Alesis 3630 Mod-Mod

[MintFieldMan]

An option to consider if you're thinking about doing the 2 snip mod...

There's an easy way to do the mod and keep the gates accessible if you don't mind a little bit of soldering/desoldering. Whatcha do is use a potentiometer switch, which is a switch that connects to the back of the pot and is engaged when the knob is turned past its lowest setting. In this case I put them on the gate threshold so that when the knob is all the way down (where the gate won't actuate anyway) the gate is removed from the circuit. There's probably somewhere online (Mouser, Allied, etc.) to buy the kind that replace the can on the back of the existing pot, but I went ahead and used new pots from radioshack that had the switch built in. The 'shack part is a 10k audio taper pot with a SPDT switch (you only need a spst) and its part # is 271-215. Using the 'shack part is a little tricky though. It wasn't designed for pcb mounting, so I had to cut off its solder points and dremel down the contacts until they were slim enough to fit in the board. The only reason I went this route was because I allready had one of the pots from another project. It would be a lot easier and probably cheaper to use the kind that attach to the existing pot.

To install just remove the existing pots and install the new ones (or remove the back cover from the existing pot by bending back the little metal tabs and replace with the new switch), remove the jumpers that you would have otherwise cut, and in the jumper's place run a couple of wires to the corresponding switch.

I did the mod on my 3630 yesterday, and I haven't had a chance to a/b the compressor quality yet, but i did pump a cd player through it to test the functionality of the mod and the switch really seems to work nicely there. I usually only use my 3630 for live sound where the gates come in handy, but I occasionally need to use it in the studio so this was a good mod for me. Anyhoo, hope someone finds this usefull.

[MintFieldMan]

Oh yeah, by the way, the original knobs won't work if you use the 'shack pot, unless you cut a notch down the shaft. Personaly I like having a couple of mismatched knobs on the front. Lets 'em know you've got something special.

Oh, and neither myself, tapeop, or its message board is liable for any damage... blah de blah blah.