Jordan Sobolew - Studio Gear

Below you can find several DIY studio gear projects I have built. If you are interested in having me repair or build custom gear for you, please feel free to contact me.

MK47 Mic- (Neumann U47 Clone)

This mic was built after what is arguably the most infamous and sought after mic in history: the Neumann U47. I used the excellent Equinox Systems mic body and their Neumann K47 styled capsule. The internal mic circuit was a kit provided by IO-Audio. It's an exact copy of the U47 design utilizing two VF14r tubes instead of the original VF14 used by Neumann which is now out of production. Components include a hand wound output transformer and a Russian military paper-in-oil output capacitor. The power supply was built from scratch on perf board in a Hammond enclosure. What's it sound like? So far this mic is everything I expected it to be. Smooth as butter.
Read more about the Neumann U47 here.

AKG C12 Mic Clone (Apex 460 mod)

Pictured above are the guts of the stock Apex 460 in the back and my modded version up front. I purchased two Apex 460 large cap condensers with the intent of modding. With these, I actually followed the AKG C24 circuit which is the stereo version of the C12. It is slightly different but slightly improved from the C12 design. The C12 is another one of those classic mics that is revered as one of the greatest mics of all time. Along with removing the cathode follower and other circuit modifications I replaced the stock capsule to a C12 type, I swapped the stock tube with a 6072 (what the C12 uses,) replaced the stock transformer with a high quality Cinemag, switched all components in the signal path with high quality replacements and modded the power supply to lower the capsule polarization voltage. I am very happy with how these mics came out. They sound detailed, rich and full. Perfect for vocals, drum overheads, rooms, acoustic guitars and nearly everything else.
Read more about the AKG C12 here.

Baby Animal Mic Preamps

These pres came as a kit provided by JLM Audio. The Baby Animal is a classic old school transformer single op-amp stage mic pre, providing 60dB of gain. Two of these are outfitted with the JLM99v "Neve on steroids" class A discrete op-amps. The other two have JLM Hybrid fet/IC op-amps. Forgive my buzzwords but these a really great preamps able of capturing tones from warm and punchy to fast and clean.

SA-3A Opto Compressor- (Dual LA-3A Clone)

I built this compressor from a kit provided by Serpent Audio. It is modeled after the Urei LA-3A opto cell compressor that stands as one of the most well known classic opto compressors- right next to the LA-2A. This design incorporates a few different mods not on the original- to provide lower noise, shape the high frequency content and stereo link the two channels. It's a great smooth sounding compressor that I like to use to compress to tape with guitars, guitar amps, vocals, percussion, keys, piano and anything that could use a little smoothing without sounding heavily effected.

1176 FET Compressor- Blue Stripe (rev. A)

This is a clone of the Urei 1176 rev. A "Blue Stripe" compressor. I built this with the enclosure and faceplate from Hairball Audio and the pcb's from mnats. The 1176 is easily one of the most used, well recognized, and loved compressors ever. Based on the classic 1966 design by Bill Putnam, the 1176 is known for it's fast, aggressive sound. There were a very small amount of original "Blue Stripe" revision A units produced so these have become increasingly rare. This unit is awesome on drums, percussion, guitars, bass, vocals, or anytime I want to tame fast transients while keeping it punchy. Great for in-your-face aggressive compression and even pumping distortion with "all buttons in" mode.
Read more about the 1176 here.

1176 FET Compressor- Black Face (rev. D)

I enjoyed the first 1176 so much that I decided to build another. This one is slightly different from the Blue Stripe. This revision D "Black Face" is probably more well known than the Blue Stripe as many more units of this revision were produced. It is the revision that Purple Audio based their MC77 compressor on. I built mine with the same 5088 FETs that Purple Audio uses. I use the Black Face in much the same way as the Blue Stripe, it just provides a slightly different flavor.

SSL Buss Compressor Clone

This is an SSL buss compressor clone I built using the pcb's designed by Gyraf Audio. I implemented a few mods, now my unit has 3 modes; the original Gyraf mode, "Turbo" mode which adds a separate sidechain to mimic the true behavior of the original SSL unit, and a sidechain filter mode that allows me to EQ the signal fed to the compressor sidechain in order to shape low-frequency content. This is a great sounding unit that permanently sits in my mix buss for nearly all projects I mix.

Sherlock Limiter- (Dual Sure Level-Loc Clone)

The Shure Level-Loc limiter is an old, out of production unit that was originally intended for use on public address systems to level the output of a speakers voice. Engineers have been rediscovering these units and utilizing them for their pumping compression and distortion character. Drewtronics revived this circuit, aptly named it the "Sherlock," and produced kits to recreate that awesome/ crappy sound. Whenever I need to squish the hell of out some drums for a distorted, pumping tone- I go for the Sherlock.