I may be wrong about this, but my brother, John Stephens, developed a slide fader for his consoles that used a graphic taper that wiped the audio in and out. He developed it, because he was tired of dirt, etc. that got into regular pots creating noise. He probably didn't patent it, since like with many of his inventions, he felt that the process was too cumbersome with not much protection resulting. I'd like anyone to tell me if I'm correct about this type of fader, since we're setting up a web site honoring John and his accomplishments and would like to include any other items.
Rod Stephens
--- On Thu, 4/12/12, Stephen Anderson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Stephen Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] The root of the slide-fader?
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Thursday, April 12, 2012, 11:25 AM
Having recently refurbished an early '70s ADM console (thanks, Tom!), I can state fairly firmly that the Slidex, which used a twisted piece of aluminum activated by the slider to turn a conventional Allen Bradley pot, was pretty crude, and very difficult to match mechanically, channel to channel.
Teac/Tascam in their Series 70 mixers used a string to turn a standard rotary pot, if memory serves, this was much better.
Steve
On Apr 12, 2012, at 11:08 AM, Tom Fine wrote:
> http://www.google.com/patents/US2517180?printsec=drawing#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> Art Davis worked for Cinema Engineering, which was marketing a form of this kind of attenuator in 1953 and probably earlier.
>
> See:
> http://www.preservationsound.com/?p=4611
> (I provided the scans, from old magazines)
>
> As we know, slide-faders became the preferred interface for analog mixing boards, eventually replacing rotary faders in almost all applications (although small-format mixers sold by companies like Behringer, Mackie, Alesis and others still use rotary faders). There have been many varients on slide-faders over the years. In the 60's, Fairchild sold a fader that controlled the intensity of a light source, which then interacted with a LDR to control gain, branded "Autoten." In the 70's, Audio Designs & Manufacturing (ADM) patented a mechanical system that drove a pot that controlled a VCA to control gain. The advantage of the ADM "Slidex" attenuator was that liquid (perhaps coffee at a TV station, beer at a radio station or something more exotic at a recording studio) could spill across the slider section of the console and not short out anything, within reason.
>
> Here is the Slidex patent:
> http://www.google.com/patents/US3736801?printsec=drawing#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> -- Tom Fine
Stephen Anderson
631 E. Vista del Playa
Orange, CA 92865
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