1967 Studer Model 089 12-2 console

[jedblue]

Here is a picture of my old '67 Studer 089 console. Made at a time when console design norms hadn't really been settled. It is really quite interesting inside. Over the next few posts I'll show you it being dismantled as I go after a noisey line amplifier in the main outs...

 

[jedblue]

Most of these went into the broadcast industry. This one was ex ABC - The Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Being, ahem, portable, it's had a fairly hard life.

jjones wanted to know what the difference between a live, recording or broadcast desk was; well this one is not a broadcast desk but is a recording desk for the broadcast industry. It is 12-2 with 4 +4db returns so you can see it running a two track out or four track back recorder. We use it to record our experimental noise band running live to our two track Revox PR99 reel. In that role it's sweet.

It definitely comes from a different age. At a time when a compact, four door, six cylinder, family automobile retailed at $1,800 Australian dollars, this thing reputably cost $21,000.

And, as every steely eyed radio man knows, it's not a real broadcast industry desk unless it's got an.....

ashtray...

 

[jedblue]

It has these fantastic old style long throw faders. Inside they look like no other fader mechanism I've seen. The cueing system is interesting. Not only can it be patched up to the PPM's or the monitoring systems but it also triggers a 24v signalling system to switch a studio traffic light system when the fader moves off it's bottom infinity position.

 

[jedblue]

It has 12 Pultec style preamps with a fearsome reputation. They sound amazing and you sometimes see them individually racked and sold off as rack mount units.

You can get a source from the channel's own universal XLR input, either of the two internal sub mixes or from the 4 auxiliary inputs. You can have normal, flipped or no phase. No phase effectively mutes the channel.

It'll run up to 81db of gain and being a hard wired Pultec style equalizer section you have a limited set of switch chosen EQ curves; 3 at 60, 125 and 300Hz, another 3 at 3, 5.5 and 10 kHz.

You can then add up to +/- 6db of gain at 80Hz in 2db steps or another +/- 6db in 2db steps at 8kHz.

Then you can add up to 9db of presence at either 1.5, 2.2, 3, or 4,4 kHz and that's your lot. Choose from the available combinations and no more.

It has two reverb sends but if you want to bring them back you loose 2 of your 12 channels.

 

[jedblue]

Big analogue PPM meters to which you can patch in just about anything.

 

[jedblue]

With another independent set of meters for the reverb sends. Here is also the com volume for the gooseneck mic going into the com system.

 

[jedblue]

The monitoring system has a similar patching matrix to the PPM meters. The console has a pair of internal 20w amplifiers to drive attached speakers and another pair of 3w internal amplifiers to drive it's internal speaker and the com out.

 

[jedblue]

The input channel can be routed and panned to the main outs or to either of the two internal sub mixes. These sub mixes can then be patched into any of the remaining input channels.

The monitor control volume is here along with the panning and the mono selection, a continuously variable test oscillator and cue volume.

 

[jedblue]

To get at its internals it's got a flip top head - very useful...

which allows you to pop out the fader units one by one

And then get at the pre amp and master units and pop them out as well...

Leaving behind an empty module tray...

 

[jedblue]

Underneath there are more modules...

There is the test oscillator generator, the power supply (including a 24v dc battery option), the two 20w amplifiers, the two 3w amplifiers, the two line level amplifiers and the two PPM driver amplifiers...

Again they just pop out...

And with the legs out you finally have something that one man can just about move around alone...

Using it's four carry handles. Fully populated with all it's modules it takes a clan of Yeti's to move it around.

 

[SteveM]

Jeez man. Thanks for putting this up. This is really cool. I'll have to take some time looking at these pictures and notes.

 

[jedblue]

Here is the side on view of the internals of a fader unit showing the signalling wires from the fader connecting up to the cue button then off out to the signalling system...

Here is one of the two master modules dismantled with it's little sub modules popped out..

And here is the right side of a pre amp module..

and the left...

 

[jedblue]

Here's the back showing the 12 universal XLR inputs and the insert jacks for an external filter (that's all you get - no direct outs), plus the 4 auxillary inputs, the reverb sends and the main, monitor and com outs. The coloured banana connectors are the 24v outputs for the signalling lights.

And with the back off you can see that same complex circuitry that is reflected in the individual modules.

And that's pretty much it for the dismantling job...

 

[jedblue]

And we got the hissing. It was all to to with badly adjusted internal volumes on the two line level amplifiers. A simple screwdriver turn fix. It's probably the first time it's been totally pulled down like that so it's now in the middle of a good clean out. A lot of the internal foam buffers have totally perished and I've decided to take the old laquer off the boards and re-laquer them. At least with these old discrete systems you can get at the individual components easily enough if there is one module playing up.

So far it's all come back up on line okay.

Built like a tank.

Cheers

Jed

 

[technoplayer]

Jeez...talk about modular!! I Love the way the faders plug into the channel strip which plug into the frame. And that cast frame is WAYcool.

I ran a larger Studer board in a small recording studio in my Universities main performance hall 30+ years ago, the this brings back memories. Same recessed faders, although it had "real" eq and and didn't have all the routing buttons on the bridge. It DID have that same ashtray though!!!

VERY unique!!

Eat your heart out Sweetbeats!!!

 

[A Reel Person]

Wow! I...

I am very impressed!

Gone are the days of all-discrete component construction and hard mounted onboard ash trays! It's great quality (for it's day or competitive today), fully modular and even has a pedigree!

Handles too. Just mount a cassette deck in it and call it a "Portastudio"!

 

[cjacek]

Great thread and welcome to the board jedblue

Yeah, speaking of fully modular, can you imagine if our tape decks were like that? LEGO city! WOW!!

 

[Richard King]

I am very impressed!

Gone are the days of hard mounted onboard ash trays!

Of course, the recessed faders make great coffeecups.

 

[sweetbeats]

Eat your heart out Sweetbeats!!!

Oh thanks, techno...like I needed the suggestion...

jedblue, +1 to you for taking the time to start the thread and put up the pics. That is a real piece of work you have there...purely in its own class. If you ever get a chance to put up more pics OR a link to some material tracked through that thing it would be cool.

I tell you...anybody that has seen the guts of todays fast-food gear would be stunned (as I) to see how far we've drifted. Not that there isn't great gear like that today...the genre never went away, but the marketing that tries to make consumers believe that you're going to get the character out of the DIGIWIGI XL-500.3 that you can out of that beast of yours, jedblue...that's how we've drifted...and its a big open sea. I'm glad to have found land at least, and some nice harbors to bounce around in after floating out there.

Jedblue, are the insert points at the traditional point in the path just aft of the head amp? Just wondering how effective those might be as dierct outs in a pinch, but assuming they are pre-eq/pre-fader.

Hey, if'n ya don't smoke, then you can use the ashtray as a straw holder...makes it easier to get the coffee out of the fader recesses...it'd be a pain to lick around the fader knob.

 

[jedblue]

Oh thanks, techno...like I needed the suggestion...

jedblue, +1 to you for taking the time to start the thread and put up the pics. That is a real piece of work you have there...purely in its own class. If you ever get a chance to put up more pics OR a link to some material tracked through that thing it would be cool.

I tell you...anybody that has seen the guts of todays fast-food gear would be stunned (as I) to see how far we've drifted. Not that there isn't great gear like that today...the genre never went away, but the marketing that tries to make consumers believe that you're going to get the character out of the DIGIWIGI XL-500.3 that you can out of that beast of yours, jedblue...that's how we've drifted...and its a big open sea. I'm glad to have found land at least, and some nice harbors to bounce around in after floating out there.

Jedblue, are the insert points at the traditional point in the path just aft of the head amp? Just wondering how effective those might be as dierct outs in a pinch, but assuming they are pre-eq/pre-fader.

Hey, if'n ya don't smoke, then you can use the ashtray as a straw holder...makes it easier to get the coffee out of the fader recesses...it'd be a pain to lick around the fader knob.

Aye Sweetbeats they are at the traditional point. They'd be okay for direct outs although their maximum gain is -9db unbalanced not +4db balanced. Some of these desks had a booster amplifier that took the -9db outputs from the reverb sends and boosted them to +4db balanced and floating if you had a unit that required +4db, but you only got a pair of those boosters. Anyway, my one doesn't have that and modules for these desks are a bit hard to come by now.

The solution to me if +4db balanced direct out was essential would be to strap a pair of these into the insert sends, after the channel compressor if you were using one, and off to the deck from that...

Which is an 8 channel line balancer. A pair would give enough for all 12 inputs to go direct out.

It doesn't really matter with what this desk is used for. It was sourced for a single use - to become part of the essential sound of our experimental noise band which only plays live to two track anyway. So multitracking, and therefore direct outs, is not an issue for us.

As far as hearing anything from it, sorry but there's nothing to put up on the web. It is only used to produce a purely analogue result. The noise band is stubbornly refusing to come into the digital age. There is not a AD or DA anywhere in it. It uses old valve amps from the 60's and 70's, old guitars that get beaten to submission with all sorts of things, alnico speakers, a valve Hammond tonewheel organ, an analogue mono Yamaha CS-30 synth, an old Sonor drum kit, valve mics and a few 57's scattered about. Any reverb used is spring tank and there are no digital effects.

Mostly the band's sound is from a trio of valve mics set up as room mics. We get our balances right by adjusting amplifier volumes and moving mics around as instructed by the engineer operating the Studer. All monitoring is done from the Revox's output, from the playback head. So it's all set up, balanced and monitored post tape.

The resulting 1/4" tape is used to make a master for cutting 7" 45 rpm vinyl singles and another one for dubbing C12 chrome cassingles.

Cheers

Jed