1

TS500 Tape Simulator / TS500 acting like an "expander"

« on: January 16, 2023, 02:53:44 PM »

Hi, just in case my last message got unnoticed :

Hello again,

So I took the time to do a few comparison tests with my TS500 pair regarding this curious "expending" behavior.
I sent a drum track and a full mix to the TS500, and you can clearly hear the ambiance sounds "disapear".
Listen to the reverbs on the "Mix" track, and to the room sound on the "Drums" track.
I also recorded the flipped phase versions of the tracks (null test), and what reamains is mainly reverbs and ambiance.

https://soundcloud.com/igormoreno/sets/ts500-tests

The "tape effect" is often described as compression and saturation, but compression and saturation would make the ambiance sounds more obvious, right ?
This is more like an expander.

So my question is : Is this normal for the TS500 to act like that, or is there something wrong with mine ?

Thanks !

Igor

2

LA502 Optical Compressor / Hissing LA502

« on: December 01, 2022, 04:30:02 PM »

Hi !
I've got LA502 I built years ago that I don't often use because of it's hiss, which can be too much depending on the sources.
Is there any way to atenuate the hiss ?

Thanks !

Igor

3

TS500 Tape Simulator / Weird stereo effect

« on: July 08, 2022, 10:10:21 PM »

Hi,

I finally measured my two TS500.
They sound identical, altough one of the units is 1/1,5V "louder" than the other on most measurements.
With the 10kHz sine wave, both units measure 50% less than the reference voltage.  (??)

What is weird though, is that when engaging the units, the ambiance of the sounds seems to disapear.
For exemple, with a drum track, it almost act like a transient designer : Kick and snare become louder, but all the details of the room microphones or overhead are getting lost somwhere. As if it were "mono-ing" the signal.
It's visible on the waveform : when level matched, transients keep the same level, but sustained sounds are way lower.

Is it normal behavior ? It does not seem to be the case on the exemples I found on the internet.

Thanks for your insight !

4

TS500 Tape Simulator / High Distortion

« on: December 16, 2021, 07:44:03 PM »

Hi,

I've just finished my second TS500 (the first one worked at first try).
I have very high, almost gate-like distortion when the unit is on. On bypass, the signal is just fine.
What can I do to check the unit and solve this mystery ?

Thanks !

Igor