Category Archives: Recording preamp/limiter

Prototype recording preamp mirror upgrade

I’ve felt a little like the shoemaker’s shoeless kids:  The shiny new recording preamps I make for others have a little window so you can watch the LEDs from out on the floor, while the ones I use – slightly … Continue reading

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Boards ordered from Seeed for recording preamp!

I’m getting really close to my goal of having a solid, standardized, manufacturable square dance recording device.  I just sent out the Gerber files to have the first run of circuit boards made!  The earliest notes I can find about … Continue reading

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Chasing recording preamp distortion

I’m dragging my feet on making up the final boards for the ‘production’ Sansa recording devices.  Much of it is that I don’t really trust the new ones.  I think I heard some distortion in some of the Sansa recordings … Continue reading

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First “production” recorder

A dance weekend finally inspired me to actually get the first model of the “final” design put together.  It’s almost all SMT (including a thru hole 3914 with its legs bent under), so I soldered most of the components on … Continue reading

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Recording preamp: new plan, better than ever!

Wow – the little Sansa recorders have caused significant changes and clarifications to the plan for my square dance recorders.  I’m going to end up with almost everything I’ve asked for.  The new plan: The only supported recorder will be … Continue reading

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What a difference 30 years makes!

While I was testing the latest version of the recording preamp, I needed a simple audio amp.  A good old LM386 would be fine.  I’ve been making stuff on printed circuit boards and vector boards for quite a while, and … Continue reading

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Sansa Clip+ recorder external input hack

Here’s (one of) my shiny new $20 4 GB Sansa Clip+ MP3 recorder/players from Woot.  It’s smaller than I’d pictured – but that’s fine.  The little “R” melted into the back of the clip might well mark it as refurbished, … Continue reading

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Recording preamp/limiter – with battery test

(Post rebuilt – see footnote.) I’ve built several preamp/AGC/limiter boxes for square dance recording, each getting a little better than the last. (Well, the black one wasn’t so great.) I still aspire to a “perfect” device, answering all my needs. … Continue reading

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Output amp daughterboard for recording preamp

Here’s the small board that will implement the extra output amplifier to have the black prototype recording preamp/AGC/limiter thing put out enough that it works with the iRiver T30 recorder without the dumb empty files. I did go with the … Continue reading

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Output amp for recording preamp?

I may have been wrong about not being able to put an output stage in the prototype recording preamp before the weekend coming up Feb 18-20 in Washington DC. While I don’t have time to redo the whole board, including … Continue reading

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