My Animal(s)

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poserp
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:11 am
Location: Los Angeles, California

My Animal(s)

Post by poserp »

Here are some pics of my build; 2 Baby Animals with JLM1:4 and OPA2604. I think the total cost of the project, not including my initial tool buy, was about $250 USD. I got the box at Fry's Electronics. I got this particular box because it's similar in size to my RNP (only about 1/2 an inch longer and 1/4 inch wider), and one day I'd like to rack both together in one of those cool wooden boxes made by Funk Logic. Unfortunately Frys didn't have anything similarly sized made of metal, although in the end I think it was a good thing that the box was plastic 'cause it was easier to work with. So, without further adieu, the Animals:

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Not the cleanest build (and I don't think I'll be using solid-core wire again unless I use a bigger case), but it works and sounds excellent. And, it was my first DIY project ever. I look forward to mating this with a couple of the PEQ kits!

ChrioN
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:54 am

Post by ChrioN »

Solid core wiring in that box..ouch :)

Looks great however

poserp
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:11 am
Location: Los Angeles, California

Post by poserp »

Yeah, solid core wiring is like using too much hairspray... The nice thing is the whole assembly in the box is pretty rigid, which made it easier to pose the box internals for these pictures. It took about an hour, though, to coax all of those little wires into the right terminal block holes. The wire's a fairly thick gauge, too, so it took a bit of doing to get all of the ends stuck into the ground terminal blocks. I only bought two colors of wire 'cause I'm cheap; I'd shell out extra for more in the future as color-coding inputs and outputs would've helped when trying to wrangle the spaghetti.

poserp
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:11 am
Location: Los Angeles, California

Post by poserp »

Pics are one thing, here's a bit of funk:

Funk #16

The baby animals were used on the drums. I have a small room so I've got blankets everywhere to deaden it (not that it helps much). The drums live under a blanket "tent" formed with two mic stands. An SM57 hangs over the snare drum, with an MXL 909 hanging next to the kick drum, and that's it for drum mics, each runs through one channel of Baby Animal and then through an RNC into the converters. Guitar and Bass are both through amps (bass through 70's transistor thing, Guitar through older Mesa Boogie Subway Rocket that's been modified), mic'ed with Avenson Audio STO-2s into an RNP. They sit as you hear them in the track, with the bass amp on the left and the guitar amp on the right. All mics are recorded into a MOTU 896HD using Sonar 4 at 44.1/16. I play everything in single takes, no overdubs or edits. Compression and cheap tape sim applied post-recording, and about 2db of low cut below 175hz. Anyways, perhaps I'll post some a/b type stuff so you can hear the differences that I hear between what the Baby Animal sounds like in my setup and what the RNP and MOTU preamps sound like. For me it's no contest -- the Baby Animal is my pick for the all-important drums.

ChrioN
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:54 am

Post by ChrioN »

Nice! I love foonk. Sounds very airy and professional. You just can't compare it to the cheapenese stuff.

poserp
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:11 am
Location: Los Angeles, California

Post by poserp »

O.k., here's an earlier funk test track that I recorded using the MOTU pres for the drums. The mic setup is a bit different, with an SM-57 on the kick as well as the snare. However, in listening to other tracks I've recorded I can hear the same sort of "signature" in the MOTU pres. I'd one day like to get the Black Lion mod and see how it holds up. Anyways, here's more funk:

Funk #8

The guitar and bass chains are the same (STO-2 to RNP). Since the kick drum mic is different in this recording, focus more on the difference in the snare sounds. Perhaps when I'm not so occupied with churning out music (and learning to play) I'll do a real a/b/c test, but for now the Baby Animals deliver and I can focus more on music and less on how to make the drums sound "better".

poserp
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:11 am
Location: Los Angeles, California

Post by poserp »

...And one more track, all drums the same as Funk 16, appropriately named Funk 17. I modified the chain a bit; The SM 57 on snare and 909 on kick to the Baby Animals to an RNC to the 896HD. I eq'ed the kick drum to carve a bit of space for the bass since the JLM/909 combo pick up a bit more rumble than I prefer for this kind of music. I figure it'll take until Funk 200 or so before I get the brew right, so onward with the slog:

Funk 17

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