Your First System

jbl_man wrote: I would just like to add...around late 1976 we had managed to save up enough pocket money to buy a pair of ILP electronics HY200 modules (120w each from memory) together with the ILP power supply to run them. Yippee,stereo at last. I put them in a nicely made cabinet,even fitted at 4 inch cooling fan,just to be sure. Running into 8 ohms load each. Within a month,both had erupted black smoke and died. Now the fun started. Sent them back to ILP under warranty (they were only a month old remember). Nothing. No reply. Weeks went past. Months went past.I sent many letters and phone calls. Finally on threat of legal action against them, a replacement pair finally arrived. One burnt up immediately,the other a few weeks later. If anyone from ILP ever reads this,you should be taken outside and publically egged or pelted with rotten fruit for having the cheek to sell such rubbish, and also having the worst customer service i have ever experianced in over forty years!

Homemade Celestion Cook Book W Bins (1x15), in chip and carpet, one a side. Different 15" drivers in each one.

3 ibl (yes "I") 1x12" (mckensie/fane loaded) with Piezo, on each W bin. BK Electronics MXF400 3U 400W Stereo Amps. x4. MXF200 2x100W doing DJ's Wilding PowerSound 1x12 monitors. Torque 1x12" Active floor monitors. Seck 12:8:2 desk for bands (!), wacky 1202 for quiz nights and karaoke. The Seck had a nice feature where you could return an Aux return to master and separate to Pre Aux outs, so easy to bus in the Mackie for extra channels, and still get its output through the monitor auxs!

Alesis 1U twin 31 band graphic, KAM GMX7 Mixer (with 4 second sampler!), LAD turntables. Vestax Twin Top Loading CD turntables (the ones with plastic lift up lids over the CDs). No X-Over. If you held each end of the GMX7's X-Fade in your hand, whilst still wired in, you could get Radio 5 Live.

NAD 5.1 Processor, with line outs. Normalised patchbay to route audio all over! Some naff 2000 lumen 4:3 projector for film nights.

Comb City, but I loved it. Sounded like a bag of bolts, but loadsa fun had. My Halls Of Residence "House" system! Painful and crude, but fun.

Never managed to blow more than the odd rail fuse in the MXFs, and the occasional 10 Ohm piezo dropper resistor in the iBL 1x12".

Loads of Abstract 1CE and Galactic moon DMX stuff, with 12 PAR56 off a ryger 12 Chn touch panel, with 12 Ways of Switch pack (not even dimmers)!

James Tengo wrote: APW wrote: First lighting control was a Tuac chaser and a Pulsar 3 channel light organ, I cannot find any info on the Pulser however it was just a black box with a bulging on the top and power going in… I believe the same unit was also sold under the Fal brand. The mighty pulsar zero 2250? http://www.karillon.com/Articles/pulsar/2250lf.jpg . APW wrote:  before going DMX we had a Light Processor commander and dimmer/switch packs, again I cannot find any info on this piece of kit, It was primarily a nightclub lighting controller and I suspect they were all wrecked many years ago.. I remember the Light processor Q Commander, but that was dmx, and was using them in the late 90’s.

 

 A Pulsar Zero 2250!! We had one of those but never used it because we had an NJD SC4000. Lights were a mixture of Fal decor boxes and home made stuff with the most dodgy of wiring with a few par 36 scanners. We thought we were the dogs bollox when we bought a couple of Twister 2's and a Martin Magnum 750 smoke machine.

Hi James, I've just found that and yes, it was the Zero 2250.

 

The commander I had was much earlier and NOT DMX, it was a 4U 19" thing that was basically 4 x 4 channel chasers and a 8 channel switch bank, the whole thing was programmable.

Edited by APW - 05 June 2018 at 12:41pm

jbl_man wrote: usually a disapointment when you saw them

Depends what the grainy prints were of, know what I mean? Nudge nudge wink wink.

My first system (mid to late 70s) had a homemade rotary mixer that used mullard PL1184/2 and PL1183/2 modules (http://www.electrojumble.org/data/mullard_lp1180-1402.pdf); it was only rotary as I didn’t have a clue how to make neat slots for faders!! The turntables were a pair of modified BSR P128’s.

At first we only used a hi-fi amp and speakers but quickly moved to the Maplin 150watt mosfets modules.  Next we purchased a 2^nd pair of the Maplin mosfet modules and a couple of bridging modules. The bridging modules caused nothing but problems so we ditched them and designed our own. Then we changed all the driver transistors on amp boards for higher voltage versions,  changed the outputs for 2 pairs of 2SJ50 & 2SK135 per module and upped the rails to about 65Volts, the amps would then do over 500watts/channel  and were able to drive 4ohm loads despite being bridged.  I had no problems getting large Toroid transformers as my best mate was doing his apprenticeship with ILP, although their amp modules were utter junk and usually failed spectacularly their transformers were extremely good.  We later started bi-amping and used BK electronics amps for the mid-HF cabs.

This homemade amp was in service until the late 90’s when I purchased my first Crest amps.

Speakers were mcKenzie studio C15-400 on bass, Studio C10-200 mids and two Motorola  KSN1025 rectangular piezos  per side.

First lighting control was a Tuac chaser and a Pulsar 3 channel light organ, I cannot find any info on the Pulser however it was just a black box with a bulging on the top and power going in… I believe the same unit was also sold under the Fal brand. Later we had a Pulsar 4000 and also a 4 x 4 matrix lighting controller, I cannot remember who made it. Finally (late 80s) and before going DMX we had a Light Processor commander and dimmer/switch packs, again I cannot find any info on this piece of kit, It was primarily a nightclub lighting controller and I suspect they were all wrecked many years ago..

Edited by APW - 05 June 2018 at 2:54pm