Community project?

[steviepolts]

Hello,

i'm new here and all my electronics knowledge is based on logical deduction and reading...i have no real experience so i though i would run this past some experts

i want to make a unit similar to the mackie Big Knob since my monitors are far too loud...really they are rediculous.

Ive been thinking and decided the best way to do this would be a set of modules each of which does a seperate job. for example one of these conceptual 'modules' would be the headphone amp. another would be the stereo mute switch with LED which is causing me headaches.

I thought it would be nice if we could get some kind of community effort to make the most feature-laden but fully modular monitor control system which can be added to or have various features selected easily.

However back to my original topic subject..this mute switch.

basically i want to be able to press a push on push off switch which switches on an LED and mutes the signal. The only way i could think of to accomplish this would be to use a DPST switch. when the switch is on pole A (un muted) it provides a base voltage to 2 transistors which allows the audio signal (L & R) to pass through the transistors. If the switch is on pole B (muted) the base voltage simply powers the LED instead and the transistors become 'off' since the base voltage is applied to the LED instead.

from the little ive read that seems logical.

thoughts anyone?

[BWRX]

There are many ways to provide a mute function. The most popular is probably turning down the volume of the signal from the source. One quick and dirty way to do it would be to use a switch (or even a transistor) to switch the signals through a low value resistor to ground. You'd need to make sure the source can handle the load though.