Finally - We are happy with the silk screen, we are sending out the first modules to be tested by users next week. We can now get the Gain module silk screened! Happy Days.
New Product Range Designed for EuroRack Synths.
In November 2023 we were aked if we could make a version of the XPatch for EuroRack Synthesisers, This has been an interesting and enjoyable project and we are now at the prototype stage.
We are proud to announce the release of the TC-5net Midi and the TC-7 Midi.
The TC-5net adds an Ethernet port with Artnet timecode support to the TC-5B-Midi. It is available with the ethernet port fitted or without the ethernet port fitted, with the ability to upgrade to have an ethernet port at a later date.
The TC-7 Midi adds dual LTC inputs, timecode distribution and Status display to the TC-5net Midi, in a 1U unit.
Another great in depth review from Matt Houghton at Sound on Sound for our XP-Relay!
It’s a winning combination of sophisticated software and refreshingly simple hardware.
Read the review with the link below to see what he thinks.
Recently a customer asked for advice on how to connect the Prya-Sum to an XPatch. I looked at the specification of the Pyra-Sum it seemed to be a natural fit with the XPatch and that they would work well together. I decided to generate an example using the XPatch-64, Pyra-Sum, equalizers and Compressors. The XPatch-96 should be used for larger systems.
Our XPatch has been nominated by Sound on Sound for Best Effects & Processing Hardware, visit https://sosm.ag/SOSAwards2022 by the 30th November to vote for your favourite products!
XPatch is designed to replace a physical patch bay, however the electronic versions cannot pass Phantom and can have noise issues. It is possible to implement smaller electronic path systems using relays as the switching element. The new XP-Relay range is designed to satisfy this market and will be available in 4 sizes.
All Electronic Patch bays have two problems with microphone or other low level sources are noise and crosstalk between low level and high level inputs.. For this reason CB have always and still maintain that for optimum performance the Mic Amp should be placed before the Patch bay.
Where this is not possible, the Microphone Boost Card provides a good compromise solution. Providing Eight Channels of 30dB of low noise gain at the input to XPatch enables dynamic and ribbon Microphones to be connected directly and by adding a external phantom supply phantom powered microphones. To use with line level sources simply add an in-Line attenuator.
One of the advantages or disadvantages of being a small manufacturer is that you are closer to your customers and more flexible. A few months ago I wrote up a customer request for a second 7.1.4 input on the I-Mon, this is now an option available for all I-Mon customers.
This month I received a request for 8 stereo speaker sets, I could see a way of doing this using the Main 8 channel output (4 pairs), the alternate 6 channel output (3 pairs) and the mini output.
It is not necessary for both Main and Alt outputs to be modified, for example you could chose to keep the 8 channel main output and modify only the Alt output so as to have four stereo speaker sets!
A-Mon
It was important that any modification is reversible so we designed a small PCB to fit between two connectors and re-route the Left and Right signals as required. We were ordering a new set of output PCB’s so we attached the extra board to it to minimize the cost. Inserting two identical small PCB’s in the A-Mon is the only modification required. No software changes are required to the A-Mon.
TMC-1/2
I thought it would only take a day to write the software, in the end it took two or three days (it always longer to write and test software than expected!). I am happy that I was able to add this as an option to the standard TMC-Amon software by defining 7 new user keys for the 7 extra speaker sets (Main 1, Main 2, Main 3, Main 4, Alt 1, Alt 2, Alt 3). The speaker set names can be user defined by setting the names of speaker outputs 9-16 which are not used by the A-Mon.
CB Electronics introduces XPatch-64 with XPatch2 software. XPatch-64 is a 64x64 digitally controlled, fully analogue audio patch bay routing system for audio professionals and aimed at streamlining workflow in even the most demanding post or music studios. Design based on the XPatch-32.
After user feedback from the XPatch-32, we have now added to XPatch-32/64 a High Impedance I/P card option for guitar pedals, Instruments etc and a 5 pin DIN Midi I/P to allow snapshot selection from midi pedals.
We started work on this about two weeks ago, we are quiet at the moment so that work has progressed quickly.. The Mac/Windows You will find a block diagram and some screenshots below, all suggestions are welcome
The Basic specification is as follows
16 Inputs: 8 Stereo and 8 Mono, input metering on front panel TFT
2 Stereo Sum Bus and outputs
Monitor section with three speaker sets, Cue Send and Headphone Output
48 x 48 crosspatch with 16 external insert sends and returns
2u Rack mount with 4.3” TFT and 6 front panel keys and Encoder
Network and USB HUI Interfaces
A few weeks ago we received a request to modify his I-Mon to have two 7.1.4 inputs.
I looked at this carefully, whilst not a major change it would involve a number of small changes to multiple units as follows
I-Mon hardware modification:- Plug in card with 4 summing channels to enable
I-Mon firmware modification - Reassign two stereo inputs to the Alt input and map stereo inputs 3-5 to 1-3
I-Mon Manual update - Describe input mapping for modified unit
MidiUPD software modification - Add Check Box to inform software that the ALT-7.1.4 modification is fitted.
TMC-1/2-IMon firmware modification - Update I-Mon page to indicate if modification fitted and limit input selections
All these changes will have to be tested!
In the next two weeks the first XPatch-64’s should reach their new owners! We are releasing a new software ‘XPatch2’ to control both XPatch-32 and XPatch-64, The new version has a few improvements on the original XPatch-32-win/mac software.
The first video shows how to set up the program for the XPatch-32 or XPatch-64 and a quick look at the various screens
