Building a 1176 Compressor From Scratch: What I Learned From the Hairball Audio DIY Kit

Dee Kei is building a compressor. Specifically, a 1176 Rev A blueface/silverface clone from Hairball Audio in Seattle — unsponsored, bought with his own money, and not yet finished at time of recording. That last part is intentional. He wanted to talk about the build process before the result, because the process is the point.

He walks through everything: what it was like to approach a kit with no step-by-step guide (just a component list and a schematic), the soldering technique he got wrong early on and had to relearn from scratch, the diode he forgot to solder that intermittently lost power and popped, and the moment Hairball's owner Mike just shipped him a replacement part the next day, no questions asked — one of the better customer service stories the show has heard. Lu chimes in on Hairball's Lola preamp, one of the most respected and affordable DIY transformer preamp kits available, and the two get into what the DIY gear market actually represents for working engineers who want to go deeper than plug-and-play.

But the episode's most interesting thread is philosophical. Dee explains exactly why he chose to build the 1176 rather than buy one — and it has nothing to do with cost savings. It's about mysticism. He makes a genuinely compelling case that the magic of vintage gear isn't really in the sound itself, it's in the sacrifice required to have it. The rarity, the maintenance, the story. And for Dee, bragging to a client about how expensive something is feels inauthentic — even Machiavellian. Building it himself gives him a different kind of authority: every part was intentional, every solder joint was his. That's a story worth telling.

The episode closes with a broader point about makers: Dee didn't realize until recently that building things — keyboards, tube mics, modified espresso machines, children's books, now a compressor — is simply part of who he is. If that's part of who you are too, this episode will hit differently.

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The Mixing Music Podcast is sponsored by ⁠Izotope⁠, ⁠Antares (Auto Tune)⁠, Sweetwater, ⁠Plugin Boutique⁠, ⁠Lauten Audio⁠, ⁠Filepass⁠, & ⁠Canva⁠

The Mixing Music Podcast is a video and audio series on the art of music production and post-production. Dee Kei, Lu, and James are professionals in the Los Angeles music industry having worked with names like Odetari, 6arelyhuman, Trey Songz, Keyshia Cole, Benny the Butcher, carolesdaughter, Crying City, Daphne Loves Derby, Natalie Jane, charlieonnafriday, bludnymph, Lay Bankz, Rico Nasty, Ayesha Erotica, ATEEZ, Dizzy Wright, Kanye West, Blackway, The Game, Dylan Espeseth, Tara Yummy, Asteria, Kets4eki, Shaquille O'Neal, Republic Records, Interscope Records, Arista Records, Position Music, Capital Records, Mercury Records, Universal Music Group, apg, Hive Music, Sony Music, and many others.

This podcast is meant to be used for educational purposes only. This show is filmed and recorded at Dee Kei's private studio in North Hollywood, California. If you would like to sponsor the show, please email us at ⁠deekeimixes@gmail.com⁠.

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