Altec Lansing 1210: anybody??

[Mradyfist]

Ok, so I picked up an old Altec Lansing 1210 "Control Console" from some guy off Craigslist for $35. He said it didn't work, although he wasn't very specific. It does, at least the parts that I'm interested in; it's a powered mixer, so maybe the power amp is busted, but I tried a couple channels and they outputted to the line level.

Here's some basic info on it (I don't have any pictures right now, but I'll take some if someone's interested).

It's definitely solid state, and it says so in big letters on the top so I'm guessing it was built when solid state was a big deal.

It's got six channels, each with reverb on/off, reverb send, high and low EQ, and gain. The inputs are 1/4", but I don't think it needs line level. I plugged a mic into one using an XLR to 1/4" Hi-Z converter, and it came out the other side.. actually didn't sound horrible either. The channels also have a switch on the front that goes between "vocal" and "instrument", and as far as I can tell all this does is change the gain on the preamp.

The thing has a number of different outs, and I'm having a little trouble determining what each of them is for, since I don't have a manual and according to Google, this box never existed.

Anyway, my questions are: Does anybody have any experience with this or a similar model? Would the preamps sound good if I hooked everything up in a reasonable way? The channels look like they're mounted to individual PCBs; would it be worth my time to remove some and try to rackmount them? Maybe replace some of the older components?

[brianroth]

In the latter years, a lot of Altec-branded electronics gear was built here in OKC. Sigh...it was a sad day when the old University Sound/Altec factory plant went dead. (Sidebar: eons ago, when I was in high school, a University Sound engineer gave me a factory tour, including the anechoic chamber.)

I dunno if this is any help, but a ex-Altec guy is running a (speaker) shoppe here, and he *might* be able to direct you to a source of manuals.

http://www.greatplainsaudio.com/

Another possibility might be via the "new incarnation" of Altec, but this new company is selling speakers, not electronics. However, at this link:

http://www.altecpro.com/products/vintage/index.htm

..I do see an electronics link. (Funny how many Oklahoma City contacts there are ..LOL!).

Bri

PS, take a snapshot of your unit and link it somewhere. It might jar a memory from someone.

[brianroth]

Dusty Archives (scan of ancient pages):

http://www.brianroth.com/library/altec/

Bri

[Mradyfist]

Thanks for the scan Brian, that brochure helps confirm some of my suspicions about the box. It looks like I was right about the vocal/instrument switch, as the brochure lists it as a hi/lo gain switch.

I'll probably take some pictures of it next time I'm over at the studio, maybe late tonight or tomorrow.

Actually when I was in college for recording, we got to take a tour of the Telex headquarters here in the Twin Cities for live sound class. They had an anechoic chamber there that they claimed was one of the quietest around, with a noisefloor well below 0dBSPL. It would be pretty sweet to try recording something in there to see what it sounded like..

[brianroth]

I dunno...I prefer live rooms, myself! <g>

Bri

[Mradyfist]

Ok, finally got around to taking some pictures; sorry for the quality, I used my camera phone. Anybody have any ideas on whether I should bother trying to make pres out of it? The channels look like they'd be easy to separate..

[A.David.MacKinnon]

Wow! That looks fun.
I'd use it as is for a while before I chopped it up. You never know what you might use it for until you use it.
How does it sound?

[Mradyfist]

Well, I didn't get an entirely accurate picture of the sound, because I was running an SM57/RE27 through a Hi-Z converter to be able to plug in to those TRS jacks on the front. However, even doing it that way it seemed fairly clear and not really all that "old" sounding; the EQ was fun to play with too. It also seemed to have a really unique distortion style when I tried to crank up the channel gain too much- it sounded almost like a slight buzz, only at a specific frequency no matter what was overloading it.

I haven't gotten a chance to try hooking it up to my system properly yet, because it's heavy and there's no good place to set it in the control room right now, but I suppose I'll do that before I start taking out channel modules to see if I like what it does. I probably wouldn't leave the thing intact though, because it's so huge. However, as far as I can tell nobody else has really messed with these that much (or at least nobody's mentioned it online), which is cool.. I'll be the first to have an authentic Altec 1210 channel strip!

Also, sorry about breaking the tables with the huge images. I've resized and reuploaded, and they should display nicely now.

[littlesongs]

It really is a cool looking grotty old beastie. The folks at the Altec User's Board have been helpful to me in the recent past. They are partnered with Altec-Lansing's unofficial Website -- where you can find a copy of the 1220A manual.

I stumbled across this sketch of the 1210 as part of a much larger system:





All levity aside, it sounds like it could be a pretty interesting project. A low budget and a potential for surprising results is a winning combination -- please keep us posted.

[Mradyfist]

It might be a while before I really get around to messing with it, because I still need to finish the control room volume/headphone amp that's been sitting on my desk for weeks now. But I promise I'll try! I kind of wish I could work out a way to rackmount some of the pres with the bottoms of the circuit board showing through plexiglass or something, I just love the way those hand-drawn traces look.