has any one heard of an aces console

i have done exhaustive searches online and found very little posted. if all goes well i will find myself in the posession of one, with complete schematics. just though i would ask around to see if any one knows anything about them.

There was some debate on a Forum recently about Aces multitrack tape machines - and someone posted a mixer photo in the same thread. So have a search for their 2 inch tape machine (sorry - can't remember which Forum it was!).

I did work on one of these tape machines (and learnt a great deal) - so if their mixers were of a similar calibre of design and manufacture - they are to be avoided! They will also be quite old now (20 years old?) - so unless you can get it for virtually nothing - look for something different......

Sorry!

Yes, a client of mine used to have a big 40 (odd) channel ACES desk. They were also branded SECA (ACES backwards), which is what this one was.

It was quite well speced, but from memory the construction quality was probably like an early Studiomaster. Anyway the friend got rid of it basically because it was worn out, & the faders/pots needed replacing amongst other things.

I think that with this company they offered you the likes of a 2" 24 track and big mixers at the absolute cheapest you could buy them for, but ultimately you get what you pay for !!!

nothing is what i would be paying. and the forum with the discussion was prosound web's REP forum. the discussion was about a studio magnetics tape machien.

the work that i know needs to be done is star gounding on every channel, and mabey a mod to inrease the output, this thing is rated to 0db. and mabey in the future balance the outputs. recap if needed, which it will be in few years.

I have had the misfortune of servicing and using these, and I posted in the other thread over at Dave Hecht's forum... Here's one thread... and here's the other.

My advice is "run the F#*! away."

This may sound flippant, but putting money into one of these to maintain it would be like putting money into a 1976 Yugo. Simply not worth it.

Not putting too fine a point on it, it's a piece of junk. If you pay nothing for it, you're paying fair market value. Every penny you sink in from that point, is a penny above what it's worth.

They REALLY were crap.

Keith

But were they built from crap parts? If the parts were of reasonable quality, it might be worthwhile to strip out the more useful bits, anyway.

I have an old Aces console in pieces in my basement.
It has a transformer on the mic input, followed by a class A discrete transistor gain stage.
Some of the channels use opamps instead of the discrete transistor gain stage.
The gain pot is actually a volume pot after the transformer. The EQ section is 5 band fixed frequency,with TL071 opamps.
It looks like they made a lot of mistakes when constructing the EQ...
It has unbalanced outputs.
Non buffered faders.

But I believe if you use the input gain stage w/transformer you can make some decent sounding preamps. Just use a stepped dual rotary switch for padding and gain like Neve does.

I have traced the circuits and drawn a schematic.
Have no scanner yet though...

There should be lots of VU meters on the desk,but I only have the channel strips and groups,so I dont know anything about the quality of those yet. Probably nice for DIY projects?

lydmann

Like I said you get what you pay for, & these were the cheapest of the cheap, & consequently they don't have good parts. These desks were about 1/3 the price of the equivalent Soundcraft desk & major corners had to be cut. However, you might get a box of 5534 or TL0XX.

Interesting what Lydmann says about the transformers. I don't remember them in the desk I looked at, although it was a few years ago. All I remember is the really cheap pots & poor construction.

I remember the preamps as being kinda light on the low end...

The meters were not good either... componex I think.

The pots were carbon track, ¼" plastic D-shaft, and the tracks were prone to wearing out. I remember the faders being cheap too...

The EQ's didn't set flat. It was a challenge to even try... :roll:

I remember them being noisy and not very good, but they were the cheapest things you could dream of. -If you simply couldn't afford anything 'proper', they at least allowed you to advertise 24 tracks and 32 channels... (or whatever) even if we'd laugh at them today.

Keith

The line in has problems with the lows,but I think it is related to poor construction of the PAD resistors.
With mic in I had no problems...
And they (too) used OEP transformers on the input.
But on the opamp gain stage channels there were Sennheiser transformers(tm-003).

lydmann

i getting this because they thing i may bea ble to do something with it. it would come with a complete set of schematics so if and when i get it i will post them.

FEOB - every page on your website is forbidden, why even post a link to it???

keith i thought i had seen you around before.

i had already seen the first thread, and even thought the second was also about the tape machiens, it was an entertaining read.

sorry twist, that is no longer my site, it shoulnt be down but oh well i guess i need to update my profile. :razz:

so its been a while, finaly an update.

i whent and saw the consol. it is every thing you said and more. the price is zero dollars, only time. they want me to mount a couple of the channels up so they can use them. i told them mabey if they pay for every thing. the summing is all pasive, and crap, that would need to be compleatly re-done. basicly build a new mother board. there are also difrent mods on difrent channels.

before i get the dont waist your time speech. i have still not made up my mind on what i am going to do with the console. right now its 28-30 channels. they want 2 channels so that i have parts and extras. that would give me around 26 channels. all input tranx are mostly elecor and a couple jensens. so worst case i am left with 26 tranx to use in other projects and i leave the chassis in a alley some where.

i have full schematics including most of the mods that where done to it. this is not something that i expect to use in my studio for a long while if ever.