Thomas Eaton Recording

CONSOLE otari concept elite

The Otari Concept Elite console has been here for a year or more now...a phenomenal bit of technology. My Elite is a 48 input moving fader console with computer assisted recall of nearly every switch and knob on its surface. The board sounds great, very clean and clear...similar to my old Angela post-modification but with a faster bottom end. Coleman Rodgers upgraded the master section of this console for me, and I went even further by installing an entirely passive balanced monitor level and switching system based around some Goldpoint switches and stepped attenuator. The mic pres sound very good (and have been re-chipped and recapped), and their settings can be recalled as well! The Eagle automation can not only move the faders for mix playback, but can switch channel eqs in and out, switch aux assignments, and, of course, mutes. Each of the 48 inputs has a motorized fader, four band equalizer with two parametrics and access to eight aux sends. The lower 24 faders also have sweepable hi-pass and lo-pass filters. A very cool computerized master section controls switching and routing for all the modules, making global changes (like assigning all inputs to the stereo bus) a simple two button job. The Elite also has great metering and a full onboard patchbay. I've mounted a cutom mic batchbay in the overbridge, and permanently installed a Dorrough loudness meter in the master meter section. Typically I pull the two mix signal from the master insert send (bypassing the mix VCA and its associated electronics) and monitor the mix back through the HEDD which feeds the passive monitor switcher an analog signal and the master recorder (Tascam DVRA-hd) digitally.

Many pictures on the site still show my old Amek Angela board. The Amek was a great console, but in these days of multiple projects and overlapping mixes each needing total recall, the Otari fits my needs like a glove. My particular Elite console came from a film stage at Buena Vista pictures in LA...from the files on the hard drive it looks like the board was in use for a number of big features...always fun to see the history of your gear.

And I did love my old MCI, but I was constantly running out of inputs with it, so in 2002 I upgraded to an Amek Angela 36x24x36x2 console, with 86 inputs at mixdown. The Angela came from Rob Mounsey's Flying Monkey studio in NYC, where he did all manner of production, keyboard and arrangement work for a who's who of pop music. Rob's played and/or arranged for the likes of Paul Simon, Madonna (again?), Michael Franks, Donald Fagen, and on and on. Check out what he's up to at Flying Monkey online.

My old MCI 428b console started its life at Blank Tapes in NYC, where it did sessions with Madonna (one cut from the first album), Talking Heads (Speaking in Tongues, 1983), David Byrne (Catherine Wheel) and the B52s (Mesopotamia). When Blank closed, keyboard player Fred Zarr purchased the console for use at his home studio (Z Studio, Brooklyn), where he recorded and produced most of the first two Debbie Gibson albums (Electric Youth, Out of the Blue), and worked with Pretty Poison, and Samantha Fox. Fred also did keyboard tracks on this console for Whitney Houston, Ziggy Marley and some other famous folks. While at Fred's, the console also saw use by Taylor Dayne and The Family Stand. Fred sold the console in the early 90's to Tabb at Flatwood Studio outside Nashville, where the console continued to generate hit records. The engineers may have had something to do with it. The MCI now lives in Texas somewhere as far as I know. I hope it's warm there. If you ever bump into a 428 that has phantom on/off switches on inputs 1-8, say hello for me.