Wow, quite a bit of nostalgia for me here. I helped to commission console number 9 at Beartracks with Rob Jenkins, in I think, February "94. Dredging the memory banks here. I do remember lots of deep snow, and Rob and I sitting in an Italian restaurant after a long days work somewhere in upstate New York on Valentines day - everyone else was having a romantic evening with roses on the table! Nice to see the guys at SST are keeping number 9 going as a hybrid of 2 consoles after the flood wrecked it. The sort of madness I admire. Watching this video makes me feel like I was part of something very significant, and it's good to see people still care so much about those old consoles. I know in my time at Focusrite we were definitely striving to do something different and better "the way it should be done". Perhaps sadly - as far as consoles are concerned anyway, it was near the end of an era. I'm still an analogue guy through and through tho. I took a marker pen and left a message on the console frame back at Beartracks for anyone who took it apart in future to see, something like "Commissioned by John Emmerson and Rob Jenkins February 1994", I wonder if that message survived. John
I made that console frame and all the wiring in it. Have been in touch with Rob Jenkins a while back to catch up and FAE are based near me here in Marlow, UK.
Oceanway’s Focusrite #4 was ‘my console’ too, from 1994 to 97. It was the first large format console I have worked on, and it was love at first sight. I just loved the bus routing and design! So cool to see this video, a blast from my past for sure!
@@RealHomeRecording one of my favorite memories was Toni Braxton unchained my heart we did orchestra overdubs in this room for that song. I was second engineer, basically handling the orchestra, the mic placement, the headphones running the patchbay, etc..
@@RealHomeRecording the first day I worked there “the doors” were recording on it. They had some poetry by Jim and we’re trying to create a track to go with it I recall.
What a wonderful documentation of a the Rupert Neve/Focusrite heritage and why it is so important to preserve for future generations to come to love and appreciate. RIP Rupert Neve. We love you.
I fortunately had the opportunity to work a lot with JJP and Alan Sides on console #4 at Ocean Way in Hollywood CA on my first solo record (Leroy) for Hollywood Records. I was alway blown away by the sound that console produced. JJP had a lot to do with it as well! Those were great times!!! After seeing this doc I feel like I've been a part of something really special. Thanks for making and sharing this doc!
Love the focusrite sound for recording! I produced an album at console number 2 when it was at Paramount studios in .LA. A complete wonderful experience! Thanks for sharing all this history. Great video👍 Lot’s of great memories. Mike Rosario
Great doc. We lost our house in Long Beach to hurricane Sandy. I'm actually more saddened to hear about the damage to the console at SST Studios. God Bless em for restoring it!
Great video! This is amazing. The fact that engineers, people, specialists, and others are capable to design and build such an enormous, complicated desk. Deep respect for al those people who build it, designed it, ownded it recorded with it and mainitained it, and still do.
love the Spanish Guy that saved all his money up from engineering and snagged one second hand, only to put it in his house. that's amazing well done that man. I'm Jealous.
It doesn't say exactly how much he paid for it. He also looks a little young to be able to earn enough money to buy one from engineering alone. By the looks of the dad's house I would say that he came from money and had help.
@@horowizard He said he was saving and saving until he could afford something that could last a lifetime. I guess he worked hard to get that console even if he lives in the same house as his parents.
@@horowizard Yes, no way he got the sum needed to buy the console, shipping and handling and instalation from his Engineering jobs. Thats just bullshit. No way he will ever pay that amount plus the yearly electricity bills and maintenance from his future engineering jobs also.
As a budding engineer and overall gear nut I really enjoyed this doc. I respect the people that put the work into maintaining/repairing these consoles and I feel it is definitely not in vain. At the end of the day it is all about the sound and striving to make the best impression on our listeners. Analog is definitely better for archiving and playback on high fidelity systems. I am now planning on purchasing a Focusrite ISA430 MK II producer pack channel strip, lol. If only Focusrite could make a stereo version of the producer pack for home studio types that can't afford to buy two channel strips. I guess I'll have to tell my mono stems to fall in line!
I think this is my third(?) time watching this doc, and I'm here this time bc of the ISA channel strip plugin I just got last week. I don't remember the last time I was so excited about a plugin! I've only had the chance to use it on one little project so far as I'm sort of between living arrangements again, but I can already tell it's going to be my new go-to channel strip! I've got others I love for various things, but I can just tell, even in plugin form, the ISA sounds good on *EVERYTHING*. Congrats and thank you to Focusrite (and Brainworx), and keep up the great work!
There were only 2 consoles built with Rupert, and those were full of problems. Later consoles, the ones in this film were developed after Rupert sold the company
Check out the #5 - Botswana console.. NOW in Mesa, Arizona in The Platinum Undergroud Studio… totally revamped with Tangerine Automation driving the GML faders
Sound recording both art and science! This is a mind blowing, must watch, documentary of when synergy between the two! Thanks for sharing this bit of history!
I have to admid this is the best documentary/storytelling I have ever seen about a high end audio product. Anmazingly well done guys! Make some more of this very educatting and informing studio stuff reports.
It will be interesting to see one day documentaries be made about little audio interfaces from companies like Focusrite talking about how musicians of today got their start using that humble equipment.
This was an awesome video!!! Rupert was involved in a lot of things. I'm very happy with my Clarett 8pre purchase. Just have to get all the right components so my computer will run it. I felt this video. Loved the journey. Focusrite I'm officially a fan and user. First it was Chris and Tom Lord-alge using Big Red Focusrite on their Mix bus that made me a fan. But then to find out in this video Mr. Rupert Neve was involved. Its a no brainer for me. I'm all in.
Such a powerful story. It really touched my heart. Especially the Sandy story and the devastation in Hoboken, etc. I remember that time well. I learned alot from this. Thank you.
Many of us simply do not understand what people talk about when they mention noise floor, or open high end, today when everything sounds transparent and noise free it is difficult to appreciate this.
This is great. Thank you all for your time, and dedication, to share this wonderful video with us all. I wish this documentary was available for download.
gotta love the Spanish guy, tracking a single acoustic guitar with the Focusrite crammed into a space the size of my bathroom...looks impressive though
9:48 Hugh and Wauter's description of subtly and the analytics of emotion were beautiful ... and TRUE. "It's what you feel, what you dream maybe... what you want to hear." I just watched a Rupert Neve interview when he said the same thing about EQ distortion and harmonics. Specs aside, what you hear is what's most important, even when in contrast of specs. I cant believe there's a seperate PSU for each bucket of 8 channels! Sheesh what a beast.
Much love for the crew that made this video and the focusrite dev team. Something this special should have a special history and a great story; thanks for telling it!!
Always good to watch this again. A story well worth documenting. I did a lot a writing when digital started, but I believe that as good as the revolution is, an analogue desk in the mix makes things a whole lot better.
I think the focusrite console 'add on ' that arrived at AIR studio 1 was the first of it's kind. It was to complement the Neve 8068 . Desperately trying to remember the session that we needed it for.....anyway, I was a little engineer back then, '87 , and it was a wonderful sounding set of channels!
I enjoyed this, being a sound buff myself. But I find it quite funny that the film doesn't seem to have been mixed at all. The radio mics are not filtered to sound good or natural and the sound clips are not faded in or out very beautifully, the sound suddenly poops in, kind of. Just saying concerning the topic of what I just watched...
Air Montserrat had the first Focusrite sub-mixer made up of 110's installed in their new SSL desk(1986), I went down to Air London with Rupert, Betty Watts, and Rupert's son Jonathan, Rupert and Betty with the Air engineers fired it up checking everything was fine before shipping to Montserrat. The Neve console that was in there, probably the greatest console ever built got bought by A&M in LA . You can see the Neve Air Montserrat console in the video for Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by the Police.
I'm currently in the journey into building my own sound and studio. I'm glad you made this TH-cam channel and video. Thank you. I use your Scarlett Solo currently and am looking to upgrade to either an audio mixer or audio recorder as you keep motioning here in this video.
I've worked on the Focusrite at Oceanway and the one that was at Beartracks. They were both great consoles!! I'm thinking about doing a project at IIWI in NJ. Love this documentary and Focusrite! Thanks.
I built those two frames and all the console, rack and most of the centre section wiring for Ocean Way and Beartracks. I think Ocean Way had more than one console? Anyway, I made ALL the FAE console frames, wiring and a lot of the parts, apart from the channel modules.
I have worked on many consoles in my career, Neve, Quad Eight, Trident, API, SSL, Sony, MCI and yes for a tracking session the Focusrite , I have never worked on a Forte, there were only 2 made. This just seems kind of overblown to me, these desks are very tough to maintain, like the Neve VR series they get super hot and burn through caps. I just didn't hear the greatness these guys talk about during that tracking session at Ocean Way. I thought it was a very quiet console and had nice headroom. But then again the most quiet console I have worked on with the most headroom was without a doubt a Sony / MCI 3000 series with a beefed up power supply. That Sony was a dream to track with, also had hardy pres but it was THE most hifi console I have ever tracked on.
I worked on those two Forte consoles Marcus and only Masterrock saved me as I was down GB£2000 from the original Focusrite owned by Rupert Neve. I went to the Creditors meeting when R Neve was there and Metropolis and Rockfield had their GB100k deposits lost. He didn't seem to give a damn then (about 1990?) and I was furious. That Forte console was a pig to work on and I remember changing some leds in a channel which took over an hour as it was a sandwich construction so you had to take one PCB off (involving loads of desoldering) to get to the led under that. My involvement was some centre section stuff plus the test jigs and I still have one of the prototype centre section PCB's here as I was never paid for it. There is a picture on my outdated website if you wish to see it (www.profcon.co.uk).
I'm from this new generation of producers/ sound engineers. I've always mixed and mastered in the box, but recently I'm swayed by mixing consoles, given a previous session in a studio where I got to use an SSL absolutely blew anything I'd ever done digitally out the water. Of course I can't afford them xD but I will be going hybrid soon, that's for certain.
I wish I could afford a beautiful desk like that, the best I could afford was a second hand Allen and Heath GL2800. I loved its simplicity and ruggedness, it might not have been the most neutral or dynamic desk but it did us proud. Now we use Focusrite octoPre's and a mixture of Pro Tools, Reaper and Adobe Audition. Sadly if you don't master all the recordings yourself it's irrelevant how good the recordings are you can be sure they will be compressed to death, have no dynamic range and sound utterly crap.
Live the video! One thing though, it's hard to understand Crispin Herrod-Taylor. The sound of his voice seems to hit similar frequencies to the music bed. It's drowning him out a bit.
I never got to work on a Focusrite. Most of my career was spent behind MCI's (with their God-awful EQ). I did however, get to mix for two weeks in 1977 on a Neve 8078 at Capitol Studio "B". Was never the same after that......
I thoroughly enjoyed watching this. Found out after I got a copy of the Brainworx plugin. Also found out the Bop Studio console now lives in a studio called Platinum Underground Studios in Arizona
I remember doing a session at master rock in the late 80’s. I don’t remember the tracks but I was playing guitar for Sam brown , so probably there with her. I recall Phil man Amera owned it at the time ( could be wrong). Bought a strat that day from Bryant’s , a music shop across the road.
I didn't know till watching this that Rupert Neve started and built Focusrite..What a genius he was..Rest In Peace
This doco has given me another level of appreciation for my Focusrite equipment, thanks Focusrite!
Great to hear!
Todays Focusrite is not the same as their gear when Rupert Neve designed it.
Nah. You can't fault Behringer. My Xenyx qx 1222 is amazing.
Wow, quite a bit of nostalgia for me here. I helped to commission console number 9 at Beartracks with Rob Jenkins, in I think, February "94. Dredging the memory banks here. I do remember lots of deep snow, and Rob and I sitting in an Italian restaurant after a long days work somewhere in upstate New York on Valentines day - everyone else was having a romantic evening with roses on the table!
Nice to see the guys at SST are keeping number 9 going as a hybrid of 2 consoles after the flood wrecked it. The sort of madness I admire. Watching this video makes me feel like I was part of something very significant, and it's good to see people still care so much about those old consoles. I know in my time at Focusrite we were definitely striving to do something different and better "the way it should be done". Perhaps sadly - as far as consoles are concerned anyway, it was near the end of an era. I'm still an analogue guy through and through tho.
I took a marker pen and left a message on the console frame back at Beartracks for anyone who took it apart in future to see, something like "Commissioned by John Emmerson and Rob Jenkins February 1994", I wonder if that message survived.
John
I made that console frame and all the wiring in it. Have been in touch with Rob Jenkins a while back to catch up and FAE are based near me here in Marlow, UK.
I love this Console! I have the ISA 430MKII it's my favorite channel strip
Oceanway’s Focusrite #4 was ‘my console’ too, from 1994 to 97. It was the first large format console I have worked on, and it was love at first sight. I just loved the bus routing and design! So cool to see this video, a blast from my past for sure!
Nice
Very cool, indeed. What were some songs that you recorded on it if you can recall?
Is it analog or solid state?
@@RealHomeRecording one of my favorite memories was Toni Braxton unchained my heart we did orchestra overdubs in this room for that song. I was second engineer, basically handling the orchestra, the mic placement, the headphones running the patchbay, etc..
@@RealHomeRecording the first day I worked there “the doors” were recording on it. They had some poetry by Jim and we’re trying to create a track to go with it I recall.
What a wonderful documentation of a the Rupert Neve/Focusrite heritage and why it is so important to preserve for future generations to come to love and appreciate. RIP Rupert Neve. We love you.
Got this channel strip from Plugin Alliance. Love this documentary.
I'm amazed by the resurrection of the flooded one. And deeply thankful to Rupert Neve for what he'd done.
I fortunately had the opportunity to work a lot with JJP and Alan Sides on console #4 at Ocean Way in Hollywood CA on my first solo record (Leroy) for Hollywood Records. I was alway blown away by the sound that console produced. JJP had a lot to do with it as well! Those were great times!!! After seeing this doc I feel like I've been a part of something really special. Thanks for making and sharing this doc!
JJP was the most important piece of equipment in the studio!
I absolutely love the passion in this documentary . That alone will make me buy some focusrite gears
So honoured to be a part of it! Well done to all involved!
Loved this story of these old Focusrite consoles…The ISA-110 vocal preamp, and equalizer epic… ☮🔥
Love the focusrite sound for recording! I produced an album at console number 2 when it was at Paramount studios in .LA.
A complete wonderful experience!
Thanks for sharing all this history.
Great video👍 Lot’s of great memories.
Mike Rosario
Thats a big achievement, well done ❤
I'm a small (but proud) shareholder in Focusrite (LON:TUNE). Watching this makes me happy.
Thanks Focusrite for this wonderful and well made documentary. Also, thanks for keeping quality audio alive.
Great doc. We lost our house in Long Beach to hurricane Sandy. I'm actually more saddened to hear about the damage to the console at SST Studios. God Bless em for restoring it!
Wow! I had no idea about the history of this company when I bought my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface for doing my podcast! I love the way it works!
Great video! This is amazing. The fact that engineers, people, specialists, and others are capable to design and build such an enormous, complicated desk. Deep respect for al those people who build it, designed it, ownded it recorded with it and mainitained it, and still do.
love the Spanish Guy that saved all his money up from engineering and snagged one second hand, only to put it in his house. that's amazing well done that man. I'm Jealous.
Yes but why would he need 72 inputs in a HOUSE? That's kind of like buying a bus to drive your kid to school. Huge, complicated and cumbersome.
It doesn't say exactly how much he paid for it. He also looks a little young to be able to earn enough money to buy one from engineering alone. By the looks of the dad's house I would say that he came from money and had help.
@@horowizard He said he was saving and saving until he could afford something that could last a lifetime. I guess he worked hard to get that console even if he lives in the same house as his parents.
@@oysteinsoreide4323 Not to mention that he said he didn't need to pay rent either :)
@@horowizard Yes, no way he got the sum needed to buy the console, shipping and handling and instalation from his Engineering jobs. Thats just bullshit. No way he will ever pay that amount plus the yearly electricity bills and maintenance from his future engineering jobs also.
As a budding engineer and overall gear nut I really enjoyed this doc. I respect the people that put the work into maintaining/repairing these consoles and I feel it is definitely not in vain. At the end of the day it is all about the sound and striving to make the best impression on our listeners. Analog is definitely better for archiving and playback on high fidelity systems.
I am now planning on purchasing a Focusrite ISA430 MK II producer pack channel strip, lol. If only Focusrite could make a stereo version of the producer pack for home studio types that can't afford to buy two channel strips. I guess I'll have to tell my mono stems to fall in line!
I think this is my third(?) time watching this doc, and I'm here this time bc of the ISA channel strip plugin I just got last week. I don't remember the last time I was so excited about a plugin! I've only had the chance to use it on one little project so far as I'm sort of between living arrangements again, but I can already tell it's going to be my new go-to channel strip! I've got others I love for various things, but I can just tell, even in plugin form, the ISA sounds good on *EVERYTHING*. Congrats and thank you to Focusrite (and Brainworx), and keep up the great work!
Thanks for your support! We appreciate you taking the time to share this feedback, it's great to hear that you're enjoying the ISA sound! 🙌
shocker. another set of boards that are damn near perfect and who's fingers are all over them? Rupert Neve. Man is a damn genius.
There were only 2 consoles built with Rupert, and those were full of problems. Later consoles, the ones in this film were developed after Rupert sold the company
Grand documentary. definitely saving this doc for future reference. Shout out to Rupert Neve!! Next Level Brain!!
It is a beautiful documentary with very nice details. Analog still gives a better sound than digital.
Unreal - how the absolute pinnacle of recording desk technology could rise so high and then fall so far…
Consoles in storage garages?? Dear lord……
Really enjoyed that - great documentary, never knew they only made 10 of these.
This is actually one of the best videos I ever saw on TH-cam. Thank you.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it 🙌🙏
Great documentary. Happy that Focusrite put this together for us to learn from.
What a legendary console blown away I like classic music equipment but this is something else
Check out the #5 - Botswana console.. NOW in Mesa, Arizona in The Platinum Undergroud Studio… totally revamped with Tangerine Automation driving the GML faders
Well, we can hug our little Scarletts and still feel proud! Excellent filming of an audio legend.
This was beautiful! . These consoles are a work of art and in the future will probably be in museums!!! Beautiful and emotional story!
All I can say is wow and I wish to one day hear the sounds flowing through that console.
Sound recording both art and science! This is a mind blowing, must watch, documentary of when synergy between the two! Thanks for sharing this bit of history!
Brought tears of joy and then tears of pain, then joy again. Thank you!
I have to admid this is the best documentary/storytelling I have ever seen about a high end audio product. Anmazingly well done guys! Make some more of this very educatting and informing studio stuff reports.
It will be interesting to see one day documentaries be made about little audio interfaces from companies like Focusrite talking about how musicians of today got their start using that humble equipment.
Damn. RIP #9. Hope you make it through surgery 😇😇😇
This was an awesome video!!! Rupert was involved in a lot of things. I'm very happy with my Clarett 8pre purchase. Just have to get all the right components so my computer will run it. I felt this video. Loved the journey. Focusrite I'm officially a fan and user. First it was Chris and Tom Lord-alge using Big Red Focusrite on their Mix bus that made me a fan. But then to find out in this video Mr. Rupert Neve was involved. Its a no brainer for me. I'm all in.
Such a powerful story. It really touched my heart. Especially the Sandy story and the devastation in Hoboken, etc. I remember that time well. I learned alot from this. Thank you.
wow..so unfortunate
Many of us simply do not understand what people talk about when they mention noise floor, or open high end, today when everything sounds transparent and noise free it is difficult to appreciate this.
This is great. Thank you all for your time, and dedication, to share this wonderful video with us all.
I wish this documentary was available for download.
What a brilliant piece of documentary making.
gotta love the Spanish guy, tracking a single acoustic guitar with the Focusrite crammed into a space the size of my bathroom...looks impressive though
That's a fucking huge bathroom you've got...
Electrical bill is off the charts.
Or he is just a crazy spoiled child
Masashi Yanagisawa at Studio Jive was so soft spoken and it was so calming... that need to make him a plug in! Lol
9:48 Hugh and Wauter's description of subtly and the analytics of emotion were beautiful ... and TRUE. "It's what you feel, what you dream maybe... what you want to hear." I just watched a Rupert Neve interview when he said the same thing about EQ distortion and harmonics. Specs aside, what you hear is what's most important, even when in contrast of specs. I cant believe there's a seperate PSU for each bucket of 8 channels! Sheesh what a beast.
I wish I could mix on this big Old beast of a console
Much love for the crew that made this video and the focusrite dev team. Something this special should have a special history and a great story; thanks for telling it!!
Oh God! It was an amazing video where I could see huge consoles...where brilliant people worked.
Makes me happy to be a focusrite user. Good sounds.
Beautiful documentary. Man, I never thought watching the part about the water damaged Focusrite console🖤🖤🖤
A must watch for any Audio Engineer!
Always good to watch this again. A story well worth documenting. I did a lot a writing when digital started, but I believe that as good as the revolution is, an analogue desk in the mix makes things a whole lot better.
i feel happy about my little Scarlett 2i4
Until you try and plug a sm7b in noisefloor through the roof
Do not spoil people's fun.
Still way better than most of the stuff out there.
Don’t kid yourself
same
lol
so much luv for recording. truly and art form.
What a brilliant documentary! Right I'm going to re-mix my recordings with a totally new perspective on things. Thank you!
Wow! The most unexpected, and worthwhile documentaries I've seen.
Thank you.
Great job. Being from NJ, the SST story really weighs heavy for me... wishing all the best to them bringing that console back.
may i just say your customer service guys are awesome.. :) lifetime member.
Had no idea Focusrites root's were so deep.
?
This made me very, very happy. Thank you so much for putting this together!
I think the focusrite console 'add on ' that arrived at AIR studio 1 was the first of it's kind. It was to complement the Neve 8068 . Desperately trying to remember the session that we needed it for.....anyway, I was a little engineer back then, '87 , and it was a wonderful sounding set of channels!
I enjoyed this, being a sound buff myself. But I find it quite funny that the film doesn't seem to have been mixed at all. The radio mics are not filtered to sound good or natural and the sound clips are not faded in or out very beautifully, the sound suddenly poops in, kind of.
Just saying concerning the topic of what I just watched...
Kind of like brushing your teeth with chocolate syrup.
Have just watched this for the first time and was thinking exactly the same. Strangely incongruous!
An incredible story, truly glad you guys are telling it.
Air Montserrat had the first Focusrite sub-mixer made up of 110's installed in their new SSL desk(1986), I went down to Air London with Rupert, Betty Watts, and Rupert's son Jonathan, Rupert and Betty with the Air engineers fired it up checking everything was fine before shipping to Montserrat. The Neve console that was in there, probably the greatest console ever built got bought by A&M in LA . You can see the Neve Air Montserrat console in the video for Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by the Police.
Seeing the flooded console and live room after the storm almost made me cry
This Video Never Gets Old.
Fantastic production. I cried at the flood.
IIWII still lives with the Franken console and still sounds fantastic.
@Muso Snoop lmaooooooo
me too
@Muso Snoop you seem like a bit of a dick
This is just an amazing documentary. The story literally had my emotions going hahaha. Thanks for this!
Very nice! I have some focusrite gear in my home studio and I love them. The voicemaster pro platinium and saffire pro 14.
I'm currently in the journey into building my own sound and studio. I'm glad you made this TH-cam channel and video. Thank you. I use your Scarlett Solo currently and am looking to upgrade to either an audio mixer or audio recorder as you keep motioning here in this video.
This video was great. Takes me back. Miss consoles like that. I finally went digital when I got tired of fixing analog parts.
This is epic. Very well put together, So awesome to be a part of it!
I've worked on the Focusrite at Oceanway and the one that was at Beartracks. They were both great consoles!! I'm thinking about doing a project at IIWI in NJ. Love this documentary and Focusrite! Thanks.
I built those two frames and all the console, rack and most of the centre section wiring for Ocean Way and Beartracks. I think Ocean Way had more than one console?
Anyway, I made ALL the FAE console frames, wiring and a lot of the parts, apart from the channel modules.
This is the third time I've watched this great job making this film.
Reminds me of the story of the Bugatti EB110 or the Jaguar XJ220. A labor of love that was somehow both ahead of its time and behind the times.
What's in a mixer? Sonic life. Thanks for sharing the clarity.
this is brilliant, absolutely fantastic to watch, gives inspiration to young *future* engineers!
do you know jon fausty and irving greenbaum those were the only ones that used to mix songs for fania all stars and many latin singers
I have worked on many consoles in my career, Neve, Quad Eight, Trident, API, SSL, Sony, MCI and yes for a tracking session the Focusrite , I have never worked on a Forte, there were only 2 made.
This just seems kind of overblown to me, these desks are very tough to maintain, like the Neve VR series they get super hot and burn through caps. I just didn't hear the greatness these guys talk about during that tracking session at Ocean Way. I thought it was a very quiet console and had nice headroom.
But then again the most quiet console I have worked on with the most headroom was without a doubt a Sony / MCI 3000 series with a beefed up power supply. That Sony was a dream to track with, also had hardy pres but it was THE most hifi console I have ever tracked on.
I worked on those two Forte consoles Marcus and only Masterrock saved me as I was down GB£2000 from the original Focusrite owned by Rupert Neve. I went to the Creditors meeting when R Neve was there and Metropolis and Rockfield had their GB100k deposits lost.
He didn't seem to give a damn then (about 1990?) and I was furious.
That Forte console was a pig to work on and I remember changing some leds in a channel which took over an hour as it was a sandwich construction so you had to take one PCB off (involving loads of desoldering) to get to the led under that.
My involvement was some centre section stuff plus the test jigs and I still have one of the prototype centre section PCB's here as I was never paid for it.
There is a picture on my outdated website if you wish to see it (www.profcon.co.uk).
I'm from this new generation of producers/ sound engineers. I've always mixed and mastered in the box, but recently I'm swayed by mixing consoles, given a previous session in a studio where I got to use an SSL absolutely blew anything I'd ever done digitally out the water. Of course I can't afford them xD but I will be going hybrid soon, that's for certain.
The look in the eyes of those with the water damaged console, is sad to see.
I hope the following generations don't forsake recording quality.
Love that Focusrite Console that CLA is using in mixing at the end.
I’ve been using this isa110 for a decade now. When I got my first decent check from music it’s the first thing I bought, period!
What a Lucky "barn find"! Wow... amazing.
Thanks for sharing this - what a desk!
What a great docu! Thoroughly enjoyed it. Many thanks to the makers and poster.
Great job Chris! Super excited to see myself in this! Great history of a great console!
This WAS the pinnacle of analog consoles. Did Master Rock ever receive their console?
I wish I could afford a beautiful desk like that, the best I could afford was a second hand Allen and Heath GL2800. I loved its simplicity and ruggedness, it might not have been the most neutral or dynamic desk but it did us proud. Now we use Focusrite octoPre's and a mixture of Pro Tools, Reaper and Adobe Audition. Sadly if you don't master all the recordings yourself it's irrelevant how good the recordings are you can be sure they will be compressed to death, have no dynamic range and sound utterly crap.
Thanks for the recommendations Cindy, I'll certainly take a look!
Yup !!!
Understanding the
”K-metering “ system and philosophy really helped my final result.
Live the video! One thing though, it's hard to understand Crispin Herrod-Taylor. The sound of his voice seems to hit similar frequencies to the music bed. It's drowning him out a bit.
I hope the Brainworx VST comes close to this, because that’s the only way I’d ever be able to come close to work with this.
@37:44 Moog Voyager rack sighting! We've got the keyboard. Love it. My favorite synth of all time. Monster tones!
I never got to work on a Focusrite. Most of my career was spent behind MCI's (with their God-awful EQ). I did however, get to mix for two weeks in 1977 on a Neve 8078 at Capitol Studio "B". Was never the same after that......
I thoroughly enjoyed watching this. Found out after I got a copy of the Brainworx plugin. Also found out the Bop Studio console now lives in a studio called Platinum Underground Studios in Arizona
We just don't realize how much the sound industry owes to Brits like Neve. Rest.
How the hell did I not know that Rupert Neve started Focusrite?! Great documentary...thanks for this!!
I remember doing a session at master rock in the late 80’s. I don’t remember the tracks but I was playing guitar for Sam brown , so probably there with her.
I recall Phil man Amera owned it at the time ( could be wrong). Bought a strat that day from Bryant’s , a music shop across the road.
Phil manzanera.
Bloody spell chicken !!
Outstanding!!!
Amazing history.
A lesson to us all, put your good shit on the second floor.
FACTS
Really Enjoyed watching this documentary! Very well done!!
Awesome, thank you!
I was desperately lookin for this video a few months ago thrn stumbled back across it today!