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Author Topic:  Amplifiers
Ray Minich

 

From:
Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra
Post  Posted 20 Feb 2011 11:22 am    
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Got to tour the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yesterday. The vintage electronics and power equipment are really interesting. We've come a long way (thank goodness...)

Heil was a company that made some of the first mixer boards, circuitry was discrete transistor modules, predecessors to today's studio tables. The gear on display was '50's and '60's stuff. The motivation was the deficiency of the PA systems of that time. I got to thinking that transistors made this gear possible. In vacuum tubes that rig would have taken up as much room as a D-9 Bulldozer (and been about as heavy).

Springsteen made a whole album synthetically with a drum machine and a sampling synthesizer (15-20 years ago). They went to the studio to do it for real, and the product wasn't as good as the synthetic. They put the machine made sounds on the record instead of the studio stuff.
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Lawyers are done: Emmons SD-10, 3 Dekleys including a D10, NV400, and lots of effects units to cover my clams...
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Dave Grafe


From:
Hudson River Valley NY
Post  Posted 24 Feb 2011 10:40 am    
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The early attempts at vacuum tube mixing desks were not only too heavy to be portable but also used an immense amount of power, generated an equally immense amount of heat and the circuitry had to be tweaked hourly.

Yes we've come a ways since...
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J Fletcher

 

From:
London,Ont,Canada
Post  Posted 25 Feb 2011 5:09 am    
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I think solid state technology was in the right place at the right time.
The fact that tube mixing consoles, with 16 channels or more, were not being used for live sound, may be due to the fact that live sound hadn't required such capabilities before Hendrix, Cream, etc came along.
By then, solid state sound reinforcement was possible, and more practicle than tubes. I went to lots of dances in the mid 60's where Bogen Challengers were doing the job. At that time, bands weren't micing anything other than vocals...Jerry
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Ken Pippus


From:
Langford, BC, Canada
Post  Posted 25 Feb 2011 7:50 am    
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And all that volume limitation wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
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J Fletcher

 

From:
London,Ont,Canada
Post  Posted 25 Feb 2011 9:28 am    
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I agree Ken. Things have got way too loud.
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