B
Bob's Mods
New member
I've noticed that there is a lot of interest in modifying your own gear to improve it's performance. Is it worth the time and effort and risk to modify gear? Yes.
The subject of mods is a way huge one however. I could write the book on it. I've been modding my gear for at least year now as I have largely been dissatisfied with it's performance. Let's face facts, most, but not all us here are in the "audiophile" catagory. We are in that limbo above the Creative Labs users but below the high end studio level where the best gear can cost in the range of just below one grand and goes up from there. What we all really want is to sound like a decent high end studio on modest budget!
Software has come along way since the mid and late 90's when it was "crash city". Software these days seems to be relatively stable and there is such a huge selection available. The problem with getting a respectable studio sound from your DAW rig in no longer held back by software, in conjunction with hardware, as it once was, these days it's a strictly a hardware issue. And, although there a large selection of hardware out there at lower prices than in the past, it is the quality of this hardware that will determine (in addition to your own knowledge and experience of the recording arts and sciences) whether your final mix can compete with tracks and mixes done with more professional hardware. It is important to understand that no software, no matter how good, can make tracks recorded with lower grade gear, sound as good a those recorded with higher end gear. Let's assume a very experienced and knowledgable recording engineer here recording the same tracks using both an audiophile DAW rig - and - using a dedicated higher end studio rig, what ever that might be. The higher end gear will produce better sounding tracks.
As a home audio recordist we want the best sounding tracks on a modest budget. If you are like me, you have discovered that recording great sounding tracks with audiophile gear is a challenge. Lower cost mics and preamps just don't deliver the sonic results high end gear delivers. And there is nothing in software that you can do to magically make these "OK" sounding tracks and mixes sound like the high end stuff of your favorite commercial artist. I've ripped my hair out trying. It really wasn't until I actually started studying my gear by going in and reverse engineering it (studying it's guts)and making modifications to it. I need to make you all aware that I've studied electronics and have worked in this field for some thirty years so I know what I am doing. Plus I have a huge selection of parts and rework tools available to me in my work area at my job.
Once I began opening my gear and studying it's construction I soon realized just how much junk there is out there. A great many of these products can't deliver an even exceptable level of performance by virtue of the lousy components they are constructed with. I think some of these companies spend more on the multicolored product box than on the components that go inside the piece of gear you just bought. And they all do the same thing. That is why you'll buy a number of different mics for instance for $150 (give or take) and they are all only "OK". Each is just a different flavor of "OK". I'm guessing here, but somewhere around the $500 range (give or take) better parts and quality control begin to become a factor. There are some standout products in the under $500 range but most are just "OK". Many products are designed to look sexy with eye catching designs and mushy knobs and what not but it's the guts that count and because you, the consumer, doesn't understand a TL072 from a ceramic cap, they get away with it. What I'm implying here is that low cost doesn't have to mean cheap guts. But this is a marketing thing. They put the money into boxes and frames and knobs when they could the money into the guts and make less fancy visable stuff. You and I are just a "market" and "price point". They call it a "preamp" or "microphone" but using the components they use to construct these things, these devices really can't perform as well as they should be able to. They are not trying very hard at giving us, the consumer, a better product in the area where we must trust them to do the right thing. Instead they make gear that catches our attention but just doesn't perform as well as it could. And they all do this. They all use low end components. It's important to understand this because the better parts cost more and drive the cost up - some. The key word here is - some. There is a noticable improvement in performance using better parts - and better parts are not outrageous cost wise.
What about those low cost tube preamps for instance? These products in no way resemble a true tube preamp. What is the sense in buying one when a better simulation of a tube preamp can be emulated in software these days? A properly designed tube preamp is expensive. These lower cost knockoffs utilize a "tickle" plate voltage of only +48v dc. The minimum plate voltage should be at least +175 volts. These crippled products sell because we the consumer buy them, not because they offer true tube performance. Why do we buy them? Because we want that tube factor in our tracks and a real tube pre is out of reach. Anyway I have diverged a bit.
The main point I wish to make is that although we in the audiophile camp are only spending in the range of a few hundred dollars give or take on each piece of our gear, we don't have to settle for the so - so performance it resides at out of the box. There are modifications that can be made to some, but not all gear that can improve it's performance for a reasonable price.
For instance I upgraded my Oktave Mk-319. It's certainly better than what it was. It's no Neumann for sure but it's performance has been improved to the point where I can now live with it.
I will be hovering over this thread for a number of days. I will answer questions regarding modifications to your gear and hopefully everyone will learn something by it. Please be patient if I don't answer right away as I am not glued to my computer terminal!
I would like to make a final point, your modified gear will not necessarily be as good are better than the best audio gear a millionaire's budget could buy, but it will provide for a nice noticable boost to your quality! To the uninitiated, your mixes could stand side by side in the rotation of your commercial heros. Maybe not the best of the best but no slouch either!
Happy trackin'
Bob
The subject of mods is a way huge one however. I could write the book on it. I've been modding my gear for at least year now as I have largely been dissatisfied with it's performance. Let's face facts, most, but not all us here are in the "audiophile" catagory. We are in that limbo above the Creative Labs users but below the high end studio level where the best gear can cost in the range of just below one grand and goes up from there. What we all really want is to sound like a decent high end studio on modest budget!
Software has come along way since the mid and late 90's when it was "crash city". Software these days seems to be relatively stable and there is such a huge selection available. The problem with getting a respectable studio sound from your DAW rig in no longer held back by software, in conjunction with hardware, as it once was, these days it's a strictly a hardware issue. And, although there a large selection of hardware out there at lower prices than in the past, it is the quality of this hardware that will determine (in addition to your own knowledge and experience of the recording arts and sciences) whether your final mix can compete with tracks and mixes done with more professional hardware. It is important to understand that no software, no matter how good, can make tracks recorded with lower grade gear, sound as good a those recorded with higher end gear. Let's assume a very experienced and knowledgable recording engineer here recording the same tracks using both an audiophile DAW rig - and - using a dedicated higher end studio rig, what ever that might be. The higher end gear will produce better sounding tracks.
As a home audio recordist we want the best sounding tracks on a modest budget. If you are like me, you have discovered that recording great sounding tracks with audiophile gear is a challenge. Lower cost mics and preamps just don't deliver the sonic results high end gear delivers. And there is nothing in software that you can do to magically make these "OK" sounding tracks and mixes sound like the high end stuff of your favorite commercial artist. I've ripped my hair out trying. It really wasn't until I actually started studying my gear by going in and reverse engineering it (studying it's guts)and making modifications to it. I need to make you all aware that I've studied electronics and have worked in this field for some thirty years so I know what I am doing. Plus I have a huge selection of parts and rework tools available to me in my work area at my job.
Once I began opening my gear and studying it's construction I soon realized just how much junk there is out there. A great many of these products can't deliver an even exceptable level of performance by virtue of the lousy components they are constructed with. I think some of these companies spend more on the multicolored product box than on the components that go inside the piece of gear you just bought. And they all do the same thing. That is why you'll buy a number of different mics for instance for $150 (give or take) and they are all only "OK". Each is just a different flavor of "OK". I'm guessing here, but somewhere around the $500 range (give or take) better parts and quality control begin to become a factor. There are some standout products in the under $500 range but most are just "OK". Many products are designed to look sexy with eye catching designs and mushy knobs and what not but it's the guts that count and because you, the consumer, doesn't understand a TL072 from a ceramic cap, they get away with it. What I'm implying here is that low cost doesn't have to mean cheap guts. But this is a marketing thing. They put the money into boxes and frames and knobs when they could the money into the guts and make less fancy visable stuff. You and I are just a "market" and "price point". They call it a "preamp" or "microphone" but using the components they use to construct these things, these devices really can't perform as well as they should be able to. They are not trying very hard at giving us, the consumer, a better product in the area where we must trust them to do the right thing. Instead they make gear that catches our attention but just doesn't perform as well as it could. And they all do this. They all use low end components. It's important to understand this because the better parts cost more and drive the cost up - some. The key word here is - some. There is a noticable improvement in performance using better parts - and better parts are not outrageous cost wise.
What about those low cost tube preamps for instance? These products in no way resemble a true tube preamp. What is the sense in buying one when a better simulation of a tube preamp can be emulated in software these days? A properly designed tube preamp is expensive. These lower cost knockoffs utilize a "tickle" plate voltage of only +48v dc. The minimum plate voltage should be at least +175 volts. These crippled products sell because we the consumer buy them, not because they offer true tube performance. Why do we buy them? Because we want that tube factor in our tracks and a real tube pre is out of reach. Anyway I have diverged a bit.
The main point I wish to make is that although we in the audiophile camp are only spending in the range of a few hundred dollars give or take on each piece of our gear, we don't have to settle for the so - so performance it resides at out of the box. There are modifications that can be made to some, but not all gear that can improve it's performance for a reasonable price.
For instance I upgraded my Oktave Mk-319. It's certainly better than what it was. It's no Neumann for sure but it's performance has been improved to the point where I can now live with it.
I will be hovering over this thread for a number of days. I will answer questions regarding modifications to your gear and hopefully everyone will learn something by it. Please be patient if I don't answer right away as I am not glued to my computer terminal!
I would like to make a final point, your modified gear will not necessarily be as good are better than the best audio gear a millionaire's budget could buy, but it will provide for a nice noticable boost to your quality! To the uninitiated, your mixes could stand side by side in the rotation of your commercial heros. Maybe not the best of the best but no slouch either!
Happy trackin'
Bob
So, if it ends up being a non-do-able deal, I'll yank the tubes and sell the Behringer.