did actually happen before the commercial units....maybe you can find a used pico compressor....great comp!

Hi midmost,
We tried DIY when I was at another DIY forum and we could not give them away at first, until people figured out that it was cool. Wasn't able to sell the DIY boards against the ever popular SSL clones. It is a name recognition thing!

Now, we are doing them on 6 layer boards that are very easy to destroy if you connect any of the 3 power supplies backwards. That would not be good kit stuff...

It would need to be on 2 layers so there is no hidden routing, which means the P3S would be larger than an API 2500 board. The 2 layer would make destruction less possible.

The #1 reason I am not doing kits is the support time.

And the fact that we were not able to sell the boards I made, so it was a financial loss at the time, not a huge one but when a product fails we put it in the dumpster so to speak.

With current situations what they are, and will be for the foreseeable future, we are re-organizing FCS. That will bring many retirements and new products.
New products will primarily be more simplified designs in 500 format.

We may end up doing ONLY 500 stuff in 2019 because of impacts on steel and aluminum prices...

What is planned:
P3S 500
P4S 500
Clip/Sat 500
Transformer Color 500
Possibly an EQ in 500

And some of my instrument/line pre amps in 500

The 500 series plan will cut some costs and allow us to get into the lower economic levels of the pro audio market with classic FCS hand built quality.

In the mean time we are selling the P3S, and P4S bus compressors (potentiometer versions) at 30% off until Jan 1 2019 when they will be full price again.

We will also sell P3S ME and P4S SE at 30% off until Jan 1 2019.

So, if you want any of these units below list price, now is the time because "Times they are a' changing!"
They will be built on an order by order basis. If we get no orders, we will kill those products.

This is fantastic news Roger. I was actually going to ask about this yesterday.

I can't seem to find your "list prices" on your website.

Hi tengu,
Click the more info tab.

P4S Plus- Discontinued
P4S ME List $4750
P4S SE List $4750
P3S ME List $3250
P3S Bus List $2250

30% off until Jan 1 2019

The transformer color module will be a discrete pre amp with input and output Txs and color adjustments.

It will work as a standard line amp too.

Bottom line is that we can't compete with big corporate companies when a rack case, power supply and panel cost me around $200 per unit in bulk!!...

Of course we can always make P3S or P4S if someone wants them, but we won't stock them. We are mulling the retirement of the P3S as of 2019 though as that build requires that I purchase cases by the 50 piece minimum to get a good price.

The un-punched 2ru cases are easy to get, but I think the P3S has reached it's end. We rarely get P3S orders any more, so I guess the market has been saturated. We have maybe 10 more P3S type cases, but I will need to see massive interest to spend another $2,500 - $5,000 on cases for them.
Don't see that happening.

These and other thoughts have propelled the 500 series idea.

As soon as I am free of my obligations, we go there!

Hey, can all of you see the "likes" when you hover over the like button?
I can not see who likes what...

Damn! Sad to hear that the 19" gear will be discontinued soon. The PS3 is high on my wish list, but I need to get a new Mac and an Imperium monitor controller first. I likely won't be able to invest in more outboard until later in 2019.

Do you think the 500 series will be as suitable as the rack versions for mastering Roger?

Edit, you posted whilst I was typing, Glad to hear they may still be a chance I can custom order a P3S in future

I can see the names.

Thanks.
I still can't see them ever since they changed the site to be mobile friendly.
Lots of other failures in the software on older (Win7) machines.
Like having to log in outside of the PM page to get into the PMs.
Like having to reload the pages 3 times or more when logging in.
Pretty bad web forum software IMO...

As someone else asked, do you think these will be capable in a mastering context? I have some spaces to fill in a 500 rack.

in my humble opinion 500-series stuff is never suitable in a mastering context yet alone due to the fact that 500-stuff always has an underwhelming power supply unit and thus not enough dynamics and headroom.

my 2 cents

Teebaum’s thread might be worth a read regarding suitability of 500 series frames and modules for mastering:

Mastering Grade 500 Frame

The problems with mastering gear in 500 format are power and real estate.
The switches that MEs like generally won't fit into 500 stuff unless there are just 2 or 3 controls, at least for single space gear.

My original intent on the 500 stuff was to use potentiometers obviously.

I will still build 19" stuff but after the economy tanked for many of us starting in 2017 we saw a 30% drop in sales so we can't afford to stock much like we did when dealers were purchasing units in the robust economy that we had before.

So if a person wants or needs a 19" unit we can do them still.
I doubt you will ever see discounts again though on the 19" products though, those days are over.

Roger

The FCS P3S is a great unit. You see them often with long-term clients of the Digital Audio Service gear store in Hamburg

A lot of gear has come and gone from this studio but I will NEVER sell my FCS P3S ME. NEVER.

Best,
Shawn

Wow! Thanks Shawn!