Although it's not immediately obvious based on the expansive areas of content here, my first passion is Music Production and the academia surrounding the field of Music Technology. I recently made the decision to ditch the software in favour of hardware and as such am currently on a mission to create my own tools. The use of sole point click methods of interacting with Music Software stifles creativity in my eyes.
There are several elements under development; custom compressors, circuit bent mixing desks, external signal processors and a custom analogue synthesiser built into an aluminium suitcase...all of which I will detail at some point down the road.
Today I got started on building the key parts for my "Frankenstein Vintage EQ" This will eventually be detailed much more extensively in its own page.
The design will be very loosely based on the Pultec EQP 1A3 Solid State EQ which fetch $5,000 and above for a stereo pair. The heart of these units is a passive EQ stage with inductors, resistors and capacitors to filter the sound. After which an amplifier adds back that which has been lost; gain.
I had the opportunity to audition a Pultec a few years back and it is an experience I will never forget, if vintage warmth does indeed exist, then this thing has it in bucket loads.
My incarnation is/will be pretty extensively modified: custom wound inductors (seen above) many more EQ bands, a JFet amplification stage of my own design (to make up for the loss caused during passive filtering), Switchable Capacitor types (paper in oil and metallised-polyester)
Once I get my feet wet with the Pultec I am also set to build my own version of the EAR825 a bargain at $15,748. Similar in some respects but not strictly "passive" The design is complete and tested in software, the build is a bit more intense however so it is currently on the back burner.