[sdiy] Stuck mixer pots and reverb - two queries and an observation

[Samppa Tolvanen]

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 6:41 PM, Electronic
Battle<electronicbattle at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hello All
>
> My mixer (1980s vintage) works OK and apart from some noisy pots, which I
> know how to deal with more-or-less, works OK. However, some of the rotary
> pots are as stiff as can be and some will hardly turn at all; they seem
> frozen in place!

You have fiddled a few too much and the others not enough? ;)
Sometimes giving 'em a bit of workout helps to get a proper touch, but
it could be that original lubricant has turned to stiffy gunk :/ Watch
out for spilling too much WD-40 there to enter the resistive track..

>
> Secondly - I realise that I don't really know how to use the mixer! Has
> anyone a URL they can recommend which shows me the preferred way to do
> send/rtn (pre or post fader is available on my console) and also gains per
> channel etc.?
>

You'll find those by yourself, look for the unity-gain structure This
is to give the best headroom with least noise. Bazillion information
sources out there. The pre-fader sends are best suited to monitoring
purposes and You'll want effect units hanging on post-fader sends.

> Thirdly - my electronic music (and I use the term in its broadest sense) has
> been lacklustre even to my own ears until today when Igot a decent reverb!
> My delay had been down to an Ibanez DM100, whose ability to do proper reverb
> was limited. Now I have a lot of processing available to me (Digitech S-200
> fromeBay - it sounds good to me) and it is astonishing how much better it
> all sounds.
>
Sounds like You'll be needing more post-fader auxes soon :D

Samppa