Trident Series 80B Mixing Desk

An early classic Trident Series 80B console, this mixing desk came to us from London's Utopia Studios where it was used on numerous records from the 1970s and 80s by a range of artists including Queen, Paul McCartney and The Clash. Now fully re-capped and sounding like a dream.

Trident Audio Developments was born out of London's legendary Trident Studios where David Bowie's 'Hunky Dory', Lou Reed's 'Transformer' and perhaps most famously The Beatles 'Hey Jude' were all recorded. Beginning in 1972 with the 'A' Range consoles (of which only 13 were made) Trident mixing desks soon became world renowned for their unbeatable mic pre-amps and fabulously musical EQ section. A range of Trident consoles were subsequently built of which the 80B is considered to be the closest to the original sound of the now near mythical 'A' Range.

The majority of existing Trident desks now reside in the US. Ours is one of the few still in the UK along with those at Sawmills Studio (Oasis 'Definitely Maybe' and The Stone Roses 'Fools Gold') and in the private studios of Radiohead and of both Adrian Utley and Beth Gibbons of Portishead.

Otari MTR 90 and MTR 12

Our 2" tape machine came from Trevor Horn's studio and has been pampered all its life. We have spare cards, laboratory test tapes and we ask it how it is ever day. Otaris have the fastest, most reliable transport system ever resulting in seamless punch-ins. But beware...clients find it very hard to return to digital recording once they've been here. The MTR-12 two track was originally at Cargo studios.

EMT240 ‘Gold Foil’ Plate Reverb

A scaled down 140 with a gold foil instead of a steel plate, stereo inputs and a sound that has never been replicated anywhere else. A wonderful rich and natural sounding reverb, the EMT 240 is quite possibly he best reverb there ever was, or ever will be. 1974. When they say Gold they mean GOLD, which is why they proved too expensive to make.

APS-AEON Active Near/Midfield Monitors

Fantastic studio monitors - the sound is positive and well defined, almost ATC’ish in its clarity but with a little more punch at the bottom end. Highs are crisp and lows full with an unusual amount of detail in the midrange. A thousand thanks to Mark at Funky Junk for the heads up on these.
We have additional monitoring in the form of 1969 BBC reference speakers BC-1s and Tannoy Reveal Nearfields.

DBX 165 Over Easy Compressors

The dbx 165 is mono compressor with adjustable attack, release and gain settings, as well as a variable ratio - we have two of these allowing for stereo compression. Like Urei, DBX are one of THE classic names in audio processing. The classic 160VU and 165/165A remain head and shoulders above most contemporary units and are ‘must haves’ for serious recordists.
Below these in the rack lives the DBX 566 'Silver Series' Dual Vacuum Tube Compressor.

Roland SRE-555 Chorus Echo

The best sounding and most reliable tape echo ever made. The last and greatest of the legendary Roland tape echos, this is the rack mount version of the RE-501, capable of creating echo, chorus, reverb and sound on sound type effects full of analogue warmth yet without the noise associated with earlier models. Quite simply, the best tape delay ever made.

Roland SVC-350 Vocoder

In recent years this has become one of the most desirable anologue studio effects around and its not hard to see (or hear) why. A favourite of both Kraftwerk and the Yellow Magic Orchestra the balanced microphone/line input coupled with 11 band graphic allows for controlled, modulated sound which has yet to be bettered by any digital voice processors or plug-ins.

MXR Pitch Transposer + Display

A classic analogue studio effect, this came to us from Suite 16/Cargo Studios where it was once the first of its kind in the UK! Capable of making small changes in pitch without upsetting the musical relationship between frequencies, they certainly don’t make them like this any more. Built like a tank and with a unique overall quality of sound, this is a beautifully intuitive piece of gear.

Klark Teknik DN360 Graphic EQs and Oberheim GM1000 .

The Oberheim is a rare multi effects processor that came out about 10 years ago. It has a handy real time spectrum analyser, plus tons of creative effects and amp simulators.
The Klark Teknik is the don of graphic EQ's, very useful for sculpting the exact sonic you desire.

Bel Flanger/ Bel Flanger -Delay. (Originally from Suite 16 / Cargo studios. )
These classic analogue units are unbeatable. The big knobs allow you to creativly play them to tape or in the mix which is probably why they spent 6 months on tour with the Chemical brothers, but we're glad to see them home safe and well.

Korg Gated Reverbs and Digital Delays.

In recent years we seem to have become the resting home for a lot of New Order's old analogue and early digital gear. That's not to say they won't come looking for them back but if they do, we'll be ready for them. If you want that Blue Monday drum sound, we've got all the components here. We have a cellarful of 80s crunchy delays, gated reverbs, hand clap machines, an Octopad, and many primitive drum machines just waiting to be tripped over on your way to the toilet.

Lexicon PCM70

From rich vocal reverbs to phased keyboard washes to echoes and delays, the PCM70 is in truth a versatile multi-effect rather than merely a reverb, although the algorithms are awesome, as is the sound (hardly surprising as it used the same converters as the classic 480L). The Lexicon sound wraps itself around a signal, becoming part of the sound rather than floating above as so many modern reverbs do. Now discontinued, the PCM70 represents the best in digital reverberation.

Moog Theremin (Etherwave prototype signed by the late great man himself!)

A prototype of the Moog Etherwave Theremin, this was bought directly from Bob Moog in NYC about 10 years ago. An authentic adaptation of inventor Lev Termen's original theremin design, this has a five-octave pitch range and reliable spacing between notes for sophisticated playability. Bob Moog constructed his own theremin as early as 1949, and in the mid 90s Moog Music went back to its roots and once again began manufacturing theremins. This is one of the first from that period.

Farfisa Transicord Deluxe Electric Accordion

One of the more bizarre instruments to have appeared in the 20th Century, the Farfisa Transicord is not strictly an accordion, more an accordion-shaped combo organ. Farfisa organs can be heard on numerous garage and southern soul records of the 1960s, and their popularity continued through the 70s and post-punk years. Ours is the Deluxe model, and has a similar sound to the Farfisa Combo Compact yet calls to mind nothing less than Stereolab crossed with Jimmy Shand.

Hammond / Yamaha.

At Analogue Catalogue we don't do samples and plug ins, we prefer instead to put our backs out lifting inordinately heavy wooden organs into big rooms and sticking valve mics in front of them. You can most definitely hear the difference, although this practice is sure to result in some form of permanent disability. No pain, no gain I suppose...

Roland JX3P Analogue Synthesizer + PG200 Programmer
Julie's first analogue synth bought in 1983, she has been known to bark "this synth is totally underrated, can I give you a demo?" at random passersby. Fortunately, there are many people on Youtube who say the same thing and have filmed their demos so perhaps she has a point. The first Roland polysynth to feature a sequencer and their fist that came MIDI equipped, it offers much of the dual-oscillator sound of big American polysynths and plenty more besides...

Korg Polysix Analogue Synthesizer

A wonderful sounding six voice programmable polyphonic synthesizer, the Korg Polysix has SSM chips for its filters and envelopes giving this a warm, rounded and organic sound. Ours has been fully reconditioned by Maciek Polak at analogia.pl and sounds as good as the day it left the factory. Additional sockets have been added, allowing the use of its analogue effects board as an external effects processor, and it has also been equipped with one of the best MIDI retrofits on the market.

Octave Cat SRM Duophonic Analogue Synthesizer
Dismissed as an ARP Odyssey clone upon release in 1978, the Octave Cat has grown in stature in subsequent years to the point where it now stands alongside the Minimoog, Arp Odyssey and Prophet 5 as one of the definitive anologue synthesizers of the 1970s. Used by The Chemical Brothers, Squarepusher, I Monster and Devo amongst others, we bought ours for 30 quid from an old hippy on Oldham market in those heady days before eBay pushed prices through the roof.

Mooger Fooger Ring Modulator MF-102

An award winning effect designed by the late Bob Moog which is a direct descendant of the original Moog modular synthesizers. It contains three complete modular functions: a ring modulator, a voltage-controlled carrier oscillator, and voltage-contolled dual-waveform LFO. It can be used to process any instrument-level to line-level signal resulting in completely over the top effects uncontaminated by the digital world.

Electro Harmonix Micro Synth & Electro Harmonx Bass Synth

Designed by David Cockerell (formerly of EMS) and inspired by his legendary Hi-Fli these ‘synths’ (really multi effects processors) feature all analogue circuitry and a sound which harkens back to the Moog, Arp and Oberheim synths of old. Guitars, bass or whatever else gets plugged into these babies comes out the other side into a whole strange new universe of sound. Perfect for freaking out squares.