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Author Topic: Bizarre or goofy consoles from the old days?  (Read 58045 times)

Greg Carttar

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Re: Bizarre or goofy consoles from the old days?
« Reply #40 on: November 29, 2014, 01:07:48 PM »

Back in the early days a lot of the mixers that were in use were one-of-a-kind or handbuilt by the "sound company". I know we built some strange creatures, and I used a few built by others.

What were some of your strangest encounters, either your own or from others?

In 1979 we took on Johnny Cash. At the time, we had a second monitor console which was one of the early Ashly consoles with everything built in (mentioned in a reply elsewhere on this topic).

After seeing a John Wendt modified PM1000 monitor console (28 x 8 ) which had the bus pots at the top of the channel strip, and then seeing a Midas monitor console, I launched into two console mods (PM1000 16x6) for us with the bus pots in place of the channel slider.

One of these consoles was a very early serial number 302 and had the stepped attenuator channel sliders and was pretty useless as a house console.

The channel gain became a rotary pot in the physical location of the former pan pot. Two sliders were added to the headphone and talkback modules in place of the former rotary echo send masters.
We used quality cermet rotary pots, but ultimately they became noisy,
We used these two consoles for quite a while, the one on the Cash show was replaced by a Soundcraft and the one on the other system was replaced by a Yamaha MC3208.
One of these still works, and I keep it in my museum.
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Steve M Smith

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Re: Bizarre or goofy consoles from the old days?
« Reply #41 on: November 29, 2014, 03:22:57 PM »

Not particularly old but definitely goofy is this nine channel all valve (tube) mixer I built for a friend about ten years ago.

Two inserts per channel and four auxiliaries. No EQ (this is used for recording final stereo mixing rather than live).






Steve.
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Geri O'Neil

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Re: Bizarre or goofy consoles from the old days?
« Reply #42 on: March 12, 2015, 01:49:16 PM »

Not particularly old but definitely goofy is this nine channel all valve (tube) mixer I built for a friend about ten years ago.

Two inserts per channel and four auxiliaries. No EQ (this is used for recording final stereo mixing rather than live).






Steve.

FINALLY, some pics!!! ... ;D
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Dave Pluke

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Re: Bizarre or goofy consoles from the old days?
« Reply #43 on: September 02, 2015, 04:44:27 PM »

Around Minneapolis there were several console builders in the 1970s.

Dredging up an old thread, but that's what this section is all about, right  ;) ?

In '75-ish, we bought this little beauty from Anicom Sound in Minneapolis:



3 sections of Allen + Heath 8 channel mixers linked together.  I remember the directly soldered pots were problematic.  Think I still have that crossover somewhere...

Dave

P.S.  Not me in the photo - that was our light guy.
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...an analog man in a digital world [tm]

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Michael Thompson

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Re: Bizarre or goofy consoles from the old days?
« Reply #44 on: September 02, 2015, 09:48:12 PM »

The first monitor console I worked on was a "one off" 24x8.  The gain was simple 3 way toggle switches.  The channel EQ was 2 band with 3 selectable frequencies for each.  The hi-pass was also a 3 way toggle switch.  Perhaps the most unusual feature though was that is had built in graphic EQ's on each of the 8 outputs...well sort of.  It actually only had three sliders for each EQ, but below each of those was a rotary switch that allowed you to select from 10 or 12 center points.  It was actually pretty neat when you had good wedges that only needed a small notch here and there.
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MikeHarris

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Re: Bizarre or goofy consoles from the old days?
« Reply #45 on: May 10, 2016, 08:34:50 PM »

I have been a pro audio dealer since 1972. We were dealers for both Stephenson Interface and Moms Wholesome Audio which we installed in numerous Big Daddy's Lounges around the southeast. We also installed half a dozen Midas for them.
Jerry Cameron from Cameron Sound was our local pioneer sound company and one of the consoles he built was based on API parts. The ZZ Top console had 24 550a's and 8 553's with 312 mic pre cards and 325 line output cards. API was kind enough to sell us both 440 faders and these strange summing blocks which were two boards which summing resistors were mounted between followed by a 2520. It sounded incredible but was EXTREMELY heavy.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2016, 08:53:59 PM by MikeHarris »
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Scott Holtzman

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Re: Bizarre or goofy consoles from the old days?
« Reply #46 on: May 11, 2016, 12:59:09 AM »

I have been a pro audio dealer since 1972. We were dealers for both Stephenson Interface and Moms Wholesome Audio which we installed in numerous Big Daddy's Lounges around the southeast. We also installed half a dozen Midas for them.
Jerry Cameron from Cameron Sound was our local pioneer sound company and one of the consoles he built was based on API parts. The ZZ Top console had 24 550a's and 8 553's with 312 mic pre cards and 325 line output cards. API was kind enough to sell us both 440 faders and these strange summing blocks which were two boards which summing resistors were mounted between followed by a 2520. It sounded incredible but was EXTREMELY heavy.

I worked at Southern Audio in Miami for Jim Wright, the summer of my Freshman year in college,  1982.

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Scott AKA "Skyking" Holtzman

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Daniel Levi

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Re: Bizarre or goofy consoles from the old days?
« Reply #47 on: May 11, 2016, 08:05:26 AM »

Not exactly old but lem had the ultimix, a digital mixer with a true analog layout even down to having no mix recall at all.
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David Sturzenbecher

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Re: Bizarre or goofy consoles from the old days?
« Reply #48 on: May 11, 2016, 01:27:48 PM »

Not exactly old but lem had the ultimix, a digital mixer with a true analog layout even down to having no mix recall at all.
Worst of both worlds?
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MikeHarris

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Re: Bizarre or goofy consoles from the old days?
« Reply #49 on: May 11, 2016, 04:21:45 PM »

Btw...I still have a Trouper expander,new in the box.
I also have White Instruments octal socket based filters to plug into BGW amps. Prior to DSP I thought it might be cool to have power amps that handled band restricted program material.
And a whole bunch of BGW spare modules I can't throw away.
Jerry Cameron was from a generation of Ham radio engineers that figured there wasn't anything he couldnt make...his rig was powered by Phase Linear 700's with 400's for HF and Mac2300's for LF
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Bizarre or goofy consoles from the old days?
« Reply #49 on: May 11, 2016, 04:21:45 PM »


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