Nod to The Legend · The gear · 1920–1989
Bill Putnam
Engineer, studio builder, father of the modern console
At Universal Recording in Chicago he put the studio bathroom to work as an echo chamber on The Harmonicats' "Peg o' My Heart" (1947), one of the first pop records with artificial reverb. He went on to found Universal Audio and UREI, and helped invent the modular recording console.
Still heard: The 1176 and UA's plugins carry his work forward.
Related legends
- The Fairchild 670: Variable-mu tube limiter, designed by Rein Narma
- Don Leslie: Inventor of the rotating speaker
- Les Paul: Guitarist and multitrack pioneer
- Tom Dowd: Atlantic Records engineer
- Bob Ludwig: Mastering engineer
- Bartolomeo Cristofori: Inventor of the piano, Florence