Pink Floyd’s Quad Sound Mixer Recreated
CH Vintage Audio’s Chris Hewitt, and Allen and Heath co founder Andy Bereza, have been busy recreating a sound mixing desk that Pink Floyd used from Pompeii in 1971 through the Dark Side of the Moon tour.
The mixing desk is the piece of equipment that all the microphones and instruments plug into to blend and change the sounds with effects and EQ for example. That then plugs into the amplifiers and out through the WEM PA System. The PA systems of Pink Floyd are covered in great detail in the three books that Chris has released.
Chris told NPF, “It’s a working re creation built by me and guided by Andy Bereza who designed and built the original which ( no longer exists ) was used between 1971 and 1974 so spanned Pompeii through Dark Side of The Moon and drove both of The Floyd PA systems I own ie the WEM system and then the Kelsey Martin system”
Where Can I see the Desk?
You can read more about the recreation of the PA System that you can see in Barcelona in February 2024 if you are in the area. If not, you can see the photos below and even watch a video of the desk in action. The event will be on between 30th Jan to 2nd Feb 2024 at Gran Fira Exhibition Centre Barcelona and there will be the Pompeii WEM System and the Dark Side Kelsey Martin System and the desk on display.
If you can’t make Barcelona, it may also be in the foyer at some Aussie Floyd dates UK Winter 2024 tours. It will also make another appearance in the UK at North West Audio Show 22 – 23 June 2024.
Photos of Pink Floyd Mixing Desk Re-Creation
Pink Floyd Using the Original Mixing Desk
A Timeline of Pink Floyd’s Mixing Desk
Sept 1971 Andy Bereza completes Pink Floyd 28 into 4 quad mixer
It is seen in use at Pompeii in October 1971
The mixer tours Dark Side of The Moon through until November 1974 when it is replaced with a new Allen and Heath mixer, neither Allen and Heath mixer seems to have survived
Psychedelic Back Story of the Mixing Desk
During the design and build process of the 1971 Pink Floyd 28 into 4 mixer, Peter Watts who was Pink Floyds chief roadie at the time asked Andy Bereza to incorporate a large amount of coloured illuminated push buttons in a variety of colours for routing on the desk , in fact he brought Andy a 1 to 1 drawing of the proposed mixer layout using almost every colour of felt tip pen available. Peter like a lot of late 60s early 70s people was into psychedelics and so he also wanted to see the mixing desk feature lots of bright coloured lights.
The desk was constantly modified between October 1971 and October 1974 including expanding the case and fitting Penny and Giles faders, changing the square layout of the quad pan pots to four in a vertical row, and adding extra meters in the middle of the desk
Source: Chris Hewitt
