[sdiy] Soundtracs 32-8-2 mixer opinions

[Dave Magnuson]

Ben,

I highly recommend you do a search on usenet for this one.  I used to
participate in Rec.Audio.Pro and Soundtracs came up fairly often (every few
months).   A search on Deja should turn up a lot of posts.  There *may*
even be opamp upgrade ideas for these mixers.  Occasionally people would
mod their mixers and discuss it... if you're lucky, someone already modded
a Soundtracs.

That being said, I almost guarantee it will sound better and be more
durable than a Mackie, Behringer, etc.  You just need to determine if there
are any serious faults in it.  I think $950 sounds reasonable if it's in
good condition... especially with a meterbridge.  The Soundcraft Ghost I
use at work was almost $3000 new with no meterbridge, so $950 for a modular
mixer with meters that needs minor work sounds good... especially since
it's likely to sound better.

Also, a modular mixer is GREAT to have.  If a few channels go dead you can
remove them and still use the studio... rather than tearing down the entire
setup and being out of operation until the mixer is repaired.  This is a
HUGE benefit in my mind (worth paying extra $$ for me).

Dave Magnuson  



At 01:38 AM 11/29/01 +1030, Benjamin M. Woenig wrote:
>I've come across what seems to be a relatively good deal
>on a large Soundtracs 32-8-2 desk. I do not know the exact
>model number, as I only had about 2 minutes today to look
>at it, I'll be going back tomorrow for a closer look...
>
>But this is what I noted.. 4 band eq with 2 mid-sweep eq's, 6 aux,
>invert signal, various routing switches, 100mm (very smooth)
>faders. Master section has L-R faders, Bus section has eq and
>aux. for each as well. Meter bridge with LED's (I think maybe
>needle meters for the main L-R though).
>
>All channels 1 to 32 are individually modular. The master
>section contains the L-R and 8 bus groups.
>
>Problems I noticed...
>
>The wrist-pad on the front of the desk is in bad shape - easy to
>replace I'm guessing :)
>A couple of slider and knob caps missing (2 or 3)
>A couple of the faders are a bit stiff...  (replace, clean?)
>Generally a bit on the grubby side... needs a good clean.
>
>The asking price is $1900Australian (about $950US).
>
>Basically I'm about 80% sure on buying this desk, but would like
>to know something about fixing/upgrading... like would it be worth
>upgrading all resistors in each channel to metal-film, and using
>higher spec opamps? Are replacement faders/pots available? How is
>the eq? I'm assuming it has a typical British character (which I'm after).
>
>I've been avoiding Mackie and Behringer stuff for a long time... I would
>rather have an old desk with character, and this looks like a good way
>of going about it, especially since I'm happy to make it a bit of a
>restoration
>project in the process. I've always wanted to be able to just patch a
>compressor
>into just one channel, or run the individual outs from my sampler, and
>experiment
>with effects more creatively through a decent auxiliary section...
>
>Any opinions/warnings/etc would be most appreciated! Reply off-topic if
>you feel this is too off topic :)
>
>~ben
>

Resonant Frequency:
resfreq at hoohahrecords.com
http://www.hoohahrecords.com/resfreq/index.html