Helios Consoles Footage

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I really love this interview with Pete Tattersall, working in Strawberry Studios on the big red Helios with the Bay City Rollers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb4k2LYV-MU

(Video's not the best quality, but I'm just happy it exists at all!)
 
Strawberry Studios - Martin Hannett - 1980

black Helios desk, I don't know is its a four band eq version or "classic" passive eq version, but it seems to have more subgroups or buses than the red console

https://youtu.be/XI-w7LjSNi4
 
TwentyTrees said:
I really love this interview with Pete Tattersall, working in Strawberry Studios on the big red Helios with the Bay City Rollers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb4k2LYV-MU

(Video's not the best quality, but I'm just happy it exists at all!)

Thanks
 
I've found this version of XTC at the Manor edited by Tony Arnold.

[urlhttps://youtu.be/EeJf8r8wA1k][/url]
 
Thank you Rob.

i have question: looking at the meters of the console at min 4:55 i perceive that their movement is unusual, their needles don't fall after the peak and stay kind of in the middle. maybe is right this way, but i'm used to see the needles bounce to a greater range in my experience. what do you think? i'm completely imaging this?
 
pahstah said:
Thank you Rob.

i have question: looking at the meters of the console at min 4:55 i perceive that their movement is unusual, their needles don't fall after the peak and stay kind of in the middle. maybe is right this way, but i'm used to see the needles bounce to a greater range in my experience. what do you think? i'm completely imaging this?

That is because they are PPMs.

Cheers

Ian
 
ruffrecords said:
That is because they are PPMs.

Cheers

Ian

Thank you Ian, now I understand why. And why do you think they made the decision to put PPM instead of VU meters in that console? Client request?
 
pahstah said:
Thank you Ian, now I understand why. And why do you think they made the decision to put PPM instead of VU meters in that console? Client request?

Most likely. A lot would depend on the type of music to be recorded. For pop/rock you do not mind the extra punch you get by driving tape hard so a VU meter is probably adequate. If you care about distortion then a PPM allows you to see the real peaks. This generally means you end up recording at a lower level which can bring noise problems but by then Dolby A was common so it was much less of an issue.

The first console I did for Pete Townsend was an extension of his existing Neve one at Ell Pie studios. When I got there to talk to him about it I was surprised to see it was fitted with PPMs. This probably explains the better than average attack to Keith Moon's drums on many of the tracks recorded there.

Cheers

Ian
 
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