My first SSL 4k

[gertius]

Dear community,
I´m so happy to share with you that after being on the fence for about 10 years I bought my first SSL 4k last weekend.
I picked it up from Maribor, Slovenia and drove it to Germany.
It is a custom 4024G from a cutdown job (from a 1989 4056G), done by a proficient SSL tech maybe 10 years ago.
The previous owner retrofitted massive oak wooden sides made according to original dimensions.

It has no center section, but 4K E summing cards fitted and the most important global modes have been made available.
I already have a bus compressor made from the original E cards, as I posted here before.
So I hope to be able to have the original bus signal flow of summing->comp->output amp (built into my comp).
No patchbay, but all ins and outs (including AUX) on XLR in the back. This will work nicely with our 64x64 channel RME/Ferrofish interface.
Small footprint, perfect for use in our smallish control room.
No TR or automation, but I´m good with that.
Unfortunately no meters, may try to retrofit these later.

I had tested and measured it for 6 hours before buying to get a feel of the state of the console and I was really happy about it.
The previous owner had lovingly cared for the board. He was very nice and supportive to make all my testing possible (thanks again!).
With very few exceptions, the switches and pots work nicely (routing section was completely renewed with ALPS switches a few years ago).
Even all the AUX pots/Push switches were flawless. Last recap was maybe 8 years ago.

I´m attaching a few pictures from the previous control room.

I´ll share some updates for the journey of installing it here and possibly some questions when they arise.

[gertius]

Starting to document the installation procedure a bit. Right now it´s sitting empty in our control room.
We first want to rework the area behind it with the monitors, tidy it up and make it fit nicely together with the board.
You can see our old D&R Dayner resting on the wall which will be replaced with the 4k.

Two days ago I spent 3 hours putting the power supply cable through a small hole in the wall into the machine room.
The hole was big enough to -barely- fit the plug, so I had to pull out all other cables first (connecting our studio PC to the machine room), then put the SSL plug through and all the other cables one by one.

We want to either get rid of the subwoofer or place it somewhere else in the room.

The preamps/converters in the rack on the left are planned to go into the empty rack spaces on the SSL.

[Clip6]

Congradulations dude......welcome to the club.

[gertius]

Congradulations dude......welcome to the club.

Thanks mate! Happy to be here.

Some more pictures from our control room.
I extended the meterbridge with a board to rest the monitors on, moved the console to it´s intended position and put back the channels.
Now soon to turn it on for the first time after transport 

Do you guys have any recommendations for that?
I´d probably start with the power supply with the console disconnected and see if all LEDs turn on.
Then I thought to try with one bucket only, in case something goes really wrong.

[oyanliz]

Very nice!! I like the custom wooden furniture!!

I hope it will work fine after installation!!

Good luck!!

Oihan

[79_Limited]

Welcome to the club.  I installed my first  4040E back last summer. 

For meters have you seen these?

https://www.thd-labs.com/fr/produits/ssl-4k-6k-8k/tangerine-meterz

These are on my bucket list for mine. 

[gertius]

Thanks guys!

Yesterday I turned it on for the first time after the move and everything seems to work fine.
I´m relieved 
I still have to test the audio because it´s not even hooked up yet via the XLRs.
There was so much other work to do to get the studio ready for the console, rewiring the patchbay, soldering XLR plugs etc...
But now the preparations are done and I´ll be able to wire it up and really test the next days.

Thanks for the tip with the meters!
I had seen those shortly before and they are an attractive option.
Also the price is very attractive although they´ll be more expensive when imported to Europe.
I think generally I´d prefer oldschool VU meters for the vibe though.
Maybe the THD meterz will bring down the used prices for analog VU meters

[gertius]

I´ve now finished the install, added our external pres and the converters to the rack, hooked up the whole board via XLRs to the two Ferrofish A32.
For each channel there ist Mic In, Line In, Mon In, Insert Send/Return (not permanently connected), and Direct Out.
This enables many routing possibilites, but surely not as elaborate as with the full console + patchbay.

I have started creating some mixes with the board now and am loving it so far. In general it works really well.
Still have to get used to it a bit and the way of working.

Some small issues have already shown themselves, but I bought a channel extender and test jig from Matt (thanks again!!) so the next step is setting up a testbench and starting to troubleshoot the channels. I have bought a spare G channel, which is just in the mail, and which I plan to permanently connect to the test jig on my workbench. This way I can hopefully quite easily fix issues on the daughterboards (exchange subboard first to a working one to keep the console working, then fix the card in the spare channel).
At least that´s my plan, let´s see how it goes 

[Clip6]

Looks great. The aml's will be great.