Finished my first set of VU meters

[Martin]

used the JLM VU buffer PCB, jaycar parts and altronics FLASHSTAR VU meter...

set it into a cardboard box for testing purposes, will ad power switch and LED's in the near future while getting an aircraft sheety friend of my to make me up a nice painted enclosure for them out of aluminum or stainless

here's a pic of the work so far (they work really well by the way!)




managed to keep the big "made in taiwan" labelling intact while butchering to the box :D

[chris p]

Nice Martin

Can I offer 1 suggestion (after building 6 of these myself) - add a 100uf electro across the meter terminals. This is referenced in Joe's site as an add on for the Flashstar meters: it slows the response of the meter to make it more like a "proper" VU meter. The more controlled response makes the meter easier to read as the needle isn't jumping around quite so much.

Its also worth re-reading Rob's AT article on VU meters, while listening to some of your favourite program material and watching the VU's respond.

Regards

[Martin]

thanks chris, i've not used them much as electricity and cardboard don't match well! drew up my templates for the metal work today so they should be cut and boxed up very soon, i'll post the results...

i noticed the extra cap on joes site but didn't put it on yet

they meters arent' any faster than other meters we have here but none of them are anything special, so when i transplant to the new box, i'll add the cap...

thanks :P

[rick]

there are a set of vu ballistic test tones floating around the web and i think there was one on the test cd that sound aust did years ago

the good thing is you can run the test tones into two meters at the same time and see that they respond the same ( and heaps of meters wont ) you can then mess about with the speed consants with some degree of certainity
having meters is cool having meters that mean something is even cooler

[TimS]

Speaking of VU meters, does anyone use plugin VU's?? i.e Bombfactory Essentials Meter Bridge, Nomad Factory, PSP Vintage Meter?

I know its probably blasphemous saying that, but most of my stuff is 'in the box', hence why I asked.

Anyone use a 'good' VU plugin - RTAS, TDM or VST..
TimS..

[rob]

test tones are linked off this very forum....here : http://www.turtlerockmastering.com/foru ... .php?t=939

Rob

[Martin]

thanks for designing the circuit rob! works very well, putting some caps on them tomorrow to see how they go

[rob]

btw... i love that cardboard enclosure...i'd be keeping it just the way it is !

[Martin]

Really? a V/O guy walked in and points and goes "fire hazard!"

so as lo-fi as they look and Very easy to work on, i'm not sure they'll stay in the studio... for home perhaps?

100uf caps on the flashstar meters made them much easier to read, and didn't affect the alignment at all

[mfdu]

100uf caps - i really need to do that myself.

love the box.

maybe you could meet in the middle -
scan the front of the cardboard box
print onto those decal sheets folk use to do lettering (prodigy.com has tips)
place lettering onto a sweet metal box

et voila - sans fire hazard, but still lookin ghetto

chris
mfdu

[mfdu]

100uf caps - i really need to do that myself.

love the box.

maybe you could meet in the middle -
scan the front of the cardboard box
print onto those decal sheets folk use to do lettering (prodigy.com has tips)
place lettering onto a sweet metal box

et voila - sans fire hazard, but still lookin ghetto

chris
mfdu

[Martin]

[quote="mfdu"]
et voila - sans fire hazard, but still lookin ghetto
[/quote]

like dressing up a benz with daihatsu parts! :D

i think a nice aluminium box sprayed in 2 pak of a good colour and some coats of clear would look nice without being too out there

[jmedigital]

After a long time managed to track down a couple of old VU's from a work colleague (Telstra/Telecom broadcast) which I was able to use. They work really well and the movement doesn't need a cap to slow it down.





Overkill case size and powersupply and not as modern or trend setting as the cardboard box design but they were all bits I had lying around so the whole thing cost zero dollars to build and it's neat and tidy.