Trident VFM consoles

[jx]

anyone got any poop on these? i've found a 12-2 for $200. the guy reckons it has the same pres as the 65 series. the eq isn't the same though, and it'll need work. this a fair price?

[hollywood_steve]

Its a very cool little board, but the channel strips are not the same as those in the 65 desks. $200 is obviously a great price....BUT, it all depends on what you mean by "it'll need work." (For comparison, I sold my 16x8x2 for $1,200 last year, and I could have sold a dozen more at that price, I was shocked at how many guys contacted me offering to buy it no questions asked).

Although this was the bottom of the line for Trident, it was a modular board, so it is very easy to work on. And it was designed before the crazy trend to miniaturize everything, so the channel strips are nice and wide and there is plenty of room inside to work on things. But even though it only sold for between $3k and $5k when new, it would cost a shitload more to build something like this today, so repairs could get expensive.

When it comes to mods, the "standard" upgrades for this board include a better grounding system, beefed up power supply, and a full re-cap. The next step is more open for debate: some guys recommend upgraded ICs, at least in the master and output modules. Others say to leave the chips alone as long as they are working fine.

My take on upgrades is that the money is probably better spent buying a better board. (after you do the basic PS, grounding and re-cap work)
5 or 10 years ago, extensive mods might have made sense, because the board is so easy to work on and there is plenty of space to fit all sorts of mods. But now prices have fallen so far, so fast on better boards, that I wouldn't go beyond the basic mods.

I owned my VFM for about 6 years and there is a LOT more I could talk about if you go ahead and buy this thing. Let me know.

[jx]

Thanks steve, that's a shitload of info!

basically, i want something to sum mix with- would it be suitable?

i had a fleximix, but for some reason i just never got into it. i know a load of people love them for front end- call me weird, but i just didn't. it was good for some things, but i couldn't justify keeping it for how much i used it- it was gigantic, and space is at a premium in my room, so it had to go...

i've been looking for something that can give me a bit of analogue glue, and the VFM is i) cheap, ii) smallish, and iii) there. i know it won't be a neve or api, but it would still put 'something' in the chain...

i understand the channel strips aren't the same as the 65, but i heard that the pres themselves are; they just don't have the swept eq and phantom power the 65 has. is this true?

workwise, he reckons it just needs a clean and a few jack sockets replacing. so it's not broken in two...

what was your VFM suited to? I've got some reasonable pres, and only really need it as an 8 ch breakout mixer. what newer small consoles would you recommend in a similar vein?

thanks in advance...

[hollywood_steve]

basically, i want something to sum mix with- would it be suitable?

uh, maybe...


i had a fleximix, but for some reason i just never got into it. i know a load of people love them for front end- call me weird, but i just didn't. it was good for some things, but i couldn't justify keeping it for how much i used it- it was gigantic, and space is at a premium in my room, so it had to go...

OK, now this is getting bizarre. a VFM and a Fleximix with the same amount of channels - the VFM is much bigger! Maybe you had a 32ch fleximx and you are comparing it to a 12ch VFM?

Why not just use the master section from the fleximix with only as many inputs as you need for summing? The Flex was about 50% more expensive for the same number of ch as the VFM, so I can't see how you would like the VFM if you didin't like the Flex.


i've been looking for something that can give me a bit of analogue glue, and the VFM is i) cheap, ii) smallish, huh? and iii) there. i know it won't be a neve or api, but it would still put 'something' in the chain...

i understand the channel strips aren't the same as the 65, but i heard that the pres themselves are; they just don't have the swept eq and phantom power the 65 has. is this true?

i would be surprised if this was true. why would Trident put the preamps from a $12,000 console into a 3 or 4 thousand dollar console? bad marketing move.....but could have happened, I guess.....


workwise, he reckons it just needs a clean and a few jack sockets replacing. so it's not broken in two...

what was your VFM suited to? I've got some reasonable pres, and only really need it as an 8 ch breakout mixer. what newer small consoles would you recommend in a similar vein?


I used my VFM for a few rock recordings, but mostly it was just used for monitoring. If I was in your situation and just wanted a summing mixer, I'd suggest my current setup: the API 7800 + one of the 8200 line mixers. That will give you an 8x2 mixer that is way beyond the VFm (or probably any other Trident, short of an A-range) I got my combo for just over $3k and I don't know of anything else in that price range with better performance.

[aurelialuz]

they just don't have the swept eq

i had a VFM that had swept EQ. justinf on this board has it now.

[justinf]

Yep, still got it. . . use it all the time. Not for summing, though. I would describe the board as colored and dark, which is great for a set of pres with nice musical eq (especially since I have several other clean, hi-fi options), but not for mixing/summing imho. I may still attempt to modify the 2 buss at some point because I like the strips quite a bit. . .we'll see. Be happy to answer any other q's you might have. j