United Recording Electronics Industries (UREI) was a manufacturer of recording, mixing and

audio signal processing Audio signal processing is a subfield of signal processing that is concerned with the electronic manipulation of audio signals. Audio signals are electronic representations of sound waves— longitudinal waves which travel through air, consist ...

hardware for the professional recording studio, live sound and broadcasting fields.

History

Bill Putnam Sr. founded

Universal Audio United Recording Electronics Industries (UREI) was a manufacturer of recording, mixing and audio signal processing hardware for the professional recording studio, live sound and broadcasting fields. History Bill Putnam Sr. founded Universa ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in the 1950s as a design and manufacturing addition to his recording studio business,

Universal Recording Corporation Universal Recording Corporation was a recording studio in Chicago founded by Bill Putnam, Sr. for the purpose of investigating new recording techniques and the development of specialized recording equipment. Universal Recording was seminal ...

. After Putnam moved to Hollywood in 1957 and established the

United Recording Corporation United Western Recorders was a two-building recording studio complex in Hollywood that was one of the most successful independent recording studios of the 1960s. The complex merged neighboring studios United Recording Corp. on 6050 Sunset Boul ...

, his company acquired Studio Supply Co. and rebranded it as the Studio Electronics Corporation (SEC) and moved all manufacturing to the second floor of Western Recorders. By December, 1965, Universal Audio had been completely absorbed by Studio Electronics, although Studio Electronics continued to produce some Universal Audio-branded products. In 1967, Studio Electronics acquired the broadcast division of Babcock Electronics, including Teletronix and the patent rights to the electro-optical LA-2A

leveling amplifier An audio leveler performs an audio process similar to compression, which is used to reduce the dynamic range of a signal, so that the quietest portion of the signal is loud enough to hear and the loudest portion is not too loud. Levelers work ...

. In anticipation of further acquisitions, SEC was rebranded as United Recording Electronics Industries, or UREI. UREI subsequently acquired National Intertel; from this acquisition came technology which developed into the

1176 peak limiter The 1176 Peak Limiter is a dynamic range compressor designed by Bill Putnam and introduced by UREI in 1967. Derived from the 175 and 176 tube compressors, it marked the transition from vacuum tubes to solid-state technology. With its distinctive ...

in 1968, and the 1108 FET preamp. Other notable products included the UREI Teletronix LA-3A electro-optical leveling amplifier, LA-4 electro-optical compressor limiter, and UREI 500-series graphic equalizers. By 1976, UREI had moved their manufacturing and service center to Sun Valley, California. UREI collaborated with Edward M. Long of E.M. Long Associates in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

to create the 813 family of time-aligned large-format studio monitor speakers, introduced in 1977. The 813 and subsequent models introduced in 1979, including the 813A, 815A, and 811A, used Altec Lansing and Eminence drivers. In 1983, financial and quality control problems at Altec led UREI to introduce the 813B, which utilized

JBL JBL is an American audio equipment manufacturer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. JBL serves the customer home and professional market. The professional market includes studios, installed/tour/portable sound, cars, music ...

loudspeaker drivers. Putnam sold UREI to Harman in 1983, and UREI became a division of

JBL Professional JBL is an American audio equipment manufacturer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. JBL serves the customer home and professional market. The professional market includes studios, installed/tour/portable sound, cars, music ...

. Harman began releasing "JBL-UREI" co-branded products such as the 5547A graphic equalizer in 1986. In 2005, another Harman division, Soundcraft, introduced a "UREI-by-Soundcraft"-badged 1620LE mixer, with 'LE' standing for 'Limited Edition'. The mixer was a re-issue of the UREI 1620, a 1980s-era clone of Rudy Bozak's classic 1960s-era rotary-style DJ mixer, the CMA-10-2DL.Soundcraft News. July 2005. ''UREI 1620LE PROVIDES THE HERBAL REMEDY''
Soundcraft provided the new product line with its own website.

References

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External links

Studio Electronics - UREI product information documents
Electronics companies of the United States

History

See also

References

External links