Please note: I moved this post and the replies to a new thread dedicated to this mobile unit. I felt it needed its own thread. In any event, the thread this post was originally placed in was really not applicable since this is a mobile unit and not a portable rig. I also merged the various posts that were created in other forums and edited the copy of this particular post (only) to conform with the rules of this forum. I trust you will enjoy the look see.

Your Remoteness

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Hello All,

Just wanted to post some pics of a remote studio I work for, thought this was an appropriate place. Let me know what you think. We are also trying to locate more historic pictures and info so if you used this mobile studio in the past let us know.

You will find recent and historic pictures attached to this post.

So if you ever worked on this in past or have any stories we would love to hear them by posting them here.

Cheers,

Jonathan

jonoville, you are crazy - totally crazy - (in a positive way )

i love ronnie lane

those
photos
are
AWESOME
!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks

jonoville - that has to be the coolest thing I've seen in a long time! Nuts... but awesome!

Years ago I saw a BBC-documentary(?) here in NL about Ronnie Lane. The LMS was seen a lot in it.

awesome

"the passing show"?

great doc!

The ronnie lane mobile without the Helios...

Yeah - we have that doc... It is good, we were at a trade show recently to relaunch the mobile and Ronnie Lane's brother came down to see us - that was great!

Thanks guys - it's not just me that is crazy - I hang out with crazy people over here in London. Plus, I think this world could use a few more great albums.

Having had extensive personal experience of using, maintaining, and customizing Helios boards...as in

• Installed the brand new Helios console in Berwick Street Studios in 1975 then maintained it and recorded on it until 1980
• Sessions on the Helios boards at Ramport ( The Who's studio..) Strawberry North ( 10cc studio).
• At The Skylight Suite in Wapping in London in the 1980's I re-designed the systems on the ex- Maison Rouge Helios to strip out the quad bussing, some unnecessary main monitoring buffer stages, and the way-beyond-horrendous Helios DIY Dolby A rack,+ installed a remix buss and got the track monitors on it and usable as extra inputs to the mix. Afterwards I was Chief Engineer there.
• Installed the ex-Strawberry North wraparound board ( now owned by Lenny Kravitz) into Eddie Mander's studio above his Camden Town garage in London in the 1990's and then maintained it and installed it into his Magic Pub studio in Stoke Newington and sometimes did sessions there (short professionally-filmed video of a jazz session there will be on the web soon...).

I have at least 750 professional recording sessions on Helios boards under my belt.

I sincerely apologise for spelling out all the above, but there are lots of guys out there who can talk the talk with Helios, and not many of us around who actually walked the walk.

Trust me, the build quality of Helios boards in terms of wiring and soldering is the absolute pits (NB I'm not talking here about the sonics... only the build quality!). IMHO it just doesn't get any worse.

As Chief Engineer of the reborn Ronnie Lane LMS, sentiment notwithstanding there was no way I could support us gambling with the risk of going there with a Helios in this day and age from a reliability perspective.

After much agonizing and deliberation we unanimously felt that in terms of a fantastic sounding board with better-than-impeccable build quality , and unimpeachable reliability factor, everything pointed to Cadac. As Cadac haven't made studio consoles for many years the ex- English National Theatre board was aquired, and we've modded the systems to turn it into a recording board, and given it 5.1 monitoring capability ( whilst recording...) for when a 5.1 monitoring system might be used.

The Cadac sounds fantastic in there. It rocks. I love it...so smooth, so musical, so... analogue... and the LMS is back with a vengeance!

In terms of nostalgia factor, of course it would have been great to have put a Helios back into the LMS...but for us it could never be a practical option.

Cheers,

Gwyn

This thread is blowing my mind. I'm such a Ronnie Lane fan and I assumed that his mobile unit had been lost in the miss of time. I remember hearing that it was just a wreck somewhere, full of rodents and trashed. This is amazing that you've put it back together.

I saw it at the PLASA show in London a few days ago - excellent. heh

Outstanding!

Much success and all the best to you and yours!

Incredible trip down memory Lane (sic).

Best Wishes with the new venture. CADAC sound is incredible.

WOW!

So, boys and girls, here's a little something to read while you're enjoying the photos; in no particular order…..…..

Led Zeppelin – "Physical Graffiti" - UK #1. US #1
The Who – "Quadraphenia" – UK #1 US #2
The Who - "The Who by Numbers" UK #3 US #2
Bad Company – "Bad Company" UK #1 US #1
Eric Clapton – "Rainbow Concert" UK #2 US #3
The Faces – "Ooh La La" (their biggest seller) UK #1 US #3
The Stones – "Black & Blue" UK #2 US #1
Mott The Hoople – "Mott" UK #12 US #21
Ronnie Lane – "Slim Chance" & "Rough mix" (w. Pete Townsend) UK & US # – who cares!

Other users of the Ronnie Lane mobile studio include: Bob Marley, Jack Bruce, Marc Bolan, David Bowie, Van Morrison, The Pretty Things, The Damned, Elvis Costello, Stevie Wonder, John Lee Hooker, Keith & Ronnie, B.B. King, Dave Edmunds, Jeff Beck to name a few.

From what I understand the total record sales of recordings done aboard the LMS is round 500 million.

Not too shabby.

It's all too beautiful!!

hovercraft edition to set sail to the u.s. ?!?!?

Love it... Anytime!

But did we forget to mention amphibious mode....?

Pirates of The Caribbean watch out!

Cheers,

Gwyn

Being serious for a moment, the USA is not out of the question by any means....ditto Europe , China and so on...

There are some classic locations in the UK where the LMS can and will record ( possibly including some of the heritage locations where classic LMS recordings were made in the past...)

We're currently building a database ( analogue one of course = post-it notes on a pinboard..:-) of seriously nice locations to record in the South of France , being typically wine-growers houses and old watermills etc.

Dont forget Monty Python!!

The Ronnie Lane Mobile Studio

wow what a Rig! such impressive clientele pedigree. I rekon it needs a '56 Panel Truck as a hauler... or similar era Bedford, since we are talkin' UK.
thumbsupthumbsup

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

£200 for an engineer.....that seems really cheap to me!!

perhaps inexpensive but never cheap!!! its great to see this rig back in operation. what are some of your recent recordings?

i am left speechless. WOW

Love the J-Type !
Is it a 62-slot frame? Looks like you have it setup for 32x16 with a set of L/R/Mono faders under the aux masters, or are those DCA's 14-16? Where are the four PSUs?

Wish more people appreciated the sound of Cadac.

Best regards,

JvB

Hi Could you please find the email address or phone number for Mark St. John as I want to speak with him. He knows me from old Best Martin Baker email - [email protected]

Daily rate, 375GBP! No charge for overtime. Bet those guys were tired after four 22-hour days in a row.

D.

Airstreams have become so expensive that doing what Ronnie did today would probably cost more than a build out in a custom-box truck... I always wondered if Ronnie had to beef up the frame of that Airstream to take the weight and the extra stress it would cause on the body of that trailer, in that it was designed to take a stove, mini-fridge, some furniture and a few people, vs a lot of very heavy analog recording gear.