Turtlerock Forum

Over the last year I have been working in the studio which took me four years to build. I am very happy with it and always planned on spending the first year refining my workflow, learning the room (knowing that they are both life time pursuits).

In the four years of building I spent a lot of time looking at gear, what should I buy, what should I sell, large format desk, individual racks etc etc etc.

Now that I am settled in and have completed a number of projects that I’m really happy with, I find I am thinking that I don’t want to spend my time thinking about gear, reading about it online etc etc etc. I just want to make music, so I am winding down my relentless pursuit for gear etc and just making myself happy with what I have. Saying that, I do like audio gear and so will always look at it and when a hi end piece of gear comes along at a good price, I will definitely consider it if I can. But I am not going to be actively chasing.

So, as I think about my hybrid set up, which Includes a Rob Squire Mix Master Summing box, and a selection of nice outboard gear, I have been thinking about my first (and only) DIY build, the JLM BA4 preamps that I made (with tonnes of help) recently.

I am thinking that to “finalise” my set up I would like to make one beautiful piece of gear. I have been reading about the Drip Electronics Fairchild DIY. And I am thinking, do I attempt this, do I invest in this as a labour of love, a prized possession. It seems to be $5k or so in parts, and there is about $3k of gear I have that I am about to sell, so it could be about reinvesting that rather than putting any new cash into it.

Of course, I don’t have reserves of cash, and every financial decision is important, so I am considering this very carefully. It’s such a big investment, big challenge, and I definitely aren't convinced at this stage that I should do it, I just thought I would splutter my thoughts on here to happily receive any words of wisdom people might have

Vic

Vic wrote:I just want to make music

QED

if you are gonna do one.. might as well do two...


then flog one off

might even cover costs..

My 2cents. I would only spend the $5k to make your own compressor if you know you are going to really enjoy the process of building it. It is a large and intense project that will ultimately consume a lot of time that you could otherwise be spending making music.

For the $5k you can get some pretty nice pieces of pro audio gear that wouldn't require building too.

I think that the fairchild project would be only for the most seasoned DIY'er and I'd never consider it. For 5k you can buy a pretty stunning stereo compressor (lots of options) and it'll work right out of the box, you won't be chasing funny buzzes or second guessing calibrations, it'll just work and it'll have a warranty. Mind you, if I was going to spend 5k it probably wouldn't be a stereo comp.

I reckon it would be an awesome project to pull off, but it would be way over my head.
The thing to also consider is resale. It may cost 5K in parts, but would you get that back if you sold it?
I've done a lot of cheaper diy stuff, mic pre's, racking etc but bigger investments I've always bought sought after stuff and if I've ever decided to sell I've always gotten back what I paid if not more.

If you needed help with the JLM mic preamps, you will most likely suffer eternally with such a project. You will always buy more gear. I suggest buying some quality gear from Turtlerock's classifieds and continue to make music!

I've had half an eye on the Unfairchild from UNdertone Audio (Eric Valentine).
At 5500 USD it might be worth considering Vic (if the dollar ever bounces back up).
Just a thought/option.
Cheers

HI All,

Thanks for the feedback, it's all very valuable and interesting to consider.

I think the making of it is really something to mark the end of a long period of building and then a year of working on some great projects so I finally, just last week, feel like I have sorted out my workflow etc, so am thinking to mark the end of that phase, I would like to do something special and there's something a bit more special in this regards about making a long difficult project than buying one. Just my general thinking at the moment, it's all about the romance.

And I'm not complaining either about not spending enough time making music, I'm completely happy with how that is panning out, I'm just signposting a turning point that I wanted to share

Thanks for your comments and I welcome any further thoughts.

Ta

Vic

Have you used a Fairchild? If not i'd spend the money and hire one of the two in studios in Oz and play with it for half a day. You may not like it.

Vic,

You and I may be in the same boat. I have a Drip 670 PCB (V1 though...) & faceplates + rack that's been sitting on my bench waiting for componentry for over 2 years... Have literally just never gotten round to it, mainly because as the others have said it's at least a 4 - 6k investment in parts + a lot of time.

I'm not scared tackling it though, I welcome the challenge to be honest. I may not have any hair left or die from accidentally shorting a 600VAC line to myself but bah, you only live once.

I might flick you an email & can discuss further if you like?

Cheers