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Post by jazznoise on Sept 18, 2013 10:45:18 GMT -6
So we all have stumbled upon some piece of kit that we think is great bang for buck. It doesn't have to be extremely obscure, but one that you don't see touted very often. EV635a enthusiasts need not apply  Just give a few you think are cool and why - maybe a story of what you did one time with it that you thought was cool. No shame here: if you think 3630's are awesome or you love your T. Bone 57 clone, let the world know! My first is the Behringer ECM 8000. Again another omni (I like Omnis, o.k?) but it's my go-to room mic. It does have proximity effect - I tried it on vocals once and never again - but on Amps, Acoustic Guitar, Classical Guitar, Drum Overhead or Ambient/Boundary mic duties it holds up really well. My 2nd one would be the AKG D130 - an Omni edition of the AKGD160 (Beatles/Abbey Road Studio fans should be excited by now) that costs much less. Really nice, bright sound - I'd say it's smoother than the ECM 8000's but equally as bright, and not alot of proximity effect. I'd probably choose this on louder sources than the ECM 8000 or in scenarios where the HF roughness would be a problem. My third is probably the Danelectro Free Speech. It's a cheap talk box and I find it hard to keep clean - but it's a really valuable production tool for the money once you get the hack of it (I'm still learning). I have it set up as a permanent insert on my desk with the tube set up next to a 58 just so I never forget. You don't gotta go all California or Frampton on it, but if you've an idea for a filter sound sometimes this is just the easiest way to do it - or at least try it. |
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Post by Johnkenn on Sept 18, 2013 10:56:30 GMT -6
Not Pro Audio, but The Squier Classic Vibe series is awesome...you gotta twist and tweak a little, but incredible bang for the buck. I have the 50's Strat, Jazzmaster with some mods and the P-Bass...
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Post by tonycamphd on Sept 18, 2013 11:43:31 GMT -6
1st, I like the oktava mk319 w/a simple mod of removing the high frequency resonator plastic off the capsule inside, makes a vibey mic in conjunction with a good pre.
2nd, i was doing a session a loooong time ago, where we ran out of "good" mics, and i threw some hyper cardoid EV nd408b egg shaped dynamics on a horn section(per instrument), shockingly good sound! also, amazing separation come mix time....maybe the only thing that sounded good on that session, if memory serves me lol! 8)
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2013 11:51:11 GMT -6
Not Pro Audio, but The Squier Classic Vibe series is awesome...you gotta twist and tweak a little, but incredible bang for the buck. I have the 50's Strat, Jazzmaster with some mods and the P-Bass... I need a Tele like that. Surprised you don't have one... country and no Tele???  |
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Post by svart on Sept 18, 2013 12:34:20 GMT -6
Anything from Aphex or Symmetrix. It's not "budget" as in cheap, but it can be found for cheap since folks don't know anything about them.
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Post by jazznoise on Sept 18, 2013 13:26:25 GMT -6
Not Pro Audio, but The Squier Classic Vibe series is awesome...you gotta twist and tweak a little, but incredible bang for the buck. I have the 50's Strat, Jazzmaster with some mods and the P-Bass... I've got the Squier Vintage Jassmaster and I love it, though I do wish the bridge was better. Still, part of the package. Still, love the tremolo - svart. Any units in particular? Loads of Symetrix stuff on Ebay. Power amps, Mic Pre's, Compressor/Expander units. Not bad value for money as far as I see. Even I could afford some of this stuff! |
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Post by mobeach on Sept 18, 2013 14:12:39 GMT -6
Actually I do love my 3630, it's been the compressor in my bass rig for many years without fail.
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Post by svart on Sept 18, 2013 14:24:25 GMT -6
Not Pro Audio, but The Squier Classic Vibe series is awesome...you gotta twist and tweak a little, but incredible bang for the buck. I have the 50's Strat, Jazzmaster with some mods and the P-Bass... I've got the Squier Vintage Jassmaster and I love it, though I do wish the bridge was better. Still, part of the package. Still, love the tremolo - svart. Any units in particular? Loads of Symetrix stuff on Ebay. Power amps, Mic Pre's, Compressor/Expander units. Not bad value for money as far as I see. Even I could afford some of this stuff! The compressors have always been pretty good. Very neutral and compresses very heavily without pumping. You just can't get them to have that thump like the SSL does though. The vocal channel things are pretty cool, again very neutral and clean. don't expect any API or Neve mojo from them though. The EQs are good too. I wouldn't think twice about using them for most anything that didn't need a specific mojo sound. |
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Post by svart on Sept 18, 2013 14:27:15 GMT -6
Actually I do love my 3630, it's been the compressor in my bass rig for many years without fail. the 3630 got a bad reputation early on because of a design error. Most people who bought them were home studios and never cared about their sound because they didn't know better. The later models fixed the error and the performance was much improved. It's not much different than the standard old DBX VCA reference designs. If I needed a decent swiss-army knife type of compressor, a fixed one or newer model would serve pretty well. |
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Post by jazznoise on Sept 18, 2013 14:36:39 GMT -6
Actually I do love my 3630, it's been the compressor in my bass rig for many years without fail. I was just ragging! Billy Corgan used it for his Mellon Collie guitar setup, sounded great. But it's one of those things you always read on the Purple Forum. |
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Post by tonycamphd on Sept 18, 2013 15:16:53 GMT -6
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Post by mobeach on Sept 18, 2013 15:50:20 GMT -6
Interesting, if I was good at soldering I'd do it! But it seems to work fine for me as is. |
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Post by paulhunt on Sept 18, 2013 20:09:39 GMT -6
Not Pro Audio, but The Squier Classic Vibe series is awesome...you gotta twist and tweak a little, but incredible bang for the buck. I have the 50's Strat, Jazzmaster with some mods and the P-Bass... What kind of tweaks might be good for the P-bass? I'm looking at getting back into bass after a 20+ year hiatus, and don't want to put out a lot of cash. The Classic Vibe P-bass is the one I've been leaning toward. |
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Post by Johnkenn on Sept 18, 2013 20:51:15 GMT -6
I'd say throw some flat wounds on it and go. The neck is great. Only other upgrade would be pickups and the ones on there are pretty good.
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Post by paulhunt on Sept 18, 2013 21:37:47 GMT -6
I'd say throw some flat wounds on it and go. The neck is great. Only other upgrade would be pickups and the ones on there are pretty good. Cheers John. That pretty much tallies with my research. Which strings do you like? I didn't mind D'addario half-rounds back in the day but I have no idea what is out there currently. |
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Post by svart on Sept 19, 2013 7:59:03 GMT -6
I seem to remember back on GroupDIY a thread that found a fundamental design error in the VCA connection or something. Perhaps it was something to do with the VCA THD adjustment or something, possibly that the circuit was designed for the old VCAs that needed tuning and the 3630 was using the pre-trimmed parts, or vice-versa. I can't remember now. Anyway, there were a few resistor changes and it resulted in a much better working box than simply swapping opamps and caps. It's how you use the parts, not what you use.. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2013 8:36:21 GMT -6
Yes, there was something missing directly in the detector circuit if i remember it right....
It was a capacitor, if i remember it correctly, it is easy to find if you compare the circuit to the reference design. 100n cap it was.
All revision D and after models were already corrected by the manufacturer.
The most effective mod is to change the LF347 to any audio opamp type (very bad in this application), the other quad opamps to ones of your liking, beef up the 2 big caps in the backleft corner of the PCB and get a wallart supply greater 1.5 Amps.
These three very easy mods make the 3630 a beast of compressor alone, compare to the "before". In my case it made the gate usable, that i found to be unusable crap before. The circuit can sound totally different with different opamps so it is worth the effort to experiment. Alternatives are TL074, OPA4134, OPA4132, OPA4227(which i like for 'sound'), MC33079(more sterile and precise) and other obvious ones. The before mentioned can even be used as direct drop-in replacements if you did the psu upgrade....
Best regards,
Martin
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Post by henge on Sept 19, 2013 9:30:12 GMT -6
Hmm, I'm in the market for a tele so I'll check out that Squire series Johnkenn was talking about.
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Post by Johnkenn on Sept 19, 2013 11:41:11 GMT -6
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Post by svart on Sept 19, 2013 13:34:50 GMT -6
My buddy has a tele almost exactly like that. It sounds superb through an old Fender Princeton Reverb..
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Just give a few you think are cool and why - maybe a story of what you did one time with it that you thought was cool. No shame here: if you think 3630's are awesome or you love your T. Bone 57 clone, let the world know!
