Eric Bridenbaker wrote on Wed, 16 November 2005 13:13 |
Wondering if anyone here has worked with the Quad8 consoles, and what they are like. Keep hearing that they are among the best sounding boards ever built, something to do with a +/-30V power rail and expanded headroom, top notch EQ's etc.... very curious about any info regarding this company and the way the equipment sounds. Best, Eric |
blueboy wrote on Wed, 16 November 2005 16:30 |
I don't know if this will interest you but... http://www.digitalprosound.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=3 5696 JL |
Bob Olhsson wrote on Wed, 16 November 2005 17:07 |
A 20 input Quad-8 was the most common console I saw people getting when they went 16 track. Most 3-8 track recording boards had been 12-14 input tube homebrews so going 16 track almost always meant buying a new transistor board at the same time. Many people I knew didn't expect 24 track to catch on nearly as fast as it did. |
Eric Bridenbaker wrote on Wed, 16 November 2005 22:13 |
Wondering if anyone here has worked with the Quad8 consoles, and what they are like. Keep hearing that they are among the best sounding boards ever built, something to do with a +/-30V power rail and expanded headroom, top notch EQ's etc.... very curious about any info regarding this company and the way the equipment sounds. Best, Eric |
ALLEN WRENCH wrote on Wed, 16 November 2005 22:49 |
Hey Eric, having had recently gone through the USED CONSOLE thing… spending a shit load of money on mods and repairs, just to find out the thing is a $10,000 waste of time and money… that’ll probably sell on EBAY for $ 1,800 You should check out Paul Wolf’s Tonelux console: http://www.tonelux.com/ You can get it into any configuration you want, and the thing’s raging! Hopefully I’ll be in a Tonelux within the next year. As far as I know, I’m pretty sure Paul was running API in the late ‘80s – Early 90’s and is behind a of the kick ass API tricks. No doubt people will be throwing some comments RE: Paul and Tonelux after this. One of the things I heard while buying older consoles were things like… “Do this mod and it’ll be just like a _____!” or “All it needs is to be recapped.” But much to my surprise after doing all these costly things is that I had a noisy hunk of crap. Well at least it matches my hunk o’crap MCI machine. There seems to be a market glut of consoles out there right now, but BE WARE some of those great prices are for fucked up gear that need work and will take a great deal of money and heartache to get happening. Get the ToneLux that fucking thing’s solid. |
Brent wrote on Wed, 16 November 2005 22:52 |
I tracked on this Virtuosso here: http://www.nextlevelrecordingstudio.com It is big, fat, and has tons of headroom. I wish that I had one! |
compasspnt wrote on Thu, 17 November 2005 06:25 |
I bought one new, a Quad Eight / Mitsubishi "Westar," in about '85-86. I recorded many albums on it, and was always well pleased. |
compasspnt also mentioned |
REM's "Green" was done on that desk, as well as Stevie Ray & Jimmy Vaughan's "Brothers" album, produced by Nile. I did a couple of Fab T-birds, some ZZ mixes, and lots more on it. |
R.Nicklaus wrote on Wed, 16 November 2005 20:05 |
Does anyone know what model Quad 8 was in The Sound Lab tracking room? That was nice... |
Tim Halligan wrote on Thu, 17 November 2005 06:58 |
Terry, What was the difference between the Westar and the Superstar? I mean besides the fact that they sold bugger-all Superstars... Was it Mitsu's attempt at the SSL/Neve paradigm? |
compasspnt also mentioned |
REM's "Green" was done on that desk, as well as Stevie Ray & Jimmy Vaughan's "Brothers" album, produced by Nile. I did a couple of Fab T-birds, some ZZ mixes, and lots more on it. |
Tim Halligan wrote on Thu, 17 November 2005 06:58 |
...as well as Johnny Diesel and the Injectors. Still a great sounding album from a band I used to see playing around Perth for years. |
Bob Olhsson wrote on Thu, 17 November 2005 07:54 | ||
Armin told me he really liked tracking with a different console and kind of tape than what he was going to use for the mix. I think his words were "It spreads out the coloration." He was a big fan of the Warner Burbank scoring stage and its huge Quad-8 although he told me he hated the JBL monitors there and insisted they be disconnected during his sessions so he "couldn't be tempted to move any mikes." |
ALLEN WRENCH wrote on Fri, 18 November 2005 01:31 |
On the vintage desk topic… aren’t all the models, great records and sounds everyone’s talking about… from a time period when the Quad 8s were recently new? Don’t caps start drying out at around 10 years? … or when are you supposed to start ‘recappin’? I’m not talking shit about the Quad 8, I’m sure they were ‘bad as fuck’ when they were new. But how about 20+ years later and with ISSUES. And how much will it ACTUALLY cost to get it back to NEW, or even REASONABLE working condition. I’d be interested in hearing from some techs about the average cost of getting the old stuff into usable condition. There are a lot of low price tags on formerly high dollar consoles out there right now, possibly because of the temporary ITB PT fad, but the cost of getting one up to speed could become quite considerable. I'm seeing some good deals every once in a while. for around $15,000 you can get something cool, but I'm betting there's another $10,000 of BS that's hidden under the hood sometimes. I'm just saying to be aware of this factor! Don’t count out the ToneLux! |
thedoc wrote on Thu, 17 November 2005 23:59 |
Bob Olhsson said "Armin and John Sands modified the heck out of everything" Yes, when I visited there, they showed me a veritable 990 factory... |
ALLEN WRENCH wrote on Fri, 18 November 2005 02:31 |
There are a lot of low price tags on formerly high dollar consoles out there right now, possibly because of the temporary ITB PT fad, but the cost of getting one up to speed could become quite considerable. |
Ryan Moore wrote on Fri, 18 November 2005 08:49 |
The biggest example of this are the MCI 500 & 600 series consoles, Often going for dirt cheap compared to the top dollar new prices of yore, |
Brian Kehew wrote on Wed, 23 November 2005 13:37 |
And, yes, you can run signal at +25 through the console and it will NOT clip! Amazing. |
Bob Olhsson wrote on Fri, 18 November 2005 20:00 |
I was hoping someone knows more about John's whereabouts than I do! I last saw him at Capitol around 1985. |
Brian Kehew wrote on Wed, 23 November 2005 12:36 |
. Quad Eight was the desk for most of Capitol Tower, Motown LA, Producer's Workshop, many more... Certainly, as people say, "as good as API or Neve". |
bigaudioblowhard wrote on Thu, 24 November 2005 14:37 | ||
Ian Gardiner at Boutique Audio has just finished racking my QE MM61S modules. All fixed up and checked out by a Mr. John Hirsch (sp?). Apparently he's some kind of QE guru. I'm picking them up maybe tomorrow. I'm so damned excited, letcha know. bab. |
Brian Kehew wrote on Wed, 23 November 2005 14:36 |
I have a lots of experience with older Quad Eights. I own the Pacifica, which is a 1976/77 era console, the type The Wall was mixed on. I |
Brian Kehew wrote on Fri, 16 January 2009 05:47 |
I think (according to a friend who worked at Quad Eight) that The Wall was mixed on three consoles "tied together" to handle 72 tracks at times. I'm sure it wasn't needed for the whole album (listen to its sparseness at times) but for the bigger pieces. |