The lost valley of the dinosaur components

Preamble

I was quietly sitting in a friend’s back garden, reviewing Stack Exchange posts on the Arduino site, when a friend came out to see what I was doing, and to have a chin wag about electronic audio devices (effects pedals and the like). One devices was mentioned, the Eisen 500, which was not commonly available as they had gone out of production, but they had a unique sound, and people were currently trying to reproduce, and reverse engineer this device, using discrete components available today. The gist of the conversation was as follows

The search terms that I used for the sound processing stuff are things like:
Eq schematics
Compressor schematics
Pre amp schematics
It’s an attempt to try and replicate some of the ‘Neve 500 series modules,’ but this stuff is the cream of the crop. Even guys who have been in the business for decades have difficulty replicating the stuff.
Guitar pedal schematics should be easier; still very difficult though.
Some search terms you could use together with schematic are things like:
Compressor guitar pedal schematic
Eq
Chorus
Distortion (three types) 1.Fuzz, 2. Overdrive & 3. High Gain
A pedal that is great is a Spring Reverb Pedal. Not a digital one. Spring because they have real springs in them. See http://vanamps.com/about-us/ . Only really available from the states.

This led me to research the issue, and this is what I came up with.

Link Thread

  1. Google search: 500 series modules eq schematic
  2. Google search: 500 series modules schematic
  3. Google search: 500 series modules schematic
  4. Eisen: 500 Series – a thread about the non defunct 312 preamplifier
  5. Then a dead link at Eisen Audio LLC
  6. Then a specific schematic on google of the 312 pre-amp on GearSlutz,
    312 approach
    312 approach

    which led to the…

  7. 2520 Op-Amp
  8. Then another 2520 specific schematic

    API 2520 schematic
    API 2520 schematic
  9. and another 2520 op-amp google search
  10. Which brought us to the Scott Liebers’ SL-2520 Op Amp alternative
  11. and then a google image of Scott Liebers’ alternative

    Scott Lieber's 2520 alternative
    Scott Lieber’s 2520 alternative
  12. Then an eBay search for a 2520 op amp kit, and variations thereof: 2520 kit and 2520 op amp
  13. Then we got looking at 500 Series modules images and a web search
  14. Finally a AMS NEVE 1073LB Mono Mic Preamp Module

    AMS NEVE 1073LB Mono Mic Preamp Module
    AMS NEVE 1073LB Mono Mic Preamp Module

Then the battery on my MacBook Pro died…

Conclusion

None yet.

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