Wiz's Delta thread(and everything else)

Cool thread. Might want to throw tonycamphd in that equation. I think he had a little something to do with its awesomeness......

Anyone can be thrown. I have a power supply that needs repair. Its the CPS-150. Anybody on the east coast affordably repair it? It powers on but does not power up the board.

tonycamphd

can you talk to the mods etc about the delta please?


I bought a delta mixer off Tony.

It has 8 deluxe channel strips. 4 band 2 sweepable mids eq.

It has a monitor strip as well.. so its a 8 into 2 board.

The power supply is a CPS450 which is also upgraded, its more power than I would need, and will take it if I add to the configuration.

I have long wanted a Jim Williams modded soundcraft delta, and had practically given up on getting one.. until I met Tony, here at realgear.


What I wanted it for was its 8 channels of EQ, and to incorporate my outboard gear (2 Sta Levels (drip) 1 La2a (drip) WA76 and WA Pultec, LA500)

I wanted the modded Delta because I wanted a signal path that would do no harm to the audio.. I was considering the SSL X Desk , and would have probably gone that way had I not gotten the Delta in the end.

I do most of my stuff, on my own.

I like to track without compression and EQ, and then "re-amp" the tracks out of the box, through the Delta and my Outboard gear.

The delta is whisper quiet, has ample head room, quite wide ranging EQ, and does no harm to the signal. Combine this with the Motu 16A and I am a really really happy camper.

The headroom of the delta , in conjunction with using its post fader direct outs allows me to balance things like headroom vs sonic performance, e.g. drive stuff a little here and there for colour.

I can also come out of its many outputs (aux, main etc) and multi stuff down ..

I love the Delta because A .. it sounds unreal... B Headroom C its modular and I can remove and repair strips myself as I need.

I am not using it to Summ atm, as thats not the workflow I am in atm.

It allows me to EQ a whole drum kit, together at once, using my hands.

I have almost completely given up on plugins apart from reverb.. I couldnt be happier.



any specific questions ask away.

cheers

Wiz

As far a wiz's little buddy, i cut and welded that chassis together, and completely rebuilt his PSU, it's a cps 450, it's perfect for the heavy power draw of the modded deluxe strips up to a sixteen count. The mods are done by the one and only Jim Williams, the diff between stock and modded is quite dramatic(wiz can attest to this as i sent him an unmodded strip for a backup/parts donor, still not a fair comparison because he's listening to the stock channel through a modded master buss), i did change the very good nichon caps that Jim put in with elna silmic ll's because i like their smooth sound, the stock strips have 16 electrolytic caps in them, after jims complex mod there are only 8, they are critical to function and in the audio path, he used the LME49720's for opamps(2 channel version of capi's new IC option opamp in the new compressor) and they sound awesome, you could also plug n play the super bad AD4898-2 with an adapter card if you want even more juice! I cant recommend the unit enough, Jim is the man, his turn around time is really fast, and prices are really great as well.

I have another 16 channel board i'm going to eventually put up for sale because i picked up the 48 channel Delta8 which i need to get modded, so if anyone is interested in that, let me know, if you already have a Delta, do yourself a favor and send it to JW, you'll be blown away, i promise 8)
notice the little guy under the big boy, that's wiz's board before it was wiz's board 8) the channel strips pictured are before and after mods

I also have my delta cable'd up to my patch bay...

I have its direct outs , ins, inserts .. everything!!! comes up on the patch bay.. along with all my preamp outs, and Motu 16 A ins and outs and outboard send and returns...

this way, things can go in and out different ways, orders etc...

makes life a hell of a lot easier.. and quick to experiment.

cheers

Wiz

I gotta say thats a pretty slick little Delta ya got Wiz. Cut down for efficiency.

SIDE NOTE:

I have a buddy who has 2 young kids and is redoing his studio space (making it smaller and more family friendly). He has a nice 24 channel Delta. Jim modded amfew channels, and the master modules along with the PSU. He is thinking of selling it. If I didn't have my delta and the Neve I would totally be grabbing it from him. But if any of you are interested I can invite him here to Realgear. He should be here anyway.

Hey Wiz,

I'm working on upgrading my Delta, and specifically the line input IC to LM4562. I know it will oscillate without some circuit modifications, and was wondering if you knew the value of the components (outlined in red) added to the feedback loops.

Thank You

Its the Soundcraft Delta series of mixers.  They come in a few different configurations but you can find one used for around $700 in pretty decent shape.

Mine has 49720 op amps..the values may not be the same.....

My delta in uninstalled.....I would be open to,parting it out ...

cheers

Wiz

OK I’ll give you a little more history of the Delta Family as somebody who both used and sold them. The Soundcraft Delta / Venue family was the replacement for the 200/ 400/800 series. The most Basic was the Delta SR 4 buss 4, aux 3 band mid sweep EQ, the more standard Delta was 4 bus 6 aux on 4 knobs 4 band 2 mid sweeps. There was a very rare Delta 8 bus that was similar to the standard And deluxe Delta but had 8 bus routing. In addition the Delta also had stereo and a very rare digital stereo modules. All deltas used the same bus and master modules. There was also a Delta monitor console.
The Venue was the 8 bus version with 6 aux on 6 knobs. The most versatile version is the Venue theatre ii, 6 auxes with pre/ post fader switches for each send. Otherwise pre/post aux selection is done via jumpers on each input.
Frame sizes from the little baby frame like Wiz’s to a 52 module (Venue 40x8x2 with 2 empty slots). One of the great features of these is the fact that you can remove the side panels and bolt small frames together.
These things even in stock form are not about color, they are punchy clean ( maybe the cleanest boards ever built). The mods will make these things even cleaner more dynamic and bring the all ready low noise floor even lower.
I toured on all most ever version except the Theater ii and owned a Venue 24, the only reason I sold the Venue is My DDA has better routing for recording. Touring I loved these things, the only diss was I found I needed to bring some outboard pres to warm things up at times, unlike a Midas XL200 series but I always heard the sound of the VCA’s in the Midas so if I could do the show without VCA’s the Delta / Venue would be my first choice.
Go big on the PSU, they love current stock and that goes double for modded.
The only real complaint I can think of is the compact depth of these things makes the Venue modules a little tight, replacing the knobs with something a little smaller makes things better but it’s one area where some bigger boards feel more comfortable, though if you find yourself behind a Mackie for an hour the Delta family feels like a stretch limo.
Most have fairly nice highend Alps faders, some have have P&G nicer and if you go whole hog with the JW recommendations TKD awesome!
Unlike modern boards the modules are easy to work on through hole.
The pots are pretty good but I know of a couple that were modded with higher end sealed pots that feel as smooth as the TKD faders.
If you want a super cool little mixer buy Wiz’s I’ll bet you buy another frame and more modules.
Both manuals and Schematics are easy to find online.