Generally when fuses blow on solid state equipment: it's either a shorted bridge rectifier, power supply caps, or output transistors. I would change the electrolytic caps based on the age alone. Bypassing fuses is generally not a good idea-- they blow for a reason, and you can end up doing a lot more damage bypassing a fuse.
I don't think it's the rectifier as I'm getting good voltages elsewhere. Definitely should change the power supply caps though. There's four 5000 MFD caps. I'm sure it could benefit from replacing those. I kinda figured that's why I blew the lightbulb too as the occasional voltage spike had no padding. And I only bypassed the built in fuse with an other fuse just to rule out that as a faulty component. Bypassing is okay if it's with a another fuse lol
You know what might be cool(for me anyway) is if you did a deep dive on the ins and outs of Iron Butterfly. With those ever changing basslines and down tuned strat making scary sounds. Thats just me though.
What a cool score, and for 75 clams. Serendipitous that other cat came along when he did! Nice early transistor action, very cool. Wonder if you can't change a couple of components out to increase the depth of the compressor, it does seem pretty mild. Could probably put it on a switch so you can go back to the original sound. Love your vids, bud!
There is an adjustment setting to change where the threshold point is. I messed around with it a bit but maybe I should do more toying around to see if I could get more pumping action.
DUDE when I was in high school in the 1990s there was a American Legion & VFW club "Veterans of foreign wars" they shared the same building, that had one of these big Green Altec mixers. I remember they used it for auctions it was a distortion box!! "do I hear 55-55-55- going once going twice SOLD!" When we would play shows there I would see it just sitting in a corner next to a pair of Peavey SP2s. We always had our own PA so we never used it but I did go to the auctions sometimes and heard it. LOL You could test the frequency response with the free Bertom EQ analyzer test it at 96K since that would correctly show the actual full slope of the roll off is.
Love that song at the end as well as the Young Frankenstein clip! Both were absolute gold haha. I love the more in depth videos of you fixing stuff as well!
that’s a cool piece for sure! i love watching your channel, music, and gear evolve over time. the new guitar, new bass, etc. i can’t wait to see what else you pick up!
You're telling me you don't get things right on the first take? I feel lied to. Cool little unit. I've been working on 8 & 4 track more and more, and lookin for creative ways to consolidate mics before hitting the tape.
I hooked up a resistor as a load, did not fix the issue. I feel kinda stupid I didn't try a speaker though...now I gotta try just to make sure lol! Edit: Nope. Still don't work
Yeah you've got a decent little, Altec Lansing, transistor compressor. And it works! And sounds just the way it's supposed to. It definitely tightens it up.. And makes it punch better. That was a good find. And so you are quite talented. And lucky that your mom. Let you move your control room/studio. Into the now closed in porch. And that works well. To keep your sound isolated from the rest of the folks in the house. Good move! You got a great mom. Yes you can have a lot of fun with your stuff. You got a good haul of gear.. You are also very talented. What you mean it didn't have enough compression for your vocal? Of course it does. You have to hit it hard. You are being, too timid. Push into it. Push it hard. Then it'll work for your vocal. Because your vocal needs 20-30 DB of gain reduction. So you have to push into it. To get that. As it's not very adjustable. You've got a couple of clicks. That's not really enough. So try and drive it harder. Then I think it'll work for you. And your vocal. But you can't be timid about it. Look. Some of us use 1176's of all varieties. Well? I don't have a blue stripe A or B. But those were the only ones I didn't have. I had D's, G's and H's. And well? It's not uncommon to push in hard on those. CLA does it all the time. I do it all the time. That's when they sound good. When you work them. When you get your money's worth out of them. Not just 1 have four 1 DB of limiting. That's bullshit. We use that also. But not like that on vocals. Maybe some folks do? I'm sure they do. I don't. And everybody loves my vocals. They all tell me they sound so natural. When there's absolutely not one thing natural about them. They are highly processed. And that's the trick you see. The trick is? We highly processed the sound. To make the listener think it sounds Natural. That's the mark of a good Audio Engineer. There is nothing natural about it. Nothing, at all. But it sounds natural! Whatever the hell that means? Because it's all electronic reproduction. There's nothing natural about that. So I don't know where people get, natural from? We just want to make it sound fun and good. That's all that matters. Not the technical blah blah. So have fun and just do it. You'll learn by doing. You'll get good the more you do. RemyRAD
does the output that isn't effected by the EQ also not effected by the COmp? if so you could use both outs and 2 inputs of the console and do some parallel compression stuff with it. Sounds great, if not just a little on the cloudy side.
As I got back in my truck. My crew had heard the entire interchange. And they all laughed and said… I guess we are not recording this band tonight? I said Wrong! Roll the machine ! And Tyler hit record. I'm sitting there mixing this bad. With all of my instrumental microphones sitting on the floor in front of the band. And I'm only getting the vocal microphones. And I mixing the band. And my crew is confused. They don't understand why the mix sounds great? They asked me where the microphones are? I said they are on the floor in front of the band. What really? No? I said yes they are. They all left running out of the truck. And into the club. They came out of the club and back into the truck. At the end of the set. They were all giddy and laughing. They said to me. We don't know how you did this? Your mix sounded great. You had no microphones on anything? They were all on the floor in front of the band. And within a couple of minutes after the set is over. I already have a CD in hand. And I go marching back into the club. And I go up to this jerk. And I hand him the CD. And I say to him. DON'T YOU EVER TALK TO ME LIKE THAT AGAIN. HERE TAKE THIS. PLAY THIS. And I turned around and left. About two weeks later. This guy comes back. And he walks into my control room. And he says to me. I'm really sorry what I said to you. I don't know how you did this? It sounds really good. I thanked him. We were friends after that. I never had another problem with him again. As his band did come through a couple more times over the next few months. They were good band. He was good. But he was certainly a jerk. He didn't understand what was going on? And so how did I do that? It's called spectral mixing. I simply adjusted the equalizers. Appropriate to those instruments those microphones should a been on. And it kind of picks them up still. And then you balance it. That's all. I think it's very funny. Because nothing stops me from making great recordings. Nothing! You can hear it. No careful setup is done. I put a microphone on a instrument. I don't care if it's right. I'm not going to reposition anything. It is what it is. It's wherever it's positioned. That's it. Nothing else gets changed. It's all a terrible compromise LOL. I don't care! It has to go on-air. That's my job. I make it happen. You could hear it. It's not perfect. It's not supposed to be perfect. It's rock 'n' roll. Only studio stuff is made perfect. This is all for real. There is no computer manipulation going on here. This is all live. And it's all imperfect. But easy to listen to. Fun to listen to. And exciting at times. That's all that matters. So enjoy. And have fun doing this yourself. Go to your local bar that has live bands. Tell them you're going to come in and record all the bands. No money will exchange hands. You're just running a proof of concept test. And what's going to happen? The same thing that happened to me. The word will get out what you're doing. The radio stations will show up. They will want to work out a contract with you. They will want you doing this for them. All over town! And you're going to find yourself in a place in your career. You never imagined yourself to be in. Doing this kind of work. It's so much fun! And everything is a Single Take. No monkeying around. Instant gratification. And it's all done in one shot. But hey.. While this is all going live to, Stereo 2 track. I am also simultaneously running. 24 track digital. On every microphone. So it can be remixed and enhanced later. But I don't need to do that. My live stereo mixes sound great. These are all a single pass through. All at once. It's like doing a Live Mix Down. Of a band you've never heard before. Of a recording you never made. But you now have to mix it live on-air! Whoa! That's a real challenge. I love a challenge! You can hear it! It's fun. It makes you really good. And so my studio guy Tyler. He got this live recording bug now also. It's the way to go! It's no-nonsense. These are Real Reformers. Not a computer. This is where it's at. This is not a Fraud! Like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift. I mean what is Taylor Swift but just another pretty face and a sexy body. That's not Justin Bieber. He's just fugly. He's an ass hole. He's a Canadian. He's an illegal alien. He shouldn't be here. Why don't they boot him? It's because he looks white! And he's an ass hole. I don't know him. I don't want to know him. I wouldn't want to record him either. I would let my assistant engineer record him. I have no interest in him. Or anybody like him. They are fake. They are frauds. They are rich kids. Mommy and daddy paid for their career. It only takes about $4 million to make your child a rock star. Yes. It's true. They get them a manager. To get them a producer. They get them a studio and engineer and band members. They get them a publicist. And away they go. They become a star overnight. They have the money for the publicity. That's how this works today. They get the record contracts. Because they are sure about of income. A lot of money has been thrown at them. They have been heavily marketed. But your average, Garbage or Garage band. Can't afford to do that. And everybody's trying to make recordings at home that sound like crap. And they don't know why? Because only the Beatles could be the Beatles. There is only one Sgt. peppers lonely hearts club band. And you are not it. And so just play your hearts out. And record that. It's like being a photographer. A photographer will take 100 pictures of the subject. And only one or two pictures will be good to use. Recording your band is no different. You're going to cut an album worth of material. And half the songs will be crap. And you know it. But there still okay. So you keep them. Because you don't have anything better to put in place of it. And so this is not an overnight process. It takes time. You have to practice. To get good. Before you start to charge people. You have to put yourself. Through your own schooling. Because nobody's going to tell you how to do this. And if they do? They don't know how to do it either. They've never done it. That's why they are experts. And tell you how to do it. Yeah no. That doesn't work. You just have to turn up the volume controls. Until it sounds like you hit record. That's all. RemyRAD
Nice. I bought one of these a while ago, and never ran it because I didn’t have any speakers to hook it up to. Any tips for removing the power transistors? I found this schematic a while ago but haven’t tried yet.
It's extremely simple to disconnect them. On the back of the unit to the left of the power transformer there is a plug. Simply unplug the 5 pin connector from its socket. Boom done.
And you do not need an expensive microphone splitter system. All you need. Is, a power isolation transformer. And you have no physical connection with anything. No ground loops. And you can parallel microphones up together. I am using only passive splitters here. The microphones are loaded down to 600 ohms instead of 1200. Oh well? Big fucking deal! The microphones do just fine at 600 ohms load. It may affect the frequency response lightly? I don't care. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't. This only represented the first couple weeks. Until I worked out a comprehensive technical routine. To make it cut and dry. And my Assistant Engineer Freaked! He was a studio guy. He thought studio stuff was where it sat. But he learned otherwise for me! This is the way to go! You can hear it for yourself. These are Great Performances! It's all about the Performance Value. And if you knew how I got this vocal feed? You would shit,, yourself. These vocals are coming through a $40,, Behringer 6 x 1 microphone mixer. This is before I had separate splits. On all the vocal microphones. This is a single feed through a DI box. Of 4 open vocal microphones. Going into a single limiter. You see when I first plugged in the electrical to my recording truck. I did not have isolated electric. I was on a ground fault outlet. And every time I tried to split a microphone. The AC power would go out. I could only take a single microphone feed. This was all a horrible compromise! Until later. When I would split all the vocal microphones individually. When I finally got my full isolated power connected. And that required some rewiring in the electrical box. And so I run totally isolated. With an electrical power isolation transformer. I have a big one. But I also have a small handheld one. That I can still plug a 24 track rig into. And you absolutely do not want any real dynamics on your vocals. Do not want. There are no dynamics on my vocals here. They are highly limited at 50:1. And I'm hitting the limiter hard. The needle on the meter looks like your windshield wipers on your car. Driving 70 miles an hour on I-95. Through a hurricane in South Florida. That's how my gain reduction in meters are moving on my limiters. Like your windshield wipers on high. That's what you're hearing on the vocal. That's 15-30-40 DB of limiting. On the vocals. And they go from a whisper to a scream. And no discernible distortion.. But there's plenty of distortion. Lots of distortion. It's musical distortion. And it enhances the sound. It gives it a lot of character and a lot of color. It highly flavors the sound. But with the right amount. It sounds fucking great. So those of you that think your SM 57 don't put out enough level? You're wrong. And they are not as broadband as condenser microphones. Condenser microphones pick up a lot more trash you don't want. A lot more low-frequency noise. A lot more high-frequency noise. They are overly sensitive. And you pick up a lot of background noise. I don't want that. I use less sensitive microphones. That don't have a frequency response of 20-20,000 Hz. No. These microphones only do about 50-17,000 Hz. That's all I want. That's all you need. You don't need 20 Hz. You don't need 20,000 Hz. You really don't. That does not offer up anything better. It offers up more noise and more problems. So I'm a different kind of Audio Engineer than studio dweebs. That have to have everything just so. Otherwise they can't make a decent recording. I don't have those luxuries. I get crap. And I have to turn this into a silk purse from a pig's ear. And I do. It's fun to listen to. It's exciting sounding. And the soft passages are very quiet. There's no buzzing and noise. I've got isolated electrical power. No ground loops at all. You can hear it! So you can't be connecting all the grounds together. As you will get crappy recordings. You won't hear any buzzing or humming. But it will be modulating your audio. I don't have such problems. You can hear it. I make certain of it. I'm a real technician. I'm not just a fader flipping jockey. I get down to the nitty-gritty. And ensure the quality of my sound. You can hear it. And I get no microphone checks. No sound checks. The badges starts playing. And I push up this mix you here. Within the first 60 seconds of their first song. And then I just lock in and roll with it. Even if it's not perfect. I'm on-air. I'm not going to make any major changes. I'm going to stick with it. Even if it's not right. It says right as it needs to be. When good is good enough. And you have to learn that. It's not about the technical perfection at all. It's about the fun and the excitement of the sound. That's all that matters. The technical blah blah does not matter. And you have to learn that. You have to roll with things. You have to use what has been handed to you. You don't get a choice. It is what it is. And you have to make it something. In 60 seconds or less. That's very challenging. But you can hear it. I do it. And so NBC and RCA, needed engineers like me. We get things on-air. And it's a horrible compromise LOL. There is no compromise! It's rock 'n' roll! It's not supposed to be perfect. These are just local Austin bands. But they never get a chance to hear themselves like this. This is my NBC style of mixing. I get it on the air. No nonsense. I'm easy-going. I'm laid-back. Everybody has a lot of fun with me. I make certain of it. And then I hand the band a copy of their set. And they freak! Because they are not paying me to do this! They just know they are getting recorded. They have no other say about it. Though there was one guy. In my crew comes into me in my truck. And they tell me. Don't go inside with this guy. He's an ass hole. And he's going to Rheem you a new ass hole. I said oh really? And so I went into the club. The guys did not get him plugged in. He was complaining to me about the cables on the floor. I said stand on them! Stop complaining to me. He said am I here to play a gig or make a recording? I said you're doing both! Now get to work! And he gave me all sorts of lip and putdowns. And I said fine! And in one, 10 second move. I grabbed all of my microphones off all the instruments. In a great big wall of cables. And I threw them down. In front of the stage. Onto the floor. And I stormed out of the club! (More Live Overnight in following post)
The funny part about the Radio Shaft version. It only had a 1/4 inch unbalanced, TS, connector. And stupid home recording enthusiasts. Plug those into DI boxes. But you don't need to. No. They are already balanced out. But they are provided unbalanced. With a connector to plug into your living room cassette deck. As it was intended. But! If you cut off the 1/4 inch connector. And you strip back the plastic sheath. You will find. A copper ground wire. And a red and white wire. You wire the red and white up to pins 2 and 3 on the XLR connector. And you connect the ground wire to pin, 1. And Voilà! Your Radio Shaft microphone has a balanced XLR output. Voilà! No DI box necessary. And better sound. They work great as drum overheads. They work great in the bass drum. They work great under the floor Tom. They work great for room microphones on the walls. They are unique sounding. I love them! As I also have a few of the expensive Crown's. And they sound no different. Except they can be Phantom Powered. And the Radio Shaft's cannot be successfully Phantom powered. You will always get hum. So don't bother with that. Use the battery. The last months. I leave them on. I would periodically change them every three or four months. But the battery still checked good. That didn't matter. I would still replace them with fresh ones. I can use the old ones in my Vibrator. Yes I'm a woman. One of the few in this field and industry. Though I've never met Sylvia Massy. I like her work. And she looks like a lot of fun to work with. She makes sure all the boys have fun. She knows how to cater to the rock 'n' roll boys. With all sorts of goofy things. I think are really funny. And highly unnecessary to do. But it keeps everybody amused. When you baffle them with bullshit. Which is a lot of fun to do. I don't do it as much. I get down to business. But I like the way she works. From what I've seen on RU-vid. I don't really screw around like that with Life Recordings. You can't. I just have to make it happen. And the bands love it. They've never heard themselves like this before. And what does it sound like? It's not all good. But some really is. Here's a few cuts: soundcloud.com/user-135130368/sets/live-at-electric-church-fm-sessions-vol-1 And the 13 that follow this. The second one is crap. The vocalist unplugged my microphone and plugged in his own digital vocal effect processor. Ugh! Too much! I made certain that would not happen on subsequent bands. The third cut and all the others are pretty cool. Some sound better than others. Because they are all on top of each other. There is no separation. I have more drums in the vocal microphone than I do the vocal. It's a bitch mixing some of this. I have an average of about 60 patch cords in. Virtually every input has a lot of EQ on it. I use a lot.. I'm very aggressive with the EQ. And then I patch in a limiter on virtually every input. And a downward expander and/or gate. On the output of every limiter. Then patched into the console again. That's a lot of patch cords for every input. Because I don't have an SSL 4000. And while I would love one. I don't want to maintain one. They are a bitch. They are expensive to maintain. They are for rich guys. I'm not a rich guy. I'm just a good guy. I think most of the vocals sound pretty great. They all have their problems. They are all a compromise. I try to make them not sound so much like a compromise if I can. I can't always. And I get no sound checks, no microphone checks before the band starts to play. This is a different kind of Audio Engineering. It has to sound like the studio. But it's not in the studio. It's in a nightclub. And it's noisy. But you won't hear any noise really in the soft passages. I make certain of that. This is all my, Haphazard style of Audio Engineering. I just roll with it. I go for it. And it's LIVE. I do not know these bands at all. I've never heard them before. I just push up a mix. And hope they like it? They usually do. I've never heard any complaints. As I also used to do this for NBC-TV & Radio. And I use all cheap microphones. You don't want to use expensive microphones. They will get broken. So don't do that. Use only SM-57's and 58's. Use no others! Use them for drum overheads. They are great. Just don't over blow your microphone preamps. Everybody is losing peaks. They are all lopped off. Mine are not lopped off. You can hear it. But everything is tightly limited,, compressed gated and expanded. That's a lot of patch cords. And you wonder. How I know what to patch into where? No I don't LOL. I just have stuff pre-patched in. I don't know if I wanted RMS compressor on that? I don't know if I want a fat limiter on the other thing? I don't know if I want an optical on the vocal? But they are already patched in. Because I know I'm going to need them. I just don't know on what? I don't care! I have to have them patched in. They have to be there. And then I need gates and downward expander's on those outputs. Otherwise you get nothing but a rush of background noise. You don't hear any background noise on my recordings. I wonder why LOL? Downward expanders and gates! As everything is also limited and compressed.. There is no dynamic range in my recordings. You don't need any and pop music recordings. That's a phallus, see? I've got dynamic range in my Operatic and Symphonic, recordings. I don't need dynamic range and rock recordings. You only need about a 6 DB dynamic range with rock recordings. It's true. For real. That's what you are hearing in my recording. It's got no dynamic rage LOL. On any of these bands. The dynamic range does not exist. Everything's got a limiter on it. Or compressor. And an, expander or gate. Another reason why it sounds so clean.. Check out all the cuts. These were all captured at an Austin nightclub. Where I had my Recording Truck. Parked about 200 feet behind the nightclub. That's nearly a football field away. And I have the whole club wired for sound. On long microphone snakes. Going out to my recording truck in the backyard. And I was parked there for 11 months. And recorded over 500 bands. They all got free recordings like this. They had never heard themselves like this before. Yet they had made some live recordings off of PA boards. Those all sound like total crap. (More Live Overnight in following post)
Have a honey baby child. This thing is so old. You're going to have to replace, all,, of the electrolytic capacitors. This is a must do. You have to. It'll be a little bit of a job. But in the end. It'll be worth it. You're going to have to replace all those filter capacitors also. Those big cans. Those can get kind of costly. They'll cost a few dollars each. You have to replace them. Many folks like myself. Have rebuild many of these devices. And when you want them to work like new again. This is what you have to do. Now for all of the dirty switches and volume controls. Sure. You can use those stupid aerosol spray things. But those are just bad, Band-Aids. And it won't last long. What you should do. Would be to remove each volume control and switch. And then obtain a small, Ultrasonic Cleaner. And you put a cleaning solution.. Into the ultrasonic cleaner. Switch it on. And you dump your switches and volume controls in. You let them cook for a couple minutes. Then you remove them. And work them vigorously. Then put them back in again let them cook some more. Repeat this procedure a few times over. And then repeated again. Using Clearwater. To rinse it all out. Once you have finished cleaning your switches and potentiometers. You must allow them to air dry. And once you have. You reinstall and sought of them back in. And lo and behold. They will work like new again for the next, 20+ years. Once you have completed all that. This will work virtually like a brand-new device. And it will last you a good 20 years of marvelous service. This is a professional unit. These are heavy-duty. These were used extensively. All over the place. Though the earlier vacuum tube versions may be more popular. The transistor versions are good and solid sounding. You can't go wrong. They have a funky vintage quality to them. From one of the original companies. That started it all. The vacuum tube versions were used extensively by Motown. I also owned a pair of Altec Lansing 1567 A vacuum tube mixers. They had no compressors. That's very handy. That's very nice. That will work well. They are decent. The vacuum tube versions were used on Beatles recordings. So you know they can't be bad. The transistorized one is also viable and good. You got a nice unit there. At a bargain price. For a decent transistorized microphone mixer of 100% professional quality and features. Good find! You should've purchased both. For stereo. I had a pair. For stereo. Motown had a pair for stereo. They had multiple units. So you could put the singers on one and musicians on another. Then combine them together. Through another one. And Voilà! Motown Sound! Of course they used Ampex and Scully recorders of that era. I worked for Scully. I was also trained by Ampex. Aunt recording with those machines to your computer. Provides that extra finesse of realism. From the Motown era. And who didn't like those recordings? Those were largely done on Altec Lansing mixers. Recorded to Scully and Ampex recorders. And kind of depended on the year. Some were vacuum tubes others were transistorized, recorders. They all sounded great. And I helped! Working for Scully and assisting Ampex, MCI and 3M. I did work for both Ampex and MCI.. And I was also trained by 3M. On the M-79 series recorders. And interacted with M-56 and 23/24 series machines. And some of their FM multitrack telemetry recorders. Those were wild beasts. That were perfectly awful for music recording applications. And really could not be used that way. But the transports were awesome. So some of us would use those 3M transports. And stick on other, third-party, transistorized generic tape-recording tracks. And I built up my own 8 track, 1 inch recorder that way. And while it worked. It was a dog. I wanted something better. But for 1982 beggars couldn't be choosers. You either build up your own or you didn't have no. If you couldn't afford to purchase a bright new shiny one. That would cost as much as a small house. The stereo version. Cost as much as my 1978 Toyota Corolla did new. Base Price $3200. Fully equipped, $3700. For a stereo tape recorder. Of a Scully, Ampex, MCI or 3M. Back in the 1970s. And so you can make the same, Motown sounding multitrack recordings. With only a single 1/4 inch, stereo reel to reel recorder. And we use that as an analog tape emulator because it is. And we loop it through the computer. So you record all of your tracks digitally. Then you take a pair of digital tracks output. You plug that into the stereo analog recorder input. Select tape playback mode. Arm record and roll it. As you playback from the computer. It feeds it into the analog recorder. You can then adjust your input volume level. For the amount of Tape Saturation you want to hear. And then adjust for a proper output level. And back into your computer on a new track pair. You repeat this for all of your other tracks. You will then have in your computer. A full multitrack digital recording. And a full multitrack analog recording. That will be, 80-100 ms, delayed and offset. From the digital master. You can then punch in that timing offset. And synchronize your analog tracks with your digital tracks. And be able to select. Whether you want analog playback or digital playback on each particular track. And in that way. You are basically making old-fashioned multitrack analog recordings. Through your computer as you go. And it works great that way. You get the sound of analog tape. Captured perfectly, digitally.. With all the analog goodness you want it, to have. While it was all recorded digitally. And then processed one track at a time through an analog recorder. And back into the computer. It's a great hybrid way to work. And it's all there. Just waiting for you. To do. To enjoy. To glean from. That sound which we all know and love. That sound of yesteryear. This is all a lot of fun to do. Just do it. I've done it for over 50. RemyRAD
