The History and Development of the Live Mixing Console

[Malcolm Gordon]

For anyone interested in the history of sound, not necessarily doing a project, "The Sound of Theatre" by David Collison is a fascinating read. Published by PLASA, a description and review are here. There's a chapter on mixing desks.

 

Malcolm

[Stan Hope-Streeter]

<br />Hi......I'm a student doing a dissertation on the live mixing console. I was just wondering if anybody knows of any good books available or any articles on the net with info on the history and development live mixing console?! I need to look into the following:<br /><ul><li>where the idea came from</li><li>who came up with the initial ideas (something on Les Paul's pioneering of multi-track might be good)</li><li>the development of the analogue desk (from valve to solidstate)</li><li>digital desk - EVERYTHING (major part of dissertation)</li></ul>I think that's about it for a general overview of what I want to do. I'm not asking anybody to do the work for me, but if anybody has any thoughts on suitable material I could use for research, please reply.<br /><br />Thanks<br /><br />Jonny<br />

<br /><br /><br />

 

 

 

For a few pointers from a UK perspective, try these. All were analogue and specifically for the live market. Just a list off the top of my head, from personal memory and experience:

 

1970'ish:

WEM audiomasters

 

1970's:

Soundcraft Series 1, first desk built into a flight case. All discrete, but quickly followed by the Series 1S using IC's

 

Kelsey-Morris with 3-band EQ , modular channels with big BBC-style Painton module connectors. Popular if you couldn't afford a Midas.

 

Midas, the UK top-end industry standard from around 1971 onwards, all modular with ISEP module connectors. Lots of transformers and real line output stages. Standard modules but lots of customisation possible. A custom board built for Brit Row was the first live desk to use TDA1034A mic amps, these were the the original 5534 IC's costing over ten quid each.

 

Mavis (IES own brand), built like a Neve, by ex Neve engineers, and similarly heavy...

 

RSE, 15 channels when everyone else had 16. RSE made an interesting PA system.

 

Gelf Electonics, mid-priced monitor boards

 

Turner Electronics, high spec custom live desks

 

Hill - avoid like the plague...

 

1980's:

 

Soundcraft Series Four, a serious top-end console

 

Amek, made some nice live desks

 

Blue TAC mixers, pigs to service.

RSD, cheap but good value

MM, cheap and basic

Canary, cheap and horrible,

Aces, cheap and appallingly bad

 

Names to research:

Jeff Byers

Bill Kelsey (now deceased)

Phil Dudderidge

Graham Blyth

Dave Dearden

 

I'm not sure if the Malcolm Hill suggestion was serious. He had some very, very strange ideas on electronic design. In the mid-1970's, the XLR line out on all his consoles was taken straight from the slider of the 10k master fader - and expected to drive a multicore.

This at a time when Midas were using a bootstrapped push-pull complementary pair line amp capable of half a watt or so, followed by a nice big transformer. And even the lesser manufacturers had basic line drivers with transformer options.

If the significance of this is lost on you, do some research on cable capacitance and line amplifier slew rate and current drive capability.