Designing a Rack Mount Preamp with Colour Pt. 1 (Video) April 11, 2018 14:42

Now that we've wrapped up design on the OLA5 Opto Compressor, I can finally get back to a project I've been wanting to do for a long time: a multi-channel, rack-mounted mic preamp. The preamp will be use the same circuitry as our CP5 500-Series preamp with Colour but with some additional features.

I'm still in the early stages of this design, so I thought I'd share what I've got so far with you and solicit your feedback. I go into more detail in the video above, but basically I've prototyped four new features:

  • Direct input
  • LINE switch for running the CP5 in line-level mode
  • Parallel, dry output
  • Second Colour socket

We could fit all of these features in a 1U, two-channel box. But my big question for you is:

Should we do a 2-channel version with more features or a 4-channel version with fewer features?

I'd also love your feedback on the features I've worked on so far.

Which ones seem essential? Which could you do without?
What's most important to you in a rack preamp?