Fairfax definitely looks to be an "in the day" type of place. i bet i would have a blast producing in that room with a group of great players. i can see how someone into DAW and one track at a time stuff could become frustrated working there.

maybe Dave Grohl, will give them the old Neve back. that desk belongs there. i got the impression from the movie the whole reason for him buying it was to preserve part of the legend

One of the very first studios I got to record in had one of those round knob Altec boards. One of my first bands had one of the 10 channel boards for our PA. I think it was one of the 1220's. I remember it weighed a ton. The kid playing guitars dad had put together the sound system. A pair of Voice of The Theaters (A7's) that board and two of the industrial 100 watt mono Altec amps. He had some sort of variable filter crossover he had built. He was an engineer. So it all sounded ok......But what did we know?? Wish I still had my 61 Jazz bass....

Kurt Foster pcrecord audiokid dvdhawk Davedog

From this month's issue of ProSound:

"Olivier Chastan found the Helios console in California on Craigslist. The 1969 Helios Type 69, (20 x 12 x 20) in Sound City's B Room was the only Line Mixer that Helios built, it has no preamps or monitor section and was originally intended for Island Studios, in Basing Street, London. The console was originally intended to be installed into Island's "reduction room", which never got built. In 1971, it was shipped to Studio 70 in Munich, Germany, by which time tracks by Zeppelin, Free, Black Sabbath, Kraftwerk, Donna Summer and many others had passed through it, for final mixes.
The Helios Type 69 1973 desk is installed in Sound City's Studio A. It came from Chastain's Waterfront Studios in New York's Hudson Valley, and features 26 preamp channels, 24 tape returns, 8 groups and 2 stereo echo returns. The desk has had no modifications in its history. "
Source: Steve Harvey, ProSound Magazine, July/Aug 2017, page 22,
"Urban Renewal: The Return of Sound City"

-d.

The Neve that was in studio A @ Sound City was an 8028. This is the one that Dave Grohl bought and moved to his personal studio. It was in his house in Virginia but they moved all of that out to Foo Central in Cali called 606.

The B room @ Sound City had a Neve 8038 which was and is still owned by Sylvia Massey who now lives and works out of Ashland Oregon. She had most of the gear in studio B and still does. She also has an old WEM console in there also.

It's obvious that there are still those older iconic desks out there... many are in poor shape, but could be brought back to their former glory with the right maintenance and care (and money lol).
Still ...there are some that remain fully operational, and requiring just basic maintenance - that any older LFC would require. Even when treated with a great amount of TLC, they will still need maintenance of some kind at some point, that's just the nature of those beasts, and console owners accepted this as part and parcel of their ownership.
I'm happy that there are still some of these older desks still being used... Neves, Focusrites, Helios, Tridents, EMI's, UA's, and older SSL's... They all represent a history of their own, which is to me no different than the history that an old theater or house or historic building offers. They have their own stories to tell, that's part of their charm, and IMO, if they can be saved and put back into use, they should be.
I'm still convinced that they are a bad investment from a business POV, but I encourage those people who want them -and can afford their upkeep and maintenance - to use them, as long as they know that it's fairly unlikely that they will ever see a worthwhile return on their investment.
For many it's a labor of love, a commitment to their art, or maybe a love of history, too, and I can dig that.
I sincerely wish Sound City all the best, I hope they can revitalize that room and bring back even just a little of its former glory days. But I can't help but to think that it's a much different world now than it was in 1980, or even 1995. These days, plenty of hit records are being mixed on laptops in airport lounges.
We'll just have to wait and see.

FWIW
-d.

Davedog, post: 451835, member: 4495 wrote: Wish I still had my 61 Jazz bass....

I also wish I had your 61' J bass sir.

The cool thing about this is reguardless of buisness (non)sensibility, it's cool that their are people in the position to perpetuate the art and the amazing pieces of gear, new and old. This thread made me happy.