Info about Argosy 90 Series Desk for D8B

[Y-my-R]

I just bought a used Argosy 90 Series desk for my two D8Bs (that was advertised as “for Avid C24”, so I lucked out with this - I only thought I’d take a look since the previous owner had a D8B in it).

I learned a few things in the process, that may be helpful to others who are searching for one of these (I’ve been looking for one I could pick up locally for quite some time, that also wasn't breaking the bank):

1. Obviously, the D8B specific versions of Argosy consoles are discontinued, so you can only buy used (...but who’d spend over $3k on a new one to house their 20 year old digital mixer, anyway).

2. The “90 Series” Argosy mainframe is the same for all mixer models, and some 90-Series models are still available new (e.g. for Avid C24).

3. The mixer-model specific parts, are the side panels and “inserts”, such as Rack-Modules, Monitor Bay Modules, etc.. These are inserted into the top of the universal mainframe). There are model-specific parts, because each of the different mixer models, has different sizes and angles. For example, the meter bridge on the D8B tilts backwards by a certain number of degrees. The Rack-Modules/Side-Panels are made to use exactly the same angle, to make the whole thing look like a “unit”. (There’s a possibility that the lids for the bridge, and the armrests are also different on different models… but I’m not sure).

4. This is probably the most important point: I found out from Argosy, that it’s possible to identify by the part number that is stamped onto the back of the Rack-Modules, which mixer model the console was originally made for. There’s two numbers (to identify the left and right side-panels of the Rack-Module), and for the D8B version, they need to say 91041010 (left) and 91042010 (right). And that's what mine said, so it WAS specifically produced for the D8B ("for C24" was false advertisement by the seller, that ended up working out for me!!). So, if you’re looking to buy a used Argosy Console for your D8B, look for these numbers!! (If they’re different, better ask Argosy!!)

5. I also found out from Argosy, that 25 mm (millimeter) wood blocks need to be placed under the rear feet of the D8B, and 19 mm wood blocks should be placed under the front feet of the D8B, to raise the desk(s) to the correct general angle, to match the Rack-Modules, etc. (Those blocks came with new consoles, but weren’t included in mine).

6. Argosy no longer has D8B specific inserts or other D8B specific parts available, but they still sell parts for the mainframe. And that’s a good thing - I needed a replacement for an L-Bracket under the Bridge (mine was cracked), and a few plastic latches and locks for the rear lid. They still had all that, and for a very reasonable price!

7. The Argosy 90 Series desk was/is available in different configurations. Basically, mine has a short part that is as long as one padded armrest. Then there’s a looooong attachment, that is as long as 3 padded armrests (for a total of almost 10 feet, or 3 meters). Argosy makes shorter “extensions” to the mainframe as well. So, an Argosy desk for a single D8B, would likely just have a shorter extension to the right. No matter what, you’ll need a big truck or rent a U-Haul to move one of these - unless you want to completely disassemble it, which seems to be a pain. (I rented a 15 foot U-Haul, just to make sure I can close the rear gate! And this thing is HEAVY!!!! So, I definitely needed the ramp to roll the mainframe back out).

8. Even though this desk was made for the D8B, one of the Argosy-armrests is a bit in the way of where the jog-wheel on one of the D8B protrudes. I think newer Argosy D8B desk models only have a cut-out where that wheel is supposed to go into the armrest - but I guess this limits where exactly you can position the desk. But I got an older version, where the armrests are open everywhere on the mixer-side. However, there are some wood pieces in there for stability, that can be in the way, depending on how you position your D8B(s). I’ll likely modify the plastic on one of my D8Bs, since I have a spare one anyway (but I don’t have any spare Argosy-Armrests). It kinda sucks that the armrests are completely open on the mixer side, though. There was SO MUCH gunk and dirt in there when I got it… disgusting!! Even an old A/C remote fell out, that the previous owner apparently ordered a replacement for, since he could no longer find it, hahaha (also tons of change, pens, and random small items).

9. My version fits two D8Bs and two Rack-Modules like a glove. The Rack-Modules can be placed in any position you like (left/right/middle, etc.). It doesn’t have to be the way I did it in the pictures I’m sharing. (e.g. the previous owner had used it with a single D8B, 1 Rack Module on the left, and two on the right of the D8B (and some odd amount of space that is left over and was left open)).

Some other thoughts:

Argosy were AWESOME!!! They treated me as if I just bought a new Mercedes from them, even though they knew I bought this used and for cheap… and I only ordered a total of $40 of parts (plus shipping). But they were SO helpful!! Sent me the assembly instructions PDF, and the D8B specific sheet, that showed the height of the blocks for under the feet, etc. Really awesome experience with them!

Argosy DID have replacement armrests available, which makes me think that those are NOT D8B specific. However, I was only missing a single armrest screw, so they sold that to me instead for $1.50. I do intend to get all the armrests re-upholstered, though, since mine have burn marks and tears, etc. I expect it to be a lot cheaper to get them re-upholstered, than getting all new ones from Argosy. They also said that the vinyl might look a little different on new ones, so, it really only makes sense to get the whole set or none. And that would definitely be too pricey.

I’m sharing some pics below, but nothing’s wired up yet. I just dropped in the desks and a bunch of random rack gear to see how it looks. To be honest, I think my previous setup was more practical. This is a bit of a waste of space, but at least it looks awesome! And strangely, that seems to matter to clients more, than a great functional setup, hahaha. And if I ever inherit a very large boat and need an anchor… well…

Anyway - the main takeaway here is, if you’re in the market for an Argosy desk, insist to look at the back of the Rack Modules and look for the numbers “91041010” and “91041020”. If it's got those numbers, you should be golden!

…and I’m gonna have a lot of fun for the coming week or so, wiring everything back up, and finding a good place for all the gear that had to move because of this monstrocity, hahaha

[Y-my-R]

Someone asked about D8B furniture in another post, so I thought I’d update this older post of mine with some new pics and information (and then link to it from the other post).

I’m still using the same Argosy 90 Series desk, but rearranged what lives in it a bit. I’m no longer using 2 D8Bs in that desk, but just one, and brought the 3rd rack bucket back, that came with the used desk when I bought it. The idea with the two D8Bs was to either simultaneously run one as a mixer and one with a ProBox… or alternatively run both with ProBoxes (I bought a second ProBox at the time for that purpose), so I can have my DAW channels permanently mapped to one D8B (with the ability to bank to more channels), and have my busses and VCAs, etc., permanently mapped to the other D8B (without having it impacted during “banking” and always have my busses etc. in the same spots… like you would on an analog large format console).

The thought was, that having all the faders have more or less permanent assignments would make it easier to remember what’s where (because the D8B doesn’t have scribble strip displays by the channels to tell you). But not all DAWs allow you to “lock” control surfaces to one thing, while still dynamically changing what’s on the other… so, depending on the DAW I used, this either worked great, or not at all (e.g. trying to figure out where the channel you need is, isn’t quite as easy if 48 faders “bank” sideways and you’re unsure where you are).

However, even if I would have used only DAWs where that works, it just felt like a huge waste of electricity to run such a giant setup, just to push a few faders around in the DAW… so, I removed one of the D8Bs (I’m keeping it as a spare), put the 3rd rack bucket back in, and arranged everything in a more “traditional” layout.
The single D8B can still run either as intended as a mixer, or can be switched to ProBox use, with an external serial/parallel switch (mounted below the desk, along with a KVM).

I also put everything I regularly need on more patchbays… and moved the patchbay/patchfield to the left side of the rig (…I had somewhat expanded patchbays on the right side before… moving/rewiring was a MAJOR effort, but I’m glad I did it. Some of the cable-lengths got longer (which I usually try to avoid), but the setup is just SO much more practical now… and none of the cables running through the inside of the Argosy furniture are picking up interference… so, the longer cable lengths didn’t introduce any issues.
I do run all the audio cables separate from the power and data cables, which I’m sure helps. The audio cables mostly run past the back of the D8B in the “upper level” of the Argosy desk. The power and data cables run in the “lower level” or a sort of “trench” behind the board where my knees touch the furniture.
I think something was missing in my Argosy desk, for the cable management on the lower level/trench, but I improvised and put a new “floor” in there, that still leaves air through for circulation, but safely holds the power cables and wall wart power supplies.

I was a bit worried for a while, that it would get too hot in there with all the lids closed, but that has never been a problem . It stays “breezy” enough in there.

What might stand out most now, is the small monitor in the middle. That’s a touch-screen (Asus VT229h), and the monitor I look at most, when working at the desk… I’m also a bit short-sighted, so the close proximity helps, haha. I mostly use the big monitor/TV behind that to “park” other screens, or to view the mixer while working in the arrange or editors of the DAW. So, that one’s definitely “secondary” to me, but I’m glad it’s there… otherwise that little screen would be WAY too tiny.

The touch-screen part does NOT work with the D8B. I originally bought the screen to try if I can get that working, but didn’t. So, I now use it with my DAW computer, instead. To make it work the way it should, I bought a license specific to this monitor model from a company called “touch-base.com.” I can’t be certain if it’s that, but have a strong hunch that the Slate Raven touch-screens just license exactly the same driver. The driver versions have the same exact numbers, and IMO it works pretty much the same. You might not get all of the Raven’s “custom macros” or something, but otherwise, IMO, it’s the same thing.
But the monitor is smaller (which I wanted, or it wouldn’t have fit in this place) and much cheaper, at right around $200. The software cost about $100 on top, if I remember right. So, for $300, you get a “Raven MTi Mini” so to speak.

Also, I bought a different stand for that touch-screen monitor, because it allows me to fold it flat/horizontal. The reason why I need it to do that, is because the only place where I could place a center speaker for surround sound, was just behind this monitor. Otherwise, I would have had to put it on top of the Argosy desk and have the big monitor go up MUCH higher, which would have been totally impractical for me… or just not have a small touch-screen monitor in front of me, at all… and keep squinting at the “too far away” big monitor.

So, since I don’t do much surround sound at all, I figured a good compromise would be, to place the center speaker behind the touch-screen, and when I actually need to MIX in surround and here the center speaker without obstruction, I just have the lie the touch-screen flat, to clear the center speaker from obstructions.

To make that center speaker fit, I did actually have to cut a larger “slot” into the argosy desk on the inside, so it can tilt up at the angle I needed, and sit securely in it’s place. This might have reduced the stability of the Argosy desk, somewhat… but I don’t notice any vibrations or resonances that as a result, so that should all be good.
(And of course the center speaker location wouldn’t let me pass something like THX certification or something… but it’s good enough for me to be able to judge what comes out of the center when monitoring in surround – my D8B is wired to allow to use it in up to 7.1 surround (with speakers for a 5.1 surround system being permanently connected… but patchable via patchbay).

…oh, and something I did not too long ago, was to mount that PreSonus FP1 Faderport controller, on a gooseneck (just a hackjob, not an available accessory), so I can re-position it as needed. There was never a good place to put it before that, and it would have covered up the front panel inputs on my audio interfaces if just laying it down flat as intended… but I use those all the time. So, after a few different temporary fixes, like foam ramps with cavities cut out under to make room for XLR and TRS connectors into the audio interfaces, I came up with the gooseneck idea (took the gooseneck out of a broken reading lamp).

So, when I need to move the touch-screen, for example to do surround sound, that Faderport will NOT continue to stick up all awkward like that, but I can reposition it via that gooseneck as well. So, that worked out great.

The nice side-effect of having the faderport upright and right in front of my trackball like that is, though, that I can literally just stretch my fingers a little from where I have my right hand anyway, to press the play or stop buttons, etc.
I’m someone who normally does almost all the transport control from the computer keyboard, since I have my hands positioned there all the time, anyway… but the trackball and play/stop button arrangement I have now, actually makes it FASTER to hit the buttons on the controller, while leaving my hand on the trackball, than it would be to lift my hand off, move slightly to the left, and hit “0” or “Enter” to stop or start the playback on the computer keyboard. So, that was an unintended benefit I didn’t even think of, when putting things up like this.

Another thing that may be worth mentioning, is the “manual”… or I almost want to say “analog” S/PDIF and VGA patchbay on the bottom of the patchbay on the left. (yeah, right… an analog digital patchbay… sounds about right, haha).

I used to have my S/PDIF sources and destinations connected to my M-Audio Digipatch 12x6 digital patchbay, along with 6 of my ADAT sources/destinations. However, the RCA S/PDIF and optical S/PDIF (which is usable as ADAT on that patchbay) share ports. So, I kept getting in the way of myself, with what I wanted to patch via S/PDIF and what I wanted to patch via ADAT.
I still had an unused BNC and DB9 patch panel lying around that I got in a trade. My guess is, that this was part of a video rig, running SDI on the BNCs and some sort of sync signals on the DB9’s… like old “actual” ADATs would. Anyway… I had it, so I thought I’d use it.

So, the Digipatch patchbay now takes care of ONLY my ADAT connections (but I’m looking for a patchbay with more ports for that… already have to compromise on that as it is).

On the “manual” BNC patchbay, I now use short BNC cables to connect S/PDIF sources and destinations – which has been working great! The only downside is, that it’s not as easy to “mult” a single source to more than one destination. Just using a T-Connector to split the cable doesn’t work right (I tried… probably b/c of the drop in impedance when connecting to two destinations).

As for the DB9 “sync” connectors… I replaced those with DB15 VGA connectors, and can now manually patch multiple VGA-Video sources, to multiple VGA-Video destinations across the room. For example, I could put the HDR or D8B monitor output on the touchscreen in front of me, on one of the monitors on my lower left, or on the monitor at the “Piano Station” on my right (that runs off the same main DAW computer), or on the Monitor I have in the back by the electronic drum kit.
Besides, there are some VGA splitter cables involved, that allow me to have all the sources on a KVM as well. So, my “main” VGA monitor for the D8B is usually the one to my lower left, but I can use the KVM to either put the HDR’s VGA out, or my Win98 PC’s VGA output on there.
Or I can patch any of these sources and put them on that secondary monitor on my lower left (the idea is, that I could see both, the D8B monitor and HDR monitor if running them at the same time with the DAW computer. But I could always move either of the VGA signals to the touch-screen in the middle, when running the system otherwise “DAW-less”.

Anyway… sounds confusing but it isn’t, really, in practical use. The basic idea is, that I have 5 different monitors with VGA inputs throughout the room, and can put the D8B, HDR or “vintage PC” monitor output on any of them, any time I like.

By default, some of these monitors (e.g. Piano station and Drums), mirror the main HDMI monitor signal with my DAW window, that I usually have showing on the touch-screen in the middle, though (gotta change their input to use VGA instead).

The idea with that is, that I can mix/edit etc, from my center seating position by the D8B… but go and play more serious “piano” stuff at the Piano Station to the right (that’s an older Native Instruments KKS-88 controller right there… so, basically a Fatar keybed), or go and sit behind the MIDI drums, while still being able to see where I am in the song, because I have another HDMI/VGA monitor right there.
(And I also use a tablet from back there, that lets me remote control my DAW… but I have a set of wireless mouse and keyboard back there, as well).

I didn’t include pictures pointing straight behind me from the center seat… but there’s essentially a 4x12 guitar half-stack right behind me and my pedal board. It’s flanked on the left and right by another two 2x12 guitar speakers (ADA Split Stack), for times when I want to play in stereo.

The two 2x12 guitar speakers also serve as my Rear-Left and Rear-Right surround speaker monitor stands. They’re not in exactly the right position for doing surround sound b/c they’d otherwise be in the way a bit to leave them there permanently. But those 2x12 guitar cabs have convenient handles on both sides, that make it easy to grab them with the surround speakers on top, and just move them to the location where they need to be (where I have markings on the floor, for that).

One of the last pics is of my MIDI/Synth rack, that also has my HDR and my PA amp in it. This pic is a bit older, already, though. I meanwhile added a Emagic AMT8 (in addition to the Unitor8… so, two of those blue things in the rack), and because of that, swapped out that 2U Rane EQ for the PA, with a 1U Samson EQ for the PA, that I also still had lying around.
That black “step” on the floor in front of that rack, is where the cables between the Argosy and the MIDI-rack run under, so I don’t step on that. I couldn’t find anything suitable that was affordable for months on end, so I just took two sturdy closet shelves and put some strategic wood pieces between them, so I could push my cables through there (audio and power/data separately), without them being in the way or me stepping on them.

The last pic is just from the back of the Argosy desk. I still need to be able to walk by the whole setup and to the adjacent room, easily. So, the Argosy desk creates a sort of “hallway” behind it, in the room. At least it makes it easy to get to the back of it… but it’s getting pretty crowded INSIDE of the Argosy desk at this point – so, it’s still a pain to get to cable connections in the back of the D8B, despite of that “hallway” – but at least it looks fairly tidy, when it comes compared to the humungous cable-salad I had going behind and under the D8B, before I got that Argosy desk

Anyway… a few things already changed again since I took those pics (e.g. that Softube Console1 now lives in front of the D8B, b/c I got it to work with it as a channel strip controller)… and I’d have cleaned up better, if I was planning to share the pics when I took them some months back. But it should still give a pretty current idea.

Alright… I think that about sums it up (although there are tons more little ideas and conveniences hidden in the details… but going over all of that would be even more out of scope of a forum post like this, than I already am).

If you are curious about anything (e.g. b/c you want to put together something similar), or could use a bigger pic (e.g. of the patchbay, to be able to read how I have things laid out), just let me know. I’m happy to share… I just usually try to avoid “show-off” posts (…well, maybe there’s A LITTLE feeling of pride of my setup in there, somewhere, haha), but figured it might help to give ideas or inspiration for others.

That makes me think… maybe we should start a new “D8B Setup Pics” thread or something – I’m always happy to see other’s setups, so I guess I might not be the only one

1_Center.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 267 times

2_Center.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 267 times

3_Center_Speaker.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 267 times

4_Center_towardsRight.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 267 times

5_D8B_wheelAngle.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 267 times

[Y-my-R]

Apparently, you can only include 5 pics per post. So, here's another 5:

6_Far_Angle_Right.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 267 times

7_Far_Angle_Left.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 267 times

8_Synth_Rack_and_PianoStation.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 267 times

9_Patchbay.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 267 times

10_Behind_Argosy.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 267 times

[nuss]

for the record......Argosy still has the CNC files for these desks and can and will build one special order I ordered one in 2020 and they had no issue building it.

I no longer have a D8B so ive modified it slightly and it now houses my SSL controllers (2 UF8's, UC1 and UF1)