Restoring an Old Mixer part 1

Some number of years ago my spectacular brother managed to acquire a free semi-operational mixer from a club in Minnesota known as The Cave. Needless to say, It's been collecting dust in my parents' garage for years. It's a 1980 Studiomaster 8 into 4. The name pretty much sums up how it works. It's got 8 input channels and 4 output channels. Each input can be sent to any output or combo of outputs. All 12 channels have a fantastic EQ section. Here's what Studiomaster's website says about it:

"Lots of features, good audio specification and the first departure for the company from VU meters to a more rugged LED bargraph 'ladders' for the metering. It could be used as a desk top mixer or rack mounted and with all the connectors at the rear many sound and Audio Visual companies made it their standard audio console."

Funny that it should mention the "rugged" LED meters because those are definitely broken on my unit. Props to Studiomaster for having a history page dedicated to their legacy products. This kind of information is invaluable to collectors of refuse like myself. This post is just an introduction to what is going to be a very exciting series on my latest project which is to restore this mixing console. It's exactly what I need to produce hot tracks for Orchestral Colour Records. More to come including better pictures!


LED "ladders" look cool but are BROKEN.


Check out my shag carpet.