The Allen & Heath intro: Mel Lambert meticulously traces the history of this almost fictitious duo who make mixers fit for all and tape machines from Brenell. Enter the Allen & Heath first line...

This year the British company Allen and Heath Brenell celebrates its tenth anniversary of manufacturing recording consoles, PA mixers and tape machines. Which is as convenient a time as ever presented itself for looking back over the last decade at the various stages in the company's development, and both its design philosophy and marketing rationale. Or, to put it in plainer language, the Who, the What and the Why of AHB's 10 years in the studio hardware business.

It is worth pointing out though, that I have chosen to train the inquisitive SI spotlight on AHB not only because I think that it's a respectable company making a range of very well-designed and sensibly-priced consoles, mixers and track-laying goodies. (Which I do, by the way.) Far more relevant, perhaps, is the fact that the last decade has also seen a pretty staggering growth in both the size and volume of the recording hardware industry in general and, more specifically, in the blossoming 4-, 8- and 16-track recording and PA markets. Since this latter is an area in which AHB has earned itself a well-deserved reputation for making quality gear at reasonable prices, and, what's more, one to which it has remained firmly committed, the company's growth and changing fortunes over the last 10 years very closely parallel the rapid expansion in the 'budget' home and DIY recording scene.

Origins

Allen and Heath wouldn't be in existence today without the activities of one man; namely Andy Bereza. In the late 60s Bereza was running a small business known, appropriately, as AB Audio, which specialised in the custom building of small mixers and items of ancillary equipment, including limiters and reverb units for various, mainly London-based, studios and touring bands. In fact, the first custom-built mixer Bereza ever put together under the AB Audio logo was a 16-channel console sold to Alan Price in 1969, which, I'm reliably informed, is still in regular use on the road.

Realising that there was a potential market for his mixers, in particular a new low-cost six-input/stereo-output Miniature Mixer he had developed for small recording and PA set-ups, Bereza approached the Batiste Group of companies for some assistance with the financial backing needed to set up a small company to mass-produce and sell them. Bereza was friends with Stephen Batiste, son of MD Joseph Batiste, who at the time wanted to bring Batiste Junior into the family business. Since Stephen Batiste had expressed a keen involvement in things audio, a ready-made company already owned by the Batiste Group was dusted off and set into life. Thus did Allen and Heath, a firm formerly making ball bearings or some such artifact, enter the heady world of manufacturing mixers.

After a year, however, Batiste Junior left the company to set up on his own, leaving Bereza with the task of running Allen and Heath practically on his own. By now orders were coming in thick and fast, The Who and Pink Floyd, in particular, having expressed a keen interest in purchasing largish Allen and Heath consoles. Working single-handed meant Bereza was, in effect, making consoles by night and then having to go out and sell them by day. This situation went on for about six months, at which time Bereza met Ivor Taylor, who had worked on the wiring and installation of the original Manor Studio's barn (since Westlaked out of all recognition). Taylor's forté was being able to turn ideas into tangible hardware, as well as doing the odd bit of circuit development and design. Which would ably complement Bereza's role as 'ideas man' and mixer designer. And so it was inevitable that the two of them should team up; which they did. The duo were soon joined by the effervescent Andrew Stirling, who had happened by the company's London showroom one day to buy a mixer, and was talked into taking on the role of salesperson for the expanding range of Allen and Heath mixers. Since Stirling had been a full-time balance engineer at, amongst other places, Radio Luxembourg's London Studios before going freelance, he could be said to know one end of a desk from the other; a useful and fairly essential prerequisite for a successful salesperson of recording consoles.

And so the three of them — Andy Bereza, Ivor Taylor and Andrew Stirling — set about making and selling mixers for use in small studios and PA systems. (Interestingly, the same triumvirate, having since left AHB, now constitute the hugely successful Bandive company, which runs the Turnkey equipment supply and installation firm and also manufactures the budget-price Accessit range of signal processors — see May SI.

Early Products

From the early 6/2 Miniature Mixer and MiniMixer system (essentially a restyled Miniature Mixer plus a Monitor Mixer and a device known as an Aux Box for switching between various signal sources) of the late 60s — both of which proved to be extremely popular and sold in huge numbers, such was the lack of comparable, low-cost devices — there sprang a batch of new products in the early Seventies. These included the Black Range of modular mixers, which were available in a variety of main frame sizes up to 16-input/8-output groups and intended for both studio and PA use. (The Who were early customers for a Black Range desk.) Each module was fabricated in three sections for ease of manufacture and, of greater relevance to the potential customer, to simplify fault-finding and routine maintenance. Many module options were offered, including compressor-limiters, noisegates and reverb units, allowing a prospective customer to specify and build up a desk to his/her exact requirements. Also available at that time was the Quasi Mixer, a semi-modular design with a single top plate and chassis (not dissimilar, in fact, to present-day MM, RSD and H/H mixers) which could be supplied with a maximum of 12 modules, arranged in either an 8-input/4-output or 10-input/stereo configuration, again with one or two options.

Both these designs of desk found many applications in the recording and PA field because at the time (the early Seventies) Allen and Heath were almost certainly one of the very few companies offering reasonably-priced, off-the-shelf mixers — low cost because of the possibilities of mass production offered by modular or part-modular design, but which could also be adapted as needed to suit the specific application the customer had in mind.

Enter the Modular Series

One of the most successful desks Allen and Heath ever produced was the Modular I console introduced in 1973. The modular concept offered, for the first time, the ability of a studio or PA setup to expand from a small to a larger configuration of input and outputs simply by adding more modules to the basic format. Innovative features on the Modular I included thumbwheel routing for group outputs (similar to the present Midas approach); channel insertion and break jacks on a supplementary module; built-in VU meter array; plus a wide range of routing configurations. Early customers of Modular I consoles for PA use included the New Seekers and King Crimson, who ordered, paid for but never in fact used, a desk with quadrophonic capability (reputed to be the first such desk in the UK).

As an indication of the company's attention to detail, and which also gives some idea of the degree of customisation available on their desks, I'm told that AHB still hold full engineering drawings of every Black Range and Modular I mixer that left the factory. So if any SI reader comes across a second-hand desk and wants to overhaul and/or sort out a fault on one, you know where to go for a set of drawings.

Growing competition from the increasing number of other companies now manufacturing similar 8-track consoles, forced Allen and Heath to slightly redesign the Modular I to make it more of a 'production line' mixer. Designing and manufacturing (particularly custom-built) consoles is an expensive exercise, because you cannot take advantage of that good old money-saving economy of scale. The resultant Modular II mixer (what better name for a 'son-of-Modular I'?) contained only three different types of module — input/routing, output/monitor and control/communications — that could be arranged in a wide variety of configurations up to a maximum format of 24-input/8-output groups. A crafty piece of design on the monitor sections enabled each module to mix two inputs on to the stereo monitor buss, thus facilitating 16-track recording and overdubbing. (Since very seldom during 16-track sessions would it be necessary to lay down more than eight tracks at any one time, a desk with full 16-track output capability is something of a luxury; the monitoring sections, however, must be capable of picking up the off-tape output of all tracks during overdubs.)

It was just after the launch of the Modular II console at the 1975 APRS Exhibition that Andy Bereza, its designer and mentor, left the company to pursue his independent interests; firstly as European representative and one-man campaigner for the Teac Tascam Series of budget multitrack (and it's through his not inconsiderable efforts that so many people really began to pick up on the possibility offered by low-cost recording hardware) and latterly with Bandive/Turnkey.

Enter Brenell

Also about this time it became obvious that many prospective studio owners/operators would be interested in a package deal of console plus 8-track tape machine. After all, somebody setting up an 8-track studio will need both a desk and a multitrack. And if both devices come from the same supplier, there's no problem with compatibility, and the customer is assured of a minimum of fuss in getting the venture off and running. (Musicians setting up their own home studios, for example, cannot be expected to wade through and understand pages of technical spec to see if they face any difficulty connecting and operating console X with tape machine Y; no hassles if the salesman can offer them both items from the same catalogue.)

To this end Andrew Stirling had been promoting the older design Brenell 8-track on 1-inch tape machine as a suitable track-layer for use with the Modular II desk. Because of his efforts, it transpired that he ended up selling (on Brenell's behalf, of course) several of their portable machines as part of Allen and Heath package deals. Since, to put it kindly, Brenell had very little experience of how to successfully market equipment in this growing semi-professional field, and was also running into slight cash-flow problems, the result was perhaps inevitable. In June 1976, Allen and Heath bought out Brenell Engineering. Not only was it now able to offer a totally British 8-track console/multitrack Package (see my two-part assessment in SI January and February issues) AHB also found that the extra space available at Brenell's former Islington factory came in very handy for increased production space.

The original Brenell Mini-8 at the time of the company take-over was rather old-fashioned, so quite a lot of work had to be spent in developing a foolproof motion-sensing logic system, and also tidying up the channel electronics to make batch production slightly easier. AHB's Keith Jacobs, who acted as chief designer on the later full-logic Mini-8, deserves a hefty pat on the back for his sterling endeavours on what has become a well-liked and extremely useful budget 8-track on 1-inch tape machine.

To bring the Modular Series development story up to date, this year saw the introduction of the Modular III desk, which has been further streamlined to make production easier (and hence cheaper; the customer is always considered). Gone is the patch bay (an item of hardware that is both difficult to produce and expensive to wire), its function now being taken over by insertion jack sockets, situated at the far end of the module, beside the microphone and line input connectors. They allow the signal path to be interrupted pre-EQ and pre-fader, a convenient point at which to insert external signal processing goodies, such as compressor-limiters and the like. Similarly, output insertion sockets allow post-fader group output signals to be processed or otherwise modified before passing to the monitoring section and multitrack. Also featured in the Modular III is an EQ in/out switch (useful for checking the effect of equalisation on a particular track), and a PCB link that allows the second auxiliary output to be selected either pre- (for cue/foldback) or post-fader (for echo send). Small cosmetic changes, certainly, but combined with a change in colour scheme for the top panel (matt pale yellow rather than the slightly reflective grey of the Modular II) plus better knob design and colour coding have resulted in an attractive and, to my mind, easier to use mixer, and one that is proving even more popular than its predecessors.

SR 20/28 PA Console

An interesting development from the basic design of the Modular Series is the recently introduced SR 20 (20 inputs) and SR 28 (28 inputs) consoles for concert and theatre sound reinforcement. I'm told that AHB developed these consoles after being commissioned to convert several Modular II desks for theatre use by Harold Fielding, the well-known entertainment impresario responsible for staging many hit musicals and plays in London's West End. The company found the conversion to be so simple, given the basic flexibility of the modular design, that it soon realised there would be a viable market for such a design of PA mixer with adaptable subrouting. (A particular and specific requirement for consoles intended for concert and theatre use, since such productions often involve quick changes between discrete submixes as solos are taken or the action moves from one part of the stage to another.)

Using input and control modules virtually identical to the new Modular III desks, the eight mixing busses on the SR 20/28 desks have been re-arranged on a new design of output module as follows: busses one to four are subgroups that can be panned between the two main outputs; busses five and six comprise the main stereo outputs; and busses seven and eight are available as auxiliary outputs for house fills, special effects or even simultaneous recording. In addition, three auxiliary channel sends are provided for on-stage foldback or echo send (selectable pre or post-fader), plus a pre-fade listen (derived from the Modular III solo circuit) for checking channel continuity. A set of four 11-segment LEDs follow the levels of the four subgroups, or can be switched to monitor the main stereo output, plus the output selected to the headphone monitoring circuit. Thus, in effect, the SR20/28 design combines in one mainframe a comprehensive stereo mixer for feeding a house PA system, and a monitor mixer for on-stage foldback.

Needless to say, being based on the Modular II/III control modules, the SR20/28 consoles offer extremely comprehensive monitoring facilities. A wide range of signal sources can be connected to a built-in stereo headphone amplifier, including the main outputs, tape return (for checking the progress of a recording) as well as the various auxiliary and PFL outputs. Also featured is a very flexible talkback system, again based on the Modular II design, allowing the operator to communicate with the foldback outputs (stage monitors), main output and a separate stage line for liaising with the road crew. SR20/28 desks can even be supplied ready built-into a sturdy flight case for increased protection.

Syncon

Unveiled at the Los Angeles AES Convention in May 1977, the AHB Syncon 16 and 24-track console must represent one of the most interesting and exciting mixer designs to have emerged in recent years. To do full justice to its many innovative features would require far more space than is available here. However, since a Syncon installation will be the subject of a forthcoming piece in SI on the recently-opened Music Works studio in north London, I can at least cover some of the console's development stages and design philosophy.

Based, like the Modular Series desks, on a flexible modular configuration, which helps to greatly reduce manufacturing costs and also allows for future expansion, a decision was made very early in the Syncon development story to opt for an 'in-line' design. This helps to keep the overall console dimensions to manageable proportions, but also means that great attention has to be paid to ergonomics and general layout since no part of the desk has a clearly defined function. 'Conventional' desks with a set of input, output and monitor modules or sections may prove physically unwieldy when laid out, for example, in a 24-input/16- or 24-track output/24-track monitoring configuration; but at least the relevant sections can be found pretty readily.

Consider though, a session on an in-line console in which input one is assigned to a vocal microphone, and group output one chosen for drum kit left, for instance. The input fader on input/output/monitor module one will be riding vocal levels, while the monitor/subgroup fader only a few inches away is controlling the level of the drum kit. Obviously some form of demarcation is important, which can be helped to a large extent by particular attention to layout of the controls and overall general 'look' of the console. With Syncon, in particular, it is very easy to take in the purpose of almost all the control knobs and sections in a very short time, so clean and clearly laid-out is the basic design.

Both Ivor Taylor and Andrew Stirling were involved on the system design of Syncon, with the electronic design being handled in the main by external consultants. Prominent amongst these was A&R of Cambridge, with able assistance from both Taylor and Ted Rook of AHB. The name, Syncon, is derived from 'Synergetic Console', and refers, most aptly in my opinion, to the fact that the console as a whole is greater than a sum of its parts, such is the active co-operation and interrelationships between its constituent elements. Andy Munro, who joined AHB as marketing manager in March 1977 from Shure Electronics, is responsible for choosing the name.

To greatly simplify recording sessions, a single pushbutton changes the entire status of the Syncon desk from recording to mixdown mode. For the former configuration the input to each channel connects to the studio microphones, and its output can be routed to another channel module for subgrouping — an unusual feature for an in-line console, and particularly useful for balancing a composite stereo drum kit, for example, when working with a restricted number of tracks — and/or direct to the group outputs. During mixdown the channel inputs are switched to the line output from the multitrack, and the output routed directly via the channel fader on to the 'quadraphonic' mixdown/monitor buss. The now redundant monitor fader is still put to good use, however. By pressing a 'sub' pushbutton in a similar fashion to the recording stage, the designated channel becomes a subgroup channel, the overall level being controlled by the monitor/subgroup fader.

For overdubs, a pushbutton on each channel module marked, appropriately, 'dub' connects the sync output from the multitrack direct to the monitor buss and meters, but still leaves the rest of the module available for use as a normal microphone channel and/or submaster. Since three of the six auxiliary outputs provided on each module (a mono and stereo send) are switchable pre or post the monitor fader, setting up foldback to musician's headphones during recording and overdubs is simplicity itself.

It can be readily appreciated that a Syncon console equipped with 28 channel modules (the largest mainframe size presently available) can handle 28 inputs, 28 outputs, 28 monitors, 28 subgroups and four mixdown and monitor outputs. The last mentioned 'quadraphonic' capability may seem something of a needless luxury, now that discrete quadrophony has passed (hopefully) into oblivion. It can be extremely useful, however, to designate the 'rear' pair of outputs as special echo returns, allowing the entire composite echo signal to be 'spun' in the stereo soundfield by adjusting the front/rear balance controls.

To simplify module construction, keep costs down and also maintain a reasonable overall size to the channel module, only 16 output busses are provided on Syncon. These can be arranged in two configurations to suit a studio's particular requirement. For 16-track operation, the busses run the entire length of the console, while 24-track studios can opt for a split-buss format. For this busses one to eight run across all the modules, but at module number 17, buss nine is interrupted and relabelled as buss 17, and so on. Other variations are possible, since re-assigning a module to become the master for any output group buss is simply a matter of resoldering a few wire links, and changing the engraving on the routing buttons at the top of each module. For full, simultaneous 24-track sessions (during live performance, for example) direct outputs are provided on each module, group levels being monitored on the 24 VU meters provided.

Electronically the Syncon design incorporates some innovative principles. All channel, mixing and output amplifiers are built up from discrete transistors, AHB feeling that, at present anyway, there isn't a sufficiently good integrated circuit operational amplifier on the market which meets their exacting requirements. To simplify construction, the company has designed a modular 'discrete' operational amplifier that is both easy to replace (should a better design come along) and also very easy to fault find and swap.

The basic SO2 amplifier, as it is known, is used in various parts of the Syncon console (up to 10 per module), its particular role in the desk being defined by the external components arranged around it. A high performance — particularly distortion and noise — is maintained by only asking each amplifier to offer a maximum of 10 dB of gain at any one stage. Separate and isolated power supplies for the amplifiers, lamps and microphone phantom powering further reduce crosstalk and switch clicks to the absolute minimum.

Great attention has also been paid to the cost and complexity of interfacing a Syncon console with the rest of a studio's hardware. All microphone, tape sync and tape line inputs plus group and monitor outputs are terminated on barrier strips mounted at the end of each module, beneath the hinged VU meter hood. (As an optional extra AHB will fit inputs and output XLR and jack sockets, although this does add quite a sizeable amount to the price of a console — currently a very reasonable £10 000 for a 28-module configuration.) Also, by providing three insert/break points at the front of each channel module (access to which is gained by lowering the armrest/buffer), it is very easy to operate a Syncon console without a patchbay, which is costly to wire and can be somewhat unreliable. The three insert points are located pre-EQ, post-EQ and after the group output amplifier but before the tape send. By connecting the input and outputs of ancillary equipment to flying leads left loose beneath the buffer, insertion of said effects into the required input channel or group output simply becomes a matter of connecting the relevant jack into the appropriate socket; couldn't be easier.

Small but beautiful

It would be inappropriate to end this piece on the AHB story without briefly mentioning the other products the company makes. These range from ancillary special effects units, including the low-cost Pro-Limiter, Feed Forward Delay Limiter and Automatic Double Track, to a small but extremely versatile series of stereo mixers. Included in the latter are the attractive SD12-2 PA and recording desk, the S6/2 Production Mixer, complete with a pair of RIAA equalised inputs, and the 16-input Pop Mixer. Allen and Heath Brenell have something for almost everybody.