Tag: quad eight

Studio Outboard Gear Odds & Ends ’71- ’73

Post author By chris
Post date 09/17/2014
No Comments on Studio Outboard Gear Odds & Ends ’71- ’73

Today: just a few things that caught my eye from ’71 -’73: the ‘new’ black-cosmetic version of the Urei 1176, plus some odd bits from Soundcraftsmen and Sansui (I had no idea that they had made pro audio products), and another forgotten Quad-Eight rack device (see here for our earlier coverage of their very obscure reverb unit). Also something called the ‘OP Reverberation’ …. anyone? ,,,and a few unusual items from Martin. Wrapping it up is the annoucement ad for the original API 525C, which has become one of my favorite compressors for vocals since we got one at Gold Coast Recorders. If any of y’all are using the Martin or Quad-Eight kit, let us know!

Above: The Soundcraftsmen RP10-12 equalizer

Above: The Sansui QSE-1 Quadraphonic Encoder

Above: The Quad-Eight Variable Filter, Auto-Mix 23B compressor, EQ 312 channel EQ, and RV10 Reverb unit Above: the Martin SLM-1020B mixer, PEQ500 rackmount program EQ, and varispeed 3B tape machine speed controller.

Tags API, equalizers, martin, quad eight, quad8, sansui, soundcraftsmen, spring reverb, urei

Pro Audio Archive

The Quad-Eight RV10 outboard spring reverb unit of 1972

Post author By chris
Post date 03/02/2014
4 Comments on The Quad-Eight RV10 outboard spring reverb unit of 1972

Just about a year ago I published an article entitled “Obscure Mechanical Reverbs of the 70s.” Included in this this survey was the Quad-8 RV-10. Now, y’all know how much I love spring reverb (also here…), so I was pleasantly surprised when I received a phone call from one J. VanLeer (his photo at left), who claimed to be the inventor of this obscure device. In VanLeer’s words:

“When with the HAMMOND ORGAN CO. I worked on spring reverb tanks – after HAMMOND closed, these were made first by GIBBS, and OC ELECTRONICS than ACCUTRONICS who sold out to BELTON (Korea) and now a Chinese firm MOD makes spring tanks. The RV-10 still sounds the best ’cause it makes use of 4 different (length, diameter & wire gauge) rather that 2 or 3 with only difference in length.”

Vanleer patented this unique twist on spring-reverb technology and then apparently leased said license to Quad-Eight. By his reckoning at least 357 of these units were sold. VanLeer sent me via post the original product-sheet for the RV10. I reproduce those here for your edification and downloading: QuadEight_RV10

Below are some photos of the interior of the RV10 (from an eBay listing that ended in January 2014 at $446). The parts and build quality is extremely high – with hefty input/output transformers, and a UTC O-series (inside an O-17 case), which I presume is the recovery-pickup transformer.

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ed. note: Mr. VanLeer had quite a long and interesting career as an innovator of electro-acoustic devices; click here for an article about his career (use Google Translate to translate into your own reading language).