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: