![]() ![]() This was one of the first major album remasters for the new generation of digital technology pioneered by Prism Sound and SADIE's workstation software that remains the preference for professional mastering engineers to this day. topped the UK LP chart at the end of 1973 after a residency of 21 months, while it topped the US chart for two months of its almost two years in the Billboard Top 200". According to John Tobler writing in the 1995 CD sleeve notes, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ". As the re-mastering of back catalogue for CD gathered pace, clients like Genesis bought converters for their famous studio "The Farm" to remaster their entire catalogue for CD release.Īnother major remastering project of the mid-1990's was Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". Prism Sound converters were not limited to live stereo recording though. These low level sounds simply could not be captured with the earlier generation of A/D converters. Producers would often comment on the amazing low-level detail evident between takes – for example when the musicians had gone to lunch and all that could be heard was birds singing outside the recording space. Gabe's legacy lives on at and we recommend several of his recordings. Prism Sound had learned from its experience at Neve a few years previously and produced the Prism Sound AD-1 (later upgraded to AD-124 – illustrated) which, through innovative engineering and exploitation of novel digital signal processing techniques, provided a step up in dynamic range performance and exceptional low-level clarity.ĭuring this early period Prism Sound supplied clients such as Chandos Records, Chesky, Deutsche Gramophon, Floating Earth, Gimell Records, Linn Records and Quintessential Sound, a wonderful music production company run by Gabe Wiener who tragially died at the age of 26. The so-called “Classical” (we hate this label) recording community were enjoying strong demand and producers wanted the very best resolution for their new CD releases.Ī great deal of attention was focussed on the issues of dynamic range and low-level distortion. ![]() Recording and re-mastering for the new digital medium of Compact Disc was booming and Prism Sound became the product of choice for the most critical users. Prism Sound professional audio products were now in regular production and the product catalogue included studio grade A/D and D/A converters, which immediately received many accolades for their audio transparency. Prism Sound also produced probably the first outboard digital EQ: The DEQ2400, an automated 4-band parametric digital equalizer add-on for the Neve DTC-1 Digital Transfer Console.ġ993 was the year that Prism Sound’s focus shifted from consulting and design to product development and manufacturing. Multitrack recorder control systems, early hard disk recording solutions, stereo digital processors, digital loudspeaker controllers for PA systems, the early development of the AES3 (AES/EBU), AES11 and AES10 (MADI) standards and more. The company also worked on digital public address systems for London Underground, lighting control systems, power amplifiers, This product subsequently became an important market leader in broadcast intercom systems. Drawing upon the experience of the Neve period, Boswell and Dennis created a modular matrix mixer expandable to 512 x 512 ports and capable of processing more than 250,000 real time faders! In 1991-2, Prism Sound developed the world's first all-digital commentary and communications switching matrix commissioned by the BBC for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. These early digital consoles were installed by broadcasters, recording studios and mastering studios determined to be in the vanguard of technological innovation. The Neve DSP was the world's first commercial audio mixing console using DSP. You can read a bit more about this ground-breaking work here: Neve received UK government funding as a result of the advanced work that was being undertaken and export licenses were apparently hard (impossible) to get for the new technology at first, although later a system was reputedly sold to a radio station in Russia.įor all these early systems, the A/D and D/A converters were, well, a challenge! There were no convenient audio DSP chips - processors were built from the basic digital building blocks of what was then supercomputer technology. Reference material and downloadable resourcesīoswell and Dennis worked on digital audio technology and product development at Neve in Cambridge, UK in the years preceeding the founding of Prism Sound and while working there faced many challenges with the embryonic new technology. Link to Prism Sound Logging and Transcription site Link to Prism Sound Test and Measurement site Jobs, careers and opportunities at Prism Sound
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