Pedal Boardage, Part doosh

This is the Away Board:

I bolted a enameled cooking grate, like for onna BBQ, to a piece of wood shelving. I use removable Zip ties to hold the pedals, tuck the wiring around ’em. The whole thing fits into a old Samsonite briefcase I had laying around (it’s on the left) what I need not even take the board out of. I plug a wah (not shown) on the right, using a empty lead from the One-Spot, and placing the wah on top of the board to transport in the case.
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vlayman; THD; blog; TFP

Pedal Boardage

Damn things is expensive if you buy commercial ones. Me, a One-Spot is fine for, and the other issue is portability.
So I built two.

This is the Home Board:

I built it outta a wire shelf I bought at Menard’s Home Supply, zip-tied the brackets underneath for stability, used releasable zip-ties for the pedals to make it easier and cheaper to change ’em out.

It’s pretty sturdy, even using the wah, but while it might be OK for the occasional gig, I’d not want it on the road. As a way to organize the pedals and make ’em EZier to use in the bedio, however, well, it works!

 

Sorta M/S witha Durham

Published on TOMB:

I have the [Cathedral Pipes] Durham – feckin’ lurv it! I’ve been doing a lot of sorta M/S*, using various dynamics (lately a EV E609 or a AKG D1000E) for the mid and a MXL 860 for the side (not a bad ribbon, the best part being it’s diminutive size). The Durham lets me use any pre I want, so I can use older stuff like a 1589b (Altec) and get a strong signal that I can hear in the cans, even when I’m sitting next to the amp (I leave it set up onna Pro, Jr. next to my mix position). And it really does seem to “clarify” the signal somehow … *I often take the ribbon track and delay it .01 or so seconds, double it and phase-reverse the double and bring those tracks back up under the dynamic-mic track, and not always panned LCR, either. _________________ vlayman; THD; blog; TFP

So, mods ‘n’ sh*te

I mean, it is fun to change out tubes on mic’s and amps and pre’s. I’ve coil-tapped and split and phase-reversed and changed out pickups and tone-caps, I’ve added better or replaced input jacks and pots and trannies and the odd resistor, etc.

I’ve certainly improved the functionality of stuff by, say, replacing tuners or bridges or switches or jacks or removing mesh from a windscreen or death-caps, or adding shielding or ground-wires or even paint, and I fix stuff and even make my own patch cords.

When I think about it tho’, and not too, too much disrespect, I just can’t understand the mod “scene” as a reason for joining it.

I mean, it’s one thing to have a thing and it ain’t quite the thing you want the thing for – so you mod it to make it that thing you want.

I get it.

I just have a problem at this point with the mod “scene” what seems to exists to get you to mod things just for the purpose of modding the things they sell things to mod them with. I mean, it even seems they encourage you to buy a thing that’s a not-so-good-thing to use their things to mod it into a better thing than it was, while all the while it ain’t quite the thing you want it to be and mod it toward.

I mean, I want my Tele to sound like a Tele, not a Strat, and certainly not a Paul, y’know? And that cheap Chinee thing? Use it, abuse it, sell it, purposefully lose it, but don’t try to make it something it ain’t never gonna be.

Like, if I want a “warmer” pre, I’ll change to a “warmer” pre, or the same re a mic, or amp or whatever. I’ll just change guitars.

Mebbe I just have a little too much money, what gives me choices?

But I work hard to be able to have choices, and if I have bad shite, I’ll get rid of it (sometimes) to get good shite, if I just don’t outright just buy more shite, keeping that “bad” shite for the very limited thing(s) the “good” shite can’t do, even if that is only because it’s being used elsewhere.

But mod it?

Especially just to say I mod’d it?

Unless I have a piece of bad shite, and nothing better to do, I’d rather just replace it.

You?
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vlayman; THD; blog; TFP

Re the preamp pad

Just following up re the above (DRL STP-1); a totally worthy concept, so worthy that if my newly-purchased Altec 1589b ever gets here and functions, I’ll buy another.

Here is how I have it located for use, just velcro’d to the rackrail and wired to the patchbay:

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vlayman; THD; blog; TFP

Wanna see inside a EV 664 I repaired?

Aiighty, so I bought a EV 664 offa the e-Bog, and after doing the dooshie-seller tap-dance and getting a full refund and keeping the mic (seller wanted me to pay the return shipping on this heavy mofo so I fought ’em), I decided to try and fix it

Took me 5 hours but I kludged it, and here’s a photo gallery:

here

Talkin’ patchbays correction

I previously totally made a mistake describing my set-up; I blame the martoonies.

My stage-box is actually XLR to XLR, used to extend access to the the typical back-panel XLR jacks on most pre’s. Doesn’t work on my The Brick, of course, so that one’s not patched in.

FWIW, what is is:
Eureka, VC3Q, Altec 1589B, VC16
ISA1 , Summit 2BA-221, VTB1, UA710

Some of the pre’s (Summit, Meek, ISA1) are routing-flexible, so they are connected both to the stage-box via XLR, TS to the patch-bay.

I also have a Rolls MP105 that I only use on bass, so that’s just connected via TS to the patch-bay.

Talkin’ patchbays

In answer to a question at TOMB, I posted:

PB I

Outs: / Summit/ VC3Q/ ISA1/ MP105 /Meek MC2 L/ Meek MC2 Rt/ RNC/ 163X/ 1176/ Altec/ Open/ Brick/ VTB1/ GM200 L/ GM200 Rt
Ins: ” ”

PB II
Outs: / Tuner/ Eureka/ ART TPS L/ ART TPS Rt/ Microcab/ VC1Q/ Open/ Hafler T2/ UA710/ VLA L/VLA Rt/ 166A L/166A R/ 866 L/ 866/Rt/ Open/ 160XT
Ins: ” ”

I use a short stage snake with a XLR box to TRS cable ends to the patchbay for the XLR ins on the pre’s. I take the out of the last piece in a given chain (say, Summit pre to 1176) from the patchbay to my M-Audio Delta breakout box.

It looked like this a while back. (PB’s top left, yellow cable to breakout box, snake lower left.)

M/S somewhat ‘splained

In answer to a question at lostoverture.com, I said:

M/S = mid/side

You record the mid signal with a cardoid or similar and pan it up the middle.

You record the side signal with a figure 8.

You then clone the side signal and phase invert it and pan each track (the original and the phase inverted) up the sides.
If you play just the mid signal, you have mono.

If you add the sides to it, you add more “stereoness”, more room.

If you collapse the mix to mono, the side signals cancel and you are left with the mono.

You can make adjustments by varying the left and right signals vs. the middle, and vs. each other, and by panning them; it’s a phasing trick.

As well, using a omni for the mid, or the sides is a option, or you can use a hyper-cardoid for the mid, and use matching or different types of mic’s (ex., ribbon vs. condensor, etc.)

Trad M/S has you stack the mics vertically, so they are equidistant from the sound source in order to control the phase differences you get from distance; hence, my little stand is non-trad, not “accurate”, but still a EZ, useful effect.

More M/S stuffs

FWIW, and a trick I have posted before, sometimes I mic a recorded track played onna monitor in M/S …

While I have done that on drum tracks, etc., I find it mostly useful on single rhythm or lead guitars.

I intend to try both (the re-mic and the “sorta M/S” while recording) on some mono-amp’d keys tracks, also.

I love M/S (actual, “trad M/S”, if you will  ) on drums, but my drummer hates it. Probably because I over-used the separation the few times we tried it …