The birth of the Dark Storm.

This is a story of how a very bad situation gets flipped around 180°.  Last year around this same time I started designing a 500 series Mic Preamp that would become the Super Storm.  After many prototypes and tons of frustrating manufacturing failures I had 9 produced to a level that I would call "Production Prototype."  Some of these made it out to other studios for feedback.  2 were sold to engineers in Muscle Shoals, AL.  The electronics were developed to a high degree and I was comfortable with that aspect.  However, I discovered this product needed a very high degree of accuracy when it came to the metal fabrication for it.  So high that I was unable to produce it in house.  I spent months working back and forth with a number of companies as I tried to get samples and quotes for the faceplate and bottom plate.  Ultimately I was unable to get anything tangible from anyone.  This is partially because there are middle men "helping me" to communicate and coordinate with the fabricators and no one seems to be interested in producing runs of just 100 units.  Sadly I had to give up and shelf the Super Storm.  I had a ton of time and money invested in the Super Storm.  I pretty much had all my eggs in that basket.  So, I had no choice but to brainstorm on how to salvage the situation.  I needed to come up with something similar that I could fabricate in-house.  Basically, it had to be something that could allow for a greater margin of error without looking or functioning less than ideal.  In comes the half-rack enclosure.  The panels come somewhat pre-fabricated and powder coated, albeit with a hefty price tag.  I just need to drill them out and print the graphics.  Ditching the 500 series format opened up plenty of new options.  For starters, much more physical space to work with and most importantly, no limitation on power supply requirements.  The 500 series has +/- 16V rails with a very limited amount of current available.  A 32V span provides sufficient headroom for the most part, but more is definitely better and The Dark Storm has +/-18V rails.  Since the enclosure is a bit bigger than a 500 Series module I could fit an extra 2 transformers inside, as well as additional switches and jacks to expand the flexibility over what the Super Storm had.  The added features are a built-in TI Box with a front panel instrument input, a transformer coupled Hi-Z (wet) 1/4" output, a low cut switch, and ground lift switches for the XLR and 1/4" jacks.  I noticed the noise floor is much lower than my 500 series modules.  That is 100% related to the power supply.  There's a lot of power regulation onboard the Dark Storm, which doesn't exist on the Super Storm.  The Super Storm just had to take the +/- rails from the 500 series rack, whereas the Dark Storm has to create +/-18V from a 48V power adapter.  It's a good quality adapter, but the added voltage regulation to create the +/- rails makes for a noticeably quieter background.  I think it's better than the Super Storm in every possible way and it uses most of the Super Storm parts that I already invested in.  Sure, it's a little more expensive than the Super Storm would have been, but the Dark Storm is more flexible and more importantly - it sounds better!

I only have 1 Dark Storm prototype at the moment, with the second in the build queue for next week.  I'm going to try to improve the look of the 2nd prototype in hopes of having a production prototype.  If it works out like I'm planning, pre-ordering can commence.