Midas is a company that designs professional
audio consoles. Founded in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in 1970 by Jeff Byers and Charles Brooke, today the company is part of the
Music Tribe
Music Tribe, formerly Music Group, is a holding company based in the City of Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines. It is chaired by Uli Behringer, founder of Behringer. Music Tribe's portfolio includes Behringer, Cool Audio, Midas, Turbosound, TC ...
group of brands.
Midas consoles are used by
audio engineers
An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...
for
live sound mixing
Live sound mixing is the blending of multiple sound sources by an audio engineer using a mixing console or software. Sounds that are mixed include those from instruments and voices which are picked up by microphones (for drum kit, lead vocals an ...
. Applications for these consoles includes
Front of House (FOH) and monitor console positions. Midas also markets the digital audio distribution components that are commonly used with their digital consoles as stand-alone digital snakes, or larger multi-site audio distribution networks.
History
Originally founded in 1970 by Jeff Byers and Charles Brooke as Midas Amplification, a London manufacturer of
solid state guitar amps
A guitar amplifier (or amp) is an electronic device or system that strengthens the electrical signal from a pickup on an electric guitar, bass guitar, or acoustic guitar so that it can produce sound through one or more loudspeakers, which ar ...
, the company relocated near
Euston Station
Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city railw ...
in London, next door to Martin Audio, in 1972, and began producing the PR System modular mixer in 1974. Midas mixers were adopted the
tour sound market, and used by
Clair Brothers Audio on the concert tours of
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
,
Yes (band)
Yes are an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968 by lead singer and frontman Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Peter Banks, keyboardist Tony Kaye and drummer Bill Bruford. The band has undergone numerous line-u ...
,
Billy Joel, and
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by the ...
.
Pink Floyd used Midas consoles on their
Animals Tour in 1977 and
The Wall Tour
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
in 1979, and
Frank Zappa used Midas consoles on his 1980 World Tour. Midas experienced success in the
musical theatre market as well, with their consoles used for productions of ''
Evita Evita may refer to:
Arts
* Evita (1996 film), ''Evita'' (1996 film), a 1996 American musical drama film based on the 1976 concept album of the same name
* Evita (2008 film), ''Evita'' (2008 film), a documentary about Eva Péron
* Evita (album), ''E ...
'' and ''
Cats''.
Midas launched the XL, the first of a series of large-format professional touring consoles, at the New York AES Convention in 1986. Development of the XL was costly, and in December 1987 the assets of Midas Audio Systems Ltd. were purchased by
Klark Teknik
Klark Teknik is a company that designs and develops professional signal processing and audio equipment. Located in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, UK, the company was founded in 1974 by brothers Terence and Phillip Clarke. It developed a number o ...
. Under this new ownership, Midas released the XL2 in 1988, the XL3 in 1990, and the XL4 in 1995.
[ The XL3 and XL4 established Midas as a leading live console manufacturer for the next two decades, and the XL series would grow to include the XL200, and XL250, as well as smaller models targeted at the club and regional sound market.
]
Beginning in 1998, Midas introduced the Heritage series consoles, including the H3000, H2000, H1000, and H4000.
Midas introduced their first digital console, the flagship XL8, at Musikmesse Frankfurt
Musikmesse Frankfurt was an international fair regarding the music industry that took place in Frankfurt am Main, Germany from 1980 until 2019.
In 2012, 68,587 visitors and 1,512 exhibitors from 51 countries were counted. Despite an exhibitor drop ...
in 2006. Notable XL8 features included three preamps per channel to enable front of house, monitor and broadcast control surfaces to be fed from the same input rack, dual redundant master control processors, and integration with the Klark Teknik Helix EQ system via the ''Rapide'' remote. In September 2008 at the annual PLASA tradeshow, Midas introduced the PRO6 Live Audio System, the second networked digital audio system from Midas. Employing technologies developed from the XL8, the PRO6 offered similar audio performance in a more compact form factor.
In 2010, Midas introduced the PRO3 and PRO9 digital consoles, along with the VeniceF digital-analog hybrid ("Digi-Log") console, which replaced the Venice analog console. At the 2011 PLASA show, Midas unveiled the PRO2 and PRO2C consoles, which offered Midas digital features from the larger PRO and XL8 consoles in a more compact package and a lower price point. The following year at InfoComm, Midas introduced the PRO1 digital console, with an even smaller physical footprint and lower price point than the PRO2/PRO2C.
In January 2014 at the NAMM Show
The NAMM Show is an annual event in the United States that is organized by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), who describe it as "the industry’s largest stage, uniting the global music, sound and entertainment technology commun ...
in Anaheim, California, Midas introduced the M32 ($4,999 MSRP in USA), based largely on parent company Music Tribe's highly-successful Behringer X32 mixer, sharing most of the X32's operating system, but utilizing Midas' Pro series microphone preamps. (X32 uses slightly different Midas-designed preamps, with Cirrus Logic A/D converters and a sample rate of 48 kHz. Midas Pro preamps are 96 kHz and use Midas' own MIDAS-8000 8-channel A/D converter, which reportedly has better performance numbers than Cirrus Logic chips used by most other console makers).
At that same time, Midas began retiring much of its analog console product line, including the Heritage, Legend, and Siena series, while maintaining the Verona analog console and VeniceF and VeniceU analog-digital hybrid versions of the original Venice console an active part of Midas' product line.
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
is used at the core of all Midas digital consoles. This is mentioned prominently in their marketing materials, as well as in their preference for Linux development and kernel programming experience in job postings for development positions. At the core of all Midas Pro desks is standard PC motherboard with 4GB flash card (for OS and data storage).
Midas became part of the Telex Group, which was subsequently acquired by the Bosch Group
Robert Bosch GmbH (; ), commonly known as Bosch (stylised as BOSCH), is a German multinational engineering and technology company headquartered in Gerlingen, Germany. The company was founded by Robert Bosch in Stuttgart in 1886. Bosch is 94 ...
in January 2006. In December 2009, Midas and Klark Teknik were acquired by Music Group
A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform Instrumental music, instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely ...
, a holding company chaired by Uli Behringer. Music Group was later rebranded as Music Tribe.
References
External links
Midas Website
{{Bosch
Audio mixing console manufacturers
Audio equipment manufacturers of Germany