B
btzmacin
New member
Hello, all. I'm a new convert to the universe of analog audio. The training I received during the course of my bachelor's in "Music and Technology" (that's what they call it when your audio engineering degree comes from the humanities school of the university...) was grounded in the practical application of engineering theory to the digital domain, with very limited hands-on experience with analog gear. Thus, it was only recently that I came to appreciate this vintage equipment for the gems they really are.
What I'm looking for is a bit of help getting into the repair and restoration of analog equipment in an attempt to build my repertoire of outboard gear.
The reason for this long-term project is, in short, Pro Tools 11. More specifically, the fact that the library of plugins that served me loyally from Pro Tools 7 through 10 won't be supported henceforth. For now, Pro Tools 10 and 11 are able to coexist on the same system, which means that I have some time to get my collection off the ground before I will be entirely unable to mix anything.
But the day will come when PT10 exceeds its useful life...probably right around the time when Mavericks comes out. When that happens, I'd be forced to actually buy the plugins I've become accustomed to using for the past 5 years. You see, upon enrolling at my school, I received a handful of very nice Waves plugins along with an Mbox 2 and a relatively nice HP elite book. Fast forward four years, the elitebook is on its last legs, and so it's replaced with a shiny new Macbook Pro "retina." Much to my chagrin, PT7 doesn't play nicely with Mountain Lion...thus my purchase of a student-discounted license for PT10. Funny enough, student licenses from Avid come with free upgrades for four years from date-of-purchase, and so I've just received a complimentary upgrade to PT11...which is what led me to explore the state of my plugin library.
As it were, Waves has yet to release AAX versions of their plugins, and aren't even giving updates or discounts to people who paid full price - much less a student. So, I figured, why spend all this money on new versions of plugins that may sound completely differently than the ones I'm used to (its not like they changed the audio engine or anything) when I can spend the same money on the analog gear that the plugins are supposed to be emulating?
There's just one problem...I have no idea what I'm doing. Ok that's not entirely accurate, but I only really have the faintest clue. I understand a bit of the theory that goes into EE, but I have next to zero practical application. My real problem is that I don't actually know what any of this stuff is supposed to look like.
For example: My ex-advisor (as I've since graduated) just gave me a broken CAD CGM-2 CHAMP stereo compressor that he says seems to have "a ground loop or something." This thing is supposed to be the guinea pig for me learning to do these repairs, but I don't even know where to begin looking for the errant solder point, component, or trace...or even how to test the unit to make sure that the professor's diagnosis was even accurate.
tl;dr:
I really need a crash course from the gurus on this forum on basic outboard gear repair procedure. How do you recognize certain common faults, and where should I look for the most likely culprits?
What I'm looking for is a bit of help getting into the repair and restoration of analog equipment in an attempt to build my repertoire of outboard gear.
The reason for this long-term project is, in short, Pro Tools 11. More specifically, the fact that the library of plugins that served me loyally from Pro Tools 7 through 10 won't be supported henceforth. For now, Pro Tools 10 and 11 are able to coexist on the same system, which means that I have some time to get my collection off the ground before I will be entirely unable to mix anything.
But the day will come when PT10 exceeds its useful life...probably right around the time when Mavericks comes out. When that happens, I'd be forced to actually buy the plugins I've become accustomed to using for the past 5 years. You see, upon enrolling at my school, I received a handful of very nice Waves plugins along with an Mbox 2 and a relatively nice HP elite book. Fast forward four years, the elitebook is on its last legs, and so it's replaced with a shiny new Macbook Pro "retina." Much to my chagrin, PT7 doesn't play nicely with Mountain Lion...thus my purchase of a student-discounted license for PT10. Funny enough, student licenses from Avid come with free upgrades for four years from date-of-purchase, and so I've just received a complimentary upgrade to PT11...which is what led me to explore the state of my plugin library.
As it were, Waves has yet to release AAX versions of their plugins, and aren't even giving updates or discounts to people who paid full price - much less a student. So, I figured, why spend all this money on new versions of plugins that may sound completely differently than the ones I'm used to (its not like they changed the audio engine or anything) when I can spend the same money on the analog gear that the plugins are supposed to be emulating?
There's just one problem...I have no idea what I'm doing. Ok that's not entirely accurate, but I only really have the faintest clue. I understand a bit of the theory that goes into EE, but I have next to zero practical application. My real problem is that I don't actually know what any of this stuff is supposed to look like.
For example: My ex-advisor (as I've since graduated) just gave me a broken CAD CGM-2 CHAMP stereo compressor that he says seems to have "a ground loop or something." This thing is supposed to be the guinea pig for me learning to do these repairs, but I don't even know where to begin looking for the errant solder point, component, or trace...or even how to test the unit to make sure that the professor's diagnosis was even accurate.
tl;dr:
I really need a crash course from the gurus on this forum on basic outboard gear repair procedure. How do you recognize certain common faults, and where should I look for the most likely culprits?