Turtlerock Forum

Safely delivered today, all doing well.

I'll be writing much more about it soon. For now i'll just say that it is the most beautiful thing i've ever seen. I actually almost cried.

www.atlantisrecording.com.au

more pics soon. i'm so happy.

Very tasty, Wez. I've seen studios boast of having one of these with a lot less than 64 tracks.

You get that thing through the door OK?

door? no. window? maybe. wall? last resort. worth it all? you bet.

still in the carpark as i write this.

Quote "we're too busy trying to figure out how to get it into the building. Seriously."
Hey Wez! Bet you are all thankfull it's not raining!!
Best of luck to you all there at Atlantis with that new beast. It's shure to give your tracking and mixing some extra juice.

I feel your pain Wez. When the company I work for bought two new Telecine scanners we had to remove some floor to ceiling windows on the second floor of the building and crane the things in. It's cool to watch though!

When does the lease run out on that place, Wez? :p

When David McCluney sells the building! no more landlords for Atlantis.

your baby looks real healthy
good luck with getting it inside
does it have a name yet ?
:wink:

Hey looks nice!

It will come apart if you try hard enough. Our VR 72 came with the frame split at the centre section, and went back together perfectly. Just had to do up a lot of bolts and re-run all the ribbons, cables etc :-).

Yes, that is a nice looking console! Can you give us more (nerdy) details about it? Is it the same EQ that is on Gyraf's DIY website? What vintage is it? Is it discrete? Has ABBA ever tracked on it?

I'm in newconsoleland as well, although the AWA doesn't look in as good a condition as the Calrec and needs a bit of work. I do plan to find out as much info as I can about it, I'm told that it was the original Sydney Opera House console and then went to a radio station - that sounds about right as the build date was 1973 (same year as the opera house).

I'm going to put together little section on my website, including schematics and technical info for all the nerds like me out there. As it was made in Sydney, I'm hoping to track down some of the guys that worked on/built the thing too.

Chris H for your module I'll scan some schematics and post them to my site, should be up in a week or so.

Cheers

Chris

She came in through the drum room window...

So she's in the house. Long day, a lot of planning and discussion, but in the end no major dramas. Made it through the window with about 10 mm to spare. Also had to pull out two massive laminated glass walls, but all without incident. There were tears but that was only when I was looking at the wiring loom and could no longer hold back. I've never seen anything more beautiful.

Seriously, I'll be writing the whole experience up in an article soon, so I won't bore you with the details just now... i've just got home, still on a bit of a high.

go to www.keiththomas.com and look at his discography for an idea on who's used the console (there would also be many, many more non-keith thomas projects of course). but Amy Grant's "Baby Baby" was a #1 hit, as was Vanessa Williams' "That's What Love is For" I think. then there's Mandy Moore, Michael Bolton, Peabo Bryson, Charlotte Church, Reba McEntire, Richard Marx, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross, oh yeah Whitney Houston.... list goes on.

I just hope we can give it a worthy home, it's a bit humbling actually.

no, it's not the ABBA desk - they commisioned the first UA-8000 for their POLAR studio (hence the UA-8000 is often nicknamed the 'Polar' desk). I suspect ours is one of the very last - if not the last - one made, it was commisioned in 1987, a bit newer than i thought. Yes it's the same as Jakob's (Gyraf/Feedback studios).

Otto, I really thought it would come apart and I lost a few nights sleep over it. But we looked at the thing from every angle. The main reason this console got left on the shelf for so long is that it simply does not break down into smaller pieces - so you have to have the room for it, and a way to get it in. lots of people looked at this desk and i can tell you that it came down to physical logistics just about every time.

So David McCluney, Craig Williamson (Dan Brodie drummer and Atlantis family member) and I all agreed tonight that she was a girl, and talked about a name. I think we've got one but I have to talk to Keith first... it's bad luck to rename a ship and I reckon the same should apply to recording consoles ;-)

good luck with your baby chris... i'm also going to dedicate a page on the website to the UA-8000 owners club. i've tracked down 6, so there's another 6 out there somewhere! and between us we own a significant percentage of the world's remaining supply of ATT Dialastat switches. Our cunning plan is all coming together.

more pics are up on the website - go to "day 2".

cheers, wez

"That's what love is for" was also from the same amy grant album as baby baby. errrm..... when i was a youngling i wasn't allowed to listen to music that wasn't christian in origin.....no that the heart in motion album was even remotely "christian"..... anyway....

Wez, you're a basket case. :P

I was also subjected to Amy Grant as a child........among others....

oops, yep.... i meant "Save the Best For Last", that was the huge Vanessa Williams song wasn't it? anyway, my console's bigger than yours so who cares ;-)

anyway, from the sublime to the ridiculous.... the poor thing is about to be subjected for the first time to heavy metal, grunge rock, and worst of all..... jazz. and lots of it. i'm so sorry keith.

i am about to shut up about it for awhile, although i am happy to take questions ;-)

w

Wes

how many of those pesky dialistat switches did you get as spares? These are the bane of all older Neve and SSL owners

hey rob.... i haven't looked in the spares box but there's a few. but the desk has about 32 channels more than we actually need. so after we've racked up a few for the B-room, we'll still have plenty of modules to cannibalise for a while. but yeah, getting those switches is an issue, although i know a guy who know's a guy... but the fact that there are only a handful of u/s switches in the whole desk was a big selling point. you should see the condition of this thing, it could've been commisioned last week.