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Post by Guitar on Apr 17, 2017 9:28:19 GMT -6
Did you do anything to yours, or are they OK stock? I rock mine stock. I don't think there is enough difference to warrant modding. They have the "Vintage neve sound" thing going on. The only difference is that they seem to have less headroom, and will distort earlier if you turn them up high. Other than that, the difference in sound isn't much more than the difference between other name-brand clones, or the difference in real Neve modules. You gotta remember that the real vintage modules used 20% tolerance parts that age and change over time and their transformers were not that tight tolerance either. One module to the next would sound somewhat different. With vintage preamps, you get high-distortion, high noise devices that are mojo monsters. Worrying about specs is not something I would do with old Neve modules. Wow, thanks. I might pick one up next week to try it out. I'm getting very close to filling up my 500 rack. When I decided to work on that, it happened more quickly than I'd anticipated. Still room for a few more modules, and a preamp would be just the ticket. Maybe even the EQ as well, since the price is so low.
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Post by svart on Apr 17, 2017 9:38:41 GMT -6
I rock mine stock. I don't think there is enough difference to warrant modding. They have the "Vintage neve sound" thing going on. The only difference is that they seem to have less headroom, and will distort earlier if you turn them up high. Other than that, the difference in sound isn't much more than the difference between other name-brand clones, or the difference in real Neve modules. You gotta remember that the real vintage modules used 20% tolerance parts that age and change over time and their transformers were not that tight tolerance either. One module to the next would sound somewhat different. With vintage preamps, you get high-distortion, high noise devices that are mojo monsters. Worrying about specs is not something I would do with old Neve modules. Wow, thanks. I might pick one up next week to try it out. I'm getting very close to filling up my 500 rack. When I decided to work on that, it happened more quickly than I'd anticipated. Still room for a few more modules, and a preamp would be just the ticket. Maybe even the EQ as well, since the price is so low. Yeah, for that price, it's pretty good.
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Post by mhbunch on Apr 18, 2017 9:24:55 GMT -6
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Post by dandeurloo on Apr 20, 2017 9:21:26 GMT -6
I did swap out the caps in the Comp54's. I replaced all film, tants and electrolytic caps. It helped almost as much as the transformer swaps. It really made the comp sound bigger overall. The Chinese caps must have really been choking the tone out of them. I also beefed up the PSU a little.
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Post by Guitar on Apr 20, 2017 13:54:18 GMT -6
I did swap out the caps in the Comp54's. I replaced all film, tants and electrolytic caps. It helped almost as much as the transformer swaps. It really made the comp sound bigger overall. The Chinese caps must have really been choking the tone out of them. I also beefed up the PSU a little. What kind of caps do you prefer in this circuit? I was thinking about getting the Alctron 500 stuff and changing some caps. I guess it's down to taste, but I'm always curious what other people are using.
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Post by dandeurloo on Apr 20, 2017 14:06:52 GMT -6
Honestly anything higher quality will help. I replaced the Tants with Kemets, Nichicon's for elects and I had a stash of films on hand and used those.
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Post by schmalzy on Apr 23, 2017 23:02:03 GMT -6
Yo, guys! I got mine in the other day. I unboxed one and, as I always do, I check all the knobs and tip the unit on its sides/upside down/etc.. Weird knob movement on the threshold plus some rattling. Ugh. Opened it up and it was just a c-clip washer (I have no idea what it's actually called) that spaced the threshold knob off the faceplate that was floating around inside. I grabbed it and put it back in place with a tweezer. I can't hook it up until I finish a mix for a guy so I'll test it and its twin when I get a chance. ...but I WAS able to snag a quick pic of the inside:
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Post by Guitar on Apr 24, 2017 8:45:44 GMT -6
Thanks for sharing that. The build quality kind of reminds me of some of the Lindell stuff.
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Post by rocinante on Apr 28, 2017 20:45:53 GMT -6
The build quality actually looks alright. Id leave the caps even (cheapo gray kemets and a few wimas) but id like to see the underside. ...And swap the xfmrs obviously as thats a big part of the sound.
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Post by schmalzy on Apr 29, 2017 16:35:32 GMT -6
Real world example time! Drum bus? I think that's a cool place to go. Couple quick notes: I left the reverb sends/return on. I figured, that's how I mix so I'd want to hear the examples that way, too. Plus, I'm a dunce - I thought about muting the return and doing a set of examples that way but I completely forgot to. Since then I've changed the threshold and makeup settings. The meter isn't great. As in, not good. Pretty bad. I was looking for it to give me a bit more information but it just wasn't happening. I suppose I just have to use my ears... Hardware Insert Bypassed: drive.google.com/open?id=0Bzugr8cD5X_Mc2ZjUmFxTUtkOFU3:1/25ms Attack/100ms Release/100hz Sidechain hpf: drive.google.com/open?id=0Bzugr8cD5X_MZWw1QlZtTERPMkk6:1/0.5ms Attack/25ms Release/50hz Sidechain hpf: drive.google.com/open?id=0Bzugr8cD5X_MSHVNeEY4OWJjaEEKnobs are wonky and not even in resistance from unit to unit. One of the knobs was mashed on so it stripped the knurls inside the plastic a little - not a real problem but also annoying (I'm probably going to have them send me a new knob). "Compressor In/Out" switch has different (uneven left-to-right) outputs than the "Bypass On/Off" switch (which stayed pretty even left-to-right). Any observations from the golden eared among us?
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Post by Guitar on Apr 29, 2017 17:15:08 GMT -6
That's a shame about the build quality. Sounds good though. That's a rockin' beat too, for sure. I think a little bit of compression does suit it. Maybe the heavy one could be a parallel bus.
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Post by Quint on Apr 29, 2017 18:42:37 GMT -6
The transformers in the GAP stock are total garbage. Replacing those helps a lot. I am about to take out all the caps in one of my units and replace them with higher quality parts and see if that helps. I wish I had a schematic for this thing. So would your assessment of "total garbage" transformers also apply to the transformers in the Golden Age Comp-3a? Just curious.
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Post by dandeurloo on Apr 29, 2017 20:55:31 GMT -6
I've never seen one of those, but my guess would be that they are very similar.
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Post by schmalzy on Apr 30, 2017 20:17:11 GMT -6
That's a shame about the build quality. Sounds good though. That's a rockin' beat too, for sure. I think a little bit of compression does suit it. Maybe the heavy one could be a parallel bus. I should revise how I stated all of that stuff. The build quality is maybe a touch suspicious - but the box they came in was also REAL fuckin' beat. And, inside that box, were the two individual boxes the units were in. Around those boxes were some packing materials. One of the individual boxes had a big ol' dent in it. I'm guessing UPS had a sacrificial lamb recently. All of the notable weirdness is on the one unit that was in that box - the loose knob, the mashed knurls on the other knob. After doing a bit of flickin' back and forth on the switches, the unbalanced thing if you use the "Compression In/Out" seems to have gone away. I started mixing a song and am using it on my drum buss - 4:1/12ms attack/Auto1 Release/50hz hpf/barely tapping the needle (but I'm still hearing compression - I think the needle's just slow; if I set the release time to 1.5sec it dances a bit more) and my drum mix came together a lot faster. So far, I'm stoked. If my drums come together that fast from now on out, then the $400 was super worth it!
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Post by rocinante on May 1, 2017 1:54:31 GMT -6
Iirc all of the 54s and clones have had meter issues with some resolutions. It makes me think theres something with the gain reduction metering circuit.
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Post by dandeurloo on May 1, 2017 16:42:44 GMT -6
Iirc all of the 54s and clones have had meter issues with some resolutions. It makes me think theres something with the gain reduction metering circuit. More then likely just crappy meters. You don't get a great meter for the cost of 3 bucks. The better Sifam meters cost 90 bucks or more. They are also really small in size so it is a lot harder to get accurate resolution. For instance, like the meters that Hairball Audio sells. The larger VU's are much more accurate then the smaller sized ones. The price difference is only a few bucks and the manufacture is the same. The difference is the size. Most of the clones I have seen use smaller meters to fit in 1U enclosures. My 2 cents.
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Post by rocinante on May 1, 2017 23:29:54 GMT -6
Well i think your two cents is right on the money. 😉 Yeah looking back (and although i like them) those small vu meters aren't nearly as accurate as the larger ones.
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Post by schmalzy on Sept 20, 2018 18:52:24 GMT -6
Yo, y'all! I was just informed that Astound Sound has more of these in stock. Do what you will with that information! Over. www.astoundsoundrecording.com
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Post by svart on Sept 21, 2018 6:28:51 GMT -6
I know this is a very old thread, but wanted to say.. You guys are thinking too hard about the parts in the units. The caps and resistors available back when the 1073 and 2254 were available were of significantly worse overall quality than the worst ones today.
I'd wager that the stock units are probably closer in tone to the originals back in the day due to this.
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Post by johneppstein on Sept 21, 2018 14:30:31 GMT -6
Yeah, tubes are different because they don't require as much filtering as solid state designs. I find the full wave PSU's really do help on solid state designs. But again IMO. I've known a lot of hi-fi tube people who would disagree strongly on that.
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