Click to bring up galleries of associated pictures
The Caribou Olive as it Appears Today
Generic Ad and Mackie Reference
Brochure for Caribou Ranch (removed at request of Caribou Ranch)
Guide to the Various Olive Modules
One-Sheet Promo Materials
Product Guides, Versions I and II
Information on the Remix Programmer
Series 2000 General Brochure
Specifications and Pricing
Wayne Jones' AES Paper
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The Olive Console and Caribou Ranch
The Beginning
The initial vision for the Olive console came from Wayne Jones in 1969.
At that time, consoles were being built in one of two ways: completely
custom with the whole control surface built as one custom panel, or
modular using individual functional elements such as faders, equalizers,
and compressors. Electrodyne had pioneered the concept of the “strip
modularization”, laying out each input channel as a vertical column. The
column itself consisted of a series of individual modules starting with
the fader at the bottom and working up to channel switches at the top.
Using this modular approach, consoles with different quantities of
inputs could be constructed by assembling side by side strips. Quad
Eight and Automated Processes (later API) would later continue this
approach. Using this technique, a custom console could be designed using
standard components, thus reducing the engineering effort, risk, and
development time. Yet a customer could configure a console unique enough
to suit their particular needs.
While this approach had obvious merit, Jones believed there was a cost
burden added with this degree of modularity. Each functional block
needed its own expensive housing, interface circuitry, and perhaps even
power supply. Jones started Olive with the belief that a single input
channel strip module with all of the functions integrated would be more
cost effective. But it would have to include all of the functions
commonly wanted by users. He reasoned that a single module circuit board
and single metal housing would lower the cost compared to individual
modules, and that the more circuit boards were used for wiring rather
than conventional point to point wiring, the cost would ramp down while
the reliability ramped up. Continuing this mindset, he wanted to use
circuit boards to interconnect the input module strips, and to carry the
modular approach all the way through the construction, even to the
large console housing. Two-foot wide frames would be made that could be
bolted together to make console widths in multiples of two feet.
All of these presumptions turned out to have merit, but the execution
would have flaws. The tolerance buildup caused by alignment of the
two-foot frames and associated two-foot bus boards compromised the
integrity of this busing concept. The alignment of the connectors on the
input modules that plugged into the bus boards was also compromised due
to the distances involved. The result was that modules did not always
seat correctly and the contacts between the modules and the bus boards
were not reliable. This was a major source of reliability issues for the
console.
But these flaws wouldn't present themselves until after the company had
started to build its first set of consoles. In 1971, Jones formed a
Canadian company called Olive Electrodynamics. His vision was to
produce semi-modular integrated consoles with every conceivable feature
usually reserved for outboard gear, built right in. His dream involved
gating and compression on every channel; four-band EQ on every channel;
automated fader movement; storage of automation data on multitrack; VCA
subgrouping; Op-Amps; computer-controlled matrix routing; FET switching;
current-mode summing busses; ,and ten tape machine remotes, along with
many other features. None of these features were currently available in
any console at any price.
Equalization
About the equalizers, Jones recalls, "There were a variety of equalizers
in use in consoles at the time. Some simple ones with two bands: a low
frequency and a high frequency adjustment. The Automated Processes
3-band equalizer seemed to be popular but I had heard that some
producers considered the single mid-band control insufficient at times. I
thought if we made a 4-band equalizer, we could satisfy everyone. While
the AP equalizer was a good model, I questioned the ergonomics of the
rotary controls. It was hard to see the designations around the full
circle of the rotary control while sitting at the console. Digitran, a
switch manufacturer, had just introduced a new twist to the then popular
“thumbwheel” switch, namely a “lever wheel” switch. They replaced the
traditional cumbersome thumbwheel with a very ergonomic gear ratio lever
actuated switch with a very smooth action. As the lever was moved over
its short travel of perhaps 90 degrees, the indicator wheel and
associated switches would travel over their full 360 degree rotation.
This was perfect to design a dense multi-control equalizer in a small
space but provide an ergonomic design. Four multi-frequency controls and
four dB level controls plus four boost/cut switches in a 1.5” x 6”
space. We had Digitran custom manufacture the switches with the special
frequency and amplitude designations printed on the wheels and the
circuit boards housing the switches extended out to accept the
capacitors and resistors for the tuned circuits. This made a very
efficient and compact design."
Compression
Jones knew that gain processing devices were not popular as built in
devices on every channel. Normally rack mounted boxes that could be
patched into a particular channel were used as a matter of necessity.
Paul Buff, founder and brilliant chief designer of Allison Research
(Allison was Paul’s wife) was selling his Kepex, a remarkable expander
and noise gate, and he would later introduce the “Gain Brain,” and there
were many other outboard compressor/limiter/expanders as well. Jones
thought that if he and his staff were clever enough, they could include a
very flexible gain processing device on every input that could emulate
the functionality of most of these outboard devices, a task not yet
achieved at that time.
VCAs
Early on, Jones decided that the primary gain setting device on every
channel should be a Voltage Controlled Attenuator/Amplifier (VCA). This
would allow more flexibility with fader choice and allow a new
sub-grouping functionality. But VCA technology was not well refined at
that time, and had not yet reached into the audio world. There were many
approaches using integrated circuits and discrete circuits but they all
had limited range—perhaps 60 dB or so—and added noise and distortion.
Dave Blackmer, another brilliant engineer who ran DBX, had developed a
unique current mode VCA that had significantly better performance than
anything else on the market. But the modules were expensive and
unfortunately prone to self-destruction under certain conditions. They
were built as log control amps, meaning they could be used with a
linear-taper fader. Since the P&G faders Olive decided to use were
audio-tapered, the log function of the VCA needed to be converted to
linear function via an antilog circuit. That antilog circuit is
unipolar, but couldn't deal with an incorrect offset that might cause it
to seem to go below zero voltage. This caused many to fail upon
installation. At $50 apiece and with a potted repair-proof design, this
caused headaches. But they provided the quality so they were the
choice.
Submasters
Up until that time, mixing console signal paths were straight forward:
each input could be switched to one or perhaps more than one output
channel. Each output channel went to one track of the multi-track
recorder. Submaster faders were gain controls of the output channels. On
earlier consoles, with only four or less output channels, a master
fader controlling the gain of all the output channels was possible. But
there were no 16-channel faders, so there were no master faders on large
consoles.
Jones recalls; "If you used several mics on a group of instruments,
perhaps strings or drums, you could assign them to individual tracks to
give flexibility during the mix down. If you chose adjacent output
channels, the submaster faders would also be adjacent but there were as
many of these as output channels. With VCAs, the input gain was set by a
DC control voltage so it was possible to control this DC voltage in
various ways by simply grouping faders. Now there was no requirement to
hard-map the relationship between output channel and submaster faders.
You could have five mics on the drums going to five tape tracks
respectively, but all controlled by a single group fader. You could
assign level control completely independently from channel and tape
track assignment. This was perhaps the most difficult new feature to
explain of the system to prospective customers. I recall many times
trying to explain this to someone at an AES convention only to have
their eyes glaze over. Every once in a while, someone would suddenly get
it and their eyes would light up as they realized what this meant and
the advantages it would provide."
Displays
Every console had to have a switch for every function and routing
possibility. The more sophisticated ones used illuminated switches and
push buttons to provide better user feedback. This illumination used
hundreds of small incandescent bulbs. These consumed a lot of current
and produced a lot of heat. But worse than that, they were always
burning out. The more accessible ones could be replaced from the top of
the console, but some required removal of a module. So part of studio
maintenance was bulb replacement. And mixers had to use consoles that
almost always had a few burned out bulbs.
Light emitting diodes (LEDs) had just come on the market. They were
expensive, not very bright, and inconsistent in intensity from unit to
unit. But they didn’t burn out and took less current and less space.
With 16 output channels on each of 20, 24, 32 or more inputs, this was a
lot of indicators, so Jones wanted to use this new device.
Consoles also had VU meters as output level indicators. On earlier 2, 3,
and 4 channel consoles, these worked just fine. But with 16 or 24
output channels, it was hard to concentrate on all the meters and see
when a channel was overloaded. Jones believed that a multichannel level
display using closely-spaced vertical bar graphs constructed with LEDs
would provide a more useful display. While Jones doesn't claim
originality on light-based vertical bar graphs, there was still no other
console that used lighted bar graphs as level indicators at that time,
certainly none that used LEDs.
Electronic Switching
With increasing demand for more signal routing choices in the
ever-expanding large console, many switches are required. Switches are
expensive, space consuming, and can compromise the reliability of the
system as the contacts degrade over time. There were methods to switch
signals using electronic circuits but this technique had not yet found
its way into recording consoles. Jones believed he could lower cost,
reduce panel space, and most importantly, improve long-term reliability
by using solid-state switching. Olive developed a simple switch using
FETs that met all of the requirements. To set the state of the switch, a
central control system with a small keyboard was developed. Engineers
loved the fact that you could clear all of the output assignments with
just a few key strokes, not the more typical process of manually setting
hundreds of mechanical pushbuttons. To indicate the state of the
switches, the new LEDs were used.
Automation
At an early point in the development of the company, Jones wanted to
offer the capability of automating the mix down process. He had heard
from engineers that this was one of the more challenging aspects of
producing a master. Each time the mixdown was performed, some little
flaw might show up. The mix was set up again, only to miss something
else.
Including VCAs provided the path for automating the mix downs. Olive
contracted with a couple of engineers with converter and digital
electronics skills to create a system that would monitor 16 or more DC
voltages and produce an analog FSK (Frequency Shift Keying) signal that
could be recorded on one track of the tape recorder. This could be
played back with the rest of the audio tracks and the DC control levels
would control the VCAs to automate the mix down. This was the first
appearance of any sort of automated mixdown, years before Neve or API
would be able to include the feature.
The first public demonstration of this capability was at the October
1973 AES convention in Los Angeles. There was a large console on the
show floor. Off site, at the Westlake Audio sales offices on Wilshire
Blvd, the prototype Automated Mixdown system was set up for
demonstration to selected potential customers. This “proof of concept”
demo was done using a bank of outboard VCAs connected to another
(non-Olive) console and controlled by the “computer”. Because the Olive
console itself was not ready for this demonstration, some have doubted
whether the concept ever actually worked. But Ed Meitner, President of
EMM Labs, would disagree, having viewed the demo himself. The fact that
it was controlling another console didn't mean it didn't work; it only
meant the Olive console wasn't yet finished. There is still doubt about
how much this feature was used in the production consoles, so more
research is needed.
Console Production
To assist him in the mammoth task of creating this dream console, Jones
had a staff of five additional people. Ed Fox was responsible for
system design, Carl DeWild handled digital design and comp/lim/exp
project, Ed Meitner tackled all the analog - pre, EQ, input strip, and
measurements, Steve Lyman was in charge of the mechanical packaging.
Donald Gaubatz took the title of Chief Engineer. Because of the intense
pressure to get the product built, they mostly communicated with each
other through an intercom, and had locks on the inside of their doors.
Olive was a 24/7 affair, and Ed used to sleep outside the office in his
car. When a new input strip came off the line, they would knock on his
car window to wake him up for testing.
This was a monstrous undertaking, which was made more obvious by the
fact that no other manufacturer was willing to commit to anything
approaching that scale of technology. To help fulfill this vision,
Wayne received assistance from the Canadian government and began his
R&D stage. In 1973, after pressure from the government agency in
charge of that assistance, he decided he needed to bring the console to
market to appease them, somewhat before he really felt it was ready.
His second grant, for marketing and manufacturing, depended on it.
Really though, Olive was growing too fast, and the company wasn't ready
for the financial pressure of getting things out. At the first AES show
in L.A., they booked 20 or 24 orders, and it would have continued if
the second government grant had come through. There was also a mastering
console in the works, as well as a number of other projects, none of
which got off the ground in time.
Even with all the innovations found in the Olive, it was not without
problems. In addition to those previously outlined in the design, there
had also been reports that channels would sound different for no
apparent reason, undoubtedly because of tolerances not suited for audio.
Another example was the hurdle of trying to get the op-amps to work
properly. Made by National Semiconductor, the amps put into the
prototype console were first-run op-amps built as a small batch, and
thus they were way above spec. But the Olive engineers didn't know that
this was an anomaly, and ordered a production run. When the production
run arrived (the first LM301s), they wouldn't go anywhere near 20KHz.
In fact, they were lucky to achieve 8KHz. Thus they had to convince
National to go back, re-spec, and re-run the batch, because the
console's radical new design precluded the use of anything but VCAs, and
there were no others remotely suited for audio.
Because the Olive staff all knew they were doing something that no one
else was doing, none of these issues seemed like a nightmare. For his
part, Ed feels as though it really defined his future path. It was his
first real job when he came to Canada. Piecework on PA systems, guitar
amps and the like were keeping food on the table, but after TBone Walker
and Big Mama Thornton needed some work from him, Wayne heard his name,
and invited him over to the Olive fold.
Caribou Ranch
Right at the time that Olive was getting started, Jim Guercio was
opening Caribou Ranch, nestled high in the Colorado Rockies outside
Nederland, with some very impressive clientele already waiting to get
in. Guercio and Caribou took delivery of the largest version of the 2000
series, with 36 input channels, a ten-tape machine control section, and
several other extra-cost enhancements. The price of this console
hovered around the $250,000 mark, in 1971 Canadian dollars. Only two
other consoles were being built, but by the time the 1971 AES show
rolled by, between 20 and 24 had been pre-sold. There are varying
accounts of who actually received consoles, but at this point we know
definitively of only two: The first went to Thundersound in Toronto,
and the second to Caribou Ranch.
It should be noted at this point that there are other consoles rumoured
to have been completed. One may have gone to a studio in France, and
another to Andre Perry's Son Quebec in Montreal, which was in a
converted church, as shown in the literature.
But since there were so few completed, Olive felt it wise to send a
technician, Frank Lee, along with the console to Nederland, Colorado to
help out in case anything went wrong.
It did. The desk was at first unable to pass audio, despite the best
attempts of Lee to wring out issues that had not yet been fully
addressed at the factory. Audio was quickly sorted out, but the
differing-channel issue and other quirks did not sit well with Guercio.
During the six months of Lee's on-site presence, though there was a
great deal of progress, clients were piling up, and Jim knew he had to
act fast. So he called some friends at Neve, who told him that George
Martin was planning on getting rid of his current desk, a 24-input 8016.
A very short time later, that Neve was in place at Caribou, and the
recording of artists like Chicago, Elton John, and Blood, Sweat and
Tears commenced. During Caribou's tenure, the Neve 8016 was replaced
with an 8078, but the fantastic Olive 2000 was left to sit in storage,
waiting for its day. Like H.G. Wells' Time Traveller, it watched
helplessly as the world passed it by. It sat as other manufacturers
stole ideas, borrowed design features, and completed research that Wayne
was unable to. Within the year, other manufacturers had adopted VCAs,
op-amps, and automated mixdowns, and the rest of the list wasn't far
behind. Jones had to move on, forming Amber Electro Design (bringing
Meitner on later) and trying to forget about the whole experience.
Westlake Audio had accepted money for at least six other consoles, and
Mastering Engineer Glenn Meadows (who was with Westlake at the time)
says that they were forced to deliver API consoles instead.
Caribou had to move on as well, recording dozens of platinum albums,
bringing in every prominent producer and artist, and achieving a status
as a destination studio unparalleled by any other in the nation. There
was no time for the Olive, and it was all but forgotten. Then, in March
of 1985, Jim woke up to the smell every business owner dreads.
Smoke.
The End of Caribou Ranch Studio
A fire destroyed the studio. Fortunately, fire department members were
at least able to save master tapes, gold and platinum albums, and quite a
bit of equipment, including dozens of microphones.
But as extensive as the fire was, not all the gear was damaged or
destroyed. Guercio kindly donated all that remained to The University of
Colorado at Denver, under the guidance of Roy Pritts, the Dean of the
College of Music. The original Neve 8016, the Olive, a number of tape
machines, microphones, and a couple of tons of various other gear was
moved down to CU's Denver campus for students to learn on. The Olive was
even reassembled, but only served as a conversation piece. Its power
supplies pirated to serve the Neve, it languished for another decade.
The Restoration
Craig Patterson, now president of PME Records, just couldn't stand to
see that, and while an engineering student under Bill Porter at UCD, he
agreed to take on the Herculean task of lighting up the Olive 2000.
Taking ownership of a dozen input modules, work began on trying to find
documentation and parts. With assistance from Paula Dunn, Head of
Library Research at Texas Women's University, patent designs were found,
and the trail of Wayne Jones was followed... but he wasn't interested
in revisiting the past. However, he was willing to give Patterson
something crucial. For some reason, Jones still had one remaining set
of original blueprints and schematics for the console. Once receiving
them on loan, Patterson made two copies of them, and sent back the
fading originals. Several years later, after many dead ends and delays,
Patterson was not able to have the modules pass audio. Some LEDs would
light, but his technical expertise just wasn't acute enough to finesse
the stubborn components, and a number of crucial items were still
unaccounted for.
In the mid-1990's, Clark Hagan, Grammy-winning engineer and former UCD
student, decided to take up the challenge, and discovered that the Olive
had been taken completely apart and put in a back room. Some wheeling
and dealing for work and gear ensued, and Hagan was able to take
ownership of all the parts UCD had, as well as grab the all-important
power supplies from their spot underneath the Neve 8016. Hagan then
contacted Patterson through Roy Pritts. After achieving a comfort
level, Patterson surrendered the modules and schematics to Hagan, who by
this time was in Nashville, engineering for the likes of Chet Atkins
and Ray Stevens, and furthering his studies under Bill Porter. This was
a busy schedule, and it kept Hagan from working full-time on the
console. But he had persistence. He figured out the multiple power
supplies issue, hotrodded the master section because there were no
schematics, had meter boxes and side panels built, and spent some time
re-wiring the Multitrack-to-Dolby connections. Mark Guercio gave Hagan
the too-rare-to-find-anywhere female pins to hook into the patch bay,
and work was just about done. Finally, in 1999, he was able to power up
the monitor section and hear the console's electronics for the first
time. Within two years, he had powered up the entire desk, and had
gotten about 90% of the functions to work.
The Sound
So it's time for the biggest question of all: After all this time, and
all this hype, what does the Olive 2000 sound like? Well, in two words,
open and natural. It doesn't have the clinical neutrality of, say, a
John Hardy preamp, but it doesn't have the "warmth" of a Neve, either.
Instead, it's in between the two. Hearing a source through it for the
first time is an ear-opening experience, giving you a real sense that
the artist is right in the room with you. There isn't a distortion of
color that would give it an inalterable personality. But there also
isn't that sense of fatigue that can develop when listening to something
that has no personality of its own. Instead, it sounds as though it's
giving you the same sense of space and openness that was present in the
original signal. There is no other console that sounds like this.
The Olive hasn't been working reliably long enough to allow Clark to use
it in daily sessions, but it is definitely getting used. As it gets
used to being worked, and Clark gains more trust in it, it will see more
and more use. Everyone involved with project hopes the Olive 2000 will
be able to regain its rightful place in the modern sonic landscape.
The End of Olive
Wayne puts it best when he says; "Looking back, we were an enthusiastic
group of engineers, passionate about audio and electronics, and had many
good ideas. But we were short on experience, business acumen, and
resources. Many people lost a lot of money, something I will always be
sorry about. We didn’t deliver what we agreed to deliver despite many
long hours of work. Many of the innovations eventually worked their way
into the industry.
"We all wanted to bring this functionality to the industry. We were all
in our early 20s and didn’t know what MBA stood for. We thought good
ideas, hard work, and a passionate desire would make it happen. It
didn’t. It did come close with a couple of consoles delivered which
served for many years but there were more disappointed customers who had
put their faith in our ability to deliver the ideas they had seen on
paper or at trade shows.
Today
So where are the key players now? Ed Meitner heads up EMM Labs, makers
of the groundbreaking DSD SACD Converters, and has installed more than
600 8-channel systems so far. Jim Guercio still lives on Caribou Ranch,
dividing his time between ranching and traveling. Wayne Jones is
currently at Intel, in their Server Group. Craig Patterson and Clark
Hagan are currently negotiating with Brian Mitchell of Studio 306 to
bring the only other known console, from Thundersound, back to life.
Wayne Jones has kindly scanned a TON of information he has about the
Olive, including photos from the factory, photos from the 1973 AES show,
and more. Take a tour of this information here.
Mixes Done On the Olive
We're always looking for more tunes, so if you know of any, please email us at . Here's what we know so far:
1970 or 1973 - Rick Derringer, Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo - unknown
which version, but it was either his solo version, or the earlier
version with Edgar Winter. In either event, it's likely the entire
album was recorded on the Olive.
1972 - Joe Walsh, Barnstorm - recorded and mixed on the Olive, including the hit Turn to Stone
1973 - Joe Walsh, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get - recorded on the Olive, including the classic Rocky Mountain Way
1973 - Chicago, Chicago VI, along with its first single, "Feelin'
Stronger Every Day", and its second single (Certified Gold and #4 in
Billboard), "Just You 'N' Me"
1974 - Elton John, Caribou - we know this is the right time period,
but we're not sure if Caribou was actually mixed on the Olive.
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