Few weeks back I was searching how easy or difficult is it to make your own diy hardware equipment and how much it would cost you. So I stumbled upon this website and found this tape saturation kit that is cheaper than many digital saturation plugins available today https://www.diyrecordingequipment.com/products/15ips-colour. Only $25!!! The price is amazing and too good to be true so I was curious who are these people, reputation etc etc. On their website, I found that this a two guys company dedicated to provide the gear at a very cheap price not jeopardizing the quality. I also found a long thread on gearslutz where people were praising their stuff and how low cost + quality stuff they make. In UK, you can get their products from http://bigbearaudio.co.uk/index.html. However, they do ship anywhere. Here is the demo of the 15ips kit:

Has anyone successfully made any studio gear from the scratch and using it in his production? Could be anything diy that has helped you tremendously in your production. Show us your creativity for inspiration. A pic would be awesome . Also, in the making of your own stuff apart from soldering skills what are the other difficulties one may encounter? Any thoughts are welcome .

 

check out the wiki on diyre also go to groupdiy. For some things all you need is good soldering skills others It helps to know schematics and electronics (ohms law, etc) , other than that people are more the willing to help you along the way on groupdiy. I make a living building and selling diy gear and music.
Edit: also just so you know you also need to power the colour series from a 500 rack. which you can build yourself as well.

 

also for most diy gear, you will need several tools to help calibrate the gear, to make sure its operating properly. oscilloscopes are your best friend. also be ready to blow some stuff up when first getting into it. wouldnt recommend anything with tubes or high voltages starting off (you can kill yourself) but for most other stuff just dont be afraid to get shocked every now and then.

 

I've been toying with the idea of trying to fabricate my own 1176 from the schematics. They have some etching layouts posted too. Just need to work up pricing on the parts, and see if the savings justifies the time. I know the WA-76 can be had for around $450 or so. Then I have to calibrate the thing. Luckily, I've got a friend with the signal generator and scope. @sideshowtmc, have you made one?

 

Actually the 1176 was pretty much the first diy I built except for some other easy things. Super easy. Actually check out the amazing guys at www.hairballaudio.com
They sell 1176 full kits, with all the different Revisions. Also the kits are pretty much what diyers call build by numbers, it walks you thru every step.
Edit: Actually havent been to that site in awhile so I guess they are only selling the most popular revisions which would be a or d. They use to sell all revisions, but most studios use revision D anyway.

 

Tbh no one can touch Warm audio for prices but building your own is for superior sound quality, adding your own touches and of course being able to say I made this mofo myself.

 

@sideshowtmc thank you very much. Useful information. Good to know you are doing it for living and for yourself.
But I am a little scared now Nevertheless would wanna try for once, at least. What do you think of 15ips tape from DIYRE? Difficulty level? Shock level ? Just searched for the 500 rack and it is a bit expensive.

 

Yeah, if you didn't need the rack, a $25 diy saturation kit would be a great intro build, imo. If you couldn't get it built or decided it wasn't for you, all you'd be out would be the $25. The rack makes it a much harder decision. Unless you had plans to buy some future 500 rack gear.

 

Never built a colour series from diyre but have built some of there other products back in the day so can't speak on sound wise but I know plenty people that have & love them. Couple things on them, you need the pallete kit which is 149 which is the 500 rack holster so to speak ( you put the ips or whatever kit you purchase inside the holster) or buy one of the colours kit which is 249, three bundles there a 70s colour, grit colour and/or regular colour. Shock wise nothing to worry about at all unless you get yourself with the solder iron (no shock just burns like a mofo). Difficulty level is super easy just be good with a solder iron plus i assume they send directions so really it would a build by numbers just know which way each piece goes and you'll be fine. So what you would need is the palette or palette kit which comes with three bundles (other pieces) and a 500 rack and a good solder iron.

 

What I mean by the way each piece goes is capacitors have to be soldered in a certain way, easy way to explain is look at like this one side is a negative and one side is a positive. It has to go in the right way and knowing diyre it's most likely printed on the pcb or in the directions.

 

Ever need something built just pm me. I charge a reasonable price. Haven't built studio audio gear in a little bit unless it's been for myself,lately I build hifi amps and speakers for high end clients' home theatres.

 

Thank you @sideshowtmc for all information. I'll surely let you know. I have some soldering experience in the past when I was in college from our diy electronic kits assignments. I also know some very basics to at least get myself started. But it is good to know someone like you who is into this stuff for future.

Well..it looks like very few people are interested in diy projects. True that the abundance of plugins have made our life easy.

 

Great perspective @digitaldragon . Certainly worth trying just for a fun project and of course, to have some know how.
Thank you my friend .

 

"Watches MTV, buys a fur coat, a rolex and a LA-2A. Chicks dont care and his loops still sound rusty. At the end of the month he has to pay the gas bill so he sells hiss cherry to a lady boy from Khazahstan"

@foster911

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 26, 2017

That passive summing mixer discussion recently is about as easy as it gets.

 

Yeah, that's likely not a hard one to build. Passive, so no 500 track needed for that I assume? Great suggestion!

 

The most expensive guitar amplifiers in the world are DIY.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumble_Amplifiers

http://partsolutions.com/dumble-overdrive-engineering-the-worlds-most-expensive-guitar-amp/

Was thinking of starting a threat to see if anybody had much knowledge of DIY guitar amps.

As much as I would love one the Emperors new clothes come to mind.

 

Must have missed. Thanks for pointing out. Gonna have a look.

 

My home made studio DIY gear: Neumann EQ

 

Last edited: May 26, 2017

Studer Mastering bandxall EQ