No Zipper, No Pop! How ADC Hybrid Gain Control Can Enable Smooth, Pop-Free Microphone Preamp Gain Changes

This article explains the new hybrid gain control (HGC) feature of Cirrus Logic’s latest CS530xP family of Pro Audio ADCs and how these can eliminate noise problems when changing gain on digitally controlled mic preamps. This solution enables fine-resolution mic preamp gain control, with the feel of a traditional potentiometer but without audible pops or zipper noise by integrating control into the ADC, together with zero-cross detection and precisely synchronized digital gain control.

Swedish studio solutions innovators Softube introduced a new generation of its mixing control surface, the new Console 1 Channel Mk III. Taking even further the concept of a natural hardware expansion of the software the powers today's music production studios, Softube designed a surface that allows faster mixing with a knob-per-function workflow design. Touch-sensitive Analog Feel potentiometers deliver the same tactile feeling of the actual expensive hardware, matching the authentic sounds from the company known for precision modeling classic studio equipment.

In this high quality project, Robert Nance Dee designs a potentiometer for accuracy and flexibility. A pot with 64 levels and precision metal film resistors that is hard to beat for sound or facility, as he describes it. The project started with a clean sheet, looking to address potentiometer design with a quality that rivaled existing designs while maintaining a reasonable cost. This article was originally published in audioXpress, September 2011.

In this month’s issue, you can read our review of the elysia xfilter 500, an extraordinary equalizer “Made in Germany” in a 500-series format that offers a precise stereo image based on computer-selected, stepped potentiometers and low-tolerance film capacitors. In …

The new Drawmer MC2.1 Monitor Controller combines the complexity of several mix-checking features with the fidelity and transparency of the highest quality monitoring circuit. This versatile and intuitive unit offers multiple inputs and outputs, including a dedicated mono output, speaker-level …