Studer B67 II

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 11:35 am

Just found one on eBay, less than 90 miles from my house. With rolling cart and meterbridge. Talked to the seller on the phone, everything's working great. I am downloading the service manual and other documentation now.

Needless to say I will be mixing down to it from now on. Would love to hear some hints/tips/quirks. I'll need to figure out what it's biased for. What tape does it like? What are some of the pitfalls I should look out for? The sellers seem to have tested it extensively, but I assume I'll need to bias/align...I barely know where to begin.

I'm either gonna drive up and get it tomorrow, or they'll bring it down on Monday.

Here 'tis...

JohnDavisNYC · Post by **JohnDavisNYC** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 11:40 am

congrats!

john

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 11:45 am

Thanks dude! It was ogling your deck the other day that made me remember to check eBay again... you've got the 810 though right?

mjau · Post by **mjau** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 11:55 am

Sweet! Mind if I move in to your recording space?

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 12:12 pm

mjau wrote:Sweet! Mind if I move in to your recording space?

Sure, just bring over your MRL tape and oscilloscope and we're golden

mjau · Post by **mjau** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 12:21 pm

inverseroom wrote:
mjau wrote:Sweet! Mind if I move in to your recording space?
Sure, just bring over your MRL tape and oscilloscope and we're golden

How about a bottle of Evan Williams instead?
It's a 1/2" machine, right?

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 12:30 pm

No, 1/4inch! It's very INDIE ROCK

@?,*???&? · Post by **@?,*???&?** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 2:42 pm

Exactly like mine. Love it. These only ran at 3 speeds with 15 ips being the fastest, but I understand there is a mod out there for 30 ips.

I paid $150 for mine and it needed 2 hours of tech work to get it up and running.

I mix to this thing as well as bounce individual tracks off it regularly from Pro Tools. I also picked up a 2-channel Dolby A Model 365 on ebay for $75 too. I only use the Dolby when I bounce to tape from Pro Tools. Dolby A is a multiband compression. Sounds sort of weird running a stereo mix through it for most rock stuff.

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 5:07 pm

That';s a good solid machine from everything I know. Plus you get the secondary monitor reference.

You'll want to get an MRL and learn how to slign it. It ain't rocket science.

Have fun.

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 5:15 pm

Cool. I will need a dual trace scope, no? Anybody recommend a cheap one that will do the job, that I can get on eBay?

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 5:28 pm

Also, what tape should I use, 911/456, or 900/gp9? And thus which MTR tape?

@?,*???&? · Post by **@?,*???&?** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 12:48 pm

inverseroom wrote:Also, what tape should I use, 911/456, or 900/gp9? And thus which MTR tape?

I'm printing mixes of a project today to RMGI 911. Sounds great. Recently had some 3M 996 on here and that sounded exactly like I remember it. 499 sounds great too. The 456 I've had on here sounded average. Note this is a not necessarily a 'high print' deck. Keep your calibration levels in the + 6 or +7 area, but don't hit the tape hard. The peak lights on this deck are useful for that.

Trick to bias this thing- if you have that old article Larry and the guys wrote in one of the first issues of TapeOp on alignment- make a note that this machine bias' like a 'narrow format' deck. Thus your overbias adjustments are in the 4.75 to 5.75 area at 15 ips.

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 1:06 pm

I've been really enjoying SM900 on my 1/4" deck lately. I align at +6 eventhough the tape can take +9. It's really smooth sounding and does nice things to the vocals. The bass and the hisgs are super smooth.

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 1:59 pm

Jeff, is 911 really that much nicer than 456? That's nice to hear. My 4-track is set up for 456, so I am leaning toward biasing it for that, so I don't have to pay for two separate MRL tapes.

Tony and Jeff, did you do all the calibration on your machines yourselves? Is it hard? Honestly I have never tried this stuff.

I got the machine this morning BTW, cleaned and demagged it. The heads look awesome. There was a lot of yellow splicing pencil all over everything, but not much wear at all. Meterbridge bulbs appear to be burned out, but that should be an easy fix. At least I hope.

hughindigo · Post by **hughindigo** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 2:42 pm

Inverse,

You only really need one mrl tape for one given speed of operation. For instance, if you buy a 250 nWb/m MRL wich is +3, and you want to calibrate for +6 you set the meters to read -3 instead of zero. Bias is set during the record half of the calibration and is independant of the MRL tape.

Calibrating a machine is not overly complicated. I took a seminar at ATR services in York, PA. I know it would be a haul for you, but they are offering a seminar on Nov. 9.

-Jerry

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