Re: a bit off the subject...maybe...
mixmkr said:
but Harvey...I noticed on your web page of your studio, you use a Soundtracs mixer.....out of curiosity, why did you choose that mixer??
When I started the studio, I was working at International Music Co. in Fort Worth as Director of Electronics. That gave me the Akai 1214 which I kept after I left.
When we decided to expand to 24 tracks, I began a search for what would be a good board for a small commercial studio. I looked at the Mackie, Berenger, Soundcraft, Soundtracs, and several used older boards. There were a few reasons why the Soundtracs stood out:
Seperate phantom power switches, versitle buss switching, good sounding eq (with separate eq for the monitor mix), a mono switch, and most of the features you'd find on a bigger board.
The other major reason is a little more intangible, but follow along: When you work in manufacturing, it's sometimes very profitable to "trade down"; that is, to come out with some lower end products to increase sales and get the name out. When companies do that, it also lets them get better price breaks on key parts by ordering higher quantities.
Since they were a well respected name in England, I reasoned that they probably just took the existing circuit designs from their big boards and transfered it to the smaller board, using a single circuit board for multiple channels.
And I suspected that they increased their economy by simply using the same parts in their small boards as they did in their larger boards. Eliminating a lot of hand wiring and individual channel strips can really save money. Basically, they were selling a big board in a very cheap case.
When I saw them at AES, I asked them about it and they confirmed that's exactly what they did. The parts in a $5,000 Topaz were the same parts they used in their $12,000 Solo board.
So I got the guts of a big console with the "British Sound" for pretty cheap.
So the reasons were: big sound, great features, big board value, reasonable cost.
, I've been curious for a long time now...a while back Mixerman was selling some gear on rap, that why I made that comment.
