capitalize on the amazing sound of the Helios,
but still have modern conveniences.”
Overall, they tried to be as conservative as
possible in the restoration, Leimseider says.
“If someone comes in and wants to check the
mobile out 40 years from now because they
just listened to a Stones album and thought, ‘I
wonder how they did that?’ It’s nice if it’s still as
close to original as it can be.”
In short, Leimseider says: “What we offer
here is [an environment] people can come into
and do things they can’t do anywhere else.”
OTHER NMC CONSOLES
TRIDENT A RANGE
NMC’s Trident A Range in Control Room A is
the fifth of only 13 that were built. Originally
commissioned for a studio in Copenhagen, it
was installed in L.A.’s Bomb Factory Studios in
the 1990s.
been moved out of to accommodate 14-inch
reels for longer recording times. The cool
thing is that both machines were set up so the
24-track buss is always fed to them and the
monitor of the tape machine is on a relay, so
you can record to one machine and when you
run out of tape, just hit record on the other
one, flip a relay, monitor the other machine,
and go back and forth all night.”
Currently, only one 24-track is in use, but
plans are in the works to restore the RSM’s
other 3M M79 24-track recorder as well. Ad-
ditionally, the original DIs, mic split, and stage
boxes also came with the RSM – all of them
still functioning.
Monitoring solutions in the RSM include
custom Dynaudio M1s powered by Altec solid
state amps as well as Yamaha NS-10s, HS8s,
Dynaudio BM MkIIs, and Alesis Monitor Ones.
Much of the historically significant process-
ing, Tawkin explains, is actually onboard the
console: four Helios F760 compressors and
two F60o limiters (famously used on John Bon-
ham’s “When the Levee Breaks” drum tracks).
There are also four Roger Mayer and two
Kepex gates as well as a Bell Flanger, Tawkin
says enthusiastically: “an early prototype that’s
patchable, with Bucket Brigade Chips just like a
guitar pedal. It sounds incredible.”
The Flanger, though broken, required a
comparatively easy fix, says Leimseider. Then
again, he spent 25 years repairing and re-
storing gear in L.A., specializing in electronic
instruments and, during one five-year period,
playing keyboards with Iron Butterfly and
Spencer Davis before joining Cantos in 2002.
“One of the big challenges of working on
any vintage console is they’ve been heavily
modified over the years,” Leimseider explains.
“That’s just how it was. Things weren’t artifacts
when they were new and no two Helios con-
soles were really identical; they were custom.
The only thing that typically stays consistent is
the mic pres. The routing always gets changed.
Back in the day, eight-track was it, right? Then
it was 16-track, then 24, then you had to synch
two 24-tracks. So a lot of people worked on it
with their own vision and the documentation
tends not to be as complete as you would like.
So you don’t know what they actually finished,
or were planning on doing, or never even tried.
You really have to experiment to find out.”
“We wanted to be true to the heritage of
the RSM,” Tawkin takes over. “So we have a
stage split on the King Eddy stage that pro-
vides 32 inputs to the truck and 32 lines to the
live rooms that can be patched anywhere in
the facility, as well as an Aviom system within
the truck that can be patched throughout the
building for expanded personalized monitor-
ing. The inputs and tie lines are all copper, but
video cue lines and headphone cue mixes,
those are digital. We wanted to make sure that
what was going into the truck would stay true
to that original signal path so that we could
THE OLYMPIC
The Olympic console in NMC Control Room
B was the second custom console built for
Southwest London’s Olympic Studios, inhab-
iting its Studio 1 from 1976 to 1987. Although
it’s the second iteration of the famed Olympic
desks, like the first, it was designed by Dick
Swettenham and is famous for its unique
wraparound design as well as being renowned
for reproducing the warmth of a tube console
in a more compact solid-state format.
A LIVING COLLECTION
“Studio Bell is different than a museum,” Leim-
seider asserts. “We firmly believe in a living col-
lection whenever it’s responsible, but we don’t
want the truck to be something different to
what it was [originally]. What’s special about it
is the way it was – the history, the great sound.
On the other hand, we don’t want it breaking
down every session. There are digital consoles
that are incredibly reliable with a lot of capabil-
ities, but that don’t necessarily have the sound
these do. I mean, these just are magical sound-
ing. The RSM, so many great albums were
recorded in it and it’s exciting to be recording
in it and to be a little part of its history from
now on. And it’s incredible that people get
to use it, because it could have ended up in
a museum sitting behind glass forever where
nobody would ever hear it again, but we don’t
believe in that.”
That’s applied to every piece of technolo-
gy – from keyboards to consoles – at Studio
Bell. Some things, however, simply remain
mysteries. “On our Olympic console, there was
a switch on every channel called Echo Bias,”
Leimseider says. “It didn’t go anywhere or do
anything. It’s not even wired in. It was like,
‘What the hell is this?’ You don’t know because
it’s been disconnected for 20 years. I assume it
had something to do with echo sends being
panned, but I don’t know for sure. They just
disconnected them and moved on.”
Mysteries aside, what the RSM provided
then was the chance to capture incredible
performances in the exact environment the
artists wanted to record. With the RSM restored
and tied into the King Eddy, that tradition will
continue, but now as part of NMC’s ongoing
focus on telling the story of music in Canada.
A BRIEF TIMELINE OF THE NATIONAL
MUSIC CENTRE
1996 – The Chinook Keyboard Centre orga-
nization (soon to be renamed Cantos Music
Museum) begins assembling a collection of
keyboard instruments
2000 – Cantos expands its collection to in-
clude sound equipment and electronic instru-
ments and begins offering tours and concerts
2003 – Cantos a nd Triumph Ent. join forces
to found the Cantos Music Foundation in Cal-
gary’s historic Customs House
2005 – Plans to expand Cantos’ scope are
made on the heels of a provincial Centennial
exhibition commemorating a century of music
in Alberta
2012 – Cantos Music Foundation is renamed
the National Music Centre
2013 – Construction begins on the 160,000-
sq. ft. Studio Bell facility
2014 – Studio Bell is completed and the last
public tour offered by NMC at Customs House
is held on December 28 th
2015 – NMC relocates to Studio Bell
2016 – Studio Bell officially opens on July 1st
Kevin Young is a Toronto-based musician and
freelance writer.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND • 37