llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Aug 04, 2025 11:12 pm any ideas why I can hear so much hiss in my monitoring that doesn’t come up in my recording?

When you are monitoring channels, are you using the pfl buss? The pfl on a lot of consoles (mine is very noisy) can be a noisier path. The headphones path may be noisier too.

When I actually used my console a lot I modified every channel so the direct out was post EQ and insert, but pre fader, so I could take a mic or line in, eq and it went out to the recorder via direct out, and I could mix monitor on the faders to the main out without changing the record level that was set at the preamp pot. It was the cleanest way on my board but there was color that did not make it to the record because I was monitoring farther down stream. I eq very very little going in so it wasn't ever make or break.

Kniferide wrote: Wed Aug 20, 2025 11:57 am

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Aug 04, 2025 11:12 pm any ideas why I can hear so much hiss in my monitoring that doesn’t come up in my recording?

When you are monitoring channels, are you using the pfl buss? The pfl on a lot of consoles (mine is very noisy) can be a noisier path. The headphones path may be noisier too.

When I actually used my console a lot I modified every channel so the direct out was post EQ and insert, but pre fader, so I could take a mic or line in, eq and it went out to the recorder via direct out, and I could mix monitor on the faders to the main out without changing the record level that was set at the preamp pot. It was the cleanest way on my board but there was color that did not make it to the record because I was monitoring farther down stream. I eq very very little going in so it wasn't ever make or break.

Thanks, I remember you telling me about this. I didn’t think about the fader path. I’ll check how I have that set. I think the Midas Venice faders have to be modified in some way to set like yours, but the aux sends have pfl options I don’t typically mess with.

I do have the record path completely separate and nothing ever sees the mixer until mix time unless I want to sum something or record effect sends. I pretty much always have reverb and slap units routed through every extra aux and buss I have and maybe that’s contributing - they’re not always being used, and I wonder if one of the muted channels is still feeding the master with one of the pfl settings.

Now that I think about it, the other day I did notice a muted spring reverb in the monitors.

Then one of the Midas Venice master outs is feeding a separate headphone amp.

Maybe I should try the monitor outs specifically for phones, but I have my nicest stereo reverb unit parked on that for stereo reverb feeding the master buss.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Wed Aug 20, 2025 6:05 pm Thanks, I remember you telling me about this.

Never met a spring reverb that wasn't a little noisy.

On the Allen Heath to move the Direct out point involved cutting a jumper, and resoldering it to another solder pad on the board of EACH channel. It was easy, but a little time consuming. I did it while I was doing a complete re-cap of the board and suggest doing that if you have the time/bandwidth to do it. Midas looks similar:

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This is a good set up for tracking bands live. You set the level to record via the preamp, the signal goes to the recorder via Direct out Post EQ and Pre Fader, so you can make a mix to monitor the band live on the faders without changing level to record. I used the 4 pre fader aux sends as headphone mixes. I returned the DAW to a stereo input, so I could listen to already recorded DAW tracks I was overdubbing to and blend it with the live inputs Zero Latency. I also could send the DAW return to the headphones via the aux sends. The line inputs were normaled to the first 14 line outputs of my MOTU 16a (15-16 used to return DAW to the board) so If I hit the LINE button, I could mix on the Faders out of the DAW if I wanted. I would usually assign group masters from Reaper to the Faders on the board and record them to my tape machine to back into the daw. It worked really well. Like a giant 4 track recorder. Everything is normaled so if Nothing is plugged into the patch bay, you can create 14 tracks in reaper (which I have in a template preassigned), plug in a mic to the associated channel, set record level and hit record, and be tracking in about 5 minutes.

I haven't used the board as my font end in a couple of years since I've had maybe 4 total inputs max at a time now that I'm bandless. I just skip the board and monitor from the IO to the speakers through my Audient Nero monitor controller. It's lonely.

Getting some more goddamn hiss from a direct bass track or four. I’m pretty sure its because of the Rube Goldberg contraption I setup but I probably need to test it again with a simpler chain.

First tried to run a di bass into a fancy mic splitter and the signal didn’t like that.

Then ran some dumb ass rig with a single bass into one direct box and then another with an instrument cable. Had the 1/4” instrument output going to a pre DI in, then the two xlr outs going to other preamps, then put a xlr gender converter on an unused xlr in and sent that to a fourth preamp.

I basically did this to:

Fuck around and see if it worked
Audition four different sounds I could easily mute on and off on the board at playback.

It was basically a couple of Neve style pres, one dry, and one Spectra mic amp then going into a pair of Spectra 610s.

The bass is a Gibson Thunderbird not sensitive to noise, so I guess my dumb ass DI diversion didn’t work because I am having to roll off high end to make the track usable. The hiss isn’t an out and out killer like it was when I was using the mic splitter, but its still there and too much.

Also it seemed like my Spectra pre wasn’t quite getting enough juice so I was having to use the input gain on 10. Not unheard of with these but that’s why I tend to use them with loud sources.

When I next try the Spectra pre with a DI I might try to use a Soyuz launcher with an outboard phantom power supply to juice the DI signal and see if that helps. I’ve done that before for a tonal thing and it does sound kind of cool.

So experiment failed but what the hell, there’s always a next time.

Idk if you are doing the split passively, but sounds like maybe so… if the bass di was also into or part of a mic preamp and had (low Z output) some ability to drive passive splits/mults you may get better results

Yeah, passive and I think you are right.

I tried it again later using only one direct box going into two preamps via the xlr and 1/4” out and it worked perfectly. It was kind of dumb to attempt a 4-way split with what I had but I really just wanted to establish a single best practice from then on.i guess i did, even if best practice = don’t do that.

I also put a powered mic booster between the di bass and 610 comp-limiter and it was quiet as could be. The 610 works at mic level and I don’t have problems with it there, I am just finding there is a slight difference between a passive di and mic signal that makes certain devices sorta screwy, though ofc regular mic pres don’t have the same problem.

Traynor YBA-3A:

Haven't really played this amp much since I refurbed it. I always thought it was kinda meh. Certainly loud, but kinda flat and lifeless, which didn't jive with descriptions I've read elsewhere. So I went back to the two different schematics I found for this amp. The early one uses the second triode of V1 as a cathode follower to buffer the first gain stage from the volume and tone stack. This is the one I have.



The later design uses that second triode stage as a gain stage, and moves the volume control between the first and second triodes. It also adds a master volume pot before the phase inverter. Way more gain on tap here:



So I reworked my amp to match the later design, only had to add one cap (C35) and one resistor (R5) to make it work. But it oscillated like crazy even with no input signal, especially at the top of the volume pot rotation. A chopstick test told me that it was a lead dress issue, so I replaced all of the longer runs from V1 to the volume pot with shielded cable, and moved the input resistors directly to the input jacks, rather than having them on the eyelet board. Also reworked the grounds so that the audio grounds from the first few gain stages only tied to the chassis at the input jacks, and the power grounds tied to the chassis at a second point near the filter caps. This fixed the oscillation.

The result is a way more dynamic sounding amp with more edge to it. Rivals my SVT-II now.

I wonder if that's the same with the non-MV and MV YBA-3s (not the 3As)? The two MV YBA-3s I've played through (the one cakes had in Fake Limbs and the one at EA) both sounded great but the non-MV one I owned for a while just sounded kinda meh and lifeless.

This YBA-3A info is gold. Thanks!

tallchris wrote: Fri Oct 17, 2025 5:39 pm I wonder if that's the same with the non-MV and MV YBA-3s (not the 3As)? The two MV YBA-3s I've played through (the one cakes had in Fake Limbs and the one at EA) both sounded great but the non-MV one I owned for a while just sounded kinda meh and lifeless.

It's a similar story there. The pre-master volume versions (there were two, as far as I can tell) only used 1/2 of V1 and left the other half floating. The MV version of the YBA-3 used that other half of V1 in a very similar configuration as the YBA-3A MV version. Those preamp circuits are nearly identical.