Diy devices for a home recording studio

[ponce]

Aside from the guitar pedals, what can be easily made and useful while recording guitar/bass/vocals? Things like tape saturation simulator, passive pickup emulation, preamps, contact mics, etc..

[bool]

IMO the most useful of all is a DI-box - meaning a certain variety of these that will suit different roles.

You cant go wrong with the Bo Hansen design. Fit it with different xformers and there you have a certain variety from the get-go...

[ponce]

Is there also a purpose for a DI box when using an audio interface and a DAW?

[ponce]

How about this stuff:

http://www.diyrecordingequipment.com/products/copy-of-vintage-character-bundle

[bluebunny]

Is there also a purpose for a DI box when using an audio interface and a DAW?

If the interface doesn't have a high-Z input, then yes.

[Kipper4]

Andertons Directo-matic.

[banjerpickin]

I have built several "top-shelf" microphones for a fraction of the cost of purchasing a used or new one, and they sound just as good as the real deal.  You can purchase PCBs and look at build docs here for some common mics, the u87 is a great place to start: http://www.vintagemicrophonepcbkit.com/

[Kipper4]

Got some pics there Banjer?

[stonerbox]

I recommend checking out GroupDIY.

[midwayfair]

How easily made?

I love my stereo 1176 that I also modded quite a bit, but it wasn't necessarily easy. The stock Hairball kit, however, is reasonably easy if you're careful.

Plenty of fun can be had making microphones and preamps as well. The 251 from http://www.vintagemicrophonepcbkit.com/ I have wins a ton of shootouts. I also really love the 47-style FET mic I made from Aurycle ... which actually won a shootout against a very, very well regarded tube 47 clone. My schematic for the one I built is on GroupDIY. It's not a super easy kit to make the modifications to. I've also built a bunch of electret Alice circuits in cheap dynamic mics just to have extra mics around. They'll run you about $20 a piece and won't necessarily win any prizes, but they're fun.

GroupDIY is the best place for a lot of this stuff, though to be honest it's much more of a support community for building a relatively small number of classics. Older posts tend to have more original circuits floating around. The micbuilder community on Yahoo is also excellent.

[banjerpickin]

Got some pics there Banjer?

I don't have any pictures handy but here is a picture guide that I used for my first build:  http://www.vintagemicrophonepcbkit.com/Neumann%20U87%20Build.htm

Biggest barrier to entry is cost.  PCBs/components are about the same, but the housing and diaphragm, if you get good quality parts, are quite expensive.  I think my u87 clone cost about $300 to build when all was said and done.  But, it won a shootout with a real vintage u87 that would sell on eBay for $3500.  Over long periods of use diaphragms can lose their treble response, so since my clone had a brand new one there was a little extra pleasant top end to it.  If you replaced the diaphragm in the real vintage u87, they would have sounded exactly the same.  Although, then you would have lost some of the "warm vintage sound" .

I actually find the construction to be much easier.  You don't have to mess with drilling enclosures and packing everything in tightly as the mic housings (so far) have been conveniently sized.

[GibsonGM]

One "useful thing" I haven't seen mentioned: a headphone breakout box, with individual amplification levels (simple LM386 circuit).
I use this to mix my playback with the signal I'm recording (some call that 'monitoring', LOL).   PC output goes to the box, and is mixed with my incoming signal.

Of course this idea extends to setting up a "multiple output headphone box" for live in the studio recording....schematics abound on the net...

[tonight, we ride]

This thread is exactly something I've been looking for! Keep the recommendations coming!

[ashcat_lt]

Really simple things come in handy more often than you'd believe. 

Various types of pads - even just a pot in a box - can really save your ass sometimes.

Even stupider:  A simple mult/splitter box.  Transformer isolation can solve some problems, but a lot of times all you really need is three jacks connected in parallel by straight wire.

[chuckd666]

There's no limit to the amount you can spend on DIY recording stuff... the prices kinda go more out of control when it comes to transformers and capsules and stuff. My friend ended up spending $1500AUD on a tube U47 clone and yeah, it sounds pretty good. 

[bool]

Is there also a purpose for a DI box when using an audio interface and a DAW?

If the interface doesn't have a high-Z input, then yes.

A "real xformer" color can be surprisingly useful at times even if your interface has abundance of hi-z and/or standard 10k line inputs. Even just for bouncing drumloops or softsynths.
Not to mention actually *recording* live stuff, mind you...

[anotherjim]

A vital part of my studio is DIY, and cheap. A monitor controller.
There weren't many on the market when I built it, but the cheaper ones use stereo pots. I wanted switched attenuators so I can have known and repeatable listening levels. It also lets me listen to either the direct mix or my input mix when tracking. Also listen in mono L+R in one speaker and mono difference L-R to check stereo spread. And it's completely passive & balanced.

[ashcat_lt]

A vital part of my studio is DIY, and cheap. A monitor controller.

All of my thumbs!

But you know for other stuff, if you're not happy with straight wires, or really basic opamp "straight wire with gain" circuits, then what you actually want is distortion and/or filters, which is most of what we do around here.  There was a thread very recently that went too deep for me re: transformer saturation...

[Pedalhead]

Cheap and cheerful. I've made a couple of Paulinthelab mic preamps that turned out pretty good. https://paulinthelab.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/balenced-to-line-microphone-preamp.html  I added +48v, pad & phase reverse and a OEP A262A3E transformer on the input, but they aren't absolutely necessary. Built a pair of Auratone Mixcube monitor speakers, which do the job fairly well.

[pruttelherrie]

Aside from the guitar pedals, what can be easily made and useful while recording guitar/bass/vocals? Things like tape saturation simulator, passive pickup emulation, preamps, contact mics, etc..

I built quite a few of Red Elliott's projects: http://sound.whsites.net/index2.html

This rackmount box has four mic preamps (project 122), four AN6884 level readouts (pretty much according to datasheet) and four headphone amplifiers (project 109 without crossfeed). Together with my Tascam US-1641, a macbook and lots of mics, cables and some headphones it forms my mobile setup.






I also built some microphones with project 93.

Furthermore, a reamp box and a DI can be pretty handy.