by klett » Wed Jun 02, 2010 9:49 am
greetings... you asked for it so here's my intro.
I'm John Klett... I like consoles... I have fixed up a few, built a couple, provided design support for a number, worked for Neve as a 'stringer' tech mid-late '80's to mid-late '90's, worked for the Trident rep here in the very early eighties when TSM and 80 were current, became an authorized service center for Trident after that up until the Vector (the Series 90), worked closely with Paul Wolff and api in the days of the Discrete (he built four BIG 1-1/2" format desks BEFORE the Legacy), trained up on MCI so long ago I forgot most of it... at least until I have one in front of me (which I am not trying to have happen) and …oh… helped/helping Andrew at Purple with the Super8 (but in this case I'm probably doing more harm than good) …and I take care of Bruce Swedien's stuff in Ocala so even though I worked for a Harrison/Amek/Quad/Neotek Eight Dealer for a while (Martin Audio Video Corp. NYC in the mid-'80's) I've learned a bunch more about the 32C than I really needed to know - I'm not supporting anyone else's Harrison stuff right now. I've worked on early Amek and a couple QE Pacifica's but that was quite some time ago - mostly when I was at Martin and when Michael O'Hora (the console specialist there) was off somewhere else… and there's a long list of desks that I've had my hands and mind in … from EMI (REDD), Carl Lindstrom (built for EMI), Fairchild (Integra), DDA, Neotek, Sound Workshop, Oram (yeech), Otari, Tangent, Auditronics, Langevin, SSL (when forced), Phillips (MD series), Calrec, Euphonix, Sony, Yamaha and others that I've worked on… I'm sure there are some I've forgotten... and modules from ADM, Tweed, Flickenger, Datamix and so on in addition to the regular flow of Neve and others through the shop.
I've owned a few consoles… couple MCI JH500D series, a custom Fairchild+Langevin desk… and a few others that passed through. Currently I have a couple Neve Kelso's and a Soundcraft 600. I don't use the 600 much but I've loaned it to clients and I like it. It's a lot of inputs and I can pick it up, and carry it.
My console lust began in whatever… 1974 maybe… with the Tascam (or Teac?) Model 5… I wanted that bad. I had a Teac 3340 and was recording various friends and bands in Maryland, a little north of Baltimore. The little passive loss left-center-right mix would change relative mix levels when switching tracks from L to C to R and there was no EQ or anything… never got the Model 5… I just dealt with it.
I am NOT a console specialist - a lot of people think I am… and a lot of other people think I'm a tape machine guy. A few people remember me when I was a recording and mix engineer. I've pretty much shaken off the fader automation and synchronizer hats and when people call me about Audio Kinetics I laugh quietly and get off the phone as fast as possible. Really I'm just a studio tech, engineer, and man about town.
I drop by this forum and a few others but I don't post much of anything these days. I used to moderate a couple forums but I don't want to do that any more… I got tired of lazy people called me up to tell them the same stuff I have written over and over in forums. At some point I realized that too many DIY people don't want to do the education and learning part of the "D" in DIY so I retired from that. I may never post here agin - but I might… I do drop by and have been for a while to read what is going on to get a sense of what's happening and possibly contribute. I am pretty busy, though the "industry" part of whatever this is called these days has shrunk considerably and no one seems to want to spend money to hire experienced people to help them any more. I am designing some new stuff and working with a couple friends who a making product and generally trying to have a good time until I figure out what I'm going to do when I grow up… I'm having fun with speakers lately… pulled out a lot of my old acoustical measurement junk (I do/did that too) and found that I have no idea what to do with this old TEF system I have, since $500 in software and a small AD converter do the same thing - and in color too!
I'm based in NYC… I don't do a lot of field service to do spot repairs. I hate getting married to 30 year old consoles just because I was the last one to touch it… so unless someone wants to actually restore their desk, where we take it in to a do the whole thing, or if it's one of a few select make/models I don't mind getting involved with, I don't go.
good forums here - keep up the good work and encourage people to read what has been written before, before asking the same old questions - makes it better for everyone
and that is pretty much my story as it sits today…
