neve 542 connections

[dave01.cooper]

hey all

super close to finishing off the studio rewire, 32ch soundtracs quartz & neve 542 mixer (16 ch frame but 4 mono & 12 stereo modules - nymo's old girl) into the new bantam bays. All edac breakouts, outboard racks, DAW's & master sections are wired up but the unbalanced nature of the neve has me second guessing myself so want to ask a couple of questions before I waste a day soldering. so please correct me if i'm wrong here.

the neve is all on one loom, terminated accordingly & then db25's on the other end for bantam bays. so for the desk ins so far i thought
DESK END:
mono
pin 2, tip. pin 1 & 3, ring/shield
direct outs
pin 2, tip. pin 1 & 3, ring/shield

stereo
pin 2, left channel tip
pin 3, right channel tip
pin 1, left & right channel ring/shield.

DB25 END:
mono
pin 25 - shield
pin 12 - ring
pin 24 - tip

or would it be best to put shield & ring on pin 12?

stereo (these are going to be on a separate db25 connector so i'll start from ch 1 again...)
pin 25 - tip
pin 12 - ring
pin 24 - shield
pin 11 - tip
pin 23 - ring
pin 10 - shield

or again, would it be wiser to jump 12 & 24 and 23 & 10 together? the whole bantam bays are balanced with individual grounds fyi.

now for those familiar with these desks - are the playback ins, program outs, aux outs, monitor outs, ext tb outs, mono output & osc outputs a mixture of unbalanced/balanced connections?
I'm assuming the pgm & monitor outs are but others not...

thanks brain trust

dave

[rick]

somehow as all those desks were custom ordered i dont think anybody is going to really know about whats what with it dave
but .. a day wasted soldering is never a day wasted if you post the results up here good or bad for the next guy

I have only seen one of those desks in your configuration ..
umm .. yours ..

its ex channel 9 sydney if I recall correctly.

[dave01.cooper]

hey rick

you're probably right in that trial and error will be best in figuring this out, was just testing the waters to see if anyone had experienced similar connections with these things. i'll be sure to post my results when it's all up and running though

ex channel 9 hey, that's interesting. rough era do you know?
when I got it off John it had 2 monos, 13 stereos & a spare channel. since then bought 2 monos off Nath and swapped out 2 of the stereos so it's now a 4/12 'hybrid'. hoping for it to be an 8/8 with 8 direct outs on each mono... would be a tasty front end 8 pre tracking console & 8 line in stereo summing unit too.
some of the modules need a bit of work done to them (scratchy pots, loose switches etc) from general wear and tear but overall a good unit.
i've read on certain forums that a variable gain pot post pan is a better idea for direct outs due to the 15db stepped mic pre's. this i'll need to do some more investigation on.

If Nath you're reading this - have you finished racking up your 8? where did you stick your D/Os? any tips/ideas?

cheers

[rick]

Yes channel nine Sydney .

It's early eighties

I was going to take the wooden sides of it and restore it looking like new
And sort it Electronically as well

But it was too much work in the shape I was in and it was
In . For too little return .

I think Nymo had a hard time getting it up to speed
Which was unfortunate as they are easy enough to restore .

I think there were maybe 30 of those desks
Imported ..mostly little ones like the two Nathan
Grabbed at auction a while back

I have seen maybe 10 kicking around
So they are still out there .

Buy them cheap restore them
Enjoy them .

[Sammas]

hey rick

you're probably right in that trial and error will be best in figuring this out, was just testing the waters to see if anyone had experienced similar connections with these things. i'll be sure to post my results when it's all up and running though

ex channel 9 hey, that's interesting. rough era do you know?
when I got it off John it had 2 monos, 13 stereos & a spare channel. since then bought 2 monos off Nath and swapped out 2 of the stereos so it's now a 4/12 'hybrid'. hoping for it to be an 8/8 with 8 direct outs on each mono... would be a tasty front end 8 pre tracking console & 8 line in stereo summing unit too.
some of the modules need a bit of work done to them (scratchy pots, loose switches etc) from general wear and tear but overall a good unit.
i've read on certain forums that a variable gain pot post pan is a better idea for direct outs due to the 15db stepped mic pre's. this i'll need to do some more investigation on.

If Nath you're reading this - have you finished racking up your 8? where did you stick your D/Os? any tips/ideas?

cheers

Its strange what you find in a google search!

I am sure you have figured it out by now - but junction 22 on the PCB is the best place to run the direct outputs from. It is just prior to the pan pot on the schematic, and has a neat little PCB standoff that you can solder a connection to. The neatest way to do it is to pull out a dremel and isolate pin D from pin C on the edge connection of the PCB - then wire junction 22 to pin D.

You may also have to isolate Pin D from Pin C on the back of the blue 15 pin edac connector as well. Just move whatever is connected to pin D to C. From there you will need to run the signal through a buffer of some kind as it isn't adequate enough on its own. I used the JLM reguritator kit. By doing it this way you can still pop the modules in and out, swap them between desks, swap their positions in the desk, etc.

[rob]

I'd always keep the "balanced end" wired correctly. In your case this is the Dsub - wire as per normal
then where the other end is going to an unbalance input that is where you create the special wiring case
always consider your signal is wiggling between hot and cold ( even if cold is "ground" ) ... ground should be optional. So either you'll leave ground disconnected at the console end or you'll tie cold and ground together at that point.

[dave01.cooper]

Ah excellent info there Nath. Hopefully I'll be getting some down time towards the end of X mas so can do some investigating/plotting for the other D/Os. Did you end up housing the regurg kits from JLM within your mic pre rack or separate housing? Would be very interested to see some photos on how you did it if possible

On the wiring front - all went together seamlessly. Ended up using this pinout method:

Mono moduels (34128)
XLR - pin 2, tip. pin 1 & 3, ring/shield

direct outs (trs)
pin 2, tip. pin 1 & 3, ring/shield

stereo modules (34129)
pin 2, left channel tip
pin 3, right channel tip
pin 1, left & right channel ring/shield.

DB25 end = standard Ta@#$% wiring
so, mono
pin 25 - shield
pin 12 - ring
pin 24 - tip

& stereo - L & R spread over 2 dsub channels

Haven't had any nasty ground hums or noises so that's a bonus. All patchbays are floating ground btw but the next thing will be to tie the Neve, Soundtracs, patchbays & outboard gear to a star ground system that we're compiling parts for...
What's everyone's thoughts on battery terminal wire to take the load out to the post? Say 2 AWG or is that too thin? And to lead some to the post or not to lead solder to the post? I've read many an article saying yes or no to both methods.

Thanks all