Avid S6 48 Chan Build, Pics & Improvements

[AlexDC]

Hey Guys,

So I've finally finished building my first S6 here at our studio. Now we ordered two consoles for our soon-to-be dubbing stage, and since it's still under construction I decided to go ahead and start learning this thing while we waited. So a colleague and I put together this 48 chan M40. Thought I'd share my two cents to the forums and anyone considering this product.

With out further adieu here is my experience:

There are a LOT of boxes. Like, A LOT so be prepared.

I noticed there are a couple things in the basic building blocks of this console that should maybe get some attention.

1. The Ethernet switch fits perfectly into the chassis however, the bracket avid made to hold them in place covers up the ground for the switch. As you can see in the attached picture. I had to remove the ground screw in order for the bracket to fit. Not a huge deal, just a heads up.

2. We ordered our consoles with legs and it was not a walk in the park securing the chassis to the legs, heed my warning when I say keep the screws loose until everything is properly in place. It took a lot of grunting to get all those holes to line up nice.

3. This is the part that aggravated me most. While I was attaching the side panels which were very tricky to line up also, I noticed that the screw stuck out a bit. This became more apparent when I tried to place the first fader module in and the module wouldn't fit because the screw prevented it from sliding down into the proper position. Believe me that screw is in there, it wouldn't go any in any more. You can see in the picture attached how much it's sticking out, to the left is the module, see how they wont fit nicely? In the end I ended up removing the first screw from each side panel, the result is a some-what flimsy panel if you apply unnecessary pressure.

All in all I got the thing built and it works great aside from the buttons that have yet to be implemented. I'll post more as I work my way through building this. Hope this helps you guys!

Best,
Alex

[Craig F]

1) face palm
2) D-Cons were the same way
3) should have been an Oval head not a Pan head, I've seen the wrong ones ship before

[AlexDC]

Yeah i thought it was strange considering the chassis were milled as if the screw were supposed to be counter-sunk.

[Southsidemusic]

Nice

Thanks for the heads up! We have ordered a 24 fader M40 with all the stands and whatnot so I see we are in for a fun weekend when we recieve it

We don't need more than 24 faders as we have used only 16-18 faders on
the 32 ES for years now. We make pop music and usually never record more than 1 or 2 tracks at once and we thought that we can build onto the M40 unit later on should we need more faders, God knows it cost a bunch of money BUT way cheaper than the 32 ES we paid almost as much as our neighbours apartment when he bought it!!!

... and we have time to save up more money and sell our D-Control 32ES when the new S6 is installed and shining




I can just confirm that when we got our D-Control 32 ES we were building the stand for a whole night with screws not fitting correctly, loosening screws to fit other parts etc etc etc so I would have thought this was ironed out by now

But that aside, I'm soo excited I can't sit still for one second awaiting our delivery hehe Yayayayayayayy This is gonna make our studio Look Really Cool again. Have gotten really tired of looking at the D-Control ES after seeing the
S-6 M40 demos so I expect our unit very "Soon"

Thanks for the pictures, I will add to them as soon as we get our Baby here and do a "S-6 Un-Boxed" with Timelaps HD camera aswell for fun.

Best Regards
Christopher

PS. For all you owners of the ICON desks, Anyone know what we could expect to get for our 100% MINT condition D-Control 32ES with service every year and some polish service inbetween to keep it absolutely New Condition?

Any thoughts are Welcome

And Sorry for this little sidetrack of the thread to the OP

[Stereo Missile]

Looks nice Alex! Look forward to hearing your reports of the console in use. Mine is arriving at the end of June!

:)

[Bill Denton]

Originally Posted by AlexDC

Hey Guys,

So I've finally finished building my first S6 here at our studio. Now we ordered two consoles for our soon-to-be dubbing stage, and since it's still under construction I decided to go ahead and start learning this thing while we waited. So a colleague and I put together this 48 chan M40. Thought I'd share my two cents to the forums and anyone considering this product.

With out further adieu here is my experience:

There are a LOT of boxes. Like, A LOT so be prepared.

I noticed there are a couple things in the basic building blocks of this console that should maybe get some attention.

1. The Ethernet switch fits perfectly into the chassis however, the bracket avid made to hold them in place covers up the ground for the switch. As you can see in the attached picture. I had to remove the ground screw in order for the bracket to fit. Not a huge deal, just a heads up.

2. We ordered our consoles with legs and it was not a walk in the park securing the chassis to the legs, heed my warning when I say keep the screws loose until everything is properly in place. It took a lot of grunting to get all those holes to line up nice.

3. This is the part that aggravated me most. While I was attaching the side panels which were very tricky to line up also, I noticed that the screw stuck out a bit. This became more apparent when I tried to place the first fader module in and the module wouldn't fit because the screw prevented it from sliding down into the proper position. Believe me that screw is in there, it wouldn't go any in any more. You can see in the picture attached how much it's sticking out, to the left is the module, see how they wont fit nicely? In the end I ended up removing the first screw from each side panel, the result is a some-what flimsy panel if you apply unnecessary pressure.

All in all I got the thing built and it works great aside from the buttons that have yet to be implemented. I'll post more as I work my way through building this. Hope this helps you guys!

Best,
Alex

Maybe it's just my worn-out old eyes, but...

In the second picture, where you are showing the picture of the screw that wouldn't bottom out, just to the left of that screw it shows what appears to be another screw with the head broken off, and the head lying in a "channel" at the bottom of the "unit".

Is that the case?

[Drew Mazurek]

How's the stability/rigidity of the MTM? In the prototypes I messed with at AES it was a little flimsy. They said the shipping units would be better.

[AlexDC]

Originally Posted by Bill Denton

Maybe it's just my worn-out old eyes, but...

In the second picture, where you are showing the picture of the screw that wouldn't bottom out, just to the left of that screw it shows what appears to be another screw with the head broken off, and the head lying in a "channel" at the bottom of the "unit".

Is that the case?

Hey Bill, what your eyes are seeing are two separate screws. One holding the side clamp bracket that holds the end piece (you're seeing the bottom of it) And the screw head you're seeing is a screw that holds the bottom of the chassis to to the frame of the chassis! Hope that clears that up for you.

[AlexDC]

Originally Posted by Drew Mazurek

How's the stability/rigidity of the MTM? In the prototypes I messed with at AES it was a little flimsy. They said the shipping units would be better.

Drew, I had a similar worry when I watched all the demos. Ours is very sturdy and its highly adjustable. As long as your not punching it with your finger its great!

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Craig F

1) face palm
2) D-Cons were the same way
3) should have been an Oval head not a Pan head, I've seen the wrong ones ship before

Actually a flat head screw would be better as an oval head might still stick out enough to interfere with fitting in modules. Besides there's no real need for flatwashers and lockwashers in something like this.