Universal audio
| Universal audio
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Inc. |
| founding | 1958 by Bill Putnam 1999 re-establishment by James Putnam and Bill Putnam Jr. |
| Seat | Scotts Valley , California |
| management | Bill Putnam Jr. |
| Number of employees | about 80 |
| Branch | Audio technology , music electronics |
| Website | www.uaudio.com |
| As of October 25, 2015 | |
Universal Audio is an American manufacturer of professional audio technology .
The company was originally founded in 1958 by Bill Putnam and is a pioneering developer and manufacturer of recording, mixing and audio signal processing hardware for use in professional recording studios, live sound systems and broadcasting. Universal Audio has been responsible for many innovations in recording and sound reinforcement technology since the 1950s, including the modern design of mixing consoles , equalizers per channel (EQ) or effects connections (also known as send / aux buses). The company was later renamed "UREI" and included a division called "Teletronix". Today's company was founded in 1999 by Putnam's sons, Bill Putnam Jr. and James Putnam.
history
Illinois
Bill Putnam Sr. founded Universal Recording Corporation in Evanston, Illinois in 1946 with the intention of creating commercial recordings for other record companies as part of contract production. The development and manufacturing side was offered in parallel by Puntam's second company, Universal Audio. In 1947 Putnam and his companies moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he recorded the first successful song with an artificially produced reverb effect in a men's room: Peg o 'My Heart by The Harmonicats. The track was sold 1.4 million times and provided Universal Recording Corp. an enormous boost in new orders.
However, Putnam also used Universal Recording as a test platform for the development of experimental studio techniques. The recording studios were the place where the tape repeat function was first used in a recording, the place with the first separate recording booth, the first recording with several overdubs over a single voice, the first 8-track recording attempts and the first Experiments with half-speed disc mastering.
In 1949 Universal Recording received a patent for the so-called “double feature”, a method of pressing two songs onto each side of a 10-inch record. This technology was developed by Cook Records in New York and officially licensed to Universal Records.
Chicago blues labels like Vee-Jay , Mercury and Chess Records came to Universal Recording for lack of their own recording studios to record their hits. Muddy Waters , Willie Dixon , Bo Diddley , Little Walter and Chuck Berry recorded songs. From the side of jazz came Stan Kenton , Tommy Dorsey , Count Basie , Dizzy Gillespie , Ella Fitzgerald , Sarah Vaughn , Nat King Cole . Bill Putnam was Duke Ellington's favorite engineer.
In 1955 Universal Recording took off. The studio was the most advanced and largest independent facility in the United States. Well-known producers and technicians such as Nelson Riddle , Mitch Miller and Quincy Jones came to the studio for their big band and orchestral recordings. Bruce Swedien started working at Universal Recording.
Hollywood
United Recording Corp.
Putnam's clients suggested that he set up a recording studio on the west coast, which he did in 1957. He sold his shares in Universal Recording and built new studios in an existing building under the name United Recording Corporation in Hollywood , California. In 1958, Studio B was completed, which was equipped with two reverb chambers. The facility grew to include three recording studios , three mastering rooms , a mixing studio and a mixdown room, and a small recording facility . All studios were fully booked around the clock, busy with TV and film scoring, film music and pop music recordings. Hanna-Barbera used the studios to record voices for The Flintstones .
United Western
Western Records, a competing studio one block away, was acquired by Bill Putnam in 1961. Both institutions combined their names to form United Western Recording (UWR). Business continued thanks to artists like Frank Sinatra , Bing Crosby , Dean Martin , Sammy Davis Jr. , Nat King Cole , Johnny Mercer , Ray Charles, and The Mamas and the Papas , who all recorded their hits there. The studio still operates under the name East West Studios on 6000 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood . Most of the original studio design has not been changed.
UREI and Teletronix
Independent of the studio events, Universal Audio continued to operate on the upper floor of the first Hollywood building under the new name United Recording Electronics Industries (UREI). The manufacturing and development company acquired the patents for the electro-optical LA-2A stereo leveling amplifier. UREI also acquired National Intertel, which then became the Teletronix Division. This acquisition gave rise to the technology that was used in 1968 to develop the 1176LN Peak Limiter and 1108 FET preamplifier.
Other popular UREI products were, for example, the LA-4 electro-optical compressor and limiter, the UREI Teletronix LA-3A electro-optical leveling amplifier and the UREI equalizer for the 500 series. In 1976, UREI outsourced its manufacturing and service center to Sun Valley, California.
Edward M. Long of EM Long Associates in Oakland, California worked with UREI to develop the 813 series of studio monitors in 1977.
In 1985 Putnam sold the studios and the manufacturing department and left the industry. JBL bought the name UREI as well as all service contracts and in 1986 published the "JBL-UREI" product series with the 5547A graphic equalizer. Putnam died in 1989.
In 2005 Soundcraft began a 1620LE UREI-by-Soundcraft series of products to release, "LE" standing for "Limited Edition". The mixer was a renewal of the UREI1620, a 1980s clone of Rudy Bozak's classic DJ mixer, the CMA-10-2DL. Soundcraft equipped the new product line with its own website.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Universal Audio - Our Story
- ^ Sweetwater Sound. Bill Putnam, Sr. , Retrieved on May 6, 2009.
- ^ Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Volume 37, Number 9, September 1989. An Afternoon With: Bill Putnam (PDF file; 1.13 MB), Retrieved on May 6, 2009.
- ↑ Teletronix LA-2A Leveling Amplifier
- ↑ Universal Audio 1176LN Leveling Amplifier
- ↑ UA Webzine V.6 No1, 2008. UA Heritage: An Interview with Bill Putnam, Sr .; Part three
- ↑ JBL pro service. Vintage manuals. JBL-UREI 5547A-5549A (PDF file; 4.93 MB)
- ↑ UREI by Soundcraft. Products. UREI 1620LE ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ www.ureidj.com
