D.I.Y. Recording Equipment | DIY Microphones, Preamps, Compressors, etc.

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Introducing the Passive Pickup Emulator (PPE)

Posted on June 5, 2013 | 5 Comments

Your pedal board and amp collection are a potential playground for manipulating non-guitar signals. Yet, if you’ve spent some time reamping pre-recorded tracks, patching synths into fuzz pedals, or sending samples through amps, you know that the results are often disappointing compared to the magic of a well-paired guitar and … read more

Building a Vintage-style U87 Mic Is Easier and Cheaper Than You Think (Video)

Posted on April 30, 2013 | 19 Comments

In the video below, guest vlogger Matthew Jenkins walks us through his build of a vintage-style Neumann U87 clone. What some viewers may find surprising is that at no point during the video does Matthew perform any black magic or mortgage his home. As you’ll see, a soldering iron, some … read more

Podcast #7: Talking Mic Preamps and Surface-Mount Parts with Expat Audio

Posted on March 14, 2013 | 2 Comments

In this month’s DIY podcast, I talk to Dafydd Roche of Expat Audio about their new Eden Mic Preamp. Stream below or download the mp3 Subscribe to the DIYRE podcast Dafydd and I get into some good stuff about mic preamp and general audio design, including: The difference between surface … read more

5-Minute Project: How to build a “Circuit Sniffer”

Posted on March 13, 2013 | 11 Comments

Here’s a fun little noise-maker you can build for under $5 in under 5 minutes: a “Circuit Sniffer.” Just as microphones pick up vibrations in the air and turn them into an alternating electrical current, this little device picks up the magnetic fields emitted by electronic devices. You can get … read more

Designing a Headphone Amp for the Studio (Video)

Posted on January 11, 2013 | 14 Comments

While Link and I continue to develop the Colour project, I’ve been working on a compact headphone amplifier kit. After prototyping various circuits, I’ve settled on one that packs an uncommon amount of power and audio performance into a small, cost-efficient package. In the video above I discuss the various … read more

Podcast #6: “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Audio Electronics…” Part 2

Posted on December 31, 2012 | 2 Comments

Our resident electronics expert, Duncan Gray, is back to answer your audio electronics questions! Duncan and I recorded two hours of answers last week to the questions you asked in the original “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Audio Electronics…” post. So to spare you the tedium of digging … read more

The “Colour” Project Pt. 3: Prototyping the Motherboard

Posted on December 7, 2012 | 18 Comments

This is part 3 in our series “live blogging” the design process of our new 500-series harmonics generator, working name “Colour.” The final project will be released as a full kit under the Open Source Hardware license. In our last update, “Pt. 2: Going Modular,” we settled on having three … read more

Podcast #5: Is Open Source the Way Forward for DIY Audio?

Posted on November 14, 2012 | 5 Comments

DIY audio folks like to share–that’s what makes us a community. My kits and the DIY Project Directory are possible because others have shared their research, schematics, designs, etc. without any legal limitations. In turn, I document my projects so that anyone who cares to can learn from, tweak, or … read more

The “Colour” Project Pt. 2: Going Modular

Posted on August 31, 2012 | 11 Comments

Over the next few months, Link Simpson of Steller Electronics an I will be developing a totally new piece of recording equipment for the DIY community. We will be “live blogging” the design process to share what we learning along the way and to encourage involvement from the DIY community … read more

Designing a New Piece of Recording Gear Pt. 1: The Concept

Posted on August 7, 2012 | 59 Comments

How to Add a Guitar Pickup Emulator to Your LINE2AMP

Posted on July 25, 2012 | 4 Comments

The PPE mod equips your LINE2AMP reamping kit with a classic, single-coil pickup output which, in addition to providing a new tonal option, allows it to interface more “authentically” with vintage guitar amps and effects. The Emulator Circuit While browsing Jack Orman’s excellent “Lab Notebook” series, I came across his … read more

Exactly How the LINE2AMP Reamping Box Works (and Why)

Posted on July 19, 2012 | 16 Comments

Why do we need a reamping box? People have been plugging line-level signals into guitar amps since long before the first reamping box hit the market, often with good results. This is true; in many cases, simply plugging the output of your interface into an amp and crossing your fingers … read more

Oktava MD-80M NOS Exclusive Offer

Posted on July 13, 2012 | 22 Comments

This offer is now closed. Don’t miss another one! Subscribe to the mailing list below to be notified the moment new pre-orders are posted. Email: A couple weeks ago, I received an intriguing email from my friend Artur Fisher (whos RM-5 ribbon mics many of you have now built). It … read more

How to Build a Boutique Passive DI

Posted on June 29, 2012 | 26 Comments

If you can solder one component to a couple of jacks, you can make the best passive DI money can buy. That’s no exaggeration–at it’s core, every passive DI is just a transformer, and some of the best winders in the world, Cinemag, Sowter, Lundahl and Jensen make transformers designed … read more

How to Add L/C/R Switches to a Passive Summing Box

Posted on June 25, 2012 | One Comment

When I first posted my “How to Build a DIY Passive Summing Box” guide, I assumed most people would have no need for switching between mono and L/R inputs. Wrong. After numerous requests for this feature, I added switching capability to the Endless Summer DIY kits. The theory of operation … read more

DIY Microphones, Preamps, Compressors, etc.

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