Modular Rack system for preamps!!

[Ckevperry]

Buzz audio has created it....Great River is jumping on board, as well as several other big preamp companies!

Imagine a modular rack standard where in one rack you have 2 buzz preamp cards, 3 MP-2 cards, 2 NV Cards, 1 flamingo card and 1 API!

Interest and excitement will lure these other preamp companies onboard....so post your thoughts and approval here:

9 space modular rack thread

[Jax]

Besides Great River, when did other manufac's agree to share the rack with Buzz? And which ones?

Last time I looked it was only Great River and Buzz.

[Ckevperry]

Nothing public yet....we need to show support to help "coax" them.

[Jax]

That's true.

Hey API, Cranesong, Summit, Phoenix, Daking, GML, Millennia (and of course Buzz and Great River)... I'll buy at least one of each preamp/compressor/eq module you make that fits the Buzz Audio Universal 8.1+! There are many others like me out there who will do the same!

I know at least a few of you read this board.

[e-cue]

Dare a boy dream....

Modular Mic Pres
Modular Compressors
Modular EQs


Someday, the dream console will be built.

[Ckevperry]

EQ's and compressors would fit as well. The rack has plenty of juice to make that work....

[hollywood_steve]

Am I the only one that wished they "standardized" around an existing module like the API 500 series which already has something like 35 years worth of product in studios?

steve
lex125@pacbell.net

[Fibes]

The API is a standard. No one else is doing it 'cause they can't make money off it.

The Buzz does sound interesting however.

[Jax]

Fibes... OSA?

[Mike O]

Originally posted by Fibes
The API is a standard. No one else is doing it 'cause they can't make money off it.

The Buzz does sound interesting however.

I think if the rest got on board with the the API form factor (if not spec) and then some mfg worked on a modular frame, they could ALL make money. Some mfgs might think that it would cut into their other products however.

How many of us have multiple mfg pres, comps, etc. ? Many start this process with an inexpensive console. If the module desk were designed for it we could move torwards the console of our dreams in increments.

API, Forssell, Avalon (others?), made or make stuff for the Sony 3036 and you are right - they did not appear to make tons of money in the process. The problem as I see it?

a) You had to buy or have a 3036 - limited choices in frame size (frame not modular)

b) When the 3036 was being sold the market was nothing like it is now.

The key to selling the cross mfg pre/comp and expanding the market seems to me to be a top notch modular design.

Is it possible to design a modular console where the user could buy say a couple of pres in a frame, and say a console module that would hold up to 8 of them? It should be able to later be intergrated into other console moduals so that you could end up with the typical full channel strip if you wanted.

Then add other sections (monitor/master modules, meter bridges, automation) as you go as noted above.

If possible it could be an answer to my dreams. Would probably requires MUCH interactin by key manufacturers.

And they probably have competing agendas/spec needs.

Enough rambling.......too much dreaming I am sure!

[Fibes]

Originally posted by Jax
Fibes... OSA?

Old school Audio... They use the API pin out and size much like Brent Averill does. OSA has more of a twist to the API sound... I THINK Mercenary and Atlas are carrying them now.

I would like to see the rack meet API spec since it already exists and somehow incorporate a mixer into it for minor summing duties like the Buzz hints at... I like to combine mics at tracking and my current pre config doesn't allow me that pleasure without hitting a less than stellar console.

[initialsBB]

I've seen this discussion in a few places and I'm suprised nobody mentions the current modular synth market which I think is a good model. There are a couple of different standards right now with several different companies making stuff that is interchangable to varying degrees. It doesn't take an officially agreed upon "standard" to make this stuff work, and different specs can still work together. It's not that big of a deal to have multiple power supplies or a couple of different racks. In the synth field some companies even offer replacement faceplates to change the modules from one rack size to another.

Where it will start to become interesting for home studios is if some companies come out with kits and cheaper racks and power supplies. It would be nice to buy a cheap frac-rac level rack and maybe skimp on the power supply a bit but get OSA modules for example.

[etherize]

why not go all the way and make a modular mixer? (is that possible?)

[hollywood_steve]

I'm lucky in that I'm a big API fan and I could live with a 500 series rack filled with all API brand modules; a bunch of preamps and a few each EQ's and compressors.

But there is one thing missing and API's upcoming solution doesn't work for me. What I'd really like to see under my Christmas tree are two summing modules; 500 series units each capable of summing some number of line level inputs. (I'd be satisfied with some very low quantity, like 4 inputs, but I'm sure that they would need to allow for a much higher number for the product to have any chance at success.)

Millennia offers line level summing modules that are pretty much just what we need, only I'd prefer a typical API confguration, not the transformerless "hifi" approach of Millennia. (FYI, the reason that I'm not wrapping a pair of Millennia summing modules for under my tree is that I was told that they would not sell the summing modules by themselves. The company stated that they didn't make any money selling one or two summing modules and that I would need to buy at least EIGHT input modules along with the two summing modules.!!??!!??)

But a pair of modules that would allow me to use three or four mics on location and record directly to two track, well that would be a great present, especially if they fit into the open spaces on my 500 series rack!

(the 3124M would certainly work, but 2/3rd's of its price goes for the 4 preamps included; I just want to buy the summing bus. The new 8200 looks great until I realized that you also need the 7800 Master section, doh!....)

Would it help if I lied and swore that I had been a good boy all year?

steve
lex125@pacbell.net

[thethrillfactor]

Originally posted by hollywood_steve
I'm lucky in that I'm a big API fan and I could live with a 500 series rack filled with all API brand modules; a bunch of preamps and a few each EQ's and compressors.

But there is one thing missing and API's upcoming solution doesn't work for me. What I'd really like to see under my Christmas tree are two summing modules; 500 series units each capable of summing some number of line level inputs. (I'd be satisfied with some very low quantity, like 4 inputs, but I'm sure that they would need to allow for a much higher number for the product to have any chance at success.)

Millennia offers line level summing modules that are pretty much just what we need, only I'd prefer a typical API confguration, not the transformerless "hifi" approach of Millennia. (FYI, the reason that I'm not wrapping a pair of Millennia summing modules for under my tree is that I was told that they would not sell the summing modules by themselves. The company stated that they didn't make any money selling one or two summing modules and that I would need to buy at least EIGHT input modules along with the two summing modules.!!??!!??)

But a pair of modules that would allow me to use three or four mics on location and record directly to two track, well that would be a great present, especially if they fit into the open spaces on my 500 series rack!

(the 3124M would certainly work, but 2/3rd's of its price goes for the 4 preamps included; I just want to buy the summing bus. The new 8200 looks great until I realized that you also need the 7800 Master section, doh!....)

Would it help if I lied and swore that I had been a good boy all year?

steve
lex125@pacbell.net

Why don't you just have someone build it for you(Boutique Audio) for example?

Its really not that difficult. But the summing amps alone do not equal the sound of an API console.

Its what people don't understand. What gives a console its sound(you fill in the blank) is the whole network working as a unit. All of the junk in the console(necessary or not) contributes to the sound. Now is the summation pretty? You decide. One man's warm is another man's cloudy. Another man's transparent is another's thin.

For summing duties I've been recommending the SBM-2 by Inward Connections. Its designed by Steve Firlotte who designed the Vac Rac gear. He is one of the best designers out there for Boutique gear. The summing box has pan pots(if you have problem with the DAW panning).

And best of all it sounds good!!!

[hollywood_steve]

But the summing amps alone do not equal the sound of an API console.
*****

Agreed, but these summing amps would be following an all API signal path 312 to 550 to 525.

It's still no full-on API console, but its about as close as you'll get in 3 rack spaces. And a pair of summing amps that fit into the last two module slots would make life really simple.


Steve
lex125@pacbell.net

[Tim Farrant]

Thank you for all the suggestions people. I have been pretty busy and unable to reply to all but comments are all noted !!

I would like to invite any manufactueres interested in producing modules to fit the A-Rack to please contact me so we can set up a discussion group and work out the finer details to make this concept happen.

Clink here to email

Thank you
Tim
Buzz Audio