Another update. Construction is now complete. I installed a heatsink on the regulator in the volume control board, that issue is now solved. I picked up a new voltage regulator board for the PSU from the kit supplier Conrad. Installed that and power is now working correctly. I also picked up a programmable remote control on eBay for the price of a couple of pints to give me a smaller and rather more ergonomic remote control than the one...

Quick update: I’ve now finished assembling the unit. Several hours with a CorelDraw template, a centre punch and a variety of drill bits in my pillar drill resulted in a case with all the holes prepared. The wrinkly appearance of the front panel is purely down to the protective film that’s still stuck on until the unit is finished: Next was a test fit of all the components to ensure the drilling was accurate or if any...

I’ve finally made a start on building a passive monitor controller. I’ve had a good look at the various options available on the market and decided that I can build the kind of spec I’m looking for much cheaper than I can buy one. It will have 4 selectable inputs, where the selected one can be routed to 4 selectable outputs. In the middle of this routing is a volume control. I’ve opted for a stereo balanced motorised...

I’ve spent the last few months building a new MIDI control surface specifically for controlling EQ plugins. It was an idea I had last year. I actually pitched the idea to Novation, along with a mocked up image of what it could look like as I thought their rotary encoders with the LED rings along with their Automap software would make for an impressive package. Sadly, it seems they filed it under “R”. That left me with my...

The more or less finished control surface I have had this one planned for a while… I was just waiting for something suitable to turn up on eBay and last week I managed to snag a used EPOS keyboard for £5… woohoo! It’s a USB keyboard and is the TM_KMR128A made by Tipro (product info). All the keys are programmable and each can be programmed to issue a single character or a string of keystrokes. To the right is a...

I finally found some time to finish the internal wiring of the preamp. Next job will be tests and VU meter calibration. I only need the meters to give a useful indication rather than accurate metering… more important is that they are both closely matched to each other. But other than that, the build is, to all intents and purposes, now complete. Here’s a couple more pics.

Having finished the PCB builds and then had a little break I have now made a start on the metalwork. Today I have drilled the front panel. First of all I sellotaped a full scale print out of the front panel design with cross hairs on each hole position and used a centre punch through the paper template to mark the drill hole positions. Luckily I have a pair of solid steel speaker stands (which my brother-in-law kindly built for me) which...

It’s been a little while since the last update, things have been busy round here which has meant a little bit of a delay in the build. I finished off the build of the rest of the boards at the weekend: 2 VU module boards, one DI board and one SC-1 preamp board. The VU board was quite quick due to the low number of components, so it was about a 30 minute build. Being a little bit more familiar with the kits now, the build time on the...

Another update. I built one of the DI add-on modules last night. For each of the two channels this will add a high impedance active DI input and three switches to offer a -20dB pad, phase reversal and mic/DI select options. Again the build was fairly straight forward. I didn’t install the 1/4″ jack socket as I’m planning to use a combo XLR/jack input socket to save panel space – plus I simply prefer the appearance of...

Tonight I assembled one of the main SC-1 preamp boards. It was also cool to try out my new temperature controlled soldering station… *so* much better than the old Antex iron! I did have one mishap though. I managed to snap the leg off a ceramic capacitor as I was pushing it home into it’s holes on the PCB… means I’ve now got to flipping well either drive 10 miles to the nearest Maplin store or order a single ceramic...