Edison's first cylinder recorder was born 130 years ago, and while other technologies — from automobiles to aerospace — emerged in that era, audio is what counts for us true devotees. Unfortunately, the history of pro audio is woefully neglected, with sources scarce, if not impossible, to find.

An offshoot of the TEC Awards, the TECnology Hall of Fame began in 2004 to spotlight significant innovations in pro audio history. Listed chronologically, here are the 2007 honorees. Note: For more information (including rare documents and photos) from this year's and past inductees, go to www.mixonline.com/TEC20/tecnology-hall-of-fame.

Created by Russian physicist Lev Sergeivich Termen (also known as Leon Theremin), the Theremin is described in its U.S. patent (#1,661,058) as a “novel method of and means for producing sounds in musical tones or notes.” The key word here is “novel,” as the system comprises two oscillator circuits where amplitude and frequency are controlled by the proximity of the user's hands to the Theremin's two antennae, with no need to actually touch the instrument.

During the years, there have been serious Thereminists, yet the instrument is best known for creating outerworldly effects/music for sci-fi films ranging from the classic The Day the Earth Stood Still to countless budget releases. A common myth is that a Theremin was used on the Beach Boys' “Good Vibrations.” That instument was actually a Tannerin, which uses a similar technology but substitutes a hardware slide controller for the antenna.

In a landmark article, “Notes on the Development of a New Type of Hornless Loudspeakers,” published in the September 1925 edition of AIEE Transactions, two General Electric engineers — Chester W. Rice and Edward W. Kellogg — describe what we now consider the roots of modern loudspeaker technology.

After testing numerous approaches, Rice and Kellogg suggested a conical paper diaphragm attached to a coil of wire energized by an electromagnet. Beyond simply describing a new type of transducer, the pair laid out many of the basic tenets of loudspeaker design, such the importance of the baffle in preventing the “circulation” of the sound from the speaker's forward and backward motion and the need for more powerful amplifiers to provide adequate headroom required for quality reproduction.

Born 100 years ago, Dr. Walter Weber was a Siemens engineer who was recruited by Dr. Hans Joachim Von Braunmühl to work for RRG (German Broadcasting) in 1932. While at RRG, Von Braunmühl assigned Weber to look into improving AEG's Magnetophon tape recorders.

With BASF's ferric-oxide tape debuting in 1939, the Magnetophon was approaching broadcast standards, and one of Weber's interests was the application of bias currents. American research in 1921 had shown that a high-frequency AC bias signal could raise the quality of magnetic recording, but given the poor performance of wire recorders the improvement was minimal. During experiments with a DC biasing scheme in 1940, Weber inadvertently applied an AC current to the recording chain and rediscovered the benefits of AC biasing, offering a 10dB improvement in the Magnetophon's noise floor.

Weber's AC biasing technology was incorporated into AEG's Model K4 HF-Magnetophons, which launched a year later. And with a bandwidth of a then-astonishing 10 kHz, tape recording was on its way to becoming the world production standard.

In 1953, Neumann engineers began developing the AM 32, a disk lathe with the ability to vary groove pitch controlled by the amplitude of the input signal rather than a constant pitch. By mounting a preview head on the source tape deck, its signal could be fed to the lathe's drive, which made a small adjustment in the groove spacing before the cutter received that same signal from the playback head.

Co-developed with Teldec, the Neumann ZS 90/45 stereo cutterhead arrived in 1956 and combined vertical and lateral recording in a “v”-shaped groove, with each slope set at a 45-degree angle. In addition to controlling groove pitch, the system used the difference between the left and right signals to modulate the depth of the cut and adjusted the groove pitch based on the depth of the cut, as deeper cuts require wider grooves. This first electrodynamic feedback stereo cutterhead system set the stage for the world-standard SX 45, SX 68, SX 74 and SX 84 cutterheads that followed.

After completing his college studies, Stefan Kudelski founded the Kudelski company in 1951 and began creating the Nagra recorder. Designed for high-quality portable recording, the initial Nagra I and II models were driven by a windup clockspring mechanism.

The breakthrough came in 1957 with the Nagra III, a compact, 11-pound mono 3.75/7.5/15 ips reel-to-reel deck with performance that rivaled larger studio machines. The deck's rugged aluminum chassis and Modulometer peak-reading level meter appealed to pros who needed a dependable, near-indestructible location recorder. And with the addition of Neopilot sync in 1963, the Nagra III became the standard for location film recording and received an Award of Merit from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1965.

Originally, the XLR was intended for aircraft and instrumentation applications, but we're glad it's here. In use for pro audio for nearly 50 years, the 3-pin versions of Cannon's XLR connector are so ubiquitous in both analog and digital (AES/EBU) connections that most people in our industry don't even remember those pre-XLR days. Once upon a time, audio gear was fitted with whatever the manufacturer deemed appropriate, with DIN and Tuchel connections common in Europe and various Amphenol types in the States. The move to Cannon's XLR provided a universal solution, where a mic cable could double as a line cable and two cables could be connected to make a single, longer cord. The XLR name stems from being Cannon's X Series, with a latching/locking (L) feature and having an elastomeric/rubber (R) insulator.

The Fairchild 670 is often referred to as the “holy grail” of outboard devices for its rarity, value (currently about $30,000 on the used market) and usefulness in a wide variety of studio situations. And this hand-wired stereo unit is a beast, with 20 vacuum tubes (21 if you include the 5V4 rectifier) and 14 transformers tucked within its 65-pound chassis.

The origins of the 670 (and mono 660 version) are fairly humble, coming from Estonian-born Rein Narma. In the post-war years, this refugee from Soviet Russia worked for the U.S. Army as a broadcast/recording tech during the Nuremberg trials, later immigrated to the New York and took a job at Gotham Recording. Narma and several others founded Gotham Audio Developments to build recording gear. Les Paul hired him to modify his first 8-track, and later Narma built consoles for Rudy Van Gelder, Olmsted Recording and Paul, who also asked him to build a limiter. After beginning the project, Sherman Fairchild heard about it, licensed the design and hired Narma as the company's chief engineer.

In many ways, the DC 300 ushered in the era of the modern, high-power amplifier. Offering 340 watts/channel (at 4 ohms), this four-rackspace, 40-pound beast came in at less than the “magic” $1/watt price point based on its original $685 retail. And with its rock-solid construction, the DC 300 was the ideal solution for high-SPL studio monitors and live sound systems coming into vogue with the summer of love.

Years later, the upgraded model DC 300A was immortalized in a magazine ad based on a real story of a truck filled with P.A. gear that narrowly avoided a head-on collision, but rolled over, with several DC 300As exiting through its roof and ending up partly submerged in a muddy field. The driver escaped injury, as did the DC 300As — after a short time under a blow dryer. The truck didn't do as well, but today many DC 300s are still in daily pro audio use, a testament to Crown reliability.

In 1970, Rupert Neve designed the 1073 module, which is still regarded as one of pro audio's best preamps. Created as 80 Series console modules and not originally intended for stand-alone use, 1073s and 1084s were often removed from older mixers and put into third-party racks and housings. The discrete 1073 mic/line preamp has a fixed 12kHz HF band and switchable-frequency LF/MF cut/boost bands, and a passive low-cut filter. The circuit has been widely imitated and cloned (in hardware and software), and the Neve company now offers re-creations of the 1073 in rack and module form.

According to Rupert Neve, the secret to the original 1073's success “had to be in the input and output transformers. We built them out like filters to the maximum that we could squeeze out in terms of high-frquency response and then make sure they rolled off smoothly — with no peaking or things of that sort.”

The availability of quality field effect transisitors (FETs) in the 1960s opened the door for replacing tube mics with compact, solid-state models. In 1970, AKG's Karl Peschel took the CK 12 capsule from a C 12A tube mic and paired it with FET electronics, resulting in the C 412. A year later, adding a second bass roll-off position and a fourth polar pattern created the C 414 comb.

From 1974 on, engineer Norbert Sobol supervised the C 414 design, adding improvements in audio performance and features along the way. These included the C 414 EB (1976), C 414 EB-P 48 (1980), C 414 B-ULS and -TL (1986), C 414 B-TL II (1993) and the current C 414 B-XLS and -XL II.

With more than 100,000 mics sold, the C 414 remains a popular choice whether in earlier versions or the latest models — now updated with LEDs and a fifth (wide-cardioid) pattern.

MCI Electronics founder Jeep Harned was an innovator, from creating the first 24-track recorder in 1968 to the auto-locator and commercializing the inline mixer. Credit for the first inline-style consoles actually goes to Dan Flickinger, who designed a number of custom mixers that put tape monitoring within the channel modules, although track assignments were in a separate section. However, the popularity of the modern inline console stems from Dave Harrison (later founder of Harrison Consoles), who approached Harned with this new take on mixer design.

Harned and MCI engineer Lutz Meyer helped Harrison refine the JH-400. In a day when most studio consoles were custom, the JH-400s were revolutionary — standardized “production” models with numerous user options and Harris 911 IC op amps that lowered costs and simplified manufacturing. The first JH-416 models offered 24 I/Os with quad panning/monitoring and 3-band EQ. Options included a 32-input version, VCA grouping and automation. The JH-400 offered an affordable pro console to the burgeoning recording industry, and five years later a 1977 Billboard poll gave MCI the leading share among studios.

Harned sold MCI to Sony in 1982.

Name a product after a Beatles tune (the model number refers to the “One After 909”), and it better be good. However, when Eventide founder Richard Factor assigned his young designer Anthony Agnello to build a harmony processor in 1974, they had no idea they'd be creating an audio classic. The version demo'ed at AES that year hardly resembled the final product: It was a music keyboard perched on a hand-wired box, but the reaction was positive. Soon after (and with the keyboard controller offered as an option), the Harmonizer H910 was born.

Offering pitch shifting (±1 octave), delay, feedback regeneration and more, the H910 was an instant studio fave. Users found all sorts of applications, ranging from regenerative arpeggios to bizarre sound design effects to lush guitar or vocal fattening. Frank Zappa put one in his guitar rack. Tony Visconti used it for the memorable snare sounds on David Bowie's Young Americans. Eddie Van Halen had a pair as part of his trademark guitar sound. Tom Lord-Alge's setup for Steve Winwood's vocals on “Back in the High Life” also employed two slightly detuned H910s (one sharp/one flat) with an 18ms spread. The twin Harmonizer effect was so popular that Eventide re-created it as the “Dual 910” program in the H3000 UltraHarmonizer that followed it a dozen years later.

Digital pioneer Barry Blesser helped launch Lexicon in 1971 and developed the EMT 250, the first commercial digital reverb, in 1976. EMT was no stranger to reverb, having created the Model 140 plate system in 1957.

Blesser and Karl-Otto Bäder designed the 250's algorithms; Dynatron's Ralph Zaorski designed the digital hardware; and EMT built the converters, I/Os, power supply and user interface, with its rocket ship controls for decay and delay. The 400 ICs and 16k of memory of this 1-in/4-out unit required three fans and heat sinks covering the entire cabinet exterior.

The EMT 250 carried a $20,000 price and some 250 units were produced, many still in use today and valued for their effects and reverbs. A later model, the EMT 251, added an LCD readout, improved HF response and more flexibility, but the algorithm was not the same as the classic EMT 250.

The 3M Digital Audio Mastering System comprised two 45 ips machines: a 32-track deck (16-bit/50kHz) running 1-inch tape and a 4-track, ½-inch mastering recorder. Although the system was a year from deliveries, engineer Tom Jung (now of DMP Records) beta-tested the prototypes at Sound 80 in Minneapolis as a backup system during sessions cut direct-to-disk — lacquer disk, not hard disk! The digital session tapes were judged superior to the disk masters, and in December 1978 the first commercial albums cut on the system were released: Flim & The BB's by jazz group Flim & The BB's and Aaron Copeland's Appalachian Spring by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. The latter won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance.

Priced at $150,000 ($115,000 for the 32-track and $35,000 for the 4-track), the first two-machine systems were installed in early 1979 at Sound 80 and in Los Angeles at A&M Studios, the Record Plant and Warner Bros.' Amigo Studios.

Originally designed for making home digital recordings, the PCM-F1 was a recording processor using the EIAJ 14-bit PCM spec for digitizing audio and storing it as a video signal. The concept of a two-piece system (connecting a PCM processor to any VCR — Beta, VHS or U-matic — for recording) was unpopular with consumers, but at $1,900, Sony's PCM-F1 was a hit with studios.

PCM processors from Aiwa, Akai, Sansui, JVC and Technics rigidly stuck to the 14-bit EIAJ standard; only Sony's PCM-F1, as well as the later PCM-701/501/601 units and the Nakamichi DMP-100 — a black-finish F1 with improved analog components — offered switchable 14/16-bit performance.

Paired with the optional SL-F1 Betamax deck, the PCM-F1 was the first portable, DC-operated digital recorder. Alternatively, users could make simultaneous 4-track recordings by combining the PCM digital tracks with a video deck's “hi-fi” tracks. This was great for live recordings where a board mix went digital and room ambience or mix position mics were routed to the hi-fi tracks. A few brave souls — myself included — even made multitrack recordings using two (or more) synchronized PCM-F1s. But one thing was certain: Whether stereo or 4-track, the democratization of digital had arrived.