By all means push the envelope; after all, one of the good reasons for embarking on DIY is to gain knowledge and an understanding of what’s going on behind the knobs. However, it’s equally important to make sure the job’s achievable.

... before we examine the myriad control possibilities of a compressor, let’s pause for a moment and consider how many controls such a device can successfully live without. The LA-2A, for example, is perhaps one of the most successful (and highly prized)...

The design topology of compressors directly impacts on the characteristics they impart to the audio passing through. Some have a greater impact than others even when no gain reduction is occurring.

This issue I thought I’d bring you over to my side of the bench, so you can see what it’s like. Don’t touch anything now, its dangerous back here.

Studio wiring is one of those tasks that should be so straightforward and predictable that we could happily and confidently leave it till the last phase of a studio’s construction. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Wiring a studio takes planning and skill, yet it...

While there are countless factors that contribute to providing a safe work place, one in particular that naturally catches my eye is electrical safety. So for this issue, let’s put aside the excitement of learning what’s going on behind the front panels of your...

Probably the most ubiquitous equaliser on the planet is the humble bass and treble control found on almost every hi-fi amplifier. Almost without fail, this equaliser will be based on the original design by Peter Baxandall.

Probably the most common microphone preamp topology found today utilises a simple pair of transistors implemented with variable gain feeding an IC operational amplifier. With good low-noise transistors running with variable gain in Class-A, and an Integrated Circuit...

While we can emulate all sorts of instruments with quite good results these days, until someone comes up with a 'plug-in vocalist' we will at least require microphones for recording the voice. The human voice with which we have an innate familiarity is often the...

due to a layout error a section of the article fell off the page this is the 'missing bit' from issue 57 - The Decibel