Hello everyone!
Been lurking around here for a while now, soaking up knowledge and generally being impressed and inspired by what goes on here. One of the nicest corners of the interwebs I've found in quite some time! Kudos to all of you who make this place a fantastic place to learn.
Now, on to the madness.
I've been the proud owner of a 1987 Neotek Elite, 32 channel, for several years now. As far as I've seen from everything I've read, its pretty much stock minus the P&G fader upgrade on the large faders. No master insert, swapped chips, etc. Through a series of events, I have moved my entire existence into another space in which I'll be running my own company doing IT work and ceasing the operation of my studio for the time being. This means my lovely Neotek will not be utilized as the centerpiece of my studio any longer, as I've relocated most of my rig into my apartment for the time being. I'll still be writing and recording, but...no real studio.
Without getting into the millions of summing mixer options currently available, all I really want is my Neotek's summing...in my apartment. So I got to thinking, why couldn't I just grab 12 (minimum) of the modules, the master section, slap them into another custom built chassis (I have very talented builder friends!), wire up a new TT patchbay (I have PLENTY of spare cable and bays) to replace the stock patchbay I would be losing, build a VU meter bridge, use the existing power supply for the console, and have myself a mini Neotek while the other half goes to hang in storage till I figure out my next move.
This is just a theoretical idea, and I'm very interested in hearing some ideas. I'll also be posting this on the Neotek Mailing List, but I wanted to start a discussion here first cause I really love this forum and I'm interested in exploring the idea here. Here are some of the scenarios that come to mind:
1. What I described above, a custom "chopped" down Elite, complete with the full master section and all the routing/mute logic, aux sends. I would either pull the P&G faders and build those into the desk, or use some very high quality stepped pots in their place, for ease of repeatability. Build/buy VU meters/buffers for the 12 channels and the 2 buss. This would give me a small 24 channel inline mixer with full EQ, routing, inserts and monitoring and the pres, giving me exactly what I want.
2. Grab 12 channel strips and build a replacement summing buss, likely based on the CAPI boards and JH-990's. Use something else for monitoring. Disregard all the bussing and routing and just make it so that both the small and large faders dump into the 2 mix. Don't bother using the pres. Not sure what to do about mute logic. Just install switches and say to hell with the mute groups? Add more line inputs into it with another line input section, give myself different flavors of op amps/transformer'd inputs.
3. Some hybrid of the two, allowing me to keep the aux sends (I'd really like the aux sends for FX) and maybe a limited amount of the busses (there are 26, 24 mono and 25-26 as a second stereo buss), and build a custom summing amp with the aux send masters and returns. Maybe even direct outs for the pres from each channel, using the small faders to feed the output. Actually, come to think of it, after channel 26 the channels have direct outs on the patch bay...I'll not likely need more than a few mics at a time as I'm going to be doing most of my tracking in my apartment and I also have a lunchbox with a couple of 512's (and soon others thanks to all you freaks!!).
4. F*ck this, sell it/store it and build something like the Stereotype (which I want to do anyway!). Mourn the loss of my beloved Neotek and go on about making more music with new toys I would build. Get another one when go to the next space.
My thinking is this: The channel strips are connected via ribbons (there is no backplane), and the master section is four modules that plug into a backplane which is floating via long pins into molex connectors (the worst design decision made on this console, if you ask me...has connectivity issues). I can't remember exactly how the master section interconnects with the rest of the console (patch bay, power), but it seems like if most of this is in place and the power is the same power supply, this should be doable, right? Am I crazy?
In a perfect world, when I would move to my next space (which could be a year or more), I would unplug the modules, and drop them right back into my Elite and pick up where I left off. I don't really want to modify the strips or the master section to make it unworkable in the real thing.
I would love to hear any and all thoughts concerning this idea. Thank you!
Been lurking around here for a while now, soaking up knowledge and generally being impressed and inspired by what goes on here. One of the nicest corners of the interwebs I've found in quite some time! Kudos to all of you who make this place a fantastic place to learn.
Now, on to the madness.
I've been the proud owner of a 1987 Neotek Elite, 32 channel, for several years now. As far as I've seen from everything I've read, its pretty much stock minus the P&G fader upgrade on the large faders. No master insert, swapped chips, etc. Through a series of events, I have moved my entire existence into another space in which I'll be running my own company doing IT work and ceasing the operation of my studio for the time being. This means my lovely Neotek will not be utilized as the centerpiece of my studio any longer, as I've relocated most of my rig into my apartment for the time being. I'll still be writing and recording, but...no real studio.
Without getting into the millions of summing mixer options currently available, all I really want is my Neotek's summing...in my apartment. So I got to thinking, why couldn't I just grab 12 (minimum) of the modules, the master section, slap them into another custom built chassis (I have very talented builder friends!), wire up a new TT patchbay (I have PLENTY of spare cable and bays) to replace the stock patchbay I would be losing, build a VU meter bridge, use the existing power supply for the console, and have myself a mini Neotek while the other half goes to hang in storage till I figure out my next move.
This is just a theoretical idea, and I'm very interested in hearing some ideas. I'll also be posting this on the Neotek Mailing List, but I wanted to start a discussion here first cause I really love this forum and I'm interested in exploring the idea here. Here are some of the scenarios that come to mind:
1. What I described above, a custom "chopped" down Elite, complete with the full master section and all the routing/mute logic, aux sends. I would either pull the P&G faders and build those into the desk, or use some very high quality stepped pots in their place, for ease of repeatability. Build/buy VU meters/buffers for the 12 channels and the 2 buss. This would give me a small 24 channel inline mixer with full EQ, routing, inserts and monitoring and the pres, giving me exactly what I want.
2. Grab 12 channel strips and build a replacement summing buss, likely based on the CAPI boards and JH-990's. Use something else for monitoring. Disregard all the bussing and routing and just make it so that both the small and large faders dump into the 2 mix. Don't bother using the pres. Not sure what to do about mute logic. Just install switches and say to hell with the mute groups? Add more line inputs into it with another line input section, give myself different flavors of op amps/transformer'd inputs.
3. Some hybrid of the two, allowing me to keep the aux sends (I'd really like the aux sends for FX) and maybe a limited amount of the busses (there are 26, 24 mono and 25-26 as a second stereo buss), and build a custom summing amp with the aux send masters and returns. Maybe even direct outs for the pres from each channel, using the small faders to feed the output. Actually, come to think of it, after channel 26 the channels have direct outs on the patch bay...I'll not likely need more than a few mics at a time as I'm going to be doing most of my tracking in my apartment and I also have a lunchbox with a couple of 512's (and soon others thanks to all you freaks!!).
4. F*ck this, sell it/store it and build something like the Stereotype (which I want to do anyway!). Mourn the loss of my beloved Neotek and go on about making more music with new toys I would build. Get another one when go to the next space.
My thinking is this: The channel strips are connected via ribbons (there is no backplane), and the master section is four modules that plug into a backplane which is floating via long pins into molex connectors (the worst design decision made on this console, if you ask me...has connectivity issues). I can't remember exactly how the master section interconnects with the rest of the console (patch bay, power), but it seems like if most of this is in place and the power is the same power supply, this should be doable, right? Am I crazy?
In a perfect world, when I would move to my next space (which could be a year or more), I would unplug the modules, and drop them right back into my Elite and pick up where I left off. I don't really want to modify the strips or the master section to make it unworkable in the real thing.
I would love to hear any and all thoughts concerning this idea. Thank you!
