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Alice ACM Console

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  • October 16, 2014 at 1:34 am #15319
    Bluespills
    Participant

    Hey Ted, I am buying this Alice console. I am wondering if you know what kind of multipin connectors these are that it uses, and if it’s still possible to find these connectors. I am guessing you don’t have any pinout information??

    best
    Zack

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    October 25, 2014 at 9:50 am #15939
    Ted Fletcher
    Keymaster

    Hi Zack,

    apologies for a slow reply, I’m normally very fit but perhaps age is catching up!

    That is a monster of a console! It’s clearly a radio production console; we built them for a number of stations in the 1980s. It has a fortune in PPMs!

    Not sure what those connectors are… the panel may not be original!! The connector types that we used were either ‘EDAC’ or ‘cinch’ and they are still available from RS and Farnell…. I do recognise that type and it’s odds on that they are still around today. :)

    On closer inspection… the panel does look original, but I certainly don’t have any info on pinouts. Suggest a hunt through the RS catalogue…. I have had a look in CPC and drawn a blank. :(

    November 28, 2014 at 12:46 am #15940
    Bluespills
    Participant

    Hey Ted, thanks for the reply. Here’s an update. I’ve got the mixer home now and it’s working nicely. Miraculously I’ve located the pinouts for the multipins and the patchbay. The only thing I’m a bit confused about, is I can’t seem to find the master module output, to go to my studio monitors. I assume the channel strip with the red fader and Echo returns is the master output? Right now I’m just using group modules 1 and 2 as my output… Any ideas? Am I missing something really simple? I can send you the documents of patchbay and pinouts if that helps. But the image was too big to upload here.

    Best regards

    Zack

    November 28, 2014 at 12:53 am #15941
    Bluespills
    Participant

    Here is the diagrams i have!

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    November 28, 2014 at 3:16 pm #15942
    Ted Fletcher
    Keymaster

    The control room monitor outputs would normally appear as XLR outputs on the rear on an ACM.

    It’s possible that there is not a ‘main stereo’ output…. on a number of those consoles there was only the main group outputs for recording.

    You were very fortunate to get hold of all that documentation with it! I have no information at all on these, only the recollections of how I designed it in the first place! 😯

    At least there is one puzzle solved… it was originally built for BRMB in Birmingham.

    November 29, 2014 at 6:11 pm #15943
    Bluespills
    Participant

    Hey Ted, thanks again for such a fast response! Ok I’ve just seen next to the xlr connectors on the back, someone has written on a piece of tape “MON o/p’s 1-gnd 2-L 3-R” so I guess this maybe could be the main output is wired to a single xlr connector with the left channel on pin 2 and right channel in pin 3. I’ll try hooking it up this way and see what happens. :) otherwise perhaps like you said it just uses the group outs, but it seems like there should be a master out since the red fader on the “echo master” module seems to do nothing..

    Either way this mixer is awesome! I’m looking forward to getting to know it better !

    Best

    Zack

    December 2, 2014 at 11:21 am #15944
    Ted Fletcher
    Keymaster

    That’s it! I had forgotten that it was common practice to use a single XLR for the monitor outputs. :(

    April 10, 2016 at 12:35 pm #15945
    Bluespills
    Participant

    Hey Ted! I’ve recently gotten around to doing some work on my Alice ACM console. First of all I love it, the sound is great! I have started replacing a lot of the old Electrolytics and have rewired all the multi connectors.

    I have a couple troublesome channels, and I believe it could be faulty op amps. I have a lot of tl071 op amps here. Would these work as a drop in replacement for the mc1741cp1 op amps that are in there now, without causing any trouble?

    April 10, 2016 at 8:44 pm #15946
    Ted Fletcher
    Keymaster

    Those TL071 should work OK as direct replacements for the old 741 ICs. The TL071 is a much ‘faster’ chip and it’s possible that there might be a stability issue, but I suggest it’s worth a try. Nowadays I always fit IC sockets so that I can try different replacements. But in terms of performance, you probably won’t gain anything except possibly a small improvement in noise performance. :)

    April 10, 2016 at 11:16 pm #15947
    Bluespills
    Participant

    Thanks ted, I’ll give it a try. How do you fit the IC sockets so that its stable to try different replacements? I am good with a soldering iron, and it could be fun to experiment on a couple channels. :)

    April 11, 2016 at 7:45 am #15948
    Ted Fletcher
    Keymaster

    Two separate issues…. fitting IC sockets is always a good move so that you can quickly unplug and plug in ICs.

    The stability issue can be very complex; to fix any instability that’s caused by fitting faster ICs is usually done by restricting the gain at high frequencies, by fitting a low value capacitor between -ve input and output of the IC, but I would not worry about that….. it’s most likely that fitting TL071 will be OK and not cause problems.

    February 23, 2017 at 11:23 am #15949
    Bo Hansen
    Participant

    Hi Zack,

    I’ve just been registered on this forum, and saw your post right now.

    This Alice ACM console you show in the picture, I bought in England in the mid-1980s.

    I renovated it and made some modifications in the signal path, etc.

    Then I sold it to a studio in Trollhättan, Sweden, where it is used with a Ampex MM1100 16 channel taperecorder.

    After this time, I believe this console had about ten owners here in Sweden.

    The multi connectors is made by Plessey, but I don’t have the type number.

    –Bo

    http://www.hansenaudio.se

    November 5, 2017 at 7:27 am #15950
    Loui
    Participant

    Hello!

    It so happens that this very Alice mixer is now owned by a friend of mine and will soon make it to our studio. Very thrilled about that and it’s interesting to read up some of it’s history here.

    Ted, you attached a signal flow diagram earlier in this thread but unfortunately the resolution is poor. Would it be possible to to attach one with a higher resolution, or maybe you could e-mail it.

    Greetings!

    Loui

    November 5, 2017 at 4:47 pm #15951
    Ted Fletcher
    Keymaster

    I’m really sorry that I have no further info on this console…… I have no diagrams at all. 😥

    November 5, 2017 at 8:59 pm #15952
    Loui
    Participant

    Reading this thread again I see it was Zack who posted the diagrams.

    I’ll try and get hold of him.

    Thanks for checking though Ted :)

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