We've barely finished wiring up the studio and it seems very likely that we have the opportunity to upgrade from my little Trident VFM 16x8 board to a partner's late model Soundcraft 600. I say late model because it looks much more "modern" than many of the 600s that I have seen, so I'm guessing that it is from somewhere near the end of the model's production. The good news is that the 32x8 board will almost be a "plug and play" replacement at the patchbay with the 8 buss VFM. (I am SO glad that I spent the time and money to wire up a rear connector panel on the patchbay!)

The Soundcraft looks all shiny like new and has spent its entire life in a post house where it seems to have been treated very nicely. And the purchaser was told that the board had received the full Audio Upgrades module modifications: if every channel was redone, that upgrade would make the recent purchase price a truly remarkable deal.

What can any Soundcraft 600 owners/users offer in the way of potential concerns with this board, problems common to this model etc.? (the board has already been purchased, but we have not fully decided to bring it into our shared studio.) We have a decent little collection of outboard gear, so a lot of the consoles work consists of convenience operations: feeding and controlling monitors, headphone sends, etc., in addition to its main job of mixing. The 600 will be a major improvement over the VFM with regard to these types of features; it'll be nice to have a polarity reverse switch and phantom power on the channel strips, and I'm really looking forward to having the stereo buss on a selectable switch - the only way to the stereo bus on the VFM was via the 8 busses. YOu couldn't go directly from an input channel to the 2 bus and you couldn't send a signal to one of the 8 busses without it also going to the 2 bus.

The other big convenience is that the 600 is a "modern" split console. When its time to mix, you did not have to re-patch. The right side tape monitor inputs are normalled to the first 16 input channel line inputs. The VFM was old school split; mixing meant re-patching from tape returns to line inputs.

So, even though the Soundcraft 600 is no high-end console, it offers LOTS of features missing on my old VFM. And the Audio Upgrades mods should mean performance to go along with the convenience. But I've got open ears if anyone has any warnings or other comments regarding the 600. Thanks.

Steve
[email protected]

(and no, the VFM will not be for sale, even if the 600 does become the main studio board. I bought the little Trident as my idea of the ideal board for an analog 8 track home studio, and that hasn't changed. Its just not meant to be the control center for a studio with as much gear as our current shared facility.)

Good for rock (and roll)

hmmm im curious tooo! even for a neve slut! hehehe

u could allways ask ont oen of the forums at:
recordingconsoles.net

or on the TAPEOP.com website forums?.. its may seem like the sort of desk folks around there may know something about.
either way post some pics and let us know how it goes!!!!

PEACE
Wiggy

Look up Mike Rivers over at RAP. he has a 600.

I've always thought of Soundcrafts as being on the cleaner side of things. Good workhorse consoles, but I've never worked on a 600. I've also heard from a lot of people that the Soundcrafts take the Audio Upgrades mods much better then other consoles like Tridents or Harrisons.

When are we gonna see pictures of the new digs?

Jay wrote "When are we gonna see pictures of the new digs?" we hope to take photos next week, but here's the "amp wall" corner of the live room:

note the combination of new and vintage milk crates!

steve
[email protected]

Nice amps. Is the tweed a deluxe or is it a 10" speaker in there?? Had a Vibrolux until a year ago, but it didn't have the crunch that i expected from a tweed amp so i (rather stupidly) traded it for a Precision and some money.

Lars

Dig the B15{or is it} and the bassman!Good stuff!

I've spent a lot of time behind a 500 (which is very similar to the 600) at a local club here in Baltimore. It is actually the console from the original 9:30 club in DC (which if you don't know was a legendary punk/hardcore venue, and by no means an hospitable environment for a console). In the time I've worked on it, I've seen it get soaked more than once by condensation from the HVAC, leaks in plumbing, beverage spills etc. Considering the amount of abuse it has seen, I would rate it's ability to take abuse as beyond impressive. So feel free to leave that cup of coffee sitting precariously on the meter bridge.heh

- jon

Is that a Bandmaster cab?

....MY GUESS...is ...showman with a single 15....and the b-15 is one with the guitar cabinet...one 12 and a little epoxy-driver horn..........BTW...i've done several projects in the early 80's on a 600...though probably not the 'newer' version it had a 'big' console sound to it and seemed very solid in its constuction...all the channels were modular and were not the little skinny ones but had larger pots and a beefier grade of components to it...i also ran sound for a time in a venue that had a 500 installed...this was also a very rugged place and the console took a lot of drenchings and always worked...of course sometimes you had to wiggle a knob to get it going but it always did...luck!

We used a modified 32 input 600 for the Quicksilver Messinger Service studio. I was pretty happy with it except for the 16 input monitor mix. For that reason, I wouldn't want one smaller than 32 in for 24 track use but you have that covered. The busses are a fairly flimsy wiring harness. You can really improve the performance a lot by beefing that harness up, especially the grounds.

Wow, sorry guys, but 0 for 3 on the amps.

The Ampex is an SB12, the smallest of the bass amp portaflex models; 20 watts and 1-12. The sweetest recording bass amp that I have ever heard. And loud enough to play coffee shop "acoustic" gigs backing singer/songwriter types.

The blackface Fender is a Tremolux, with 2-10's. I got this one off of the original owner and the two orignal CTS drivers were shot, so I installed two of the reissue Jensen P10s. This is currently my favorite guitar amp in the world. From 0 to 4 its a clean Fender amp, between 4&6 it turns into a loud Fender amp with a little bite; at 7&8 it sounds like every late 60's era cruchy Stones rhythm guitar track, and 9&10 provide plenty of full on grind without getting flabby like many old tube amps cranked wide open. Its loud enough for "loud rock band in a small club" use, but not so loud that you need to hurt people to get a good tone in the studio. This amp proves that stompboxes are unnecessary.

The little tweed Champ at the end has its stock 8" speaker. But its down at the studio as part of a killer lap steel setup. The Harry Kolbe Soundsmith cabinet underneath replaces the little Champ speaker and suddenly the amp has all the bottom of a big amp. Unlike the Tremolux, this Champ is singing on 4 and a full blown sustain device by 7. If you're crazy enough to dime it, the amp plays itself.

I've been buying and dumping guitar and bass amps for over 20 years with the goal of one day having a studio where I could set them all up. Due to the occasional need to pay bills, I've had to sell a few that I wish that I had kept. (block logo JTM45, one blonde Bassman that seemed like the other dozen I've had, only much better, etc) But these are 4 of the 7 or 8 that I managed to hold onto, and they cover just about any "roots rock" situation that I can think of. I just wish that I had that many great vocal mics, or stereo compressors, or other studio toys.......

steve