Building a Mixing Desk

[Diarmuid]

Has anyone had any experience building a mixing desk? I was thinking about building a Lighting desk, but decided, that was probably not only more dangerous, but probably more complicated (as in the whole DMX protocols...), so when I was talking to my TD today, and he mentioned it was possible, I thought I would try that.

If anyone has got any schematics, from any mixing desks and was able to upload them, that would be absolutley great, and if anyone can give me any views or insights, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Diarmuid

[Footer]

doing a strait level control wouldnt be to hard.... but adding in EQ's.. seperate buses... auxs.... and making it not sound like there is a behive in it would not be an easy feet.... i would sudgest picking up a few good electronics books...

[fosstech]

Do yourself a favor and buy an inexpensive mixer if you're concerned about money. I may even go as far as suggesting a Behringer, but if you have a little more money around get a Mackie if you can. You're going to use up too much of your time and money building one yourself and the end result will most likely be less than satisfactory. Building a mixer is a lot more complicated than running the signal through a bunch of pots and soldering the outputs all together. In fact, if you do that, you're going to end up frying whatever is on your inputs. If you're confident with your knowledge of mic preamps, mix amps, EQ circuits, routing, PC board design and construction, and chassis fabrication, than by all means, go ahead. But if you're not, spend a couple hundred bucks on a mixer that will have a warranty, be guaranteed safe, be noise-free, and have technical support behind it.

[Diarmuid]

At the moment, my main aim is not as much to get a working mixer out of this, but is more to get a better understanding of the workings of a mixer, so that I get a better understanding, when I do eventually (and hopefully not too far away) buy a half decent mixer. I also thought, that it might be a useful way to improve my electronic skills as well.

[gafftaper]

I would say start searching the internet. There are all kinds of crazy things out there. Certainly you will be able to find schematics and design informatino. I bet someone even has a kit you can buy with all the parts to build it yourself. It sounds like a fun project. Be sure to take some pictures and report back on how it went.

[soundlight]

I don't know if they still have it, but go to Radio Shack and buy the book "Introduction to Electronics." It will be a full-page size book, with holes punched along the side. Read it. It's got some mixer, preamp, amp, and possibly EQ diagrams.

[The_Terg]

Originally Posted by Diarmuid

At the moment, my main aim is not as much to get a working mixer out of this, but is more to get a better understanding of the workings of a mixer, so that I get a better understanding, when I do eventually (and hopefully not too far away) buy a half decent mixer. I also thought, that it might be a useful way to improve my electronic skills as well.

If you want a good electronics project that is small, easy to build, and teaches you quite a bit about audio electronics, I would suggest starting with pocket headphone amplifiers.

I built this pocket headphone amplifier as one of my first electronics projects. If you look into the circuitry for that, and if you also compare that to this article on creating active and passive eq circuits, you will find that it gets very complicated very quick. Personally, I aspire to become an electrical engineer but would be satisfied if I could only get the bass boost to work on my gadzooked pocket amplifier. Gotta start small.

After all, the headphone amp is cool and useful on its own. Build the thing into an altoids tin (it WILL fit) and turn some heads. I can't tell you how fun/useful it is to plug my pocketamp into my mp3 player and turn my MDR-7506's into speakers.

[cutlunch]

Originally Posted by Diarmuid

At the moment, my main aim is not as much to get a working mixer out of this, but is more to get a better understanding of the workings of a mixer, so that I get a better understanding, when I do eventually (and hopefully not too far away) buy a half decent mixer. I also thought, that it might be a useful way to improve my electronic skills as well.

Here is a link that deals with building an audio mixer which looks at each section needed in a mixer.

http://sound.westhost.com/project30.htm

Also check out this page of links to audio circuits

http://www.epanorama.net/links/audiocircuits.html#mixer

Please not that the above link is a subset of links in a very usefull website
http://www.epanorama.net/

This site has links to anything electronic.

There are sites on lighting, stagecraft, computers, microcontrollers, telephone, audio etc
There are links that newbies can understand up to university thesis level.

I have been going to this site for over 8 years and never been to every link.

It gets updated about every two months.

If I was stranded on a Desert Island and allowed only one Website to access this would be it. (excuse the corny humour) However I strongly believe this website would be useful to over 90% of all Control Booth members. Please note I have no connection with this website except as a fan.

Terg I hope these links help you. Out of interest, electronicaly a DMX512 desk would be easier to make then a audio mixer.

[mbenonis]

Originally Posted by Diarmuid

Has anyone had any experience building a mixing desk? I was thinking about building a Lighting desk, but decided, that was probably not only more dangerous, but probably more complicated (as in the whole DMX protocols...), so when I was talking to my TD today, and he mentioned it was possible, I thought I would try that.

I know someone who actually built a 16 channel two scene preset DMX lighting console. The catch is he was a fourth-year electrical engineering major at the time. That said, the console works great and is pretty cool looking. If you'd like more information I can ask him for schematics/tips.

[Diarmuid]

If you were able to get me any schematics, it would be amazingly great, as one day, after building a mixing desk, I would like to do that, if it would work and would be safe.

Also, does anyone know of any decent electronics shops in the UK, I have tried Radio Shack, but they dont appear to have a UK branch.

Thanks

Diarmuid