voltage rails available on the extra pins of the card edge connector. We have +/- 24V rails on pins 17 and 18. This will allow for increased headroom over a
with pure 500-series racks, a 51x rack is backwards compatible with 500-series modules, enabling you to combine your favourite
Peter Janis, Radial Engineering –note Lunchbox, left
a unified standard. The extra features we added to the Workhorse were simply out of experience and frustration with working with older racks. For instance lining up modules can be slow and arduous. I am not a very patient person so creating a slide- in tray made sense. The Feed and Link functions we added were also designed to save time and
reduce the mess behind the rack. The real exciting add-ons are the extra 1/4” TRS connectors and the Omniport. Coming from a synth background, being able to do more as far as patching is concerned opens the door to creativity. Omniport pushes this further by enabling manufacturers to add an extra level of individuality to their modules.”
The DIY community is pushing the 500-series in another direction. The 51x format takes the basic 500-series design and adds two additional pins to the card-edge connector. Jeff Steiger, founder of Classic Audio Products of Illinois, has been heavily involved in the 51x design. “The primary advantage to the 51x format is the higher
“The primary advantage to the 51x format is the higher voltage rails available on the extra pins of the edge connector. We have +/-24V rails on pins 17 and 18. This will allow for increased headroom over a design with only +/-16V rails” Jeff Steiger, Classic Audio Products
design with only +/- 16V rails. Having the +24V available also makes adapting Neve and other single ended 24V modules much easier. My colleague Volker Mayer from [silent:arts] is in the midst of releasing a number of 51x only modules that are based on older Neumann modules.” While modules designed for the 51x rack will not work
500-series modules with the higher voltage 51x modules. It looks like the 500-series is
here to stay, with new modules arriving and new developments such as the Workhorse and 51x format keeping developers on their toes and providing recording and mix engineers with plenty of new tools to bring to their studios. n