Helios console projects
According to Howard Massey's book The Great British Recording Studios (ISBN: 9781458421975) about 125 Helios consoles were built, though Dick himself wrote 'over 50 fully custom-designed consoles including 32-track, quadrophonic, automated and film dubbing'. Some customers, notably in the broadcast field, may have had two of the same design and this may account for the discrepancy.
Dick created each console from scratch, so it was rare if consoles were the same. Even the modules from which the console were built were adapted to meet the particular needs of a customer, so a three-band parametric equaliser in one console could have different response curves to another.
Helios console jobs
Most of the job numbers start with a 1, but there are a few that start with a 7 which, for the time being at least, I've taken to mean 7 series.
The following is an incomplete list of Helios console projects and we'd be interested to learn about errors and omissions.
| Job no. | Date | Client | Channels | Comment, location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1072 | Russian Hill Recording, Jack Leahy | San Francisco | ||
| 1118 | Black | |||
| 1119 | London Weekend Television (LWT) | |||
| 1136 | Talent | Oslo | ||
| 1140 | 1975 09 | Manor | ||
| 1144 | MTV / Mainos | Finland | ||
| 1145 | MTV / Mainos | Finland | ||
| 1146 | MTV / Mainos | Finland | ||
| 1148 | 1976 01 | Island Records | 32-24 | St Peter's Square, Hammersmith, London |
| 1155 | Noresco | |||
| 1156 | Noresco | |||
| 1161 | 1976 02 | Sue Manning | ||
| 1167 | 1976 06 | Release Records | Lombard Street, Dublin | |
| 1183 | 1977 04 | Maison Rouge | London | |
| 1184 | 1977 01 | Love Records | Helsinki, Finland | |
| 1185 | 1977 06 | NRK - Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation | ||
| 1187 | 1977 04 | Capital Radio | ||
| 1188 | 1977 04 | MTV | ||
| 1189 | 1977 04 | Dawnbreaker, Seals & Crofts | ||
| 1198 | 1977 10 | Telemetropole | Montreal, Canada | |
| 1199 | 1978 11 | Townhouse | ||
| 1202 | 1977 11 1978 04 |
KPM Sound Studios | 21 Denmark Street, London | |
| 1205 | 1978 02 | Mainos TV | ||
| 1211 | 1978 12 | Tempo | Montreal | |
| 1225 | 1979 02 | Capital Radio | London | |
| 1228 | 1979 | Strawberry North | 26-16 | Helios was closed in 1979 so this console may not have been delivered. |
| 7615 | Nordic |
Helios console jobs with as yet unknown job numbers
The evidence for these projects are correspondence or images.
| Job no. | Date | Client | Channels | Comment, location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Island Studios | 28-16 | Studio 1, 8-10 Basing Street, London | |
| 1969 | Island Studios | 20-16 | Studio 2, 8-10 Basing Street, London | |
| 1970 | Rolling Stones Mobile | Now at the National Music Centre, Calgary | ||
| 1972 | Hansa Tonstudio | 32-24 | Berlin. Hansa still have Helios RE24 Equalisers in their equipment list. The console itself is now in Munich at Schleiwies Studio. | |
| 1973 | Strawberry Studios | 24-16 | www.strawberrynorth.co.uk Stockport 1967-1993 Upgraded to 24-24 at a later date. www.strawberry50.com |
|
| 1973 | Harry J Records | 20-16 | Harry Johnson, Kingston, Jamaica | |
| 1973 | Ramport | 32-16 | London | |
| 1973 | Universal Sound | Film dubbing mixer | ||
| 1974 | Barbarossa Studio | Munich | ||
| 1975 | Maison Rouge Mobile | |||
| 1975 02 | Manor | Oxfordshire | ||
| 1979 03 | Fantasy | |||
| 1972 03 | Ronnie Lane Mobile |
Helios console jobs with as yet unknown job numbers and dates
The evidence for these projects are odd notes and images.
| Job no. | Date | Client | Channels | Comment, location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Music | 30-16 | |||
| ARC Studio | 16-16 | Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria | ||
| Alvin Lee | ||||
| Artic | 16-16 | Trondheim, Norway | ||
| Essen School of Music | Germany | |||
| Funky Features | 24-16 | San Francisco, USA | ||
| Island Mobile | ||||
| König Ludwig | 32-24 | Munich | ||
| Leon Russell | Hollywood | |||
| Manor Mobile | Oxfordshire | |||
| Musicland | 24-16 | Munich | ||
| Olympic - Studio 2 | 28-24 | London | ||
| Paradise Studio | 24-16 | Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA | ||
| Precision Tapes | Duplication mastering console | London | ||
| Russian Hill Recording | ||||
| Studio 70 | 20-4 | Munich | ||
| Thames TV | London | |||
| Topic Records | 8-2 | London | ||
| TPA Studios | 16-16 | London | ||
| Universal Sound | 12-2 film dubbing | London | ||
| Universal Studios |
Modules
Helios consoles were largely modular - here is some information pertaining to them: