Before i could begin the mixing / mastering job on our ‘Containment Failure’ album for Kurodust i was in great need of an audio switchbox. However not just any old switchbox, it had to fit two very specific needs.. (1) to fit in with my particular hardware configuration here at Lateral Expanse, (2) be capable of line level signal multi-mixing, inverting, routing, summing, differentiating, (3) speaker switching, phase-reversing and dummy loading for loads under 6 ohms, all with 150W continuous power-handling. It was a difficult project to undertake, not only due to the unbelievable jungle of wires and soldering required but also working out how and in what order to wire the bastard.

In terms of the ‘Containment Failure’ mixing job, the addition of this box was absolutely essential. The album contained so many tracks and mixing options that i really would be wandering blind in certain areas if i was without it. The Studio Super Switcher gives me the ability to needle-out phase, frequency and stereo issues with audio projects.

So with ‘Containment Failure’s invisible deadline closing-in i took soldering iron in hand and placed multimeter on desk and got to work.

PCB and component assembley

First of all I prepared the circuit boards and made sure that all the components were properly installed.

Front panel is drilled, jig-sawed and prepared

Front panel was prepared for installation of all the switches, pots, connector panels and speakers. I made a real racket doing this, especially with the jigsaw.

Front panel ''artwork'' is added

After cleaning the front panel free of metal filings and dust my trademark homebrew artwork was added, identifying the function of the various switches and knobs (because I would forget what they all do in a few weeks).

All front panel hardware is installed

Installing all the switches, pots, etc was a bit of a bastard.. they like to slip and never seem to hold their positions properly. With a bit of handywork with a shifter (monkey wrench for our american viewers) and some threadlocker i soon had them screwed into submission.

(Left to Right) Dummy loading and PSU circuitry is installed

Next i began work on the internals, specifically the PSU and dummy loading stages. All wiring for the rear panel speaker connectors and mains input were also completed.

All wiring in-place, awaiting installation of audio PCBs

Soldering all the wires and connectors weaving a jungle across the front panel was a nightmare to say the least. Every project has a stage that tests your patience and temper, you know the times i’m talking about, when you think of reaching for the sledge-hammer. Despite the fact that my soldering iron is quite thin (pencil type) surgically guiding it around and between wires to reach the connectors took some pretty steady hands. I had a couple of solder bridges and problems with earthing on the panel electronics but i got there in the end.

I would not want to wire this ever again !!!

This shot demonstrates the front panel electric spaghetti i had to sort out

Final testing begins

Finally everything was installed and wired, all the meter readings were checking out fine and testing was begun. I grabbed the iPod, got some favorite tunes running and plugged it into the box. At first there was no music heard, just a hidious mains noise barking out of the speakers. After some investigating into the monitoring stage PCBs I realised that i had missed one of the earth connections somewhere along the line. I reached in carefully with the iron and managed to attach one last wire to the back of the monitor input connector block, problem solved. I intentionally chose some really crappy $5 speakers for the LoFi monitoring (an important part of modern mixing / mastering), however they sounded surprisingly good despite the 0.25 watt amps that i used and the lack of sufficient baffling. All other functions were checking out fine.. mixing, summing, inverting and channel-swapping performed well with my ‘Chemical Wedding’ test mp3.

In the end it took about 2 weeks to complete from inception to testing. Now I can get on with producing our Kurodust record with confidence… hopefully the bastard keeps working, fingers crossed… otherwise i’ll be looking very confused like this…