DIY question. LA2A or 1176?

[thedommer]

A friend and I decided to make one of those pieces of gear over the summer. which one though? Im an in the box person because thats all I can afford so I really don't know which one makes sense in terms of build time, parts cost, how hard it is to build, and quality/versitility of the final product.

The friend I am building it with is fairly competent with electronics so I know I am not in over my head. just want to pick the right project!

I would be interested in using the final product on vocals, bass and synths on their way into the box.

[peeweedrummer]

1176 is going to be more versetile. ive got a freind bilding me one right now.
New Design 1176 Boards ALL IN STOCK!

Building The DIY Gyraf 1176 Clone

[AnthonyRochester]

is the optical component of the circuit hard to obtain? I think that might be a factor. The 1176 uses more common components, I think..

[John Eppstein]

The optical T4 cell is prett easy to obtain from DIY sites.

[Stitch333]

Originally Posted by John Eppstein

The optical T4 cell is prett easy to obtain from DIY sites.

Gregory from Drip Electronics has repro T4Bs.
I think Studio Electronics in Burbank has Urei T4Bs.
Prodigy has all the info one would need....

Tat Purusha, who has a very successful enclosure and faceplate biz, just started this site: DIY-RACKED - Enhance Your Sound
which will be up and going shortly.

I built both the D-La2a and am finishing a revA 1176.
I did the La2a first because I needed a GOOD vocal compressor before anything else. Using original UTC transformers on input and output and a slew of NOS tubes, the box sounds very, VERY nice.

Here's a pic of my rev A I'm quite proud off.
I think it was 600 bucks to build, maybe a little more, all together.
The studio I work at has an original rev A so I will be doing some evaluations soon...as soon as I can find the time to finish wiring this one

[thedommer]

thanks for the replies guys!

I've been doing more research and I agree with the last poster in that vocals are also the most important for me. I think I may have settled on the drip version 4 of the LA2. It looks to be making the LA2 a bit more versatile by using to T4s(one fast one slow). Im pretty sure this is the same as the Universal Audio 2-LA-2.

Drip Electronics . com

It looks like he makes only the highest quality boards and seeing as this is the first DIY Ill be doing I think a board is a good call. maybe Ill do a point to point from scratch at a later time or something more challenging but for now this seems awesome and looks like I can get an amazing piece of gear out of it.

I've been in contact with Purusha. His cases look fantastic however he is quite far from me and there would be lots of shipping and border fees so we shall see if I go that route. Its hard to find much of anything audio here in Canada.

BTW. there are a lot of 1167 boards! they also seem to be way cheaper then the drip LA2A boards..... I am definitely tempted.

which 1176 are you getting made?

[deeper]

Apples and oranges. The leveler (the LA2A) and the limiter (1176) sound quite different and excel at different tasks. I love my 1176 more than any other piece of outboard gear, and for my vocals it works magic. But I would say the LA2A is probably a better choice for most singers and most styles of music.

[jensenmann]

If you´re a tube-electronics beginner be aware of lethal voltages. LA2As run of 250V which is no fun if you don´t know what you´re doing.
Being short in money I´d go with the 1176. It´s the cheaper project. Besides that 1176s are doing leadvocals better for me than LA2As. But that´s me. YMMV
Being a gearslut you should do both and use them in series

[drBill]

Hopefully idylldon will drop in. He's the man on this stuff!!! He's built multiple versions of all of them. If I'm not mistaken, I THINK (if I remember correctly) that he told me the LA2A's were an easier build for the first timer. I wish I had the time to do one....or a dozen. LOL

[Dean Roddey]

The Drip LA-2A is the way to go. I've been going down this path. I did SCA pre-amps, then the Drip LA-2A, and lastly the DIY 1176. The Drip stuff comes with excellent documentation, making it highly likely you will end up with a correctly functioning piece of equipment. The DIY 1176 is basically a 'you are on your own' type of thing. Mine isn't working, and I'm unable to figure out why really. There are many different revisions and revisions of the clones of those revisions and push button vs. rotary and so forth.

If you know electronics already then probably no big deal. But for anyone who is just comfortable with a soldering iron and following instructions, the Drip stuff is very good.

He also has a 175 vari-mu project now as well, which I may do to get over my depression about the 1176. I wish he'd do a fast solid state comp, but it doesn't look to be on his plate soon.

[Dean Roddey]

BTW, here's a thread in the Good News section where I'm just kind of keeping a running commentary and conversation about my progress through all of this stuff.

Woohoo, first step down the DIY path

[mobius.media]

Originally Posted by Dean Roddey

He also has a 175 vari-mu project now as well, which I may do to get over my depression about the 1176.

He's working on a 175 stereo version which should be more expensive but stellar for mix bus or mastering applications.

[Dean Roddey]

That would be interesting, particularly if it wasn't just two boards in the same box, i.e. twice the components and cost.

[mobius.media]

Originally Posted by Dean Roddey

That would be interesting, particularly if it wasn't just two boards in the same box, i.e. twice the components and cost.

Well all the PSU/case parts will be shared but the price will still double for the rest. Still I'm waiting for him to finish and I think I'll try one. I'm sure it will be among the best stereo compressors anywhere for at or under a grand.

[Dean Roddey]

You think it would come in under a grand? A single one would probably come out about $800, I think, even with a very generic home done case? I looked at the BOM and it seemed to come out about that, though maybe I'm confusing it now with something else.

[mobius.media]

I was going from
DripElectronics.com • View topic - costs /materials

And assuming components like metal film resistors (which I prefer) and no NOS tubes (which I can't afford).

A case from Purusha is about $100.

You're right though. Unless you skimp on the transformers I think it might come closer to $1300 or maybe $1200 but I haven't done a close look.

[Dean Roddey]

Yeh, something like that probably. Though, we have to keep some perspective on it. We're talking about a stereo version of a comp that would likely cost A few thousand mono from the store, so problbly $5K worth of store bought comp. A pair of Retro 176's would put you back $6K.

I may wait for that one, though I'll have to probably build some stuff on consigment in order to build up the bucks to buy the parts. But it would definitely make a monster mix bus compressor, along with the various other mono duties it would be great for.

[mobius.media]

Originally Posted by Dean Roddey

Yeh, something like that probably. Though, we have to keep some perspective on it. We're talking about a stereo version of a comp that would likely cost A few thousand mono from the store, so problbly $5K worth of store bought comp. A pair of Retro 176's would put you back $6K.

Ya. I've been looking at roughly pricing a full DIY studio rack. Approximate options:

Compressors
mono LA2A ~ $800
stereo 1176 ~ $800
stereo 175b ~ $1300
stereo SSL ~ $400
stereo 33609 ~ $1000

EQ
stereo Trident 80b ~ $200
stereo Pultec ~ $1200

Summing
16 track passive ~ $200
24 track active ~ $300

~ $6k if someone went wild and built everything in that list, which would be just a massive amount of top quality gear.

Like you were saying, compared to store bought analog, just a pair of Retro 176's or LA2A's would cost $6k. As for digital, a fully loaded UAD2 card costs $4k and a baseline PT|HD card costs $8k.

I'd take a DIY setup like the above with a native DAW (eg. Sonar) first every time. thumbsup

btw, came across this on Cakewalk forums - Dean your stuff is sounding fat already!
http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Tmp...eview%2002.wma

[Dean Roddey]

That was just quicky thing, and the very first thing I'd done with the new toys and the new iso cab as well (the DIY project from hell), but I kind of like it. It's got a kind of nice funk factor to it. I'm working on my first real tune in the new regime now. Actually, this will only be my 5th actual song so far, believe it or not. I did a few tunes early on, and I felt like, though those weren't going to set the world on fire that my song writing has potential, and I wanted to get the technical stuff a lot better before moving forward.

That was a year ago basically, and I'm just now doing the next one, to kind of gauge where I am now and how much progress I've made. I've just been working on wee things like that little test piece, or sitting there for hours and hours trying various drum production variations and whatnot.


But anyway, yeh, you can put together some killer stuff DIY'ing if you are willing to do the work. BTW, on the SSL, it probably just isn't worth DIY'ing. You can get the Chameleon version of that, which as a number of the extra features that would crank the price up more, and they are selling it for only like $600 or so. So I just bought one instead of DIY'ing on that one. It's well worth the effort to save $2000, but not to save $150.

I'm continuing to try to chip away at the 1176 and see if I can get it working as well. And you can do it actually for more like $500 if you do your own case. I have about $500'ish in mine basically.

[JPeters86]

Isn't someone DIY building these things on order somewhere?

[lordnielson]

Originally Posted by mobius.media

Ya. I've been looking at roughly pricing a full DIY studio rack. Approximate options:

stereo Trident 80b ~ $200

From where? Google doesn't really bring any concrete links back.

[idylldon]

Originally Posted by thedommer

A friend and I decided to make one of those pieces of gear over the summer. which one though? Im an in the box person because thats all I can afford so I really don't know which one makes sense in terms of build time, parts cost, how hard it is to build, and quality/versitility of the final product.

I think a drip LA2A would be a great first DIY project. I was a beta tester for the ver. 2 PCB and it went together quickly and painlessly. I have two of his LA2A builds, ver. 1 and 2. They work flawlessly. One has a NOS T4B and the other has one of drip's T4B, and I think anyone would be hard pressed to tell the difference. I surely can't hear it. His documentation is second to none, and for someone just starting out this is extremely important. There is also a TON of info on the Prodigy DIY forum and help is readily available there.

As others have mentioned, though, tube gear has high voltage and it will kill you quickly if you don't use extreme care when probing around in a powered up unit.

Much of the gear in my studio is DIY and I find that it does everything I need it to do for a LOT less money than buying off-the-shelf commercial units. I've also learned enough about electronics to fix damn near anything in the studio, and this has also saved me a lot of money over the years. Since I live in a relatively rural place (yeah, they still exist in So. Cal), I knew I couldn't afford to have a tech come up when something broke and I didn't want to have to send stuff off for repair, so it made sense to dive in and learn it myself. I'm glad I did as I enjoy building/repairing gear quite a bit, and it's now also providing another income stream because people send stuff to me for servicing.

Good luck! One caveat: Building this stuff can be quite habit forming!

My latest build, a Poor Man 670 vari-mu compressor:







Cheers,
--
Don

[mobius.media]

Originally Posted by lordnielson

From where? Google doesn't really bring any concrete links back.

Yeah you really have to hang around on DIY - Index to get a handle on who's selling what and how to build. It takes some learning but it's not as complicated as it seems.

Trident's probably easiest because there are parts kits which is rare.

- Tat Purusha sells 1ru stereo cases for $100 or a blank from mouser $60.
- Parts kits from Audio Maintenance Limited Kits $50.
- Search s800 eq at Prodigy for who's selling PCBs and add an appropriate PSU.

If you're new to soldering BYOC - The World's Finest DIY Guitar Effects Kits would still probably be a better start.

[mobius.media]

Originally Posted by JPeters86

Isn't someone DIY building these things on order somewhere?

Sort of. Igor from there does his own commercial versions, but it's about double the cost of parts
IGS Audio - Professional Studio Equipment - Cennik

It's generally understood that the DIY versions from Prodigy are not for mass commercial production.

[lordnielson]

Originally Posted by mobius.media

Yeah you really have to hang around on DIY - Index to get a handle on who's selling what and how to build. It takes some learning but it's not as complicated as it seems.

Trident's probably easiest because there are parts kits which is rare.

- Tat Purusha sells 1ru stereo cases for $100 or a blank from mouser $60.
- Parts kits from Audio Maintenance Limited Kits $50.
- Search s800 eq at Prodigy for who's selling PCBs and add an appropriate PSU.

If you're new to soldering BYOC - The World's Finest DIY Guitar Effects Kits would still probably be a better start.

Hey thanks alot Mobius. What kind of quality is the eq ? Neve, Api etc.
My soldering's pretty good, so np.

[mobius.media]

Originally Posted by lordnielson

Hey thanks alot Mobius. What kind of quality is the eq ? Neve, Api etc.
My soldering's pretty good, so np.

I haven't built one so I don't know, but afaik it's based on the EQ from the Trident 80b console which you can google was very popular and renowned for its 'sweetness'.

It features no transformers so it won't likely sound Nevish and it uses IC not discrete opamps so it probably won't sound API. But those are the two main reasons it's so cheap a build, and judging from where the design comes from, I'm sure it sounds fantastic.

Plus, for comparison, SSLs have no transformers or discrete opamps and those still sound pretty good.

It should definitely be a top quality unit.

[iangomes]

Originally Posted by mobius.media

He's working on a 175 stereo version which should be more expensive but stellar for mix bus or mastering applications.

wow, did gregory tell you that? I hadn't heard about that!

[mobius.media]

Originally Posted by iangomes

wow, did gregory tell you that? I hadn't heard about that!

He said last week ETA for the stereo designs (175b, LA2A, v72) is in the next month.

[JPeters86]

Originally Posted by mobius.media

Sort of. Igor from there does his own commercial versions, but it's about double the cost of parts
IGS Audio - Professional Studio Equipment - Cennik

It's generally understood that the DIY versions from Prodigy are not for mass commercial production.

Thanks. I'd love to try this myself but I'm not sure if I have the patience and I think chances are I'll zap myself.

[thedommer]

I ordered the opto v4 from drip and 2 T4Bs. Ill let you know how it goes! thanks for all the replies. This is exciting!