x
anonymous 11 April 2002

Haven't talked to anyone who's actually tried one of these $5000 beasts. Saw them at AES and it looked interesting. Anyone comments?

Here's the site:

http://www.mercury-rec.com/

Topic Tags

Comments

anonymous Thu, 04/11/2002 - 21:52

Hey wow! Where did these things come from!!!!
Mike, if you re-check this post it's Stedel....it's OK I've done a lot of work on my alter-self since we last talked.....honest.

Are you talking about the Chandler stuff? I just checked out their site.
Did you get a chance to audition these things?
You must like them to order some. Any impressions?
I've been doing a lot of listening to Beatles recordings in the last few months, particularly
Rubber Soul, Revolver & Sgt Peppers. Love to hear a Mike T rave on them.....

Although, after checking out the Mercury site, I'm more inclined to think these are the mic pre's you're talking about. Telefunken huh?

I'd love to be able to audition both teh Mercury and the Chandler stuff, they sound right up my abbey..er sorry, alley.

Something occured to me the other night, and if you read this Mike, you're going to find this pretty scary, but you and I probably go for the same sort of sound. :eek:

kind regards

anonymous Sat, 04/13/2002 - 02:00

Hey folks. I've been checking out the websites of Chandler and Mercury.

These are some seriously cool looking pieces of gear.

The Mercury 66 Limiting Amplifier - great specs, great response rate.Very tasty. And VU meters.
I love VU meters.Definately like to test drive.

The M72 - now I would love to hear this.
The M76 - don't know enough about the history of Telfunken's 76 stuff.....yet.

And Chandler

The EMI Compressor & an EMI "Beatles mic pre"?

Are you kidding?

I want all of these things!!!!!Telefunken, EMI & Neve. Sod RO. I'm taking donations NOW!!!!!!!!!

miketholen Sat, 04/13/2002 - 07:57

I haven't heard or bought the Chandler EMI pre yet, I will get it ealy next month...If it can deal with hanging with my current pres (V72s,V76s,EAB,WSW,PYE,Helios,Neve) then it stays.
The Mercury stuff looks nice...I have a shitload of those originals and they've been rebuilt by an old Telefunken Engineer so I'll be checking into the EMI instead. ;)

anonymous Sun, 04/14/2002 - 13:18

I've also been reading about the Fariman stuff -$8000 stereo Fairchild type limiter and tube EQ's as well. The reviews all seem to agree that it doesn't exactly duplicate the 670 but that it's a great sounding unit. They also have a cheaper unit -I think around $2700 for stereo.

I know someone who seriously looked into replicating the Fairchild 670 and figured he'd have to sell it for around $15,000 just to cover his costs and make a little money. The tubes and other partss are out of production so many things would have to be custom designed.

Mike, what do you think of the Helios pres?

Guest Tue, 04/16/2002 - 02:57

Yes, (I have 4 pre/eq's)

:)

Hey Mike! - mine have a low output, I find I have to boost em with, say . a compressors output level..

do you find the same? The inputs are also quick to distort. But I have gotten used to these issues and work-around them.

miketholen Tue, 04/16/2002 - 10:17

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Julian Standen:
Yes, (I have 4 pre/eq's)

:)

Hey Mike! - mine have a low output, I find I have to boost em with, say . a compressors output level..

do you find the same? The inputs are also quick to distort. But I have gotten used to these issues and work-around them.[/
QUOTE]
I have a 16x4 console with 'Olymypic' style Pre/EQ's.
I had my tech put 48v switches on each channel, phase reverse, directouts, and a 'solo in place' function to bypass a 'solo bus'.
I have a shitload of gain with these channels and find I have alot of headroom.
I too can get it to crunch like yours but it seems to take quite a bit more than what your describing.
my channels are still in the main frame and using it's own 4-bus.
yours are racked, right? hmm...
:confused:

MadMoose Wed, 04/17/2002 - 23:49

Originally posted by Julian Standen:

Hey Mike! - mine have a low output, I find I have to boost em with, say . a compressors output level..

do you find the same? The inputs are also quick to distort. But I have gotten used to these issues and work-around them.

Odd, I don't remember that from the Helios stuff I've used in the past. For output, how hot are you running the outputs? Are you trying to hit 0dBfs with guitars and stuff? Maybe it's a power supply issue...

miketholen Fri, 04/19/2002 - 05:31

the smallest knob is a 3 position switch, toggling between 2 mic inputs and one line input.
the 2 mic inputs were modded so that mic 2 is simply mic 1 but out of phase.
it was done this way to avoid making new holes for a phase switch, and also being able to reverse this for any reason...(resale?...)

do you have black knobs?
:w:

anonymous Sat, 04/20/2002 - 22:45

Jules, the Helios input modules (unlike Neve's or Tele's and like most Calrec stuff) dont have a transformer balanced output designed to directly drive a 600 ohms load at +4. In those type of boards the internal signal flow (like what's present at the insert points) was usually at around -10, unbalanced with an impedance of 10k ohms. Only the actual group and auxiliary modules had balanced, line level, 600 ohms outputs. That's why they are prone to distort when used in a stand alone set-up as you are cranking the gain on the input of the module trying to compensate for an inadequate output level and impedance mis-match. The proper technical thing to do is put an output transfo on them that will provide some level of step-up gain just like Brent Averill does when he racks up Calrec stuff.

Sowter must have something available that would do this in style for a reasonable amount of money.

The great tone of these pres and passive eq's is well worth the little investment and hassle to have them perform at their best in a wider range of situations.

Hope that helps... :w:

miketholen Sun, 04/21/2002 - 20:16

Originally posted by Julian Standen:
V helpfull thanks!

:)

"do you have black knobs" - Yes - & mine are from the Ronnie Lane mobile Truck.

cool.
where did you get them from?
who racked them?
were they recapped?
serviced?
that sucks, you have been 'limping' on them.
these things smoke! :w:

Guest Mon, 04/22/2002 - 03:05

Mike you and Jay can put away your violins!

I have been using these for about 4 years and have been very satisfied with their performance! (I just boost the output a little with a compressor so - no input distortion)

Groundcontrol - thanks for the tip on the out's, I will look into having the output stage revamped when I can get round to it...

Meanwhile they performed flawlessly on Toms this weekend.

miketholen Mon, 04/22/2002 - 06:15

Originally posted by Julian Standen:
Mike you and Jay can put away your violins!

I have been using these for about 4 years and have been very satisfied with their performance! (I just boost the output a little with a compressor so - no input distortion)

Groundcontrol - thanks for the tip on the out's, I will look into having the output stage revamped when I can get round to it...

Meanwhile they performed flawlessly on Toms this weekend.

also GC posted:
The great tone of these pres and passive eq's is well worth the little investment and hassle to have them perform at their best in a wider range of situations.

hmmm...if these were up to par then maybe you'd use them on kick-snr-oh's-gtrs-vocals-bass-...just about anything you'd use a neve for...
toms?
I choose the Helios pre's over my Neve for most stuff.
and if I need to mic a tom, I'll grab for a neve!
are there any Helios consoles around your neck of the woods? If so I suggest you wander over there sometime with your neves and just check it out...who knows...your 4 Helios modules will probably blow away your 1073's if they were setup right. ;)
:w:

anonymous Mon, 04/22/2002 - 17:59

Isn't that often just dust? That you can get rid of by using a rubber air-sac lens cleaner and a fine sable haired water colour brush...
Either that or the pot needs replacing.
Erk. More surgery.
I've just had this problem fixed on me trusty Roland
SRE Tape echo. One of the pots needed replacing. It was 21 years old, so I guess I can't complain too much. Ps Mike. If you ever want to sell...don't tell me!!! I owe too much money already!!!! :cool:
Kind regards
stedel

anonymous Mon, 04/22/2002 - 21:23

Jules, the input gain is not a pot, it's an Elma-type switch like the one in a Neve. It probably needs some cleaning. John Klett over at PSW has shared his prefered products for cleaning those components some time ago. You should check it out. A little time spent in an ultrasonic tank bath is useful also. I know my Neve's are gonna get the treatment soon! I find the Helios pres have a nice tight and forward quality that is a really nice complement/option to the 1073's. High quality trannnies will add to them a nice and subtle smoothness and dimentionality. Either way, they ARE great units! :D :w:

miketholen Wed, 04/24/2002 - 06:19

Originally posted by Julian Standen:
So what to do about crackle in a mic pre gain pot?

blowing and brushing won't do it.
check into what Klett's using.
I haven't had to do much cleaning to my console as it was installed at a radio station in Canada for all it's life till I gotta' hold of it, now it's being worked to death.
when I got it, it had small, very bright flourescent stickers on a few select channels that said things like-'do no touch!, -1, -3,+2...
and across four channels there was a piece of o-l-d-a-s-s tape that read something like-Jimmy, Jan, Donald, and Rick and directly under thier names it said-DO NOT TOUCH!!!
all the other faders seemed to be relativly untouched. needless to say I got the console in amazing shape with alot of scratchy pots but it was because they hadn't been moved in years!
quite a bit of 'exercising' later and the console is near new.
now that each and every channel get's used it seems to be getting even tighter!
I really suggest that you get someone to look at your rack, as I think your missing a great thing.
:w:

x

User login