DOWNLOAD: Eventide_1980

Products covered, with text, photos, and some specs, include: Harmonizer HM80, H949 and H910; LU618 de-glitch board (ooops); HK940 keyboard, FL 201 instant flanger and BPC 101 phaser card; 2830 omnipressor; BD955 Broadcast delay line 1745M delay line;  JJ193 delay line; TIMESQUEEZE system with PTC 945 precision tape controller; RD770 Monstermat mon/stereo matrioxing unit; and the Eventide Real Time Analyzer systems THS 224 and VTU02.

I am a big Eventide fan.  We have their classic H3000 Harmonizer at our studio Goldcoast Recorders (one of only two digital processors we’ve kept in the main mix room).  At home (where I don’t have room for a big outboard rack)I heavily depend on my Eventide Space reverb pedal, which is pretty likely the greatest effect pedal ever made.  I use it on literally every electric guitar and electric piano I record at home, and most synths as well.

I’ve had my eye on these early ‘compact’ HM80 harmonizers for a while; seems tough to find but would def tie the vintage synth ‘rig’ together.

One of my favorite patches in the SPACE (#19 ‘NEBULA’) models the above OMNIPRESSOR – it reverses the attack envelope of any sound.  Simple in principle, but the crazy part is it actually works.  I’d love a ‘real’ Omnipressor for the mix room at GoldCoast but these seem pretty much impossible to find for a reasonable sum.

Commodore PET anyone?  Of little interest to most, the download package contains a ton of info on Eventide’s PET-based RTA system.

Using vintage Eventide in your system?  Drop a line a weigh in.

DOWNLOAD: JVC_900_Digital_Audio_System

Products covered, with text, specs, and photos, include: the JVC AE-900V Digital Audio Editor, the DS-DM900 Digital Audio Mixer, the VP-900 Digital Audio Processor (AFAICT, a duplex stereo A/D, D/A), the TC-900V timecode unit, RM-900 remote, CR-850U 3/4″ ‘umatic’ tape machine, DS-FC901 Digital Interface Unit, DS-SU900 Sync unit, and BR-8600 1/2″ tape machine AKA a real expensive VCR.

Contributor Tom Fine told us, “this was a competitor to the Sony 1600 system.”  We’ve covered the early Sony units bit in the past (see here and here) – they were available early as 1978 – but I have never come across this JVC system before.  As Richard Hess writes in his very thorough blog,

“JVC had a competing (with SONY  -ed) and incompatible mastering system called the DAS-90 and later the DAS-900. …The processor in the DAS-90 system was called (at least at one point) the BP-90 while the processor in the DAS-900 series was the VP-900. The first version (DAS-90) used 3/4″ U-Matic video cassettes while the second version (DAS-900) used either U-Matic of VHS video cassettes (the latter to obtain longer playing time). I have not been able to confirm if tapes made on the DAS-90 can play on the DAS-900 or not. Early input says they are compatible and should interchange.”

But damn look at this lil 4×2 digital mixer!  It’s like a lil baby SSL!  And this is an actual digital mixer, btw – it’s just styled to look/feel like an analogue desk.  Crazy.

Anyone out there still using this system for anything?  Thoughts?  Let us know!

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