Need advice on "vintage" desks.

[chrisghost]

To cut a long story short:

I'm looking for a mixing desk for say 8, 10 or 12 channels. I want a "vintage tube sound" as you say, something at least halfway descent.

I'm going to try and pick a second hand one up in any case, I'm not axactly drowning in cash. Doesn't matter how old the board is, I've got a handy friend that can fix most anything.

So...

Brands, types, quality to cost ratio's, anything outlandish... Anyone?

Cheers

(Please keep my number of channels in mind, I made another thread allready somewhere else on Homerecording.com, many kept coming up with 150 channel NEVE's I can neither afford or store.)

 

[hungovermorning]

Have you considered buying a couple tube preamps for mic level and merely using the mixer as a line level device?

 

[FALKEN]

Manley makes a tube mixer that comes in around 6k. Inward connections makes a tube mixer that I think might be closer to 3.5k but don't quote me on that, I don't remember. Or have your friend build you a simple passive mixer and throw some telefunken modules on the back for makeup if voltage gain modules or for summing if you can find some "virtual earth" modules. Good luck!

 

[SteveM]

How can I get some understanding of how all this works. Like "throwing modules on the back" of a preexisting mixer. Is it enough to run through the inserts or direct in/outs of my board. I use a UA solo 610 preamp and just recently have tried this with good results but what more is there to getting the best signal with preamps and such? What makes for the best signal? I know there are alot of factors here but I'm just trying to find a starting point.