Racked Pair of Ultra Rare RM Media (Roger Mayer) 80X racked noise gates for Dreamhire by Sonic Circus!

Firstly, let me remind you: Roger Mayer, among other things, was the guy Jimi Hendrix hired to modify all his fuzz and wah wah pedals and who John Lennon hired to build him a recording console. These two units were hand built by THAT guy. The story here is quite interesting, as these are a local NYC legend around the studio here. I grew up working in Manhattan studios as intern at electric lady, where I moved up to GA, assistant engineer etc, constantly running to rental houses all over the city. During this time in the early 2000’s, I would invariably make a trip each week over to Dreamhire or S.I.R. (Studio Instrument Rentals in Chelsea), the two biggest gear rental providers in the city at that time. In fact, my first big gear purchase was a Racked Neve line amp from an 80 series console which I ended up buying from Dreamhire in 2009! At that time every studio in NYC rented gear from Dreamhire, even Electric Lady. If they were in Dreamhire rotation it was used only the cream of NYC’s top tier studios. I can’t say for sure what albums these were on but I do know they were on hundreds of hit records over the last 40 years. Noise gates, as you probably know, do impart an “effect” or color on the source and are the go to module for not only gating drums for also adding color and presence by engineers who know. They also are great for removing low volumes such as string noise on violins and guitars as well as hum and unwanted background noises. A quality gate is an extremely useful tool for dozens of applications outside of its primary intentions of ducking and de-essing. Real engineers know and so did Dreamhire. Sonic Circus used to have a relationship with Chris Dunn, the owner of Dreamhire, in that they racked quite a few very high end pieces of outboard for Chris regularly and that’s how Dreamhire built up the nicest collection of outboard for rent in all of NYC. Very sadly, Dreamhire closed in 2016 and sold off all their inventory including this amazing enclosure featuring two killer compressors/gates units by RM Media. The key input, for those savvy enough to know how to use a real gate not just for ducking, can be fed an EQ and worked as a beautifully intuitive de-esser. Top engineers use these types of comps for compressing, ducking, de-essing, limiting in a mix. These are incredibly useful and versatile, they are killer on snare and toms and work perfectly without issue. Just try them on vocals and hear the magic for yourself. Looking for a secret weapon module that can help you procure your own unique sound as a mix user engineer? Look no further. They appear to be matched, there is no serial # to verify their lineage. Having floated around the biggest studios in NYC for probably 40+ years, they must have seen quite an incredible array of iconic recordings. If Dave Lyons deemed them worthy of a rack job and they were sought after by Chris Dunn, they are quite special indeed. Plugging them in and LISTENING proves just how special they really are. They look like they were serviced very recently and sound flawless. They exhibit no noise and feature attenuation, release, attack and sensitivity. They also have an LED for power and signal and a key input button to engage the gate, as well as a bypass button. The enclosure is in perfect shape. No rack rash or scratches of any kind and are overall in really amazing condition for their age. The PCB’s look to be hand wired PTP although there is no available schematic (which is no problem for any tech worth their salt). The topology also includes a custom fuse inside the chassis. Unit will include a power cable. Will be packed extremely securely and shipped immediately upon payment. Open to trades, any questions please ask. If you own a studio that “has it all”, here’s something unique you certainly don’t see everyday, and can add to your collection… something JML Studios, Dave Lyons and Chris Dunn would certainly be proud to own. PRICING: There’s more hens teeth out there than these racked RM 80X console modules so pricing is difficult. A recent pair of RM Media channel strips sold for almost 20k. Roger Mayer made some pretty iconic, and now highly coveted guitar pedals, dynamic effects and incredible recording consoles for the biggest studios in the world such as the Hit Factory here in NYC where these were racked. Super high end point to point modules with XLR connectivity (2 in, 2 out as expected) and two TS inputs for key input! Some of the nicest units you can find on the net and probably the coolest. The Tangerine Audio reverb shop recently sold a pair of RM comps for $8500 and the only other pair are a sister console racked EQ pair for $24k. Open to all trades and offers. Thanks for looking.