Austin, TX - 1176 Build

earth tones · Post by **earth tones** » Sat Mar 05, 2011 10:05 am

Just testing the water to see if, by chance, anybody currently living in Austin TX is interested in simultaneously building a DIY compressor. I've had minimal experience with electronics....basic soldering, component replacement and I've assembled the Hamptone JFET kit. Something like the 1176 build seems to require much more information gathering. While there seems to be a plethora of information regarding these clone builds, it will require more organization and skill than a comprehensive kit like the Hamptone stuff. It would be great to undertake this with somebody else so that we could compare experiences and hopefully learn more and learn quicker with our combined efforts. Let me know if you're interested.

digitaldrummer · Post by **digitaldrummer** » Sat Mar 05, 2011 3:18 pm

I'm actually building the hairball HB76 "Rev F" bluestripe (with Mnats board). Actually, it's built but I need to test it and calibrate it still. I powered it up and no smoke yet so got my fingers crossed.

If you take your time and can solder carefully, then it should be OK. the biggest challenge I've had so far is just getting all the information - which is kinda spread out all over (contrast this to a Fivefish kit I bought a couple years ago - everything was included - instructions too - made it very easy).

I did a little at a time, and only after I searched online and read the mnats wiring pages several times for each section before I soldered anything.

things I've learned so far:

*hey there's a couple extra boards I don't need! finally realized they were for the rotary switch version -- but only after I populated them with components and then had to place another order with Mouser. I guess they are ready for the next one...

* but that's ok because I wanted a couple other things from Mouser too - more resistors, molex connectors, 5W resistor for the lamp...

*the current Rev F BOM on the hairball site seems to have an extra 24V regulator in it. not an expensive part, so not a big deal.

*you need a volt meter and a frequency generator for the calibration - luckily I have both.

* for the zero, attack, release, input, and output pots, you either have to drill a small hole from the back side of the front plate (about half way - unless you want a hole in the front) or clip off tab that sticks forward on the pot (to keep it from rotating) - the plate is not pre-drilled.

* stuffing the board was easy once I realized that all of the values are written right on the board -- I think there was only one confusing spot @ R59 - where it says 3.9K resistor and it should be a 3.6K resistor per the original schematic.

Mike

digitaldrummer · Post by **digitaldrummer** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:43 am

finished!

it passed audio the very first time and only needed calibration. The quality of the components from the Hairball kit and the MNATs PCB board seem to be very good. I thought it was fairly easy to assemble (although a few things noted in post above). I wouldn't recommend trying it unless you are confident with your soldering skills as well as general electronics skills though.

earth tones · Post by **earth tones** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:23 am

That's great news. Congrats. I have a Hairball Rev D on the way, so I am going to give the build a go. Thanks for posting pics and your notes. Any other thoughts or advice on the build or testing/calibration would be greatly appreciated. I look forward your reports on your Rev F's performance.

Hairball Audio · Post by **Hairball Audio** » Tue Mar 15, 2011 8:26 pm

Nice clean build!

Congrats!

Mike

trodden · Post by **trodden** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 12:05 pm

Nice, so around $460 for everything you need to build a 1176 clone. Looks like a fun project, I'll have to consider it for next winter project.

digitaldrummer · Post by **digitaldrummer** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 1:44 pm

yes!

(compare that to $2K for a new UA1176 and $3k or more for a vintage model)

And I've been doing some comparisons with this and a bunch of plugins. A friend and I just took a little clip of some drums that I made and ran it through this comp and then some plugins (UAD 1176SE, 1176LN, Neve 33609, the free Soundtoys DevilLoc and a few others). I still need to listen to all of the variations a bit more, but there is something really nice about this HB76 that just doesn't exist with the plugins. If I get time, maybe I'll try to post a few clips later.

Mike

chucklesmcfarland · Post by **chucklesmcfarland** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 12:06 am

How is the build going?

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Austin, TX - 1176 Build

Austin, TX - 1176 Build

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