Ditch Road Records Recording Studio in Simi Valley, California » modifications

Recent Studio Gear Modifications

Ryan Canestro — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 07:45:32 +0000

A listener of The Home Recording Show asked me to make a video of some recent modifications that I have made on some of the studio gear. Here are a couple fairly recent items. I have since done a couple more. I will have to make another video before too long… if I can find the time!

Yamaha M406 Preamp Mod

Ryan Canestro — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 23:38:13 +0000

Here is the Yamaha M406 unit that I purchased off of eBay recently. It was manufactured around 1980 and has preamps that are similar in design to the units that were used on the recording consoles of the time. This is a 6 channel mixer with a stereo output. I wanted to make this unit work in my system as dedicated preamps. The modification that I did below gives me direct outputs from each of the preamp cards inside the enclosure. I completely disables the master section. Another mod that I may do next is to give each channel an on/off switch for phantom power.

I was first turned onto this unit by Jesse Zoller who ones one. He has not modded his unit, but has tracked with it and has done submixes to track with it. I then started looking into see if anyone had done this particular mod and I stumbled on to someone that has. There was this post on Prodigy-Pro.com. I also contacted John at SuitcaseRecordings.com who had also performed the mod and was kind enough to exchange a few email with me about it.

After all of that, once I got my unit, I broke out the soldering iron and got to it. You have to remove each of the preamp cards from the unit. Then there is a jumper on each card that you remove labeled (POST.FADEQ). Once that is out, solder your new lead into the card in the hole that the jumper used to be in closest to the edge. That will be your positive lead. Attach that to the post of your TS jack and get the ground from the input section of each XLR terminal. In oversimplified terms, that is the mod that I did. I would like to get more info on the phantom power mod, so if anyone has any insider info there, please let me know!

Studio Remodeling and New Construction

Ryan Canestro — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:25:07 +0000

I just finished all of the little things that have been bothering me since I finished construction of the studio. I did all kinds of drywall work, touch-up paint, and adding additional insulation where it was needed.

I also built a large 6′ x 3′ studio baffle (aka gobo) on wheels. It can be moved to wherever in the studio it is needed. There is one absorptive side and one reflective side. There are very useful for dialing in the acoustic environment for sessions and separating instruments from one another during tracking.

Ribbon Microphone Transformer Modifications Finished

Ryan Canestro — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:15:17 +0000

Last night I preformed the transformer modifications on my pair of Apex 210 ribbon microphones. I decided to use the Lundahl LL2914 replacement transformers. The reason that you would do this is to make a considerable difference in the sound and performance of the microphone. In this case, the difference was huge. I will talk about it and play before and after clips in the next show at Home Recording Show. That show will be out on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Here is what the microphones look like:

Apex 210 Ribbon Microphone

I purchased the transformers at K & K Audio. They were very easy to work with and they shipped the parts out immediately.

There is a great article on how to mod these mics with Cinemag transformers at Morph Productions. It was a very similar operation. Make sure that you get the little circuit board with the Lundhals. It made the installation very easy.