What are your 5U plans for the weekend?

[JohnLRice]

This weekend I finished the below half case. It's not 5U of course but the other half of the case is! I had made a similar setup before, but at one point I decided to take it all out and just put more modules in that half but I decided to go back to it, with some simplifications.


Here is what is in the other half:
https://www.modulargrid.net/d/racks/view/1647874

[Eric the Red]

John - your cable management is something to envy. Such a dense case and all the controls are unobstructed!

[JohnLRice]

John - your cable management is something to envy. Such a dense case and all the controls are unobstructed!

Thanks, it's a bit of an obsession and a fun challenge.

[commoner]

Looks like a series of battery terminals.

[Flareless]

Good cabling is truly and art form and John has nailed it. Awesome

[JohnLRice]

Good cabling is truly and art form and John has nailed it. Awesome

Thanks! Here's a quick test with the other side of the case . . . I like the pedal selections as is but I may change a couple, maybe?

[Henfield]

John,

Great demos! Is that the EWI tourcase 10U small mixer case?

[JohnLRice]

John,

Great demos! Is that the EWI tourcase 10U small mixer case?

Thank you! Yes, the case is a MXC-008-10 from Audiopile
https://audiopile-net.3dcartstores.com/MXC-008

[Cablebasher]

Great stuff John

Although not sure I could waste precious rack space on pedals!

[rafoote]

Over the new year's weekend, I worked towards the major ere-configuration of my modular rig and studio in general...

I did a couple of balanced line driver boxes, a 12 channel one for the modular and a pair of Matrix 1000s
I also did an 8 channel one for my Hammond XK-5, Moog Minitaur, Voyager/Poly D and VC340/Nord Electro

The Voyager/Poly D and VC340/Nord Electro will get used interchangeably.

Anyway, the boxes have a pass through patch bay for the signals to be converted and an active balanced line driver.
The drivers accept a single ended -10 dBu signal and converts it to +4 dBu balanced.

Niot very glamorous, but these will make it very easy to patch the various modulars, Matrix's into processors before being sent over to my console, a Midas U24... I still have to label the rear panels with channel numbers...

Hope you all had a nice holiday!

Roger

[JohnLRice]

Over the new year's weekend, I worked towards the major ere-configuration of my modular rig and studio in general...

I did a couple of balanced line driver boxes, a 12 channel one for the modular and a pair of Matrix 1000s
I also did an 8 channel one for my Hammond XK-5, Moog Minitaur, Voyager/Poly D and VC340/Nord Electro

The Voyager/Poly D and VC340/Nord Electro will get used interchangeably.

Anyway, the boxes have a pass through patch bay for the signals to be converted and an active balanced line driver.
The drivers accept a single ended -10 dBu signal and converts it to +4 dBu balanced.

Niot very glamorous, but these will make it very easy to patch the various modulars, Matrix's into processors before being sent over to my console, a Midas U24... I still have to label the rear panels with channel numbers...

Hope you all had a nice holiday!

Roger

Nicely done, Roger!

[synthetic]

I've been doing some small repairs to the MOTM and other bits in the studio. Things that haven't worked properly for years that I'm finally getting around to fixing. Scratching quite a few off the list, the patchbay and 300 oscillator are now working 100%. Super Jupiter seems to be OK but I blew a fuse, not sure if I accidentally touched something or if there's a real problem somewhere.

Next I'm working on the Tellun spring reverb. One of the springs snapped, and that particular reverb tank (1FB2B1D) is impossible to find. Trying a near substitute, but those things are very particular about reverb pans. And the Exp mode on my 190 VCA has never worked properly so that's next under the iron.

[rafoote]

Over the new year's weekend, I worked towards the major ere-configuration of my modular rig and studio in general...

I did a couple of balanced line driver boxes, a 12 channel one for the modular and a pair of Matrix 1000s
I also did an 8 channel one for my Hammond XK-5, Moog Minitaur, Voyager/Poly D and VC340/Nord Electro

The Voyager/Poly D and VC340/Nord Electro will get used interchangeably.

Anyway, the boxes have a pass through patch bay for the signals to be converted and an active balanced line driver.
The drivers accept a single ended -10 dBu signal and converts it to +4 dBu balanced.

Niot very glamorous, but these will make it very easy to patch the various modulars, Matrix's into processors before being sent over to my console, a Midas U24... I still have to label the rear panels with channel numbers...

Hope you all had a nice holiday!

Roger

Nicely done, Roger!

Thank you John!
The fronts are prototype ugly, but I will eventually make some with FPE, lose some proto ugification factor that way!

[synthetic]

Yeah, very impressive work, wow.

[Dave Peck]

Not specifically 5u, but as soon as the last few parts arrive tomorrow, I need to do some service work on a 24 channel Toft ATB console. Ugh.

Which means disconnecting EVERYTHING from the console, flipping it over upside down, and removing the bottom panel to access the PCBAs. Ugh.

And then to troubleshoot, temporarily re-attaching various cables to it while it is still upside down and trying to operate the damned thing while it is in that configuration. Uuuuugh.

Did I mention how surprisingly heavy this damned thing is? It's heavy.

I would have been willing to pay a lot more if it had been designed with proper modular channels that can be removed from the top. This design aspect of it is the one thing that I really dislike about the ATB.

[josaka]

toft is one half of trident desks ! non modularity is just cost cutting.. also it would probably be twice as heavy !
doing all that is a serious pain though !

[oldgearguy]

toft is one half of trident desks ! non modularity is just cost cutting.. also it would probably be twice as heavy !
doing all that is a serious pain though !

When I last moved, my new space (and free time) were seriously diminished from previous locations.
I reluctantly sold my Ampex MM-1200 (with the 2" 16 track headstack), ATR-102, and Trident Series 70 console that had been mostly overhauled/upgraded by a previous owner and technician and downsized to a Toft ATB 24.

The tape machines were nice but not really practical for me as a hobbyist. The Trident board though is truly missed, but I just couldn't fit a 7', 300+ lb device into my current space. I had upgraded the power supply to a few Acopians, finished the Burr-Brown op amp upgrades that had been started and that thing just sang. It was my most stable piece of equipment in the whole setup. Powered on every day, just worked, and sounded amazing. Being able to pull individual channel cards from the top of the console was simple when a repair was needed and it didn't take down your whole studio.

The Toft was a knowing compromise and before I installed it, I sent the master section off to Jim Williams for an upgrade. I have spare boards from Toft and parts to do all the submaster upgrades, but I haven't touched it after getting it all wired in.

So far, other than some scratchy pots and a 2TRK 1 return button that failed (using 2TRK 2 return now) it's been good. If/when I next move will be the time to do all the work on it since like Dave said, you have to take down your entire studio and unplug everything to work on it. The alternative is to buy a large format analog console again, which is not necessarily out of the question (depending on space available).

[Dave Peck]

The new Trident 68/78/88 which essentially replace the ATB series have top-removable modules, so those may be a good choice after the ATB.

[Dave Peck]

........Success! Tore everything down, replaced some bad parts, cleaned all input trim pots & switches & I/O jacks, reassembled & reconnected everything (with some help from a neighbor to flip & move the damn thing at the start & end of the project) and my ATB24 is working like new.

Here's the master section removed, and the whole thing standing up on end with a gaping hole in the frame:

[synthetic]

Spoke to Paul about the 190 problems last week and he thought my 5V regulator was bad, so I'm waiting on one of those. Right now the MOTM is completely torn apart and I ripped the power supplies out of it. I stripped the cabinet finish while it's naked so I can refinish it, then it gets a new power supply while the old ones get moved into my new 44sp Dotcom cabinet. Ordered a metal rolling table for the new 5U system and getting ready to place an eye-watering Noisebug order to go with my stomach-turning Synth-Werk order.

[JohnLRice]

........Success! Tore everything down, replaced some bad parts, cleaned all input trim pots & switches & I/O jacks, reassembled & reconnected everything (with some help from a neighbor to flip & move the damn thing at the start & end of the project) and my ATB24 is working like new.

Here's the master section removed, and the whole thing standing up on end with a gaping hole in the frame:

PXL_20220109_184743667.jpg

PXL_20220109_184653989.jpg

PXL_20220109_184619179.jpg

Wow, great work and thanks for the pics!

[JohnLRice]

Spoke to Paul about the 190 problems last week and he thought my 5V regulator was bad, so I'm waiting on one of those. Right now the MOTM is completely torn apart and I ripped the power supplies out of it. I stripped the cabinet finish while it's naked so I can refinish it, then it gets a new power supply while the old ones get moved into my new 44sp Dotcom cabinet. Ordered a metal rolling table for the new 5U system and getting ready to place an eye-watering Noisebug order to go with my stomach-turning Synth-Werk order.

Wow, you are deep in a flurry of glorious activity!

[Flareless]

........Success! Tore everything down, replaced some bad parts, cleaned all input trim pots & switches & I/O jacks, reassembled & reconnected everything (with some help from a neighbor to flip & move the damn thing at the start & end of the project) and my ATB24 is working like new.

Here's the master section removed, and the whole thing standing up on end with a gaping hole in the frame:

PXL_20220109_184743667.jpg

PXL_20220109_184653989.jpg

PXL_20220109_184619179.jpg

Wow! Nice job Dave!

[synthetic]

Refinished my MOTM cabinet, and pulled the power supplies out of there to put in the new MU cabinet. I have a power supply that someone gave me (Mean Well T-60C) that did the trick for this size system, so I'll put my bigger Power One supplies in the new rig. Those power supplies were never installed correctly anyway, so I finally did it right.

The cabinet after sanding out years of scratches and before two more coats of Tung Oil

After finishing

Left to right: MOTM-990 6-pin distribution panel for all the digital modules that never were, Tennun Neural Agonizer reverb pan 1 (the specced 1FB2B1D), Reverb pan 2 (8FB2B1F replacement that is working great), MOTM 4-pin distro board, Mean Well T-60C power supply for ±15V and +5V.

Back in business.

[JohnLRice]

Refinished my MOTM cabinet, and pulled the power supplies out of there to put in the new MU cabinet. I have a power supply that someone gave me (Mean Well T-60C) that did the trick for this size system, so I'll put my bigger Power One supplies in the new rig. Those power supplies were never installed correctly anyway, so I finally did it right.

IMG_8033.jpg
The cabinet after sanding out years of scratches and before two more coats of Tung Oil


IMG_8035.jpg
IMG_8037.jpg
After finishing


IMG_8041.jpg
Left to right: MOTM-990 6-pin distribution panel for all the digital modules that never were, Tennun Neural Agonizer reverb pan 1 (the specced 1FB2B1D), Reverb pan 2 (8FB2B1F replacement that is working great), MOTM 4-pin distro board, Mean Well T-60C power supply for ±15V and +5V.


IMG_8054.jpg
Back in business.

Gorgeous!