3080A

[gstopp at fibermux.com]

     You have the standard figured out - within the patching realm of the 
     modular, levels *should* be at 5 volt amplitudes (on mosts systems, 
     anyway). This keeps the modulation ranges high (like 10 octaves for a 
     +/- 5v signal) and keeps the S/N ratios high. Once you leave the patch 
     panel and go to the rest of your sound system, you have to pad things 
     down quite a bit. I usually go out through an spare attenuator after 
     the final VCA or mixer, turned way down. This is cool when you're 
     jamming with friends because you have *way* too much headroom on your 
     main volume ("a little closer to the PA speaker, a little closer, 
     THERE you &^%%$#%$@$ guitarist ha ha!).
     
     Somebody else needs to answer the +4dB question because I've totally 
     forgotten if it's dBm or dBv (my brain is stuck on dBm cuz I work with 
     lasers all the time).
     
     - Gene
     gstopp at fibermux.com


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: 3080A
Author:  Christopher List <Christopher_List at sonymusic.com> at ccrelayout
Date:    4/19/96 1:04 PM


>   by itself. Also the mic would need to go through some kind of pre-amp 
  >   to bring it up to a level that will control the VCA, which would 
  >   probably be a gain of 5 above "line level", so you'd need a pretty hot 
  >   pre-amp.
     
This relates to something I've been thinking about lately.
What are the standard levels for synth outputs? Do those of you who've built 
modulars run your synth's main mixer outputs at the same level as the inputs or 
do you attenuate them? My modular's signals are much hotter than the rest of my 
gear - but I left it that way just so that I would know that Vin = Vout for my 
VCA's with 5v CV.
When you see something saying it can handle "+4dB" - that's +4 relative to 
what? There's some kind of audio industry standard for this - right?
     
- Thanks,
Chris