TAC Scorpion revival

Back in the days when everybody was using some Soundcraft n*200 (n = 1,2,3,4..) mixingdesk I used to prefer a TAC scorpion console. We are talking end '80 begin '90 here..

So this is my, way to much work, project to investigate why I did prefer that console over others and at the same time make it a bit more 2022.

Now this is most certainly not how these consoles looked, so lets start with a picture of a original TAC Scorpion:

This is not my original console, that one has disappeared into oblivion. But very similar to the one shown on the left, all VU meters where broken. They all had that after a year or 2..

So instead of trying to fix those first thing I did was get rid of some heavy metal casing. Boy are these things made like heavy armoured tanks.

I do like VU meters on every channel though! Not as much to adjust gaining (o, man I can rant on about that one). But they really come handy to quickly see which synth/sequencer/voc channel is doing that solo in a live situation😏

So I made a VU board with a vintage chip everybody knows: LM3915. As there is no audio  passing through this chip I didn't care where it came from: Aliexpress FTW! I did design a simple pcb in cool black and here you go diy VU meter:
I mounted them to the faders which I had to clean anyway. And I used the same feed point for fader and the measuring entry (as in PFL), so no long lines running across the console..

..to be continued