My obsession with the DIY audio world started 5 years ago while I was studying at uni. I was just beginning to learn about all the incredibly expensive audio gear that exists in an actual professional studio, as opposed to my ghetto bedroom setup in my mum's house, at the time. I got to study and record music on some Focusrite ISA's. Then an SSL 4000 series console. Then some API, Manley and ultimately the classic and much coveted Neve 1073 preamps. All of these mic preamps sounded incredibly good, and so they should, as they were all way out of my budget.
I was combing the internet for cheap microphones and pre-amps that sounded good. A logical fallacy I know, but we've all been there. Starting without much gear, and a basic understanding of audio gear and wanting to record every friends band, but not having the quality of equipment it really takes to produce that level of recording. And then I came across a popular DIY mic kit. It just so happened that i had a soldering assignment coming up and I thought to myself "Hey Mitch, why not spend an extra day on time you don't have between assignments, and build something that probably won't work, because you've never even soldered a circuit board before".
Well I did build it. And it DID work! And it sounded great. It sounded SO great it became one of my go to mic's in recording sessions and thus began my addiction to DIY audio. I built another mic. Then a ribbon mic. Then a booster for said ribbon mic. Then I thought, "hey, I'm ready to tackle something bigger!" and that's when I found Soundskulptor.com. They had 500 series versions of some of the most coveted and well known preamps, compressors and equalisers and after some debate between myself (internally) and then with audio colleagues where I teach, I decided to jump in to the 500 series format to give my studio's front end a great big push into the professional level of analogue hardware.
I settled on the Neve 1073 style preamp that I had coveted for so long, so I bought a pair of Sound Skulptor MP573's, their own 500 series recreation of the circuit, and waited anxiously for them to arrive. I spent nights reading the online instruction manuals and assembly guides in anticipation. I read reviews and hoped that I too would find positive results once I had this precious analogue circuitry to amplify my microphones fragile little signal. I waited, and not too long later they arrived. I was ecstatic. I opened them up and was surprised by the effort, organisation and careful packaging of the equipment. I held the famous Carnhill transformers in my hand and couldn't wait to hear that sound in my recordings.
I did a quick unboxing video for the old YouTube channel and then set to filming the build. The instructions were clear, well laid out, with plenty of images. The guys from Sound Skulptor did a great job in designing the circuit layout and documentation to achieve the build. I took my time and in a days effort I built and tested my first ever mic preamplifier. It's not something I'd recommend without some soldering experience, but it wasn't too difficult with a bit of patience. The preamps both sound great and I'll have a review video soon.
If you're keen to see the build, I've placed the build videos down below.
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