1/4" jacks on it are direct outs for each channel, so it would be possible to just use each channel for the mic pre, to its own track, if I just needed 8 channels of mic pre in one unit.

I've got enough mics, not sure if have enough stands.

[Nick Sevilla]

From actual 1958 or is that just part of the model name?

It's the model name. No way could I ever afford an original one, let alone in left hand LOL. Still, it was designed by the Gibson Custom Shop, and from what I heard online so far, I should be very happy with it.

It replaces an old Ibanez Lawsuit Flying V that I had to let go of years ago, and still miss very much.

[vvv]

the bass

[Mark]

The family that plays together...

[Scodiddly]

I don't expect Shure preamps would sound bad.

The preamps don't sound bad, they're just limited in gain range. As in, there's not actually a proper gain knob, just that front panel mix knob. There's a little switch almost hidden behind the Phoenix mic input that lets you choose line, mic, mic w/ phantom.

[ubertar]

I don't expect Shure preamps would sound bad.

The preamps don't sound bad, they're just limited in gain range. As in, there's not actually a proper gain knob, just that front panel mix knob. There's a little switch almost hidden behind the Phoenix mic input that lets you choose line, mic, mic w/ phantom.

Ah, ok. That won't be a problem, then. I'll be going out into a A/D converter with built-in preamps, so I've got some gain-staging capability.

[Antler23]

Realistic PZM for the win. I moved the piano from my dad's house into my new studio and wanted a grunt-level way of mic'ing it up. The piano is loud and bright and sits in a corner, but the PZM does a decent job of getting the good stuff and ignoring the rest. I've simply been placing it on the flat top of the piano. I've set the mic on the floor to get an impressive room sound from my drum kit as well. Haven't used a PZM in decades, but now I'm likely to look for a second one to make all my stereo dreams come true...