Soundcraft 500

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M216

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Hi guys and gals.
I have the opportunity to get Soundcraft 500 in good condition.
I want to use an analog console and the EQ with my Fostex G16 and if needed to daw.
I currently have Tascam M216 "with no direct outs" and I can imagine the Soundcraft being a different beast.
So, how is the word on the streets on this one?

As always,
Kind regards
 
I just got one this summer in real rough shape (looked like it had been toured hard and put away wet) and totally went through and fixed everything. I absolutely love it. You won't be disappointed with any aspect of this board if it's in good operating condition, but due to the age of these I imagine most of them have some issues. The console is totally modular so it's very easy to service.

All of the switches for assigning, solo, etc were very noisy and intermittent. You might have some luck... temporarily... putting Deoxit into the switches but I went ahead and changed out all ~300 of them with brand new Alps parts since I was pretty sure the board was a keeper. With a Hakko desoldering gun this is a moderately satisfying repetitive task. Some cold solder joints on pots at the ends of the module PCBs but no problems with the pots themselves.

Before and after:
sc500 before.webpsc500 after.webp
 
Very nice.
What do you love about it, why was it a keeper?
EQ? Preamps?
 
I remember doing live mixing on a Soundcraft series 500 many years ago, love the eq.

Alan.
 
The EQs are to my taste. The bandwidth, though fixed, isn't super narrow like a lot of more modern mixers, so it actually sounds good when you boost midrange by extreme amounts.
The preamps make small AC signals into larger ones. (I'm either stone deaf or preamps, when operated in the linear region of their transfer function, don't really sound different.)
For an op amp-based design, the whole channel strip sounds cool when deliberately overloaded, if you're into that sort of thing.
All of the faders are real faders and not slide pots soldered to a PCB, easy to fix or replace.
Direct outs on each channel, no shenanigans necessary for multitrack recording.
Built in 700/10KHz osc which can be routed to any of the group/aux/master outs with jumpers inside, very handy for checking your tape machine alignment.
The operating level (+4dBu/-10dBV) is selectable by jumper on all of the ins/outs except for the inserts.

Preemptive tirade regarding mods and stuff: It's a piece of professional audio equipment.

A lot of people on the internet will tell you that TL072s are no good and everything in these has to be changed out for Burr-Brown chips capable of passing video signals and space telemetry without slew-rate limiting. (Good way to turn a console into a bank of RF oscillators.) They are probably also freaking out at the DAW meters showing them the hiss / 60 cycle hum coming in at -85dBFS.

I say: print your stuff hot, with the EQ and limiting, to a good tape deck and don't worry about any of this :)
 
Very cool! I looked at buying a 500 over the summer but passed (I have a console I like... but the 500 looked cool!).

We're running a very similar setup:

IMG_0170.webp

Mine is a series II with a mix of fixed and sweepable EQs (I'me sure of similar design) - but I prefer the fixed... they just sound good.

Mike
 
NOTHING at all wrong with TL072s! They actually 'slew' faster than the industry 'standard', the NE5532 and the 5532 is a superb audio chip. (the venerable 741 had a theoretically less than adequate slew rate but no one noticed amongst the noise!) .

If the 072 has a fault it is higher distortion into low (sub ~2k) loads but so long as the mixer has been intelligently designed I doubt that will be an issue.

Worth getting Douglas Self's book, 'Small Signal Audio Design' since much of the Soundcraft's design philosophy is enshrined therein.

I understand some of the Soundcraft marks used a 'bought in' power supply and they were a bit feeble? Not this one I trust.

Dave.
 
Thanks for the replies and some useful infos. I don´t really need the Soundcraft and it will probable just be in the way as I don´t have enough space but I think I will take it anyways... as you do when you´re a gear nut :thumbs up:
 
man-bot said:
View attachment 101000

Mine is a series II with a mix of fixed and sweepable EQs (I'me sure of similar design) - but I prefer the fixed... they just sound good.

Mike
Click to expand...

This is such a wonderful console, I´m always looiking for one! I have a couple of channels and modules from the series one including iron, and atm I´m throwing together a simple little mixer with those.
But I think series II has much advanced preamps! The fixed EQ is discrete class A, the sweep eq is based on 741 opamps, I always wondered what their supply voltage may be - not +/-20 for sure ;) ...
 
L´Andratté said:
Just had a look at 741 datasheets and realized these old opamps can run on +/-20V, hats off to that...
Click to expand...

The NE5532 has an absolute rating of +/-22V but D.Self states that they will not be reliable at that voltage. He advocates +/-17V as that gives just 0.5dB less headroom compared to 18V but results in practically zero chip failures.

The 'proper' two amp balanced output stage running 17V twin supplies can easily put out +26dBu, hard to see a need for any more than that?

Dave.
 
Yeah I was going to mention you can find copies of the 5532 datasheet that say +/-22V, but most all of them indicate +/-18V...I know which one I'd use.
 
Hi all again, finally I got the 500 and I´m super excited. Been reading the manual and
I have few options on a workflow but I will start by taking direct out to DAW and see how she sings.
The studio is coming along nicely, paint job done and next on the list is the electricity.
Previous owner said for a power up the 500 needs at least 16A breaker. Also I have 2 1200w electric
heaters and 2000w 110v - 220v converter for my HR824 speakers. My G16 takes 140w and there is old Fender Super Reverb, Super Six reverb, AC30, JCM900 MKIII and up to 17ch of out board preamps with the ADL600 high gain taking 100w and others less I guess.

Studio gear will be on one breaker, heat and light on the other.

I big should the main electricity intake be?
Is 16A breaker big enough for the gear?

Thanks :guitar:
 
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I am UK of course but the above looks fine for £50. Six breakers with RCD protection. I am sure you can find something similar.
16A at 110V only gives you 1,760 watts for all the gear and will all those amps, inrush current could cause nuisance tripping. I would be inclined to have two "gear" spurs? One for "sensitive" kit, tape machine, mixer, pres and a computer/interface (washa-ma-mouth!) and one for more "chunky" stuff, valve amps, synths.

Lights definitely on a separate breaker. Be 6A here so I guess another 16A for you unless you can get 10A breakers? Our power circuits are on 2.5mm sq copper but lighting on 1mmsg for economy so fused at 6A (still all massively conservative ratings)

Do not know what your "Code" says about it but I would provide a clean, local earth.

Have you considered a UPS for the recording chain?

The link I copied and pasted in says "page not found". Last night I had to move to Firefox, old browser would not send attachments so I guess that is another *&^%$£ker! I shall have to sort out!

Dave.
 
"A picture's worth a thousand.....

Just come from trying that link on a UK (sos.com) forum and it works fine. Firefox have some sort of security issue but with whom I cannot tell.

Dave.
 

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ecc83 said:
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I am UK of course but the above looks fine for £50. Six breakers with RCD protection. I am sure you can find something similar.
16A at 110V only gives you 1,760 watts for all the gear and will all those amps, inrush current could cause nuisance tripping. I would be inclined to have two "gear" spurs? One for "sensitive" kit, tape machine, mixer, pres and a computer/interface (washa-ma-mouth!) and one for more "chunky" stuff, valve amps, synths.

Lights definitely on a separate breaker. Be 6A here so I guess another 16A for you unless you can get 10A breakers? Our power circuits are on 2.5mm sq copper but lighting on 1mmsg for economy so fused at 6A (still all massively conservative ratings)

Do not know what your "Code" says about it but I would provide a clean, local earth.

Have you considered a UPS for the recording chain?

The link I copied and pasted in says "page not found". Last night I had to move to Firefox, old browser would not send attachments so I guess that is another *&^%$£ker! I shall have to sort out!

Dave.
Click to expand...

I´m in 220v land, sorry about that.
So 16A at 220v is ok?

There is a cable in the room for heaters and the lights are connected since 1970 (old house)
so apparently I only need a cable for the gear.
 
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M216 said:
I´m in 220v land, sorry about that.
So 16A at 220v is ok?

There is a cable in the room for heaters and the lights are connected since 1970 (old house)
so apparently I only need a cable for the gear.
Click to expand...

220V? "Nominal" 230V or the 240V+ I usually get? No matter, even 220V give you over 3kW, more than enough.

I don't know how long the "run" would be but I would take a chunky 4mm cable right from the meter cupboard and bring that to a consumer unit similar to the one shown. Of course you really only need one 16A breaker in it but I would get one with built in RCD. Old house so bet nothing in the cupboard?

Have you considered a UPS?

Dave.
 
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