|
|
Post by Pueblo Audio on Nov 11, 2020 18:38:11 GMT -6
Back in 2008 summing boxes were quite the rage for achieving OTB mixes which some felt were more musical than ITB mixes. It seemed like a cool product for Pueblo Audio to take a crack at so began work on a design. By the time I had cobbled the prototype together, the DAW world had made a significant shift. 64bit processors, coding and other peripheral advances came about and the ITB buss sounded fairy healthy after that. Summing amps didn't seem to solve such a big problem anymore, so I shelved it (never having even listened to the thing!) Over the years, engineer friends have borrowed the unit for specific project tasks and have raved about the performance. Didn't really pay much attention but this past year I finally had the chance to listen to the work my friends were achieving and, well, WOW! We compared level matched ITB mixes with the corresponding OTB Pueblo buss and it was not even close. Didn't matter if it was orchestral material or a power rock trio, the speakers behaved like they were in love with the buss signals. I suppose performance of interface DACs may have come a long way since 2012 so that an OTB mix could eclipse the ITB in the right circumstances. Who would have thought? So I received enough commissions to make a small run of these things. I'm calling it HJ482 "SideWinder". It has four banks of independent 8x2 summing amps organized for stereo stems and housed in a 1U rack. Each of the first three banks can be cascaded (routed) to the last bank forming various sized arrays, up to 32x2. All outputs still remain active for use as Sub Groups for parallel processing, etc.. Super flexible. Diagram attached below. This thing sounds fast and resolved with a 3-D sound stage. Bandwidth DC-500kHz for solid, subterranean bass and sparkling highs that don't lose their cookies at high level. Massive headroom: input/output max achieves 0.0024% THD at +29.5dBu. Drives 600Ω with ease. ![]() Fully balanced through entire signal path. This is a clean unit but it is not sterile nor boring. My approach is that summing should be accurate, not erroneous. Therefore all the OTB color and character processors we all love to spice things with up can stand up proud and be noticed that much more deliciously in contrast to the clean mojo of the mix's balances. Curious as to what the fine members of RGO might think of such an instrument? Attachment Deleted |
|
|
|
Post by Johnkenn on Nov 12, 2020 12:51:50 GMT -6
Back in 2008 summing boxes were quite the rage for achieving OTB mixes which some felt were more musical than ITB mixes. It seemed like a cool product for Pueblo Audio to take a crack at so began work on a design. By the time I had cobbled the prototype together, the DAW world had made a significant shift. 64bit processors, coding and other peripheral advances came about and the ITB buss sounded fairy healthy after that. Summing amps didn't seem to solve such a big problem anymore, so I shelved it (never having even listened to the thing!) Over the years, engineer friends have borrowed the unit for specific project tasks and have raved about the performance. Didn't really pay much attention but this past year I finally had the chance to listen to the work my friends were achieving and, well, WOW! We compared level matched ITB mixes with the corresponding OTB Pueblo buss and it was not even close. Didn't matter if it was orchestral material or a power rock trio, the speakers behaved like they were in love with the buss signals. I suppose performance of interface DACs may have come a long way since 2012 so that an OTB mix could eclipse the ITB in the right circumstances. Who would have thought? So I received enough commissions to make a small run of these things. I'm calling it HJ482 "SideWinder". It has four banks of independent 8x2 summing amps organized for stereo stems and housed in a 1U rack. Each bank can be cascaded into the next adjacent bank forming various sized arrays, up to 32x2. All outputs still remain active for use as Sub Groups for parallel processing, etc.. Super flexible. I am also thinking of an option where the last bank offers output transformers. Diagram attached below. This thing sounds fast and resolved with a 3-D sound stage. Bandwidth DC-500kHz for solid, subterranean bass and sparkling highs that don't lose their cookies at high level. Massive headroom with max in/out levels of +29.5dBu (10kΩ load, 0.0024%thd). Drives 600Ω with ease. ![]() Fully balanced through entire signal path. This is a clean unit but it is not sterile nor boring. My approach is that summing should be accurate, not erroneous. Therefore all the OTB color and character processors we all love to spice things with up can stand up proud and be noticed that much more deliciously in contrast to the clean mojo of the mix's balances. Curious as to what the fine members of RGO might think of such an instrument? ![]()  I’m not sure I understand the cascading |
|
|
|
Post by Quint on Nov 12, 2020 13:27:38 GMT -6
If each of those eight channel groups had an insert (or otherwise had outs) so that you send to outboard for coloring/compressing/eqing before cascading into the next group, that would make it a lot more useful.
Or does it do that, and I'm just not understanding? A picture of the back might help.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pueblo Audio on Nov 12, 2020 14:49:17 GMT -6
Yes, that’s the idea. Each Bank’s output remains active even when cascaded to the next Bank. For example, if Bank A is cascaded to Bank B to form a 16x2 Buss then Bank B outs could now be considered as the Main Buss while Bank A outs could be considered as a Sub Group. That Sub could feed outboard gear which can then be returned to the DAW, patched back into another summing input channel or... whatever you might dream up. The rear panel has Dsub25 connectors for each Bank’s inputs & a pair of male XLRs for the outputs. 4 Dsubs and 8 XLRs in total.  |
|
|
|
Post by Johnkenn on Nov 12, 2020 20:52:24 GMT -6
Killer idea.
|
|
|
|
Post by Blackdawg on Nov 12, 2020 23:54:34 GMT -6
pretty cool routing actually. I think the A designs Mix Factory does something similar. But it's only a 16 channel unit but does have panning and level controls.
|
|
|
|
Post by suicity on Nov 13, 2020 23:34:48 GMT -6
Scott,
Price and availability?
|
|
|
|
Post by Pueblo Audio on Nov 14, 2020 17:23:29 GMT -6
Scott, Price and availability? Hi, I expect to ship the first units in Feb 2021, so only about 2 1/2 months away. The price is $1599. The transformer output option for Bank D is +$339. All Pueblo products follow the beneficial practice of using robust external power supplies for increased performance and prolonged product life. The "SideWinder" would also require our excellent PS34 central power supply for operation which is $799. As a side note, PS34 can power up to 4 Pueblo products in any combination. So if, in the future, you choose to add an additional "SideWinder" or, say, one of our JR Mic Preamps then you would not need to buy any more power supply. In this fashion the Pueblo system's "price-per-channel" decreases with each purchase. |
|
|
|
Post by Pueblo Audio on Dec 11, 2020 13:27:16 GMT -6
Season's Greetings! Just wanted to provide a development update on some new features to SideWinder. A stereo/mono switch has been added for the first summing bank. The last summing bank (which can act as a "main buss" now has a -6dB Gain switch and a Transformer in/out bypass switch. I have updated SideWinder's block diagram in Post#1 to reflect these new features. I also have also created a preliminary web page for it. If you are interested in reading more, please feel free to visit here... puebloaudio.com/sidewinder.html |
|
|
|
Post by Chad on Mar 21, 2021 14:25:59 GMT -6
Stumbled on this thread today.
Unless I’m missing something, this seems to function similarly to the Heritage Audio MCM-32 (which I own & like), yet at around 40% of the cost, plus taking up a much smaller footprint in the rack.
How are these doing out in the wild?
|
|
|
|
Post by Pueblo Audio on Apr 8, 2021 14:46:06 GMT -6
|
|
|
|
Post by Pueblo Audio on Jul 19, 2021 16:31:29 GMT -6
If it is not too impertinent, I would like to share that Pueblo Audio is honored to have our HJ482 SideWinder 32x2 Summing Matrixnominated for the Small Format Console #TECAward in the Technical Achievement category!  Here's looking forward to attending the 37th Annual NAMM #TECAwards
at the #nammshow in person!
|
|
