Today was my first ever video shoot. It's been put together and directed by Gavin and was really exciting. A big thanks to everyone else involved, Joe [stylist], Tom [DOP], Dickie [cameraman], Paul [studio manager], Camilla [makeup artist], Galia [runner] and of course Naz the alien. And Paul D for letting us set fire to his TV studio
Don Larking is also selling that V series Neve I posted about earlier. But check this out. He's also got John Lennon's two EMT 140 plate reverbs, the ones used on Imagine etc. Pretty cool
EMT 140 Stereo Transistor Echo Plates, previous owner John Lennon
In 1970 a company called AUDIOTEK, owned by studio designer Eddie Veale, was appointed by Apple Corps to create a music studio at Tittinghurst Park, Ascot, the home of John Lennon.
Among the items specified by Eddie Veale to be purchased for the studio were 2 EMT 140 Echo plates, and a Crown DC300 power amplifier. The serial numbers of the echo plates is 02802 & 02824, the echo plates and serial numbers are listed on the schedule of the Tittenhurst Park Collection as complied by the London Studio Exchange and confirmed by Mr Veale as being supplied to Tittenhurst Park when John Lennon was in residence. Although we have the Crown DC300 the serial number is not noted.
Tittenhurst Park was where John Lennon recorded IMAGINE, his greatest solo hit which was produced by Phil Spector.
We have the 2 Echo Plates and the Crown DC300 in stock which will eventually be sold once we can assess the true value. We also have a Studer A80 Stereo Recorder with Dolby's which was purchased for Tittenhurst Park after it was sold to Ringo Star.
We have written proof confirming the above, copies of which are available on request and which will be given to the eventual purchasers of this equipment.
If you have never seen or used an EMT Echo plate you may be surprised to hear that the box is over 2 metres long and 1.5 metres high and unlike digital effects processors they produce just 1 sound, a sound that is know as Plate Reverb, there is 1 parameter, adjustable decay, from 1 second to 5 seconds. They also have to be located in an isolated room so that no sould is picked up by them. You may think that this is a lot of trouble for just 1 sound - not really, it is the quality of the sound which is why they are in such demand. Usually they sell for £ 1,000 - £ 2,000, in view of their history these ones will most probably be sold in a Pop Memorabilia sale and should sell for a lot more
Alternatively there is a vintage Neve with 1060 modules [same as 1061 but with alternative eq] in California today, which would go very nicely in the the studio next to the one in the previous post
CLASSIC GERMANIUM NEVE MIXING CONSOLE, ORIGINALLY BUILT IN 1969. CONTAINS 24 NEVE 1060 INPUT MODULES. HAS A CUSTOM MADE PRODUCERS DESK WHICH HOLDS THE TT PATCH BAY. THE ENIRE CONSOLE IS WIRED TO ELCO CONNECTORS, AND DOES COME WITH SOME BREAKOUT CABLES THAT MATCH. COMES WITH ALL REQUIRED POWER SUPPLIES. This desk has been gone through by two of the bay area's most experienced technicians. It has a custom made 16 channel monitor section, which can be switched to dump into the stereo buss, yeiding 40 channels on remix. A fantastic console by any standards, and a rare one to boot. 20 channels have custom direct out buss amps made with 990 amplifiers and jensen transformers. Custom built console stand. 16 channel meters plus stereo buss meters. The console has 4 group outs plus discrete stereo buss, and 4 aux sends per channel . The console , including patch bay/producers desk is just 7 feet wide. Comes with appropriate paperwork. £43K BIN. Seller = Dan Alexander
There's a Neve VXS on ebay today, and the enormity of it cannot be underestimated. It's the flagship '90's Neve analog console and this one was owned by George Lucas, but now it's in Gothenburg, Sweden:
Ex. Skywalker Sound Studio 1 console
72 Channels
Film Center Section. 5,1 and 7,1
Encore Automation
Skywaller Sound modified mic-preamps
Skywalker Sound eq's
88R Remote patchbay
Two spare channels
1999
Perfect working condition. This is the best Neve VXS on the market!
Will ship anywhere in crates
Price 70k Euro
Here is a post on matrixsynth about an apparent reissue of an album recorded in 1982 using Roland synths. It's by Charanjit Singh called Synthesizing: TEN RAGAS TO A DISCO BEAT. I don't know if it is real or some kind of clever mind-game by a current producer, but it is extremely good, and if it is real then it pretty much resets the techno timeline
It does seem that Charanjit Singh is a real person who had some records out in the 70s as this link suggests. And it seems that this person did the audio restoration on the reissue
UPDATE!!!!
OK, I'm convinced. And amazed:
Via Dr. Rek on matrixsynth 'yes it is real, the original cover'
I bought this video camera on german ebay, for a one-er. It's one of the best results I've had on there I rekon, it's in perfect condition. Made in 1982, it has 3 analog tubes inside and the videos it makes look beautifully nostalgic - complete with those light-traces you can only get from tubes. It all tested out properly [thanks Rob+Paul] so I should have some fun with it soon.... in the mean time:
UPDATE 23rd may 2010: I was walking in the same field today and took this pic
I was stranded at the farm in Toothill today without an internet connection and practically no TV so I did a bit of programming in Reaktor, which was a bit of a blast from the past. I wanted to build a synth similar in function to my Doepfer [which lets face it is a cheap attempt at a Buchla 100] and hear how it sounded in comparison
It's a lot easier to set up control parameters on the computer, such as envelope levels and CV curves, and everything sounds really sharp and punchy [on headphones at least]. It's amazing doing things like copying and nesting modules within modules. But on a real modular you end up with things you would never think of doing inside the box, just because they are there in front of you. On the computer you are always focused on one thing at a time, whereas on a modular everything is live all at once. They are both bloody good fun
I've been using Reaktor since before it was ported to the Mac in the mid 90's [it was called Generator back then]. I even bought a PC just to be able to use it. When it came over to the Mac I used it all the time in particular for laptop performances back in the day. I built my own granular resynthesis module that was really useful live. What's interesting to me is that Reaktor still has a 'sound' of it's own - somehow the programmers put a bit of themselves in the code
This patch is self generating and uses two sine VCOs and a third for frequency modulation of one of them, and LFO control of that. There's an 8 step sequencer and AR envelope shaper, and the clock of the sequencer is being modulated with a slow random source. I then copied that as an Instrument so there were three instances but due to the random nature of the clocks and altered envelope settings they played different things. Then I made a mixer module to put everything through including my granular resynthesiser and some preset modules from the Reaktor library - a modeled spring reverb, compressor and phaser
I moved some synths into a new corner of the studio and set them up with the neon lighting system I invented. This is what it looks like when you turn on the switch....
Top to bottom:
Roland RS202, TR66
Roland Juno 60
Sequential Circuits Prophet VS
Yamaha CS70M
Here is a video of the ARP 2500 in action. Its not quite a solo because its going through a Furman spring reverb / limiter and a couple of delays [Vesta digital and Ibanez AD80 analog]. The ARP is doing everything else - with a few tweaks from me on the way. Shot on the iphone, but the audio is recorded through the Studer desk
