How many channels of mic pres are there in this console?
Thirty-six complete pres and EQs and twenty-four monitor channels. It is so nice to be sitting here now at this console, but I didn't want to hang on to it just because it was nostalgic because obviously it has to work, but it's getting there. Dad has been so great about it. I was so nervous about the changes that I wanted to make. I was on the phone with him the other day and he was so pleased it was getting turned on again and going to be used that I could have dismantled the thing and rebuild it, screw by screw.
It was made by Helios, right?
No, no it was not. It was designed by my dad, who was one of the original partners in Helios, and Dick Swettenham, who was the in-house guy and had made a couple of consoles for Olympic [Studios], which, of course, was Dads' main studio for years and years. The only thing that it [the console] really resembles as far as Helios is concerned is the basic layout and stylistically, the wraparound thing. The EQ is based on the Helios EQ, which is very simple. I'm in the process of having them modified at the moment because it works great for Dad but doesn't work so well for me. There are Jensen transformers in the mic pres — I know that — but it basically was handmade from the ground up. It's a fantastic board. But we're making it better. I don't think Dad was ever really happy with it for tracking drums. And the guy that I am working with now, Tom Herzer, has done something with the pres, he's removed a bunch of stuff. We're trying to get it simpler and it is getting better. See, I love the tube stuff, the UA stuff and the EMI stuff. [It's] so simple, so straightforward, and I really don't use EQ that much so I don't need options up the yin yang. It's superfluous and unnecessary because I don't mix other peoples' stuff. I wasn't expecting to inherit this monster. He [Dad] called me up and he said, "Look I'm selling the farm. I don't really know what to..."
