#50

The Fredenstein cases are nice as well for the price.

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#51

I have one! After looking at my needs (room to grow but not massive, fits in 19”) I went with Fredenstein. It’s an appropriately heavy duty case.

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#52

How do you like the Lindell compressor?

#53

Anyone with experience working on a Black Lion Audio Patchbay Rack?

#54

I’ve been very tempted by the 560 EQs, especially as mentioned above for tracking… I’ve also heard that the Purple TAV is a nice alternative in the graphic dept.

I got a lunchbox to add some more character pres to my setup, and got pairs of API 512v and BAE 1073MPL. It’s as far as I’ve allowed myself to go with 500 stuff, seeing how pricy a habit collecting studio gear can be, but so far I can say that having those two flavors for both tracking and running stuff back through later has been way worth it.

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#55

ohhh yeah. I have/had a stereo pair of:

  1. 15ips tape saturator mk1
  2. lotl pentode
  3. tm79
  4. ctx transformer mk2

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with each of them in separately. i got rid of he tm79 because it was more of a distortion unit than color. the pentode is very subtle but has some top end sheen thats very nice. the ctx transformer is tricky, its sweetspot is just before it breaks up but its breakup sounds bad so its better on material with less dynamic range that could stand some warmth. tape saturator is the least subtle with a noticeable low end bump. like @taylor12k said its not “Markus Fischer” tape saturation, much more subtle.

At first i was using only one module at a time. the results were VERY subtle and i considered selling all of them. However lately ive been using all 3 slots at once and bringing in a more noticeable amount of color into the material, this has breathed some new life into the modules.

currently im considering trying out the lotl royal blue as a possible replacement for the ctx. the modules i think helped me uncover very that i dont prefer the “api sound”. maybe ill like the “Neve sound” better?

The lotl modules do seem better designed and higher quality than the diyre ones.

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DIYRE Colour Format Thread
#56

My current rack is: DIYRE Color Palette, SSL LMC+, TK Audio TKilizer. All stereo.

My 2 cents: The SSL Six has ruined my 500 series rack for me. If i could do it again with hindesight i’d run a SSL Six and either a lotl silver bullet or SSL Fusion on the main insert.

That being said that suites my own needs which are different than most. 500 series was a great intro into hardware. i especially like it because its harder to get ground loops since all the modules share a power supply. in terms of audio quality the power supply isnt where any quality is gained, but can certainly be lost. when running 19” racks you can have vastly different power supply qualities and can make for some annoying problems to run down.

I think it does extremely well and am mostly happy with my workflow. Its taken quite a bit of time to learn each module and when and how to use them. The LMC+ has a pretty high learning curve but is incredible at what it does. Nothing else is like it. Im not a huge fan of the frequency centerpoints of the TKilizer but it has a very broad Q so it really doesnt matter that much. I just like nice round numbers.

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#57

Could you elaborate a bit on this? I am kind of halfway into building up a single channel 500 rack, but I am intrigued by the flexibility a good small mixer could provide instead.

So far I have a Great River MP-500NV preamp, IGS One LA optocompressor. Currently building a Hairball FET compressor and browsing around for a suitable EQ to finish it off. Six slots in total. Very happy with how it sounds so far, although I think I could probably do with a better sound interface (Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 at the moment).

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#58

I like it but find it rather sensitive to input, so it tends to go from no compression to lots with a slight increase of input, but it sounds good and having the wet/dry is a big plus, for me.

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#59

I have the CTX mk I, it’s a little harder to push the mk I to breakup and I like it. I used it as part of finding which transformers do what and then proceeded to get modules with gigantic cinemags in them so I’ll probably let the CTXs go because I can get them all over my system now haha. I had the JFET and sold them but now kinda miss them.

I like the TM79s as brutal drum smashing but I need to explore them more.

We could probably have a whole topic on colour mods.

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#60

Completely agree. Done! DIYRE Colour Format Thread

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#61

I have read this elsewhere. Maybe the trimpots on the stereo version (which is the one I would be interested in) help with this issue. The type of music I make is rarely heavily compressed so all or nothing would not work too well for me and I would have to make ample use of the mix knob otherwise.

#62

Could you elaborate a bit on this?

Of course! Remember though this is just given my personal workflow and the material on I work with normally. I was building stereo channel strips with my 500 series and the Six just has great channels on it. It just made the 500 series redundant so it was relegated to 2 bus duty. 1 or 2 19" stereo racks units combined with the Six would probably have been a better route to go but what I have works well enough and it was better money wise to be able to build it incrementally.

With that said I work with a ton of stereo material. I rarely work with drums/percussion which is where I think that having a use case specific mono 500 module makes a ton of sense. I spend more time in M/S mode than L/R, most people have mono tracks and can control their stereo image with the pan knob. Specifically with drums that need aggressive compression is where my gear(Six) tends to fall short. All my gear is super gentle and specifically picked for it’s ability to fix problems rather than shape sounds. I’d much rather shape sounds closer to the instrument with a guitar pedal or synth setting.

I think if I worked with mono acoustic sounds(single mic) more my 500 series would prove invaluable. The ability to mix and match mono modules into the ideal channel strip for a given source would be a massive advantage. If you are building channel strips with your 500 series then I think the Six can be something worth exploring. If you need a silver bullet piece of equipment for specific material, then 500 series can’t be beat when it comes to cost effective high quality hardware.

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#63

I have the EQP-500s and I like it a lot - one of the “secret weapons”.

#64

Yeah the 500 series, i grew up with it!

Amiga500 system
Amiga500 system2531×1965 788 KB

Oh not that 500? I’ll see myself out…

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#65

Since we’re talking Colour, and hence DIYRE: I don’t have a ton of familiarity with preamps, but I will say, having owned a DIYRE Preamp and the Hairball Audio Lola, I definitely preferred the Lola (which makes sense given the extra cost). I built both, but the DIYRE was supposed to be clean wire with gain so it was obviously a much simpler build. The EQP5 from DIYRE is excellent. I have more or less permanently hooked up the vintage out, but I sort of want to use a blank panel as a switch, because I found the modern output to be better in some instances (much cleaner with less coloration, and for cases where I just wanted to use it as nice passive EQ and not a pultec clone, it seems like a better choice). Love the colour palette modules, and found the louder than liftoff 1176 clone to be great, as well as the Bart HRK stuff. The actual colour modules have been hit or miss depending on what I’m working on, but they are certainly fun.

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#66

Thank you for your thoughts! You’ve given me something to think about and I appreciate hearing your perspective - I’ll have to think through what I want out of this setup and how it fits together with the rest of my gear :slight_smile:

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#67

A question about powering things. I know lunchboxes have different options (cable for i/o, and merging buttons, stuff like that) but if you could start over with 500 what’s a good beginning lunchbox?

I’m inclined to like these two, though I’d like to stay below $300 for power:

I actually really like the SIMPLE TRS i/o on the back of this two-space one - I might get it for the one 500 module I’m thinking of right now and just keep as a spare power supply for when I grow beyond two:

There’s only four modules in 500 I really see myself getting - is it foolish to think of a Neve branded lunchbox? Obviously half the price is in the name itself - or would this be a smart “buy it once” option?

I just don’t know what power concerns to have with 500 at all. I care very little about DAW implementation - all of this would be used analog with no computer, just want input and output for each module.

TLDR: What’s a good starter case and what sorts of power considerations? And apologies if that’s already discussed upstream in this thread, I didn’t see it if so. Thanks for any thoughts!

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#68

Yes, seconding the lola, it’s really a wonderful preamp. I’ve never tried it with electronic instruments, though, just with microphones (I don’t own one but one of my collaborators does and we’d never hesitate to mic anything with it!)

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#69

I think any of these are good. Basically you’ll want to decide if you want to go small or go big. If there’s really only two things you want in 500 get the small one. If you know that, realistically, you’re going to expand then get the big one.

For power, the main issues I think of are: does it have enough? and Where is the power transformer?

I started with a BAE 6 slot lunchbox because the power transformer is in an entirely different box away from the unit. Then I expanded to their 19” rack mount which, due to the power being located elsewhere, has 11 slots. (Then I got another BAE lunchbox, then the Cranborne 8 slot ADAT… I guess I have a 500 problem).

The value for lunchboxes is mobility (location recording/mixing), space constraints (no rack), budget constraints (no empty slots begging to be filled).

Resale value of 500 chassis is unlikely to be majorly influenced by the brand name. Go with a brand you trust for service, support, and workmanship.

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