Welcome to my New Studio!

Whew! What a day! The move was a great success. Since everything was well packed (self-pat-on-the-back) and I had an AMAZING moving team, the entire process was done in no time! With that said, I am absolutely exhausted and desperately need to get some sleep. I couldn't be more pleased with the space. There is still a tonne of work left to do, but at least the re-location is over with.



Observe my excellent parking skills as we grab the Studer A800 and EMT140 from my workplace.
I think I need some serious cred for this since it was before 9am on a Sunday.



Eurocards Part 3 - Audio Cards

Has this week ever gone quickly! Things have been pretty stressful with the move coming up, but I've really been looking forward to getting through the last of the eurocards with you all. I've been spending all of my time working and packing boxes. No sign of the amount of work to do letting up either! Oh well, let's get to it!

2 eurocards left to cover. They are pretty simple, so I don't think this post will be too long.

1.915.914.00 - 4 Bal. Amp 6dB
No before pics on this one. Check out the caps removed in the
top left hand corner though. The light blue caps aren't
aluminum electrolytic so there is no need to replace them.

4) 1.915.914.00 - 4 Bal. Amp 6dB (x3)
This card seems pretty self explanatory. As you can see, the board is divided into four duplicated quadrants. Before researching these modules, I had a bit of help with their function. On the door that opens up to the eurorack cards there are descriptions of the cards. The descriptions for the 3x 4 Bal. Amp 6dB cards are:


- GR 1-4
- GR 5-8
- ∑1+2 / ∑ M

Need I say more? 

Eurocards Part 2 - Signalling and Switching... Then some big news!

A picture from a future part of the restoration
since this post is a little shy on visuals.

Happy Monday everyone! After promising that I would show you the rest of the eurocard modules today, I realized that there isn't a whole lot of restoration to look at (both in the amount of work done and the number of pictures taken... damn my photo organization - I don't know how this happened!). In any case, I thought that I would share some big news with you at the end of the blog to make up for the lack of wowza before/after pictures. Enjoy!

First you get the console... then you get the Power!

Time to get into it a bit! Some of the stages of this console restoration have happened simultaneously. For simplicity's sake, I will try to present everything in groups.

Eurocard bay with all of the modules removed.

After pulling all of the modules out of the console, the first thing to deal with on the console was the power supplies. Under the desk, there are two doors which open up to reveal all of the power supplies, some banks of relays, some balancing amplifiers, and a power amplifier. They are in a standard Eurocard format that is also used in some of Studer's tape machines like the a800 (hint of a future project?). In my experience, it is best to tackle the power supply before anything else because you can't do much if you have unreliable power.

It begins...

As I said in my last post, I have lost a bunch of pictures that I had of moving the console to its current resting place. Over that time, I didn't do much with the console other than vacuum it out, wipe down the outside, and move it around (this thing is heavy!). I actually cleaned it three times because I kept finding so much dust. Not to worry... I did a COMPLETE clean later on and have lots of pictures. I just thought you would like to know that you haven't missed out on much.

So... let's introduce the newest project. A Studer 903A console. These were Studer's flagship console in the 80's. This one is a 24 channel, 8 bus, 3 mono aux (+ 1 stereo aux) version. It's an awesome quality desk (not surprising with the Studer name) and I was lucky to come across it. Mine seems to have a birthday of May 29, 1984. Three years older than I am!

I found the console on kijiji in London, Ontario and, after a few months, I decided to jump on it. The gentleman who sold it to me is Andy Magoffin (http://www.thetwominutemiracles.com/). He's an absolutely awesome guy and is currently building a new studio in Preston, Cambridge. The space is going to be incredible. It nearly killed us when we carried it out and put it in my van. I then started the long drive from London to Toronto on a cold evening in November, 2010. Hope your back is doing OK Andy! Thanks for the console!

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

So many pictures... so little time!

Since many of the pictures before this point were lost, we will
have to start here. Don't worry... all you missed was cleaning
fist-sized dustballs out of it.

As my many, many blog fans may have noticed, I have been lacking in posting the promised pictures and updates of my gear restoration project. Never fear, I have not forgotten about you! Due to some computer/general life issues, it has been inconvenient for me to share the work that I have been doing with you. Especially since I have lost the pictures I took when I first got the Studer Console! DAMN!!!

Luckily, I have been taking many pictures over the past couple of months! Now it is time to share them with you. I'll be trying to post updates frequently. I've set up a schedule of MONDAYS and THURSDAYS at 10AM. Posts for this week are already prepared, so check back here Monday and Thursday mornings for updates!

Now onward to the gear!