I said all that earlier about the Quantums, and now I have a Quantum HD 2 talking to my 18i20 over ADAT at 48kHz. They wouldn’t do 48 with how Focusrite said to sync them, but when I set them BOTH to internal they sync’d up at 48 vs 44.1 I was getting before.
Now I don’t have to rewire anything everything and don’t have to spend money and sell something. I found a perfect spot on my desk now that I have a new primary monitor, sits next the right speaker.
Now I have FOUR inputs on the front of my desk, two that are meant for guitars two combo XLR, and I have two OUTs on the front, too, since the Quantum has re-amp outs.
And, y’know, a couple accessible combo jacks on the back of the Quantum. I’ll roll with this setup for a while before doing anything else.
I finally unplugged my Proteus 2000 from SPDIF as that’s just a pita and it was quiet. Now it goes into the interface and I get a little 90s converter love. I swear Emu sampled the Korg M1 piano for the Dance Pno preset lol.
I FINALLY used Studio One’s hardware instrument feature; I set up the inputs and the MIDI ports and saved it as a preset. Now when I want to use my Proteus I just drag it into the track like a plugin. It’s great.
S2400 on 3/4
Proteus on 5/6
TW-100 on 7/8 (cassette deck)
Also the S2400 DSP card is almost ready. It’s late because they picked a chip that went EoL >_> I can’ty wait to get some effects into the thing.
So, i bought myself a squarp rample a while back. I had an open bus on my power supply in my main case (the only powered case), but didn’t consider the fact that the case was already filled. So… I made it work as best I could.
Bought another Expert Sleepers Disting MK-4 yesterday for a good deal. I forgot how finicky the firmware update process is. Ill get it installed at some point gosh darnit.
I’ve considered getting a MK-4 several times, I’m assuming since it’s not your first it’s good shit. I’ve heard it’s super menu divey (and a little obnoxious because of that), but with such a small form factor I’m not surprised.
What are your thoughts? Should I jump on one if i see a good deal?
Oh yes I totally recommend the Disting MK4’s. While kind of a pain in the butt to update - having all those different modules packed into 1 is just so friggen helpful. Also the sample playback modes and wavetable options are amazing. Also the Delays and reverbs are actually pretty danm good.
I def recommend one or a few if you can get good deals on them.
So yeah I ve found that since I moved to Germany I stopped using my modular gear (not enough space). I think I may have come to the end of my “modular years” anyone got a good suggestion for a location in NRW to sell modules & cases?
Open question to the hardware peeps, I’m looking to make some 1/4 inch balanced audio/patch cables for my studio. I have cable picked out, but wondering what you guys can recommend for the actual plugs/connectors. My first thought was Neutrick, but I need 50-100 of these and at that quantity I’m looking at 300-600 USD in connectors. I had figured under $300 ideally.
I’m planning on running all my instruments and re-doing all my patch cables, nothing longer than a 10 foot run. After moving stuff around post downsizing my setup, I have something like 10-20% of my Hosa cables go bad, so I want to build something that can at least handle a move or two in the future, and that I can repair if the need arises.
These cables aren’t moved around a ton, though that could change a bit if I pick up a drum machine as I would have to actually use my patch bay to replace inputs on the fly. Probably not in the cards until I’m done with school (about a year from now) as I don’t really have time to learn an instrument right now though.
I’ve used a bunch of different connectors over the years for this stuff - Canare, Amphenol, Neutrik, Switchcraft, generic. No appreciable difference in the audio itself, it’s just carrying signal. The biggest difference is in build quality and ease of build.
For my patch bay/interface in/outs, I’m just using generic knock-off Switchcraft style that I bought on eBay for peanuts. They’re a little fiddly to solder but I might unplug one once a year as everything is routable through software; I just need a connection in and out. As these things don’t get messed with much I’m pretty unconcerned about general robustness. Most of the cable itself is 16" slices off an old 100’ mic cable.
For instruments, I think Neutrik wins the day on build quality, but they’re kinda chunky and not cheap. Amphenol are probably get my vote for best value - not quite up to Neutrik standards but they’re really solid and easy to build. I like both for the instrument end of things, but prefer the lower profile of standard Switchcraft for plugging into the patch bay itself. Cable is mostly Mogami off a roll I’ve had for ages.
I have made some instrument cables with the cheapo eBay connectors. All of them have been fine - they feel a little cheaper and I’ve had to repair a solder or two (more about my skills than an issue with the connectors themselves), but honestly they’re fine. They’re pennies on the dollar compared to name brand and if money was an issue I’d have no problem outfitting my whole setup with them and just doing repairs if needed, which honestly might be never.
So yeah, with good solder joints and fairly light use, all of the connectors have held up fine. My metric would probably change if I was taking them out of the house, but that’s not my use case these days.
Thanks. Yeah, I’m just going to get a 200 foot spool of 4-conductor mogami and be done with cable for a few years. I think that’s around $180 on B&H.
When I was looking on Mouser, Amphenol were actually more expensive than Neutrik. Rean seemed reasonable, and I think they’re like a sub-brand of Neutrik if I understand correctly. In any case, they look a lot like the connectors on my old 20 foot cable runs and those seem solid, maybe just need to add heat shrink around them so they can’t unscrew accidentally?
Also, this will be my first soldering project, so any tips there? I mean I’m obviously going to watch a tutorial or two on YT before I turn it on, and I know to work in a ventilated space at least. I have a cheap-o chinese iron that was a gift a few years back. Not sure if there’s even any supplies in the box, so I’ll probably pick up some of the consumables to be safe. Goal is to be out the door for $500 before tax, so hence the limitation to around $300 in terminals.
