The first of these units, the C.I.B. or Channel in a Box was designed to meet the needs of engineers and producers for a powerful
yet compact outboard unit combining the features that they might find in their Console of choice.
It has become common practice to surround the Control Room Console with a collection of microphone pre amps, equalizers and
compressors - often using the original Console purely as a monitor.
The C.I.B. is essentially the input channel of a very high quality Console contained, complete with its own power supply, in a
1U Rack Mounted assembly. It combines Microphone Preamplifier, Line Input amplifier, High and Low Pass filters, Four band Equalization,
and a fully featured Compressor. These are configured as an "In Line" input channel with two separate audio paths; MIC and LINE.
The Microphone Preamp, Filters and EQ stages are virtually identical with those of the AMEK 9098i In Line Console including familiar
features such as "GLOW" and "SHEEN".
The Line Input and both the MIC and LINE outputs are transformer coupled.
The Microphone Preamp uses my "T.L.A.." instrumentation circuit as in the AMEK 9098 Equalizer, the RCMA (Remote Controlled Microphone
Amplifier) and other units in the SYSTEM 9098 range.
HP and LP Filters, LF and HF EQ, LMF and HMF EQ can be switched in pairs to either the MIC or the LINE Path or the Compressor Side Chain.
The Compressor is an all analogue design which musically emulates the best of my past designs and includes a control of the "knee"
shape ranging from "HARD" to a very gentle transition which I have called "&MM" (".... and Much More ! which was the description a
friend gave it.) Compression Ratio up to 20:1 is provided; virtually a Limiter but without the aggressive sound of a limiter.
A rotary Fader is included for each path in addition to the input sensitivity and gain trim controls. These front panel Faders can
be switched out and the audio paths routed to connectors on the rear panel enabling external Faders to be used on a separate work surface.
Two high resolution LED meters provide for visual level indication of Input and Output signal levels as well as for gain reduction of
the Compressor.
©1999 AMEK.
