Mixing desk advice

Hey guys, I see theres a lot of mixing desks around going very cheap.
I'm just looking for something that maybe needs a little repair work, mostly for education and practice on my DIY skills, but I may get some use out of afterwards.
Now all the big names aside, Neve, SSL, API and the likes, do any of the following manufacturers have any desireable qualities in some of their desks? (ie, summing, EQ, sound?)
Samson
Studio Research
Soundcraft
Behringer
Carlsbro
Soundtracs
Fostex
Seck
Ephos
Peavey
Soundlab
Studio Master

Thanks

Hi,


  there are some awesome broadcast desks out there that are still going for a song. At a pinch, they should wipe the floor with the above. It all depends what you want the desk to actually do! ie how many ins, eq, comps etc.


  real bargains are Chilton, Glensound, Tweed, Sony MXP2000 series, ANd even some small Calrec stuff ain't too pricey if you are lucky. They are also built to be fairly readily accessible for repairs. You wont find much joy in getting into many others. DOn't forget the Amek BC2 and BC3's


  SOundtracs were always good bang-for-buck, and you might look out for Early Midas or Soundcraft(series II?). COme to hink of it, you should check out Raindirk too.


  Also great bang-for-buck was TAC, and COlin at Audiomaintainance has spares, I think(?)

    Kindest regards,



      ANdyP

Thanks for the advice andy, in answer to you question the specifics of the desk such as channels and ins and outs arent of major importance here, I've looked at anything from 6 upto 32 channels today. Its more to do with getting one that isnt working perfectly and trouble shooting it and getting it back in working order.
It would be nice to get some use out of it after all the work, but I mainly work in the box,  but running stuff through the desk will always be an option where needed.

Soundcraft Delta or 200 desks are great. Fully modular, easy to work on and very high quality mechanical components. The pots are about as good as it gets, I've got a 25 year old desk with heavy use, and every single pot works just like new. The faders are another matter, but replacements are easily availible. Now depending on how much time and money you want to sink into this you can do a lot. Besides all the cleaning I (helped by suggestions from the net and kind people here and at gearslutz) replaced all electrolytics with high quality ones (often higher values), put in better EQ caps for the high end, changed the EQ values, replaced all op amps (modern, far better ones, all biased into Class A, all with added local decoupling caps), replaced several resistors, added bypass caps to channels and master bus, recapped and modded the PSU, repalced lamps with white LEDs.
A lot of work, and quite a lot more money than I paid for the thing in the first place, but this console now sounds as good as any. Very big, clear, punchy, alive. I also like the EQ more than some dedicated outboard.

That sounds great, initially i dont intend to spend as much money as you have there, so i may buy a smaller desk and experiment with replacing caps and op amps, so I can hear the difference such things make.
Sounds like you had lots of fun with that, that is the kind of thing I@m after doing, but on a smaller scale to begin with.

Hey I've got a great Ramsa console for sale. It does sound good, nice pres, could use some TLC. Let me know if you're interested!
I had it up in the Black Market a while ago, the post should still be out there. 24x8x2 IIRC... WRT820... Full meter bridge...

I hate to sell it but I don't have the room or the time...

I'm in the UK, so the shipping alone is probably more than I'm gonna pay for a desk just to experiment with.
but thanks for the offer.

Any soundcraft made around or before 1983 are a great bang for the buck.

(series 1, series2, 1s, 200b, 400, 400b,800, 800b,1600, 2400 etc)


Another cheeeep great sounding board for the money if you can find one is..
http://www.colin.org/Copywriter/Tangent/TangentText.html

We mixed a lot of great sounding stuff on one of these in the old days
http://gar381interests.com/YogiPogi_MM1000_2402-A.jpg

"Tangent"  their "a" and "ax" series desks sell for under $100 and are very clean and quite.

GARY

There are some nice DDA's too out there.
I almost picked up a 16-4-2 last year, it went for £400, was modular and working perfectly
( though you're after some solder time I see )

MM.

Sony mxp 2000 was the main reason I got into DIY.
The manual with ALL schematics was a crucial part of it.
I had to understand the schematics just to get the darn thing up and running.
A very cool desk I have to say. I still have most of the manual scanned in pdf format in case anyone needs it...

this looks like quite a lot of desk for the £99 it's up to so far
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Soundcraft-2400-Mixing-Console-/330438654036?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Recorders_Rewriters&hash=item4cefadb854