Restoring an Old Mixer part 3

In addition to the Studiomaster 4 into 8, I've got some other dusty old 19" rack gear. So for the last part of this series, I built a cheap and simple rack to hold my now-fully-functioning mixer and other rack units. This was accomplished in no time at all thanks to the assistance of my dear friend Varun (aka Zebra, Benjamin Sisko & Space Trash). It's made out of wood (3 pieces) held together with L-brackets. For mounting the gear, we screwed threaded metal inserts into the wood corresponding to the holes on standard rack rails. It turned out good! Check the pictures. I've got a link here to download a little mp3 of my favorite drum machine (SCI Drumtraks) with EQ/pan/effects applied to individual drum sounds using the mixer. In case anybody is curious the other rack units from top to bottom are Ibanez DUE400, Zoom Studio 1204 and Kawai XD-5 (my secret weapon!).

-> Download the MP3!


Looks pro man!


Light it up!


Most of the cords are hidden.


Replaced missing slider knobs with red screw protectors.


The End.

Restoring an Old Mixer part 2

It's time to discuss the Studiomaster 8 into 4 once more! This project has evolved into something more spectacular (part 3 coming soon) but for now, let's talk about what it took to get this mixer working again! It shouldn't take too long because the fix was simple. I posted previously that the mixer's LED VU meters were malfunctioning. This symptom led us to discover the real problem. My brother Steve (who also gave me the mixer) deserves props for this one. He determined (via science) that the LED's circuit was not receiving enough voltage (neither was anything in the mixer). We later realized that the Studiomaster mixer, being British, was simply not set for American wall outlets. This turned out to be true, although it was not set for European outlets either (strange). There was an extremely difficult to locate method for switching the voltage to 120. It involved pulling out a square piece of plastic located on the back of the mixer (which contained a fuse) and rotating it to the proper setting. Beyond that, all I did was clean the noisy potentiometers (104 knobs and 12 faders). The pots were all a pain but the slider pots were really messed up. I took each of them apart, cleaned their parts, and removed bits of broken plastic. Stay tuned for part 3, the satisfying and flabbergasting conclusion to Restoring an Old Mixer.


See the tiny hole on each pot? That's where you squirt DeoxIT!


Look Ma -- No knobs!


The Faders were disassembled for cleaning.


Check out these guts.


Each channel has its own identical circuit.

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.

Career Goals

This summer I've been job searching to find a future career. I've narrowed it down to a few options.

My dream is to write a song cool enough to become a children's game.

If I can't accomplish that, I would settle for coming up with an awesome instrumental with a dance to it. Like this one:

Those are my career goals.

-Tomi

Cool Places to Go - The Spam Museum

I had the pleasure this week of visiting an exciting place - it was the SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota! Just off of Interstate 90 in the southern part of the state (near the Iowa border), this little gem was a surprisingly interesting and well-done (and FREE!) shrine to everyone's favorite meat product.

I learned a few worthwhile tidbits. For instance, did you know that Hormel Meats, creator of SPAM, also introduced chili to the American Public? I also found out about a radio show called "Music With The Hormel Girls," which featured song, dance, and advertising from the Hormel Girls, who at one point numbered 60 performers! There story has recently been adapted int oa musical. Furthermore, I was privileged to hear a lot of the old SPAM jingles, like this one:

The gift shop was also nothing to sneeze at. There were very reasonably priced items, and the best thing was THEY GOT THE JOKE. Everyone laughs at SPAM and fortunately, their assortment of silly products reflected this cultural view of the product. It was tough to resist buying a SPAM poncho, bathmat, dinner set, or bicycle jersey. At least I got a few good temporary tattoos.

Feelies

These past few years I've found myself somewhat fascinated by interactive fiction. I've dabbled with Infocom classics like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Zork and more recently Planetfall. Most people I know are unaware of text adventure games or steer clear of them, preferring more visual modes of entertainment. Personally, I'm a big fan of graphical computer games and could just as easily go on about Myst, Deus Ex or Morrowind. However, after playing through a couple of text-based games, I feel like I've taken part in something unique and special. Infocom's text adventures are astoundingly well crafted. They're filled to the brim with humor, wit and thought-provoking scenarios. Just like great novels, they present fascinating worlds filled with interesting and often-hilarious characters. If you play, you'll be impressed by the visuals created from your own limitless imagination! Well, maybe I'm getting carried away. This post is really about feelies anyways. What? You don't know about feelies? Every single Infocom adventure came with physical objects called feelies. These artifacts were relevant to the games and sometimes needed to solve puzzles. They were also mind bogglingly cool! For example, the game Leather Goddesses of Phobos included maps, a 3D comic book, glasses and seven scratch 'n' sniffs to be sniffed synchronously with the game. So, if you're a nerd like me and find all of this fascinating, check out The Infocom Gallery website which is packed with game info and feelie photos.

http://infocom.elsewhere.org/gallery/greybox.html

Proton Pigeon Awarded

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SE Exercise has received Garageband.com's highly prestigious "Experimental Electronica's Track of the Day" award. I'm curious how this could have happened because it has gotten no reviews and appears to have never been listened to since I posted it 3 days ago. Congratulations Proton Pigeon! You make us all so proud.