Hey, where's the Toft ATB Meter Bridge????. It's been some time since someone said it was almost ready. Maybe the people at PMI care to chime in, I hope.

+1

Why no news? same about the sound card.

Ya know, I've been a big supporter of the Toft and they have been very helpful to me, even when i was doing some mods that were outside the scope of any of their obligation, I found them to always be nice and helpful.

BUT, this concept of "vapor ware" in the industry (the meter bridge being a good example) does piss me off. I've been quiet on this issue because these are good guys, but it IS time to deliver.

stike In my opinion, a company should NOT offer a product until they are ready to deliver it. stike


-andrews

Andrews...

Not to hijack the thread, but are you using the Toft for tracking or just in mixing? Do you find the preamps adequate for quality tracking? Is the EQ as true to the old Tridents as one would hope? Do you use it with a hybrid ITB/OTB set-up for mixing? What mods did you have done?

Sorry...
D.

I use the Toft 100% for mixing (I use various dedicated outboard pres for tracking, which is no comment on the Toft, I just need the flavors of a Neve, Pacifica, etc. when neeed)

Mixing And yes, the EQs are what sold me, the board can sound GREAT!

The mods I had done were by Inward Connections on the 2-buss, using their transformers and a few tweaks to simply open up the tone, width and depth to my tase (again, just a personal goal)

Oh, and I do use it with Pro Tools HD, tracking directly into PTHD, but mixing through the Toft, out into an A-Designs Hammer, Anamod ATS-1, through a Neve DPD for DSD and into the Tascam DSD.

Hope that helps.

-andrews

Great mixing board

Andrews,

Thanks. That's just what I wanted to hear. I, too, track to PT|HD through various outboard pres (API, MA5, BAE, Great River) but am looking for a quality, reasonably-priced board for mixing and utilizing outboard in the process.

Do you have the 16 channel? 24?

Do you bother with hardware inserts in PT?

Do you use plugs on channels before breaking out to the Toft?

How do you handle stems with the Toft?

How did you arrange the mods from Inward? I take it the principal gain is in the quality of the summing. Expensive?

Thanks very much,
D.

THE Toft ATB can do this and that, and sounds like this and that, and looks like this and that, but where's the meter bridge, oh, and the digital card.

Having several [as in too many!!] great D/A conversion sets I really couldn't give a rat's ass about the digital card... but a proper meter bridge definitely wouldn't suck... then again, my current desk only has meters for the busses and 2 mix [which is pretty much what the ATB has] and I barely use those choosing to monitor the meters on my recorder rather than the desk.

All things being equal I have pretty much come to the conclusion that when it's time to change my desk I'm going to install an ATB [hopefully that is many years off in the distance]... that said, I'm pretty sure that the only way I'd get the meter bridge for my desk is if it's robust enough to hold up my nearfield monitors. I have so many other meter sets in the room that holding up my nearfields is about the only use I can think of for a meter bridge on my desk.

The Toft has something rather similar to the metering I have now on the right side of the desk... over the master section. If the program is working for me now, why mess with it? ... yet, I do absolutely hate 'vapor ware', and this bridge certainly seems to be vapor ware.

Peace.

I know all of this is pissing you guys off, and its a bit upsetting to me as well, but the meter bridge is not vapor ware. It's just taking a F*$&%*$ lot longer. We felt the connectors we not secure, so we have changed them to be locking connectors. None of this is what you want to hear...you just want the bridge.

Simply put, we are doing the best we can on this. We have made a good deal of blunders in handling the meter bridge, but we are human as well. I posted the photo's guys...it's real, looks great, and less filling!!!

I am hesitant to quote time....I do know we will have the final sample on August 20th...with the locking connectors. If by the good graces of the man upstairs and all is correct, we will push the button to build.

The digital card is an 8 channel ADAT I/O at 48kHz along with SPDIF at 192kHz. The problem has been the noise floor on the SPDIF and our designer has just received a new development board from Avnet Memec. We hope to be able to resolve this issue and are targeting the digital board 1Q of 2009.

Sorry if this does not meet everyone's time frame, but we are doing the best we can do right now with all the things we are working on. The only thing I can say is that non of this is vapor, and it will be finished. As Ripley said,"Believe it or not".

I think the term "Vapor Ware" can include the waaaaaay premature ejac-announcement of a product as well. ESPECIALLY if people are taking your money for it (which oft is not).

I remember back with ADATS (oh God, I know) I paid for two of those suckers and waited... and waited...

Come to think of it, I should have waited even longer heh


-a

SIDE NOTE TO ANSWER THESE Q's SORRY PEEPS:

1. 24 channel board.
2. Don't bother with PT hardware inserts, I use the Toft.
3. Yes, I occasionally use plugs on channels going to the Toft.
4. I have drums on channels 1-8, Kick, snare, hi-hat, etc (stereo)
bass on 9&10 (usually due to parallel compression.
11&12 guitars 13&14 BG vox 15&18 lead vox 17&18 keys 19&20 synths of another 21&22 become my weird sounds channels, 23&24 any FX from PTHD

I sub drums to 1&2 with a Alan Smart C2, vocals 3&4 with a Vac Rac, guitars to 5&6 to a 33609 or LA-3A and synth or various to 7&8 with Pendulum 6386

Inserts on individual channels changes every time, well, so does above, but in general. Lead vox likes to get LA-2A into MC77 or the Retro 176 Bass Retro or DBX 165a... or lead gets the Retro.

Lastly, phew... The Inward Connections mod was a personal experiment. I can't speak for Steve, as I think he has his own great line of products and future brilliant creations to come. I just asked. I got the idea because I love his transformers adn thought it could be done... remembering Fletcher has a heavily modded board and Darrin at Vintage King was very helpful in helping me flesh out the idea (he too has modded a different type of console)

Hope that answers it

-andrews

Andrews,

Thanks very much for the detailed reply. (And sorry folks for the deviation from the initial meters question.)

You've outlined precisely the solution I've been envisioning, though I may have to work with a 16-channel Toft due to budget (after all the cabling and additional patch-bay I'll need to make this work).

I've good converters with my PT|HD rig (AD/DA-16Xs), an ever-expanding outboard collection, and though I don't mind using hardware inserts with an entirely ITB mix, your workflow seems to mirror what I see as a great hybrid solution. (That is, until I can afford the AWS900+ I got to work on tonight at another facility.)

Any other tips and tricks (or caveats as I build up the Toft system) would of course be welcome.

Many thanks,
D.

Alan,
How did that final sample turn out. are we a go for production?

Interesting that you say that. You pissed me off with your comment a while ago...

So it's ok to complain now??

///Jamzone

bump

still waiting for my bridge here....

I might be wrong and hope someone corrects me, I don't think we will see a meter bridge for the Toft ATB. Why?, it's been to long and it's begining to look like they abandoned the project for who knows why. They can put together 16,24,and 32 channel boards but not a meter bridge for them. I think there something wrong somewhere and hence why were not hearing from PMI. A meter bridge is not rocket science is it???. Even if someone from PMI came here to explain it still would not help things and they did a while back, it should not take this long. Do I realy need a meter bridge, yes and no. If for some reason and they may have a good reason, just tell your customers that it's off, simple and straight foward. PMI, were are you.tutt

I won't say publicly, but I did hear interesting news last weekend regarding this: PM for details...

well there was something wrong. Alan hyatt himself admitted it many times...thats why the delay. From talking with him he seems as frustrated as everyone else with what has happened. He told me recently it was still a go.
In my dealing with him and PMI They have been up front and very heplful so have no reason not to believe them. Give them a call.

life could be worse.

Agreed, all I am saying is for them to communicate with the good people of this forum and let them know that there is problems with blah blah blah and let us know that there will be a MB or there will not be a MB. I do understand manufacturing problems as most folks here would also, no communication with your customers I don't understand. They came here to sell there boards, I read and I bought, I did not have to send them an e-mail to do that. It could be worse, but it could also be better, if one wants it to be, we usualy make our own trails.

Andrews, can you pm me some more info on the Firlotte mod. How much it cost, improvements, details.. ?

Thanks,

Holding off to buy an ATB until the meterbridge ships. And if it doesn't ship shortly, I'll have to move on to another console. Let's make it happen fellas. You've been so good to me so far. I would hate to give my money to someone else!

Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere, but is this instead of or in addition to the Firewire card?

Interested in the latest on the meter bridge as well...

No, we are not doing a Firewire card. For us, there is too much support risk. Operating systems, drivers, updates...we just do not have the time to throw at all that mess, so that is why ADAT and SPDIF...Very little issues. All you have to do is set the correct frequency and rate!

We showed the bridge at AES, and it with the consoles will ship to us shortly...

Alan, any pic of the meterbridge from AES?

I was told by pmi uk to expect for Q1 2009. Does this sound about right?

Also, i was given a rough price which i was surprised and very happy about!thumbsup

Id me more than happy to put a deposit down now to secure the one of the first batch of 32 ch meterbridges, uk obviously.

Oz

Hi Alan, could you please answer this question??

Will the meterbridge work on EVERY atb mixer version previously released and sold???

I'm asking this cause I saw on sweetwater that the "new" atb32 version is on sale now and one of it's new feature besides balanced speaker outputs and solo indicators on every channel, is that is has the ribbon cables ready for the meter bridge, so, I AM FREAKED OUT cause I bought my atb32 a few months ago and PMI hasn't told us anything about the meterbridge only working with the latest versions.

please let us know about this

Thank U

Well?? Is it specific to the "new" Atb or not? If it is, that would mean that everyone on this thread and all other threads is barking up the wrong three. The meterbridge never came!!


///Jamzone

I heard Alan mention a "harness" for retrofitting to pilot atbs in one of these threads.

That must be our free gift. heh

Here is a good look at it folks inside an Argosy Desk!