Ramsa board for the studio

[steelyfan]

Morning folks, thought I'd lay some words out before i get busy at work.
I've got a Ramsa wr-s4424 mixing board on the way to the studio to help
with organizing all my inputs and routing devices, and hopefully make my recording sound nice. Its a 24 channel 4 bus board, don't know the year this model was made, i think late 70's to early to mid 80's. I hope it sounds good, i know that the people that use them love them, and think they sound great. I,ve noticed quite a few people asking for info on this board on the forums, but hardly any responses. I'll be sure to let you know how it sounds, pre's, routing , and if any mojo is present. I heard Panasonic
made some nice pro audio gear around the time this board was made, but a panasonic mic pre? hymmmm. Fingers crossed.

[joelpatterson]

I loved my 4416 when I was using it... it's sat around boxed up for the last few years... every so often I think about getting it out and "resuscitating" it... probably by replacing the caps, whatever that means.

[steelyfan]

That's good news Joel, anything i should know about this board to get the most out of it, headroom tips, any mods, interesting configs? I'm glad you
liked it, this is my first 24 channel board, and my first board to use that has 4 buss. Can't wait to use it. My idea is to send 16 outs from Cubase back into the Ramsa, but I'll have most of my TRS filled up already with inputs going into the mixer already, so I'll have to figure out how this works. Should be fun, really happy to get all my gear hooked up without repatching for every little thing. Should get board Friday. WHOO HOO!!

[joelpatterson]

The one "secret" I found out is that you get the best-est sound if you run the meters way into the red, like the main Left/Right outs completely, solidly red, not even blinking... naturally you have to keep the input of whatever it's going into (in my case a DAT-- gives you an idea of what era we're talking about, huh?) down at a modest level, but pushing the levels on the Ramsa really gets you the best of the analog world, full, dense and ka-powey!

[steelyfan]

Excellent, I was thinking the same type of approach. Thanks!

[steelyfan]

Received my board today! It looks quite nice, and the faders feel very smooth and of quality. The whole board seems to be nicely built and is
actually a bit nicer than i thought it would be.(cosmetically), just quickly plugged a guitar in channel 2 and monitored the sound through the headphone jack just to see ( i picked it up on my lunch break), and i can already tell the mixer is going to sound fantastic! I'll report back once it's hooked up and is put to the test. Really excited! Pots were scratchy, but they'll get broken in this weekend.

[travisbrown]

I've always liked Ramsa stuff.

If I recall correctly, the hot and neutral were reversed on balanced i/o on at least one of the consoles. When I asked about it at the time (late eighties) I was told "It's a British thing"

[richiepalooza]

I have 3 Ramsa boards.
1) wr8816 which I use in my office at church. Killer for that early Eric Johnson vibe.
2) C900 which I use to mix on. I love this one- really warm, really articulate. It's actually a live board. The same one used in Carnegie Hall. I figure, if it's good enough for them. . .
3) i just picked up a wr-s208. I have it in a rack. i haven't used it yet, but I'll probably use it for tracking drums and extra guitar parts.

Sometimes, the gear snob in me feels like i should feel bad for not using something alot more expensive. But when I hear how nice and warm everything is, there's no shame in my game.

Congrats,
Richard Diaz de Leon

[steelyfan]

I had to repair my house ALL weekend, so i didn't get a chance to get my gear and monitors hooked up to the Ramsa. No recordings done yet, hopefully this week. But a sm57 sounded awesome on my vocal for just a quick taste, i monitored through the headphone jack, and the e.q. seems really cool, i haven't spent alot of time with vintage channel strips, but cutting the highs and lows drastically on direct guitar and vocals, and sorta driving the mid hard with the e.q., seemed to have a really rich, present,yet vintage-esque sound to it. The guitar dry like that, with no processing, sounded like the guitar tones on Captain Beefhearts "Safe as Milk" albulm.
Wonderful!!!
More to come.

[steelyfan]

I hear ya Richard, before i bought this board i researched it to death. I saw alot of orchestra music was being recorded through the Ramsa, and alot of theatre sound and projects. That was good enough for me too.If big budget projects were using this unit, it'll work for my little studio.
Last night I had more time to play with the board, I,m going through each channel to get the pots turning, playing a few minutes through each till they sound better, and i realized how brillant this board is. If you put the gain almost all the way to the right, in the red, I had a p-bass sounding like it was running through a wicked distortion-pedal, i understand what
nice pre's do to signal now, just beautiful!! Then turning the gain back slowly, a nice, round and clean sound, I'd even say the board has an articulate sound. I couldn't be more pleased! I looked at newer boards
like the a@h and Soundcrafts, Midas, stuff you find new at GC or Sweetwater, for live sound or studio work,I can just tell how much nicer this board is, the faders feel expensive, and sturdy, not flimmsy and wobbly like some of this newer stuff. I feel like a just bought 24 channel strips,3 fuzz and distortion boxes,an analogue emulator , a router-patchpay, a final mix saturator, and 24 nice pre's, in one box!!! Can't wait to hear a mix put through the l-r master, being pushed in the red, my search for warmth and older style production (ala 60's- 70's)
is right around the corner. Feelin good, I,m hooked. My wife says i'll probablly never leave the
studio now, but even she was impressed with the board, and helped while i checked channels buy
exchanging inputs on the back of the board for me, while i missed with the e.q. and gain. Fun stuff!! gotta go, thought i would share my joy with you, (i'm sure everyone's heads are in the pre-amp threads), i'll report back.
Steelyfan.

[joelpatterson]

Here's an ol' mix I dredged up from the Ramsa board days, it's a punchy acoustic "All Along the Watchtower" by Catfish Blue-- young men with miles of attitude and an utter devotion to doing it ALL with acoustic guitars.

Mics were SM57's, C-1000, maybe an E-100 for vocals... primitive, primitive, baby.

[steelyfan]

Hey Joel, haven't had a chance yet to listen to the mix. No net at home,
and no headphone options at work where i do my net stuff. I'll try to
hit a buddies' house tonight and check out your Ramsa in action!
I did hook up my monitors through the board last night and checked out
some of the latest mixes, I brought the L and R master in from Cubase
through channels 23 and 24, and used the E.q. on the Ramsa to cut some
lows and craft a little mid-range, sounded really good. Stay in touch
with this thread, I might need some advice on how to route stuff to
flow with how i work, i know these Ramsas are set up a little different from most
4 buss boards, and this is my first 4 buss to work with, my past mixers
were used just to get stuff into my software. I'm gonna want to bring
individual tracks back in through the Ramsa (from my cubase) for individual processing and treatment, without creating a loop. HYYMMMM. This will be new territory for me.
later,
Steelyfan

[imloggedin]

i also have an older ramsa 24ch console. the pres are fantastic and warm beefy. cant beat it for the price.

[steelyfan]

imloggiden, how do you have your board set up? Hopefully, by next week I'll have time to get my gear hooked up. I was wondering how you are using the Ramsa. Still haven't heard the mix, I,m goona try this weekend.
Thanks for chimmin in, I,m lovin this board!!