1974 API 3224 40ch resto-mod

[boji]

I think the only things really slowing me down at this point are getting the funds for 30 more Preamps and EQ's

Totally feel your frustration! Also opa build insanities.  8)  Money and time, time and money....

Are you saving up for pre's that will be different from the channel cards you've already designed?

 

[TubeMonkey]

Hey All,

It's been a longggg time since i updated this thread (5 years?!?!?!?! where does the time go!) i've had the bulk of the rest of the project done for a few years now, building the remaining pre's and grabbing a bunch more EQs... but recently partnered with a studio, Gnome, here in Nashville to install this thing. We've pooled resources and elected to redo the mil patchbay to TT and a good friend of mine who's also a great Nashville audio engineer and woodworker is rebuilding a new cabinet to remake the original sidecar which will match the existing console frame. Going to post this picture of the console in it's new home for now.... hopefully i'll have an update in a month or two with the complete sidecar/monitor mixer.

 

[thomasdf]

Awesome ! Beautiful work !

 

[jsteiger]

Hey All,

It's been a longggg time since i updated this thread (5 years?!?!?!?! where does the time go!) i've had the bulk of the rest of the project done for a few years now, building the remaining pre's and grabbing a bunch more EQs... but recently partnered with a studio, Gnome, here in Nashville to install this thing. We've pooled resources and elected to redo the mil patchbay to TT and a good friend of mine who's also a great Nashville audio engineer and woodworker is rebuilding a new cabinet to remake the original sidecar which will match the existing console frame. Going to post this picture of the console in it's new home for now.... hopefully i'll have an update in a month or two with the complete sidecar/monitor mixer.

Congrats Ethan! Looks amazing in that room!

 

[MidnightArrakis]

Hey thanks for posting. Ah, 50 pin total. Wow there are some budges in there... Don't feel so bad about my shoddy cad anymore.

>> What part of Maryland are you in? I'm way out in Hagerstown!!! Used to work at Maryland Sound Industries!!!

/

 

[firerunner]

Killer work!! Nice monitoring in there too!

 

[nielsk]

Well done!
I did a major resto-mod to a variant of this console a while back, came out of the Hollywood Record Plant remote truck.
It had some cool features, true dual inline channels (at what, 1970?!) AND the EQ is switchable between the mic path and line path. Proper dedicated active balanced line input, rotary and linear faders that can be reversed.
Added 8 Group Mute buses to the channels using the VCA group select funky switch.
Built all the ACA/Boosters using the CAPI boards.
Same 16 track MTR bus, I built a "remix" section that sums the 2 Stereo mixes and all 16 bus in Stereo groups on Stereo faders (all individually available on CRM source select), all feeding a Grand Master fader, works great.
We used the Purple Audio CRM made to drop in the old APIs, made a lot of stuff easier.
All the VCAs were removed and the channels reworked, after doing that I think you made the right move making new boards and building them out.

 

[TubeMonkey]

My good friend Alberto Sewald, another engineer and tech in town here, has been digging into the sidecar this week! We scrapped the idea of re-wiring all the center section bay stuff including the relay block and monitor mixer..... originally we were going to just desolder the miljack bay and transplant the wiring on to the new tt bays, but the Loom dressing wouldn't have been clean because the distance between jacks is different. However once we rewired and re-loomed the 40 channels of input wiring to the new bay we realized simply transplanting the last 8 patch points on each bay row wouldn't cause the wiring to bunch up too much and would save an incredible amount of work rewiring everything to the relay block. Heres the current state of the sidecar with the patchbay removed..... we'll be transplanting into the new furniture within the next couple weeks once it's stained and finished.

 

[TubeMonkey]

Well done!
I did a major resto-mod to a variant of this console a while back, came out of the Hollywood Record Plant remote truck.
It had some cool features, true dual inline channels (at what, 1970?!) AND the EQ is switchable between the mic path and line path. Proper dedicated active balanced line input, rotary and linear faders that can be reversed.
Added 8 Group Mute buses to the channels using the VCA group select funky switch.
Built all the ACA/Boosters using the CAPI boards.
Same 16 track MTR bus, I built a "remix" section that sums the 2 Stereo mixes and all 16 bus in Stereo groups on Stereo faders (all individually available on CRM source select), all feeding a Grand Master fader, works great.
We used the Purple Audio CRM made to drop in the old APIs, made a lot of stuff easier.
All the VCAs were removed and the channels reworked, after doing that I think you made the right move making new boards and building them out.

Sounds like a great project! Have any pics? Where did this board end up?

 

[dbonin]

Hey All,

It's been a longggg time since i updated this thread (5 years?!?!?!?! where does the time go!) i've had the bulk of the rest of the project done for a few years now, building the remaining pre's and grabbing a bunch more EQs... but recently partnered with a studio, Gnome, here in Nashville to install this thing. We've pooled resources and elected to redo the mil patchbay to TT and a good friend of mine who's also a great Nashville audio engineer and woodworker is rebuilding a new cabinet to remake the original sidecar which will match the existing console frame. Going to post this picture of the console in it's new home for now.... hopefully i'll have an update in a month or two with the complete sidecar/monitor mixer.

Hey All,

It's been a longggg time since i updated this thread (5 years?!?!?!?! where does the time go!) i've had the bulk of the rest of the project done for a few years now, building the remaining pre's and grabbing a bunch more EQs... but recently partnered with a studio, Gnome, here in Nashville to install this thing. We've pooled resources and elected to redo the mil patchbay to TT and a good friend of mine who's also a great Nashville audio engineer and woodworker is rebuilding a new cabinet to remake the original sidecar which will match the existing console frame. Going to post this picture of the console in it's new home for now.... hopefully i'll have an update in a month or two with the complete sidecar/monitor mixer.

Damn, nice work. You obviously know, it's the glow of all those buttons on the channel strips that make recordings sound better! Props for getting it done.