The Ghost of the EMT 140

And just like that, we have only a month until the 2011 deadline for the studio to open. I can't believe that I have already had my space for a month! Although it has flown by, I have got so much done there compared to what I would have done at home. There is something to be said for some isolation from the rest of the world when you are trying to get something finished.
I didn't get a lot done this weekend as I drove to Montreal on Saturday to check out a piece of equipment. We are catching up with the console quickly, so I am going to spread console posts out a bit in the hopes that, when we get to the end of it on the blog, the 903A will be complete. This means that we will have a fun post today.

Last week, I was working on the EMT 140 trying to repair the amplifier. I had a fuse blow on me a couple of weeks ago and suspected that something might be wrong with it. What I came to find was that there was actually nothing fatally wrong at all! Just a weak fuse! After finding a suitable replacement (it is a weird radial fuse), I found that the plate still wasn't working. I started to probe around, and this happened:

Excuse my lack of enthusiasm. I thought it was awesome, but I was really, really exhausted.

I guess that the probe for my meter is the correct length to pick up a radio station. Since I was probing on the driving circuit, the radio signal was being driven into the plate which made it sound so creepy.
I ended up finding that a wire had broken (this is the second broken one I have found). After a quick solder job, she was working fine!
Tomorrow I'm going to be tensioning the plate. I'm not really sure how that's going to go... so wish me luck! I'm not sure if I'll post multiple tensionings of the plate (as I'm under a bit of a time crunch) but I will definitely post a before and after-tensioning clip.
Have a great week!

Studer 903A Restoration: Faders

I am averaging under 5 hours of sleep this week and 5.5 hours over the past month. Up for work at 7:30AM... then straight to the studio until 2AM... rinse and repeat. I don't think I have ever worked so hard at something before. It feels really good, but I am starting to crash.
Anyway, here's a little status update on the studio. I was hoping to be done for the end of the month... guess what? Not going to happen. Luckily, I left a month buffer for myself as I've been telling everyone to expect an opening in the new year. Even so, I'm getting a little nervous. I haven't mentioned this before, but I'm considering adding a large piece of equipment to the studio and I'm getting a bit concerned about running out of time. Since this weekend, I've been focusing on finishing the wiring. Mike is still working on fixing the patchbays to come out to the TASCAM dsub pinout and I am soldering xlrs, tuchel connectors, and fiddling with the console. As soon as I'm finished the console wiring, I'm going to spend a day or so getting the EMT140 finished and then it's console fixing time. Not really sure how I'm going to show you guys my console troubleshooting... maybe I'll have to vlog.

Well I promised faders today and faders there shall be. Excuse the lack of explanation. I've got to get out of here and back to work!

Wiring Weekend - Summary

Well it is 1am on Sunday night. If you haven't figured it out already, I do these posts late at night and post them in the mornings. Well, today was a heck of a day! I needed to grab a warm milk before I even got to the computer tonight. For the record, I hate when warm milk gets a skin on it. It's so gross. I need to find a nice girl who likes warm-milk skin. Not sure why I'm typing this, though. I'm pretty sure that the only female that reads my blog is my mother. Oh well.
So, like I said, today was a big wiring day. I finally got all of the parts and cable that I needed and threw 'Ian's Family/friends Autumn Wiring Party'. We spent the entire day stripping, heatshrinking, and crimping new db25 connectors onto 8 channel snakes. I have to say, it went REALLY well. Due to some very detailed planning by yours truly over a few months, we had all of the information that we needed to get it done efficiently. It doesn't sound like much, but we finished the dsubs for ~36 8 channel cables (6 patchbays worth)! I got about 5 cables completely done by sneaking in some extra time to do some XLR soldering. I expect to be completely done in 2 days.
I really appreciate the help, everyone! A big thanks to Tara, Savannah, Ken, Mum, Dad, and Mike. Everyone seemed exhausted at the end of the day and I don't blame them. I think that they saved me weeks of work today and have kept me on track to have the studio operational in ~2 weeks.
I am exhausted and need some sleep. Here are some pictures from today.

EMT140 Restoration - Driver Positioning

Hello to all! Today you get a special treat. We are on the plate again! I took a couple of videos this week as I was working on the EMT140 and decided to share them with you today. Enjoy!

This may be a bad way to start, but I have bad news. I do not have any samples of the plate for you! The reason why? Well here's the story:
I called my good friend Dan over to play a little guitar and sing so that I would have some material to run through the plate before and after I tensioned it. After recording, I turned on the EMT140 and.... POPpppppsshshhhhhhh.... POPpppppshshssshhhhhh. Two reverby pops come from the outputs. Then, no signal. I quickly figured out that the microfuse in the power supply had blown. Why? I have no idea. This happened last night and I've been preparing for a small cable-making party on Sunday. I am hoping that I will be able to get to it very soon.

Studer 903A Restoration: Other Meterbridge Modules

Brr! Is it just me or is it getting colder?! I had to make my first warm milk of the season to make it through this post. 
I have, of course, been busy at the studio since my last post. I have made a lot of progress on the console and it has got me really pumped up. Unfortunately for you guys, you won't get to see the pictures/video for a week or two, but it is worth the wait. 
Let's get this meterbridge over with, shall we?

Studer 903A Restoration: VU Meters

A little eye-candy...

You guessed it! Exhausted again, but I haven't worked on studio gear for TWO WHOLE DAYS! It feels like an eternity. On Tuesday, I was catching up with a friend at the studio and we ended up killing most of the night chatting and playing with a rhodes going into a space echo and listening back on a vintage 4x10 traynor cab/head (which was totally awesome). Tonight, I had some things to take care of at home and I tried to rest a bit as I think I'm coming down with this cold that everyone else seems to have. Lucky for you, I've got months of pictures/work to show you still!

I'm feeling pretty basic, so let's just cover the VU's today.

Studer 903A - The Frame

Whew... I feel like my posts for the next few weeks are all going to start like this. I am exhausted! I have decided that I want the new studio up and running by December instead of January, so I have been spending a tonne of time working. With that said, I refuse to cop out and post half-hearted blogs. Luckily, I think that the next few posts are going to be a bit easier than the Studer 903A Eurocard series (those took an inordinate amount of time to do).


Like I mentioned in my last post/video, I am going to come back to the EMT140 when the parts I am waiting for have arrived. I've been jumping around a lot between the console, moving, and the plate reverb. Although I like the variety, it doesn't really speak to the art of continuity. Let's power through this console, shall we?

Finally, you get a good look at the actual body of the console. A beaut, isn't she?
As you can see in the picture, I had already removed all of the modules.

After going through the folder of pictures, I think that there are going to be a lot of images in this post. I was right; this should be an easy one!

Unpacking the EMT 140 Plate Reverb - A Vlog

Whew, It's been a heck of a week! Between work, the studio, and what little sleep I am able to find in between, I am absolutely exhausted. I've been working on the EMT 140 plate for the past 3 days, so I thought that I would vlog about it and include a couple of pictures that I have taken. To be quite honest, I'm too sleep-deprived to type a whole lot tonight.

Ready to open it up!