[Ardour-Users] Hm...

[David Kastrup]

Gordon JC Pearce <gordonjcp at gjcp.net> writes:

> On Wed, 2010-09-01 at 00:29 +0200, David Kastrup wrote:
>
>> I have right now the Hammerfall DSP connected directly to a pair of
>> active speakers, and the one thing that is sorely missing is a hardware
>> volume control.  I'll probably blow through one of those speakers when
>> things go wrong (they have a surprising amount of blare left when you
>> cut the power).  I've found a mediocre stereo Volume pedal I've put in
>> for now (left and right don't totally agree on zero, so there is always
>> a bit left in the left when kicking down to zero).  But I suppose that a
>> small hardware mixer will have to end up there as well, which will also
>> provide me with Mic preamps.
>
> Make a stepped attenuator.  It's really easy to do.  You need a
> two-pole rotary switch, some resistors, some connectors and a box to
> put them in.  You can even add a Big Red Button to short the "out"
> side (going to the speakers) to ground, to act as an instant mute.

Well, I've become real wary over the time doing my own audio soldering.
I admit that at this stage of the processing there is not much danger of
introducing significant hum/noise.

Right now I have an attenuator I can step on.  That does the job more or
less (and I'll probably see whether I can open this thing and
mechanically fix the slight imbalance at zero volume).

But I need mic preamps anyway, and a good little mixer I tap off at the
insert jacks should do the trick.

-- 
David Kastrup