The 3630 Alesis Mod Warning!

[Scodiddly]

Jumper-cutting is good, IMO. That way some future person can see that there was a mod and what to do to restore it - which will happen in a couple years when "unmodded 3630's" become de riguer.

[puffpastry]

in a couple years when "unmodded 3630's" become de riguer

I can't imagine these things ever becoming de riguer in their stock condition. This has got to be one of the most useless designs ever conceived by an audio company, and Numark Alesis should be sued for trying to foist this piece of useless doo-doo on an unsuspecting public. It doesn't even have one single useable setting. It's not like the TB303, where some design error helped create whole new styles of music. We're talking about deliberate cost-cutting and poor workmanship contributing to a new level of crappiness. If your bank or telephone company offered you a service that was analagous to the Alesis 3630, the Justice Department would prosecute them for fraud and misrepresentation.

I'm not kidding you--when I began to design the Black Lion modification, I literally found glaring design errors and outright omissions in nearly every one of the 3630's stock circuits. Yes, it's true. That gate circuit has problems. Its output impedance is too high. It goes berzerk trying to drive its load, and expresses its frustration in a noisy, hissy protest.

The most jaw-dropping aspect of it all is that Alesis protects the 3630's design like it's a fabulous discovery on par with the work of Adam and Marie Curie or something. They charge $100 for a schematic, and require a non-disclosure agreement before they'll even sell it to you.

In any case, there are several revisions of the 3630, the most common of which are the Rev C and Rev D. There are several different versions of these two revisions, some of which use 0 ohm resistors instead of jumpers, some use LF357 opamps, some use TL084 opamps, some use DBX VCA's, some use THAT VCA's.

[Mark Alan Miller]

I dunno - I've see worse pieces of doo-doo sold as so-called 'pro' gear.

[signorMars]

my phone company does offer a service analogous to the 3630... plus they made veiled threats against my life when i cancelled my account.

actual quote:

"They don't have 911 locator service on cell phones yet. What if someone were to come in the middle of the night to kill you, and you have to hide in your apartment, and you can't talk or they will kill you? Don't you think it's worth the $25 a year of rate hikes?"

"No. Not really."

[Recorder]

As far as the sound goes I cant tell yet if it made improvement or not.
After years of playing live and genetic hearing loss it pretty hard for me to tell. Im going to have t wait till someone is here that has better ears than I.

[Red Rockets Glare]

I can't wait to hear my Black Lion modded 3630!