RAMSA MIXING CONSOLES WR series

[Bernd G]

What are your opinions on these things? I am just about to throw out two of these (one is the WR 8724) and wondered whether they are worth salvaging.
Many greetings

[Shrink Jewboy]

Hi. I grew up recording on a similar RAMSA console and my brother still does. I've read that these consoles are considered 'warm' with 'good preamps' and 'good eq'. I am aware that several semi-pro studios use these. That's the good news.

The bad news is that I just bought one without the power cord- it will cost me $500.00 to get one built; further, the wrong power supply was shipped with the unit-oops, minimum $250.00 more.

Simon at Digitron 323 887-0777 or email: Repairs@digitronelectronics.com is an authorized repairman for RAMSA and will be quite forthright.

Now for advice I'm not qualified to give:
Most money should be spent on signal path on the way in. If you have to mic many sources and your budget doesn't allow higher end mic pres- this could be a solution. I have one excellent mic/preamp (cost $3000.00) and was directed to that specific gear by Sal Vito, 'the man of sound'. That's OK for me because I just mic one thing at a time and plan to go into a high end studio to record the drums. I want the RAMSA board to mixdown- then I'll have someone else master.

[Mind-Over-Midi]

Hi;

I'm not the "Thread Police" but, why is this in the "High End"? what's High End about a Ramsa console?

[Midlandmorgan]

Hi end is what you make of it...not the brand name.

Ramsa boards are very warm, have great EQs, and a rather distinct flavor...IIRC, Eric Johnson's and many other releases were done thru Ramsa boards...before they went the way of Sony and dropped their analog console lines

The 87 series really are more live boards than studio...(I have an 8716 here) and what was mentioned about the pres and EQs is IMO very much the case. Couple of smaller but nicer/upscale studios I know of use the later incarnations (4424, etc....)

As with all things...if you like it use it.

[ORGANIK]

i have a t820b i got for 500 bucks last year. its got direct outs on all channels, full meter bridge with8 buss vu meters. its nice the pres are good a little color but a bit small sounding the eq's are clean but not the ish.

it does the job for me, i have all my stuff in to the board and direct out into pro tools mix plus. but id rather have 8 api's or something LOL

anybody want to trade LOL

[Slipperman]

I worked at a shop for 5 years which had a 'demo' room with a WR820 and I found it DREADFUL.

AWFUL.

TERRIBLE.

UNUSABLE mic pre's and Eq's.

BEYOND HORRIBLE.

THEN...

THEN...

I heard a demo engineered by Dave Derr ENTIRELY on the same desk and it was moderately FRIGHTENING in quality. That is... quite wonderful.

Conclusion?

I don't know/None.

It's been about 10-12 years and I'm still losing sleep over it.


HOHOHO.


SM.

[ORGANIK]

i means its ok, for like ahome setup to track some drums and stuff but not the best. the eq is not t all prescise and the pre's are pretty clean but super thin sounding. it definatley sounds better than the digi 002 which was all i was looking for.

if i had my choice id have api's all over the place with a neve summing mixer but who the f@%^& can afford all that.......welll not me LOL