ConsoleLA
TL;DW: ConsoleLA is the Airwindows take on the Quad Eight console.
APIs and Neves and MCI, oh my… well, ConsoleLA emulates the most incredible console you’ve never heard of. This thing was the sound of LA in the seventies. It’s on the back cover of Steely Dan records, it’s been seen in Tom Scholz’s basement, and it’s heard even on classic 70s LA and Hollywood and San Francisco records it didn’t make… because it’s the production model of a whole lineage of West Coast custom recording consoles with similar designs and circuitry. And you can still get them, apparently, the company lives… but I don’t know where, or for how much, or how, as there’s no sign of prices or any way to get them. There’s none on Reverb, Vintage King doesn’t have any, good luck even finding channel strips…
Meet the Quad Eight.
This sound echoes through the Seventies. Tons of Steely Dan, tons of Zappa, Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell… that’s not even counting the wilder sightings, like when people figured this console mixed The Wall, or hearing it on Yes’s Relayer album. The thing is, this was THE big production console before the days of Neve and API and SSL. Quad Eight were the first to go into production and come up with a recording console that you could just buy, set up, and use. Before them, you had to build your own.
Quad Eight were (are, since the website says they can still make you gear) supplying the film industry, and it shows. These desks are amazing at making movies for your ears. (in the Zappa phrase, on the Hot Rats album, which was done at the Whitney studios in Glendale the year before they got a Neve, so that album was likely also Quad Eight or a kindred West Coast console)
ConsoleLA, like ConsoleMC before it, is a bit of a different approach to emulating these great old dinosaurs, some still things you could conceivably find and have, some forever lost. The thing is, this is the nearest thing to custom point-to-point wiring of discrete transistors. On top of that, the Quad Eight ran a higher supply voltage than anybody: negative 28 to positive 28 volts, for enormous energy and headroom. The way to get these sounds is not layer upon layer of ‘digital emulation’ but trying to get the behaviors right with minimal, atypical algorithms. Only then can you get the energy and sonority of the real Quad Eight.
The filtering is a whole other thing from the MCI. No mid peak here. The slopes are more gradual, but you can cut the hell out of the mids, and the deeper into the Seventies we got, the deeper the midrange cuts became. What I’ve done with ConsoleLA is try to make the simplest, most approachable Console system that can get the widest range of sounds as heard on these records, and reward you when you pursue music-recording in the old school, human way.
This doubtless won’t be the last, but it might just end up being my favorite. I hope you like ConsoleLA :)
download 64 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Signed M1/Intel Mac AUs.dmg
download Signed M1/Intel Mac VSTs.dmg
download LinuxVSTs.zip
download LinuxARMVSTs.zip for the Pi
download Retro 32 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac AUs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac VSTs.zip
Mediafire Backup of all downloads
All this is free and open source under the MIT license, brought to you by my Patreon.
VCV Rack module
Christmas stuff doesn’t start until later in the day (here in Texas), so this morning I will be immediately slotting this in to the test environment of a Nightclub Sound System I’m building.
Console Zero is the all-time reigning champ I keep returning to (after auditioning sessions averaging 2-weeks each), but hearing about the “minimalist” topology here might mean that these “ConsoleX” iterations are moving towards edging even the venerable “Zero” out.
Merry Christmas to y’all and Chris. Zappa was mentioned again and again. I agree with your take on that bright sound of One Size Fits All. That album has a crazy hyped sound. Overnite Sensation and Apostrophe are not like that, but have some funny high frequency bursts in some voice and instrument tracks as well. Imho Zappa and his team created a impressive mix of those extremes in Joe’s Garage and You Are What You Is. Dunno if those VIBE consoles really fit into my sound design and bizarre music approaches… let’s see :)
I think I like what this could do for my mixes, perhaps more useful for me than ConsoleMC.
The broad EQ of this one is something few plugins are able to get right – sharp peaks and boosts/cuts are available in hundreds of other plugins.
You are a good sort doing this work for us (mostly for free) – thanks again Chris!
Don’t stop doing what you love… and that includes the great plugins you’ve been making.
Very cool, but a bit off topic, but your plugins are not working in macos catalina for security reasons.
Interested in the comment about the crossover band of the filtering system, ar there any rough frequency bands these are situated within. Im sure i could guestimate by a bit of fiddling but it would be interesting to know even if the crossovers are able to be modified by some sort of coding.
Awesome stuff, thank you so much, Chris! Can someone please give me a hint as to which would be the dirtiest, un-tightest, most obvious of all console plugins so far?
Chris for LA and MC where to put on the channel first or last? Thanks for you great work…
Great work on this.. I have been talking and trying to recreate a sound that maybe you could help with??
In the 80s and definitely into the 90s so many major hits was mixed on the SSL 4000 E, and the magic of that console was when it was pushed the type of punch / saturation it gave when hitting the sweet spot. Spike Stent for instance utilised this with hits tracks from Madonna, U2, Spice Girls,Massive Attack, Bjork etc.. Even tracks like “R.Kelly – I Believe I Can Fly” or “Aaliyah – Back And Forth” was pushed and smothered in SSL clipping. Ive been trying to emulate this sound in the box. Do you think this could be something you could attempt? Help with?