Comments on: Audio Mixing Consoles circa 1959

By: CC Hogan

CC Hogan — Thu, 02 Jun 2022 14:24:50 +0000

I own an IBC desk from the 1950s that is similar to the Westrex portable stereo. It is a 9 into 3 with optional stereo out and two output panning knobs – centre left and centre right. The input channels are rotary not straight faders. Inside, it is fully modular and uses germanium transistors. It has an optional plug-in patchbay which creates breakouts for each channel so EQ etc can be patched in.

Interestingly, it has a set of remotes cut into it. These were added later when the desk was used by Melotron for mastering their loop tapes.

The original desk was used for remote work including recording My Old Man’s a Dustman by Lonnie Donagan.

I hasn’t been switched on for 40 years and I would be nervous to now!

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 00:01:10 +0000

In reply to Louis Tash. Hi Louis! Did you ever end up selling your Westrex mixer?

By: Louis Tash

Louis Tash — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 18:49:09 +0000

I have a Westrex Hollywood mixing console. Number 20 in the series. It is an 8 channel mixer. It was released July 4th 1960 billed as the first fully solid discrete mixing console ever. Westrex 1627-C. Do you have any information on these. I’m getting ready to sell. It was reportedly the mixing console for The Beverly Hillbillies soundstage.

By: Larry DeVivo

Larry DeVivo — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 14:35:24 +0000

I own a custom built 12 x3 tube console that was built using Langevin/Electrodyne components. It was built for the UCLA theater, fim and television department in the early 60’s. The preamps are 201A’s same as the Langevin 5116B’s but in a smaller “cassette” type housing.

I’m in the process of restoring her right now although really she just needed a good cleaning, a power supply for the lighted Simpson VU meters and connectors soldered back on.

Here is a link to some pictures… http://www.historyofrecording.com/Langevin_Tube_Console.html

By: Tonmeister K

Tonmeister K — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 16:30:46 +0000

I own a good ‘used’ copy of that book in the summer of 77. I had a small 4-track studio at the time. Scored it for a fiver. Cheers.

By: bafflegab

bafflegab — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 03:41:58 +0000

In reply to hunt-the-wumpus. Yes, but you can download both the 3d and 4th Radiotrons. The Audio Cyclopedia is tough to find since most have been bought up by the sharks and sent east.

By: Don Gillette

Don Gillette — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 14:00:13 +0000

I have many memories of using the western electric console at the Ford Motor Co. recording studio on the 10th floor. Our console resembled the one on the top of your web page. It had talk-back switch , it doesn’t appear on your photo. Also there some very rare tubes in the power supply and amplifier stages. This was used mainly with a Rek o kut lathe and a 350 Ampex 14 reel to reel . The console was also jumpered into equalizers and compressor when needed. The outdput bus was fed to a back room where we had 6 ampex reel to reel recorders which recorded The Automotive Digest of the air. Sadly the studio was closed and the equipment resides at Greenfield Village museum in Dearborn mi.

By: hunt-the-wumpus

hunt-the-wumpus — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 02:38:17 +0000

Margaret Whiting is more famous for having married unusually unusually, to put it mildly. She was also a trustee of Johnny Mercer’s estate as I recall and wielded considerable power inasmuch as that estate still earns a sum in the same ballpark as the works, say, of Lennon-McCartney.

That distracted unnecessarily from the fact that she was really a fine vocalist, every bit the equal of Tony Bennett or Rosemary Clooney.

I own both the Audio Cyclopedia AND the Radiotron Designer’s Handbook, incidentally, and the Radiotron is actually a much better first acquisition. Only about a hundred pages of the Cyclopedia is of interest to anyone but film sound buffs. It does have a detailed exegesis of the Mcintosh amplifier circuit, and a lot of information about mag tape recording, although a great amount of space is spent on the 3M machine that no one now uses rather than the Ampexes and Studers that are what 90% of modern tape heads run.

By: rrusston

rrusston — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:06:02 +0000

This book is genuinely hard to find, unlike the Radiotron Designer’s Handbook, 4th Edition which is actually much more common. Much of it is otiose today but what is relevant is very good and I would very much like to see it reprinted. I have suggested that a .pdf of both the 1959 and 1969 editions (the illustration you present is actually this, later edition) be included with the current one. So far, to no avail.

By: Buster

Buster — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:13:37 +0000

The singer in the Capitol studio shot appears to be Margaret Whiting, one of the company’s early stars.