MTE Consoles

by **zedsoundz** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 8:29 pm

G'day,

I have a mate, who has a mate who has in his possesion an mte console. It's a 24 channel, 8 buss jobby and he myself and the other bloke have no idea from where, when or what this console is.

Has anybody ever come into contact with one of these or have any info regarding these? cos I can't find anything on the web.

Cheers

P.S. (it's deffinately not one of Malcom Toft's MTA consoles)

by **rick** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 9:59 pm

there were a couple of queensland built "mte branded " consoles kicking around, i think nick mainsbridge had, or has one here in sydney ,
mte is outside my knowledge base really , except they looked ugly
i have no real clues to who made them

by **Howard Jones** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 11:36 pm

The name MTE is synonymous with Magna-Tech Engineering (http://magna-tech.com/) the pre-eminent company in the supply of film & sound equipment for the post-production industry in the 80s and 90s.

I have often wondered whether there is any connection between this MTE and these consoles that pop up every so often. Given that Rick has identified some consoles as being assembled in Queensland, I would say not.

A 24-8 mixer is unlikely to have been used for audio post nor for radio production, so presumably these were built for recording or live sound applications.

If you have a mate who has mate who has.... then he might be able to pick up some identifying labels on the device somewhere? Any little clue?

by **rob** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 9:39 am

MTE was an Australian company that primarily made broadcast consoles.
Many radio stations have / had MTE consoles
I've come across one that i've refurbished that was a recording console. It is a very interesting console, transformer based mic-pres, configured for automation, powerful EQ and flexible in-line monitoring.
I can't remember the model no. However i thought it could be a very useable small console ( this one was 16 channels from memory )
All the caps were completely shot ( In fact i remember spending a week replacing all the caps in a couple of MTE broadcast consoles that were from the same era and used the same brand of caps )

Yes they are ugly.

Rob

by **zedsoundz** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 10:19 pm

Many thanks guys :)

I will endeavour to get some piccys or more background on the console for curiosities sake.

Ta! :D

by **muz** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:21 pm

Its my understanding that MW at Sound on Stage bought all of MTE's assets when MTE folded which must have happened before 1992.

While I was working for sound on stage in the early '90's at the Chalmers St premises the entire residual stock of console parts, equipment specs, blueprints, everything that MTE as a company consisted of was thown into a 10 tonne skip when the time came to move from that building.

There were enough parts to build perhaps 10 consoles but absolutely no reason or call to do so.

As I understand it MTE was a very highly regarded designer and manufacturer of broadcast equipment, not confined to consoles.

A few bits and pieces of MTE equipment are still in the posession of the company that purchased the hire dept assets of SOS in 1996.

by **Howard Jones** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 9:21 pm

Muz, thanks for all that info. Would you happen to know why/under what circumstances MTE folded? If the E = Engineering, are the MT = someone's initials?

by **muz** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 1:26 pm

Howard Jones wrote:Muz, thanks for all that info. Would you happen to know why/under what circumstances MTE folded? If the E = Engineering, are the MT = someone's initials?

According to MW, Malcolm Macintosh was\is the designer and the guy behind MTE, based in Brisbane. There were only around 3 or 4 models of console produced, broadcast and production consoles only.

Also, not ALL the spares were dumped. MW tells me that he gave all the good stuff back to Malcom in brisbane when SOS had to move from chalmers st.
Still, seeing 10 tonnes of nice consoles parts being binned was no less frutrating even knowing this.

muz

by **Roy** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:40 pm

Chris Gray has one-

www.graylabel.com.au

And he loves it!

by AJ » Tue Jul 11, 2006 6:41 pm

I used an MTE 24/8 in Tv broadcast etc for many years back in the mid 80s it was fawn in colour and was ok, but in my opinion nothing to write home about.

by **stevelkneivel** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 3:40 pm

Hi,
I know this thread is a bit long in the tooth, but it is the only MTE reference I can find...I have the the aforementioned 16 channel console and theres room for 8 more if any one knows where I can get some strips. Also, I reckon it sounds pretty good compared to many other rigs I have heard, just my 2 cents. lol.
Thanks in advance.
Steve.

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