Joke effects units (auto talent / talent booster/ etc)

Steve Hurt

Junior
Jan 31, 2011
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Please post all the pics you have of auto talent / talent booster / fake efx units

I'm trying to assemble a collection of them and am missing quite a few.

Here are a couple for starters:
 

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Re: Joke effects units (auto talent / talent booster/ etc)

Please post all the pics you have of auto talent / talent booster / fake efx units

I'm trying to assemble a collection of them and am missing quite a few.

Here are a couple for starters:

Here's a custom unit that I built years ago. It had a place on the meter bridge of my monitor console at many tour rehearsals. The musicians usually appreciated the humor.

Dynamic Clam Filter Small.jpg
 
Re: Joke effects units (auto talent / talent booster/ etc)

I just ran across this at the "Stage Hand Institute of Technology"
singers dream.jpg
Then there is also this classic:
Man-Woman-Control-Panel.jpg
 
Re: Joke effects units (auto talent / talent booster/ etc)

I have a 2x3x1" deep black project box with a large red pushbutton taped in the master section of FOH. (It is the pause button for my minidisk recorder)
I get asked fairly often "Why do you push that red button ?"
Simple answer - "That's the anti-suck system. If I forget to push it, the song's gonna suck."
* I Never get asked another question by that punter, and it's sure a lot more fun than "Do you really know what all those knobs do ? "
Somehow, I doubt most folks know I'm pulling a fast one. Hell, if the song's gonna suck, it's gonna suck wether I hit the button or not !
Chris.
 
Re: Joke effects units (auto talent / talent booster/ etc)

I love when companies have a sense of humor. That crown link is great!
 
Re: Joke effects units (auto talent / talent booster/ etc)

I love when companies have a sense of humor. That crown link is great!

I imagine the "Crown Belch fire" might be a play on the "Phase Linear" amps of yesteryear. From stories he told, I thought that was my buddy Al Kennedy's unique experience, but a bit of googling made it clear that was a somewhat universal thing. Funny.
 
Re: Joke effects units (auto talent / talent booster/ etc)

I imagine the "Crown Belch fire" might be a play on the "Phase Linear" amps of yesteryear. From stories he told, I thought that was my buddy Al Kennedy's unique experience, but a bit of googling made it clear that was a somewhat universal thing. Funny.

There's a reason they were known as Flame Linears.
The other well known amp was Crown's DC-300. Name was quite accurate. When they blew, ya got plenty of DC to your voice coils.
Not good for the 100 to 200 watt drivers of that time period.
Chris.
 
Re: Joke effects units (auto talent / talent booster/ etc)

There's a reason they were known as Flame Linears.
The other well known amp was Crown's DC-300. Name was quite accurate. When they blew, ya got plenty of DC to your voice coils.
Not good for the 100 to 200 watt drivers of that time period.
Chris.

Not exactly. DC is available on the outputs at all times. Back when response from DC to light was paramount. These started out as lab amps that were used to run all kinds of funny stuff like shaker tables. Crown manuals used to state that load protection was the user's responsibility.

You can drive a DC-300 to more or less full output by connecting a 1.5V battery to the input. POP! Jeebus help your voice coils if the upstream gear bled DC.
 
Re: Joke effects units (auto talent / talent booster/ etc)

You can drive a DC-300 to more or less full output by connecting a 1.5V battery to the input. POP! Jeebus help your voice coils if the upstream gear bled DC.

Seem's I've read stories here or at PSW of DC series amp's being used as replacement console power supplies. Hookup a battery, adjust gain to get the necessary voltage.

Philip "still has DC-150's and DC-300 running happily" Roberts
 
Re: Joke effects units (auto talent / talent booster/ etc)

Seem's I've read stories here or at PSW of DC series amp's being used as replacement console power supplies. Hookup a battery, adjust gain to get the necessary voltage.

I did that once - the old Soundcraft had a single rail supply, so it took only one channel. I later determined that the crackling was not the PSU, but a broken phantom toggle switch that when vibrated was connecting the +48 to the chassis.