DIY Pres

[noisedude]

Right I have not much money but I do have free time (student life is funny like that) so I fancy having a go at some DIY pres before I go buy a £160 one - if nothing else it'll be good fun and in theory I'm unlikely to make anything worse than that found in my Behringer desk currently!

I'm confident enough with soldering and know electronics to a point...I know the theory at least. But I have no idea where to start on a project like this. Can people point me to some schematics that are manageable and also to some places to get components, bearing in mind I'm in the UK?

Thanks. Point me to other threads if you want, I don't mind doing my own reading I just can't seem to find a decent place to get started!!!!

Nik

 

[manning1]

some ideas

firstly let me say - TAKE AN ELECTRONICS COURSE
at adult college for a few months and learn about transistor and op amps - the basic building blocks of mic preamps.
the purpose being so that you can build and breadboard and test SAFELY. secondly dont attempt any projects with high voltages or anything that draws more than a few milliamps FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY. with that behind us, just go to google.com
and put in the search engine mic preamp schematic. 1000's of
links will come up.
you could do no worse starting off than building one of the simple vellemann mic preamps. about 5 pounds i believe. then try and improve thecircuit using LOW NOISE resistors and substitute
lower noise equivalent op amps and/or transistors.
epanorama.net has a slew of circuits as well. STAY AWAY from tubes. NOT SAFE ! high voltages etc.
you can build a nice low noise mic preamp out of nothing more than a couple of low noise transistors like mpsa18. very cheap.
learn a circuit called "common emitter" or "common base".
this will help you get started. lastly keep to safe schematicsthat
be powered by a 9 volt guitarists square battery.
one of my own mic diy preamps uses one and i get CLEAN TRACKS.
all the best.

 

[manning1]

by the way

you can listen to some of my songs that charted in the past and which used my diy pres' if you wish
soundclick.com/bmanning
"Hi tech man"
"raise the flag"
"the working mans song"
"woohoo"
and many others that just helped me get my first label deal..
now compare to "the wrecker" done with mackie pres.
and then "H lady" which used a multi million dollar studio,
and you will hear that my diy's hold up pretty well versus other commercial pre's even high end that ive used.
HAVE FAITH. you CAN get good sound out of diy pre's !

 

[IanW-UK]

check out http://recording.org/users/kev/ I'm in the middle of making some pres myself. The dual "green" pre on that site http://recording.org/users/kev/green_pre.htm and a quad of api 312 type pres too. All the parts for the green you can get from maplin http://www.maplin.co.uk/ or rs http://www.rswww.com/ Making pcbs aint too hard either I've had pretty good results with the "iron on" type paper. A lot of folks don't like that method and will tell you to buy an etching tank and uv light etc, but try the paper first. It's cheaper and if you get along with it then you save loads of cash. Be warned though, it takes a sh!tload longer than you'd think to make all this stuff!! especially if you work full time too.

Have fun...........

 

[noisedude]

ok that's all good, thanks.

what about kits that i can practice assembling before i have to wade into buying loads of bits? at this point it's just for a bit of fun so it needn't be the best quality or even price, i just think it might be a good way of getting to grips with the basics. so a place that can sell me all the bits in a bag with a little schematic would be brilliant.

 

[IanW-UK]

Maplin sells a load of kits. some of them are really cheap too. I think I saw a really simple mic preamp kit on there before for about a fiver. Have a look here http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search/resu...804&Level=1&Menu=103&Name=Hobbies+&+Education

 

[noisedude]

ha thanks for that mate i spent ages trawling the site to try find these!! i was looking under components and electronics but didn't think of hobbies

 

[mandocaster]

Any suggestions for simple kits stateside?

 

[crazydoc]

Any suggestions for simple kits stateside?

http://www.hobbytron.net/CK151.html
or this
http://www.qkits.com/serv/qkits/diy/pages/FK652.asp
for a minimal investment of time and money.

Then, if you still want to carry it farther, try something like this that may actually be useful for recording
http://www.paia.com/phantom.htm
or this
http://www.paia.com/tubestuf.htm#tubehead
or
http://www.seventhcirclestudios.com/SCA/SCA.htm

another UK site
http://www.electronic-kits-and-projects.com

 

[mandocaster]

Thanks, I'm going to order 16 of the Neve repro kits and get soldering!

Actually, the paia stuff seems more my speed.

Thanks again

 

[manning1]

somethong interesting.

also check out benchmark media mic preamp .its a bit on the pricey side , 99 dollars and you have to do a bit of work but ive heard its a very good mic pre kit. alot of the work is done for you.
frankly now that a behringer ub802 is 49 bucks on the net i'd be surprised if you could improve on it for the money/

 

[noisedude]

hmmm ... you may be right. maybe i really should save my money for things i really need ... or maybe not!

 

[manning1]

IF YOU WANT TO DROOL

check out the pre the pro's drool over. a DACS mic preamp.
2500 bucks. plug a royer or some elite mic into it.
and do a superdrool. read up on it on the net and read the user reviews. its something you wont let go of i doubt.

 

[crazydoc]

Here's a DIY tube pre I came across:
http://home.earthlink.net/~altaflux12ax7/preamp1/intro_preamp.html

 

[manning1]

crazydoc. great find that schematic. nice ans simple.
well done. but to anyone reading this please be aware tubes are high voltages. ive got a lot of electronics diy experience,
and even i'm leery of high voltages. so best bet is take a proper safe electronics course.
btw crazydoc ive been searchong for ages fo tube preamp circuits using lower voltage tubes. ive even contacted recently some of the leading diy mags. a couple thought they might consider an article on how to do it using lower voltages and thought it a good idea. apparently it can be done.
you seen anything else using lower voltages. ????

 

[Flatpicker]

The Green Pre is largely based on the AMEK System 9098 preamp, which was designed by Rupert Neve. Although I haven’t built or heard the Green Pre, I’ve heard samples recorded using the 9098 pre (single rack-mount version) and it sounds great. If you don’t mind making your own PC board and chassis, the Green Pre is the way to go, IMHO. You’ll end up with a pre that blows the Behringer out of the water!