Posts

Community Metalwork

Image
 So, the first mechanical design, despite its low cost, turned out to be impractical. But it may eventually fly thanks to the good folks at groupDIY.com   who keep coming up with candidate enclosures. In fact, community is an important element of this project because DIYers and music makers are the end users, and it was a community member (Kid Squid) who came to my aid when I was trying to visualise a new enclosure. He very kindly offered to create a number of 3D renderings of a new enclosure despite being up to his neck in work (thanks Steve). To put this into context I soon realised that good old plug in modules made great sense in terms of simplifying the rats nest of wiring created by the original design. It would confine the wiring to two areas; first from the rear panel to a motherboard, and second from the plug in module front panel to its main board. It also meant a great deal of flexibility of mixer design was possible. OK, it would be more expensive but at least it was viable
Post a Comment
Read more

In The Beginning

Image
 I have been building custom tube consoles for professional audio use for more than 10 years. There is always a lot of interest in them; many people would love to have one. There is just one problem; good quality transformers, tubes, inductors, switches and mechanics are expensive. This means professional tube mixers simply cannot compete on price with modern mass produced op amp based mixers. Even a 4 into 2 tube mixer with basic monitoring will cost £6,000. It is a thing of beauty. It sounds wonderful but it isn't cheap.  You can probably tell I am very aware of this situation so it was to address these cost issues that I began the Poor Man's Tube Mixer project back in 2019. Of course, one way to significantly reduce costs is to build it yourself so a primary goal was to ensure all the parts, whether off the shelf or custom, are readily available so that DIY enthusiasts could build their own tube mixer. Beyond that, cost savings need to be made wherever possible. The aim was
Post a Comment
Read more