80's Studiomaster console

[spacecar6]

I bought an old Studiomaster 20:4:2 mixing console for dirt cheap awhile ago. As far as I can tell it was manufactured in the early 1980's. I wasn't expecting much from it and had planned to clean it up, use it for a few demos, and then sell it again.
I was actually surprised at how good it sounded so i'll probably keep it.
Does anyone know much about these boards? It has a few weird quirks with how the subs are assigned and the channel numbering is ascending from the right to the left.
Any info or leads on schematics would be appreciated.
Thanks!
MC

[gwailoh]

I have an '80s Studiomaster Series III modular board. Always had a love-hate thing with it. It's surprisingly clean for its price, but its native sound is extremely cold. I strapped an outboard parametric across the bus, cut 2k, boosted somewhere around 200hz, I forget where now. Seemed to help a bunch.

Dunno where to find a schematic. Write to Studiomaster?

[Vudu12]

I know this is an ancient thread but I have some schematics in storage for a bunch of the modules in the Series 3 (24x8x2), will scan and post in a few months for posterity...

I like the board, got it 2nd hand and did re-capping, replaced some pots. Long faders, individual channels! Great for dynamic mixing to liven up your sterile computer mix, "spread it out on the board" and put some real effects, mutes, fader moves in there!

I disconnected the underside cables to the 8 group outs and the noise floor went way down for some reason. Use it for fun "live" mixdowns.

Where did all the old mixing boards go??? They cost tons when they came out, especially in 1980's dollars, even the so-so ones. Everyone used to have one, then they got sold/traded with huge price drops, now where are they, the dump?

[GOSPEEDRACER]

Hey Vudu,

I need some schematics for 2 Studiomaster consoles I picked up. A 16x4x2 and a 12x2 consoles. Do you have any schematics for these? These are the older consoles made from 1979 - 1982 with VU meters...

Thanx, Julius 512-659-5674 email is julius78704@yahoo.com

[Vudu12]

Here's the first of them

[Vudu12]

Here's the rest

[DrFrankencopter]

Brings back memories...I had one of these about 10 years ago. Pots get scratchy. Not a ton of headroom, and a little 'murky' sounding to me, but not a bad board. I liked the faders...smooth and pretty high quality.

Ribbon cable caused some problems too IIRC. Probably worth doing some mods to the master section, and bypassing the CMOS switch unit (used for the solo implementation IIRC). Use a relay there, and it should get a little cleaner.

Cheers

Kris

[steelyfan]

[QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Vudu12

Great for dynamic mixing to liven up your sterile computer mix, "spread it out on the board" and put some real effects, mutes, fader moves in there!

The exact things that damn near all new music is missing. thumbsup

[jhelm_waterw]

I have 3 consoles of this series. Generally, I love them.
They have decent discrete mic pres but I don't like the line inputs.
They are unbalanced and they run them through the mic pres.
(why pad down a signal then just reamplify???)
I have made extensive mods.
I redid the line inputs and put a THAT balancing chip on each channel and it helped a lot.
I actually REMOVED many of the coupling caps in the channel circuits.
They are really useless except to avoid pops when assigning/unassigning
and kicking the eq in and out.
So... I either don't do that or I bring down the fader before doing so.
Also, I agree with a prior post....
Just rip out the 4 or 8 channel buss.
Use it as a 24 x 2 for mixes.
Don't use it to track. There are too many better cheaper ways to track.
I use mine as a really sweet summing mixer for my 24 track digital system.
Good luck.

[jhelm_waterw]

correction... on my consoles (I think mark III), the line ins are unbalanced.
the schems above show a balanced input.
Not sure which series that is... but it is better.
however... my same complaint applies that one should
not run a padded down line input through a mic pre.
Just deal with the balanced in and pump it right to the eq.

[Pentatonik]

Originally Posted by Vudu12

Here's the rest

Vudu12,
thank you for the schematics.

Greeting, Denis

[Vudu12]

This used to be a little annoyance, but now it is happening on most of the channels to varying degree - the signal will cut out, like a gate. Increasing the input gain will make it come back, somewhere near the clipping point. But it will fade away again when brought back to normal levels... argh!

Is happening somewhere here: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/attac...301_schema.jpg

If the line is getting padded down to mic level and then boosted again maybe it is an old capacitor? I replaced all electrolytics but there are others.

The Return In is is not a problem, all channels work fine coming in that way (which is post EQ which I like to use).

I don't really want a major hack, just some advice on what to do. Schematic looks simple enough, but I'm not the best reader or most knowledgeable on vintage mixing board circuit issues...

Old caps dying? Do old transistors/ICs ever cause such problems? They are soldered to board, no sockets. There is two 2SA970 and a 5532

C26, 27, 29 are 100picoF and C16, 20, 21 are 220pF, probably need to take a pic for someone to tell me what type and if they might age badly.

I really want to keep the board alive!!!

[Vudu12]

My camera was not cooperating, this is the best pic I could get

[Vudu12]

better pic

[2N1305]

Originally Posted by Vudu12

Where did all the old mixing boards go??? They cost tons when they came out, especially in 1980's dollars, even the so-so ones. Everyone used to have one, then they got sold/traded with huge price drops, now where are they, the dump?

Sadly I believe this is true. And I don't wanna hear any comments like "yeah but they were garbage" or "from garbage they were created and to garbage they'll return" because this isn't the point that I want to make. I think it's sad that all of this electronic stuff ends up in the trash when there are so many parts that could be re-used by thousands of techies like me or even people who need a board to learn on. Well, actually people do get lucky sometimes, because if you keep your eyes (and ears !) open you might just pick something up.

On the topic of Studiomasters, has anyone seen the movie Still Crazy?