Sound Workshop???

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dcptnsdcvd

New member
hey all,

i was given a board this week. it is called Sound Workshop Model 1600 Mixer. 32 channel, weird lookin patch bay. The dates on the schematics are 1977-97, so i know it;s old. The patch bay is werid, it looks like 1/8inch inputs, but the cords that go in them don;t look like your typical 1/8inch. it reminds me of an old telephone switchboard. There is a small section on it that says "MULT", whatever that means. The only peice of documentation that came with this, other than schematics, was a pamphlet for the mic-pre's that it has. The pre's are Trans-Amp LZ Transformerless Mic Pre's, made by a company called Valley People, i think also known as Valley, or Valley Audio.

so, i have a few questions,
has anyone ever heard of Sound Workshop?
does anyone know if the mic-pre's (or the board, for that matter) are very good?
i have full specs for the mic-pre's, if that will help determine they're quality.

thanx,
Mike...
 
well...

we got the board from a friend who does demolition for studios. he had the board and 2, 2x15 main speakers. the speakers are like 4 ft tall, weigh about 250lbs each. we got the whole she-bang for $750. by my reckoning, the speakers alone are worth more than $750. i have had one engineer, working at Mixerman studios in australia (who owns and works on Soundworkshop series 34 boards - newer and completely diffrent, but prolly related) tell me the board prolly went for about 2-3 grand new. i've had another engeneer tell me he thinks it;s a 25,000 dollar board. he also thinks the mic-pres in the board (trans-amp LZ transformerless) are comprable to the mic pre's that Neve uses in their best boards, as well as API pre's.
i'll be perfectly honest with you, by the looks of it, this board is not, nor was it ever worth $25,000. i can tell that just by looking at it. there are mackie 32 channel boards that look a HELL of a lot better, and have more features than this board going for 3 grand used, lol. and the claim about it being in anyway shape or form the same category board or pre's as a Neve console sounds completely rediculous. Neve makes $25,000 boards, and when you look upon them, you see the money. they are awe-inspiring. i dunno if this is any way to compare the two, but, a neve 32 channel has 3 or 4 times as many knobs and buttons and such than this does. thats gotta mean something. but then again, i don;t know jack about what really makes a board good.
i suppose it could be worth thousands, but this guy and his '$25,000' claim, i doubt it. but he seemed prrrretty serious. he was most excited about the mic-pre's, sayin they were better than API mic pre's, and i've heard they're damn good.
one thing that greatly intrests me...
this board is old. very old. like i said, the schematics date back to 1977. was there full automation, and even recall in that day?? one of my house engineers is telling me he thinks this board is fully automated, motorized faders and all. it's hard to believe when you look at this board, it;s a dinosaur, but it does have little red 'write' buttons and 'clear' buttons on every channel strip and even more stuff of that type in the 2 track master section. what do u think??
it;s also got something called 'super group' in the 2 track master section. does anyone know what that might be??
i don;t see any channel strips labled 'bus' - or anything, for that matter, on the board that relates to busses, except for on the patch bay, each channel has a 'buss-out' on the patch bay. does this board have NO busses??
i'm just spittin' out what i know of this stuff, can any of you guys make sense of it all???
thanx alot!
Mike...
 
aaahhh,
that is a series 30 model. and an older one, if i may say so. all of the other ones i've seen are diffrent in color and knobs and stuff. the color and setup of the channel strips are 'alike' to my board. this is one of SW's better boards. anyone who has had anything to say to me about soundworkshop has one. it is, from what i've seen, the most popular model soundworkshop around. everyone either has a series 30, or a series 34.
first off, our board is no 300lbs. it;s maybe 200, all together. we had no problem picking it up and moving it. the thing's chassis is sheet metal, and the channel strips arn't more than 2 lbs a pc.
i think the series 30 boards are like 2 generations newr than the one i have. i am, however, curious as to wether or not series 30/34's have the same Trans-Amp preamps...
i am waiting for pictures to get developed.
thanx fenix
Mike...
 
by the way, does it seem a little odd that this series 30 on e-bay is going for $500? i saw the same board, a little newer, for sale for like 3grand on some nashville studio store's website. does this guy just not know what he's got, or is the board worth shit? i mean, 500 isn;t shit, but it isn;t even the same ballpark as the figures that get thrown at me when i tell people about my board.
just wonderin,
Mike...
 
i don't think he knows what he's got. I mean it's sitting on a truck and i think the title of the auction says mixing board. A board like that, you call a console, not a mixing board..:)
 
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