| United and
Western Recording Studios...
Bill Putnam Sr (born 1920, Danville, Illinois) was a renowned American audio engineer, songwriter, producer, studio designer and businessman who has been described as "the father of modern recording". He was the inventor of the modern recording console and is recognized as a key figure in the development of the postwar commercial recording industry. Former colleague Bruce Swedien described Putnam's achievements thus: |
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"Bill Putnam was the father of recording as we know it today. The processes and designs which we take for granted — the design of modern recording desks, the way components are laid out and the way they function, console design, cue sends, echo returns, multitrack switching — they all originated in Bill's imagination."
Putnam was the first person to use
artificial reverberation (using magnetic tape) for commercial recording.
He also developed the first multi-band audio equalizer, and with his company
Universal Audio, he was responsible for the development of classic recording
studio equipment including the UREI 1176LN, the UREI Time Align Monitor,
and the famed Universal recordings consoles, which soon became standard
equipment in studios all over America. Alongside his friend Les Paul, Putnam
was also involved in the early development of stereophonic recording and
he founded several major independent recording studios in Chicago, Hollywood
and San Francisco.
| m | In the 1950s, Putnam founded one
of America's first independent recording studios, Universal Recording in
Chicago. His reputation grew quickly thanks to his work with artists as
Patti Page, Vic Damone, Duke Ellington , Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan and
Dinah Washington. His period at Universal saw a number of 'firsts' for
the recording industry, including the first use of tape repeat, the first
vocal booth, the first multiple voice recording, the first use of 8-track
recording, the first use of delay lines in the studio, and the first experiments
with half-speed disc mastering.
By the mid-1950s Putnam was one of the most sought-after engineer-producers in the United States, and Universal Recording had become so successful that clients including Nelson Riddle, Mitch Miller and Quincy Jones began urging him to open a facility on the west coast. In 1957, he sold his interest in |
| When United Western was founded, stereo recording was still a new innovation and it was considered little more than a novelty by the major record labels. But Putnam foresaw its importance and, at his own expense, he began making simultaneous stereo mixes of recordings produced at United Western and stockpiled these recordings. Around 1962, when stereo was taking off as a consumer audio format, the major labels found themselves without any significant back catalogue of stereo recordings, so they offered to buy the stockpile of tapes. However, the canny Putnam cleverly negotiated a far more lucrative deal, whereby he was recompensed for the (much more expensive) studio time used in mixing the stereo versions. According to Putnam's former partner Allen Sides, at this time United Western was bringing in around US$200,000 per month in studio billing (equivalent to perhaps US$1 million per month today). | m |
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In 1961, he acquired the neighboring Western Recorders, located at 6000 Sunset, remodeling it and incorporating it into the complex, which was then renamed United Western Recorders.
References
Universal Audio website
http://www.uaudio.com/company/history/bill_sr.html
Cogan, Jim and William Clark
Temples Of Sound: Inside the
Great Recording Studios
(Chronicle Books, 2003)
ISBN 0-8118-3394-1
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