At the heart of my recording studio is my medium format Soundcraft Ghost 32 channel analogue mixing console. I’d always wanted a proper studio mixing desk and when I could afford it I bought this one new about 18 years ago.
Over the years it’s needed some minor maintenance and has been sent back to the manufacturer Harmen on two occasions when something broke down. Last time the group busses died and had to be rebuilt.

Recently I noticed that the rack mounted power supply was starting to make a very ominous low buzzing noise – last time it did this it died shortly afterwards. On that occasion I had it repaired locally but the people who did that no longer do repairs.
So I found myself on the internet looking for a replacement. These Soundcraft power supplies do come up on ebay from time to time but they are usually quite expensive.
Since I hire my studio out to clients as well as using it for my own recording I needed to be sure that the power supply would not let me down during a recording session.
While I was wondering about bidding for an original unit on ebay I came across the studio systems website and more interestingly discovered that Tim Jones – who’s website it is – makes brand new power supplies for analogue desks under the brand name Blue Dog Power supplies.

So I had a decision to make –  I could buy a second hand original Soundcraft PSU – that might be ageing the same way my existing one was (and buzzing like it too) – or I could buy a unit that was brand new – designed to replace the original exactly but with new components and for slightly less money than the secondhand one. It was a no brainer – I ordered the Blue Dog which arrived within a few days of placing the order.

It’s smaller than the original unit – but still needs a 2U rack space. It also does not have the noisy fan of the original. It was because of the noise that I have the original unit rack mounted outside of my studio control room.

Tim claims that his power units will give you a much lower noise floor on the mix buss and I can confirm that this is certainly true for my Ghost. Other than that what can I say?  It’s a power supply unit and, so far at least, it does what it says on the tin. Thanks Tim!

Tim really knows his stuff when it comes to analogue desks – you can find out more on the website and also on his facebook page

Chris Radley

Voice over