Any info on Studiomaster Series II boards?

[ndecarmine]

Looking at gear to begin putting together a home/project studio, and a Studiomaster Series II board just came up on CL for $650. It was a 16x8 and then had an additional 8 channels added on. Not much other info was provided, and no mention of any issues with the board.
I dont know much about these boards and hoped someone here had some experience with them and would share their thoughts.
For the record, I'm also on the lookout for an Otari MX5050 1/2 inch 8 track - I plan to track through that into PT to edit, but it never hurts to have extra channels on the mixer for somewhere down the line...
Thanks!

[dsw]

I wouldn't pay that much for a Studiomaster. Too noisy.
Much better off with Soundcraft or Allen and Heath.

check out the new ZED line of Allen and Heaths

[ndecarmine]

Thanks for the head's up. Been looking at those Allen & Heath boards, among others. Tough to know off the bat which way to go on some of this gear. Want to make sure I get the right tools for the job...

[Harry]

I was looking at the ZED mixers. It looks like the 16 channel with the firewire is the only one that can do more than 2 tracks out at a time? is that right??


The studiomasters can sound pretty fat if it's in good shape. I've never mixed on one but I've done a little tracking through one before. I liked the way you could really drive the pres hard until the start to break up in a cool way.
I agree that $650 is too much though.
I've seen them go for almost nothing.

whatever you get make sure it has direct outs.

[operator_tape]

nice console, you might have to clean it up a bit but not for 650$, thats highway robbery

[calaverasgrandes]

I havent used a studiomaster in years. Cant remember which ones were good and were crap. I do recall that they all sounded good, but were a touch on the noisy side (or maybe it was just the headphone amp that was noisy?).
In my oft derided opinion, ANY old mixer is better than the thin sounding garbage that passes for a new mixer these days.
I have a lot of gear that specs out at -70db snr or worse, but somehow manages to make beautiful sounds in spite of the bad numbers. This is how I feel about old mixers. There might be some hiss embedded in your track, but if its front end for a daw, you kind of want to get some grunge and fuzz on your tracks anyway.

Soundcraft 200B's are cool for the Eq if nothing else. IIRC they need a mod to be anything but a 16x4x2 board. Heck most mixers from the 80's and early 90s will need a mod to have direct outs added.