Mully's JLM Build Posts

[Mully]

Greets all,

so here is the draft build of my first Baby Animal. The rack is setup to allow for 4 pre amps but after much playing etc, have decided to make it a two channel and put a 1290 in the other side.



The front panel is to be replaced with a final layout that is to be CNC'd on the new DIY CNC machine. That machine in it's build phase is below.



There's the VU kit to finish off to so thanks to Joe and gang for making some great kits.

How does the BA sound? Well, spectacular.... very pleased with it.

[Mully]

Question for any one who has built the 1290 kit or even for Joe or Matt, the overlay PDF shows either a 4k7 or 5k1 resistor across the trim pot. Which value should be used?

Thanks in advance.

[Mully]

In case anyone needs this answer, it's for the 6dB set point.. no big deal which value you use really... anyway... some more photos.


Here's the assembled BA co-habitating with a 1290 in the custom rack. Loads of milling errors but I'm looking into other options over the engraved ones. Too time consuming and the results although good, are not as customizable as some others.... hmm... may consider slide on decals.


Another shot with the lid off.


Different take...


Inside the guts. Not the neatest work but still in 'layout mode' prior to just 'one more panel'.


Here she is getting all milled up.

These pres do sound exceptional I have to say. The 1290 is simply stunning on bass, especially in the detail on the low notes.... very cool.

Now to mount up the VU kits and wait for Joe to release the LA2A type compressor!

Thanks too Joe for all your help through this. Your availability is exceptional.

[Mully]

Oh, one more close up the engraving. Could not get a decent macro happening... so apologies for blur.

[Mully]

What the heck.. couple more archivey shots.


Trial layout.

[Joe Malone]

Looks very good .

What controller and software is the CNC running?

[Mully]

Oh oh.... sprung by someone who actually knows what he's doing.

The controller was going to be a home brew BUT I found some good ones out of rice land that are cheaper, pre built and have more features than anything I could build for the price point. There's a few all over eBay and the one I went for has 4 axis (just in case I get silly), manual controls on board, monster heat sink etc etc... posted to Oz it was $115AUD from memory. Very good value.... so far.

The software is EMC2 under Ubuntu. Basically running an old Athlon 2600 dual boot DAW box and wanted minimal interrupts etc and EMC2 is amazingly excellent given it's 'price'. CAD to G Code is done in CamBam (free release) at this stage. Can't speak highly enough of CamBam for this sort of thing.

About to order some proper/real engraving bits and then have one final go at the engraving (these panels do have some curve to them) and if that isn't great, then I'll be doing up either the Lazertran style label or the adhesive backed laser print to photo paper which can also look pretty good. I can see how I want this unit (finally) and will keep pushing along. It's the old Instrument Tech coming out in me.

Thanks for the interest Joe. There's a longer thread in the Cakewalk Hardware forum here: http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?&m=1733317&mpage=1

......hopefully some of these ramblings are helpful to anyone else like me who has spent too many hours trawling the World Wide Waste of time looking for info to base decisions on.

PS: Even the SM57s have burst into new life with these pres!

[Kev]

ramblings are good

cnc stuff
Mully, are you in Melbourne, and might you have time to hook up to pass some of this knowledge on too me

I have spent so much time of the net traveling in circles
really making heavy work of this DIY CNC workbench thing.

[Mully]

Hey Kev, I feel honored mate. I've found your detail many a time while looking for a good LA 2A compressor to build... and all other manner of DIY. Still looking at LA2A options however... need to get it sorted asap for the current project.

Sorry, I'm in Adelaide but would be more than happy to shoot you any info you are looking for. I was in Melbourne a few weeks ago too....

Would be an absolute pleasure to give you any detail you need. I've got a new and reasonably good dedicated bench set up for the CNC beast now and some proper bits are newly arrived waiting for me to give them a run so I can get a final panel done. As an aside I did a small 'work' mill job and also trialled an inkjet front panel layout and the layout worked pretty well... gives a lot of options but the new engraving bits are here so we'll see which option wins.

The last panel involved routing for the IEC socket, some XLR's and some speaker terminals. Made the actual build incredibly simple having those routing perfectly I have to say.

Let me know what you need Kev and I will provide.

Pre Amps Update
Lastly.... I have to comment that upon installing the latest release of Sonar I loaded a track to check for 'issues' and was quite staggered at the sound I had. Thinking at first that the newly improved Sonar s/w must have had a quantum leap in aural quality (it is already excellent), I realised that what was actually catching my ear was the re-tracked bass track through the 1290! Holy bat crap it sounded good. The 1290 is simply incredible and still surprises me. Thanks again Joe.

Best cheers,
Mick

[Kev]

Thanks Mick,

I can give my thoughts to the LA2 methods and builds if you want

the CNC stuff though
as it is not Audio or JLM based I think moving the discussions to email might be the right thing
I'll PM you with some emails addresses

yes the JLM1290 is a neat cool sounding unit