It almost goes without saying that the 500 Mic Pre offers the basic necessities such as +48V phantom power and a polarity-invert switch. In addition to the usual I/O presented on the rear of your host 500-series rack, this module sports a high-impedance input on the face plate, and this can be used to connect instruments such as electric guitars and basses. There are two individual pots for adjusting the mic and Hi-Z/line levels. This may not be a record-breaking specification, but it should be plenty in most real-world situations. It can deliver up to 60dB of gain for mic-level signals, and up to 36dB for line signals. The 500 Mic Pre is able to amplify all kinds of signals. The Ocean Audio 500 Mic Pre offers 60dB gain and a variable high-pass filter, and it comes with transformer-balanced inputs and outputs. Very few corners seem to have been cut in the design stage, and the result is a palette of 500 modules that do not seem, to me, to skimp on any critical functions.
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It doesn't matter whether you're using one module individually or all of them in conjunction, as these building blocks are very versatile units, offering plenty of features and options. First, there are the 'front end' devices, the Mic Pre and EQ derived from the MTA channel strip and then there are the 'back end' devices, the I/P and O/P modules. The four modules, which are surprisingly competitively priced, given their pedigree, can be considered in two categories. Once that's available, we'll take a look at it too, but for now I'll focus on the modules. The range comprises various modules, which are reviewed here, and will soon include The Ark, a fully featured console that can accommodate many 500-series modules. With Ocean Audio, Malcolm Toft is essentially offering adaptations of the MTA console building blocks for the 500-series format.
![diy 500 series mic pre diy 500 series mic pre](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0698/2265/products/CP5_Three_Quarter.jpg)
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Essentially, Toft picked up exactly where he'd stopped with the Trident Series 80, adding a few "contemporary facilities", as he put it in an interview with Paul White in 1994. When Toft sold his interest in Trident Audio Developments for the first time, back in the late '80s, he developed a new console which he brought to the market with a company named MTA (Malcolm Toft Associates). The Trident company itself, owned by American distributor PMI, continues to produce and sell the classic Trident designs. Malcolm Toft will be well known to many people in the audio industry as the man behind the revered Trident A-Range and Series 80 consoles, but his company Ocean Audio will be less well known - simply because they've only recently launched their debut products!Įarlier this year, Toft departed from Trident for the second time to set up this new venture, and announced the development of a comprehensive range of 500-series equipment. Malcolm Toft's latest brainchild enables you to turn your 500-series racks and modules into a fully modular analogue console.