Yorkville Sound is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

manufacturer of audio amplifiers (including the Traynor amplifier line),

loudspeaker A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or ...

s and related professional sound reinforcement equipment. Based in Pickering, Ontario,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the firm has a global presence as an importer and exporter of audio electronic products.https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/meet-the-canadian-companies-making-noise-in-music/article1214813/ " Meet the Canadian companies making noise in music"]. David Fielding and Brad Wheeler, ''The Globe and Mail'', Aug. 23, 2010 Yorkville manages its original Traynor brand, its own Yorkville brand and has expanded to include other brands such as Apex, ART (Applied Research and Technology), Orion FX Lights, Granite Percussion and Denver guitars. Yorkville provides North American distribution for Hughes & Kettner guitar amplifiers as well as exclusive distribution for KRK studio monitor speakers, Line 6 guitar amplifier, effects and wireless systems, Dynaudio studio monitor speakers,

Epiphone Epiphone is an American musical instrument brand that traces its roots to a musical instrument manufacturing business founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire, and moved to New York City in 1908. After taking over his f ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

Gibson Gibson may refer to: People * Gibson (surname) Businesses * Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment * Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based * Gi ...

guitars, Steinberger guitars, Gold Tone guitars, Ritter bags, Samson audio products, HK Audio products, X-Vive Wireless products, Aston microphones and

Gallien-Krueger Gallien-Krueger, also referred to as 'GK' (as in their logo), is a manufacturer of bass amplifiers and speaker cabinets . The company is based in Stockton, California, and was founded in 1968. History Robert Gallien started his company, then ...

amplifiers.

History

Yorkville Sound began in 1963 in the back room of

Long & McQuade Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

, a music store on

Yonge Street Yonge Street (; pronounced "young") is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. Once the southernmost leg of provincial H ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

. Peter Traynor was working as the business's repairman and had been customizing amplifiers by using readily available components. Traynor developed a rugged

bass amplifier A bass amplifier (also abbreviated to bass amp) is a musical instrument electronic device that uses electrical power to make lower-pitched instruments such as the bass guitar or double bass loud enough to be heard by the performers and audien ...

that was more resistant to the rigors of the road and began renting this new 'Dynabass' amp to customers.Keenan, Edward
"Pete Traynor, Toronto’s quietly legendary sound man: Keenan"
''Toronto Star'', May 10, 2016"Pete Traynor The Man, The Music, The Struggle"
''Cashbox Canada'', Bill Delingat, September 30, 2011 By the end of 1963, Traynor began selling his Dynabass amps along with matching 15-inch speaker cabinets, as well as public address (PA) speakersYorkville Sound. Company History.
Retrieved October 16, 2016 based on a reference book of 1930s

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

commercial loudspeaker designs.''Yorkville Sound History: 1963–1991''. February 20, 2002. Mike Holman.
Retrieved December 21, 2008 Traynor approached Jack Long, co-founder of the music store, with the idea of starting Yorkville Sound to sell Traynor-branded bass amplifiers and more. Long and Traynor partnered in the venture, with Long owning two-thirds and Traynor one-third. The line of products was sold with Traynor logos on the front and rear nameplates reading "mfg. by Yorkville Sound." In 1965, Yorkville Sound incorporated as "Yorkville Sound Limited" with Long as President and Traynor as Vice-President. The operation moved to Dundas Street near Parliament in Toronto. In 1966, more products were introduced including the YVM-1 "Voice Master", a portable 45 watt

tube amplifier A valve amplifier or tube amplifier is a type of electronic amplifier that uses vacuum tubes to increase the amplitude or power of a signal. Low to medium power valve amplifiers for frequencies below the microwaves were largely replaced by sol ...

combined with a four-channel microphone mixer. The Voice Master contained 1/4-inch phone jacks for PA speakers, a master volume control, treble, mid-range and bass tone controls and patching points for the TR-1, a spring reverb unit made by Traynor. The portable mixer-amplifier concept was a novel idea that quickly proved popular among musicians, and was the inspiration for the 1967 introduction of the competing "Vocal Master" product line by

Shure Shure Incorporated is an American audio products corporation. It was founded by Sidney N. Shure in Chicago, Illinois, in 1925 as a supplier of radio parts kits. The company became a consumer and professional audio-electronics manufacturer of mi ...

. In 1967, Yorkville expanded distribution westward to

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

and southward into the United States via

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

. In 1969, Yorkville began designing larger concert equipment including eight-, sixteen- and 24-channel mixers with a pair of integral

graphic equalizer Equalization, or simply EQ, in sound recording and reproduction is the process of adjusting the volume of different frequency bands within an audio signal. The circuit or equipment used to achieve this is called an equalizer. Most hi-fi eq ...

s, an audio snake and heavy folded-horn "W"-style bass bins loaded with 18-inch drivers. The sound contracting business also designed and used wedge-shaped monitor speakers on stage for artists to hear themselves. Concurrently, Yorkville incorporated their Buffalo operation to create a US-based business entity: Yorkville Sound Inc. In 1970, the Canadian dollar ceased to be pegged to the American dollar and US dealers found their Yorkville prices suddenly jump 10% higher, followed quickly by another 10% added due to a short-lived US surtax on imported finished goods. In 1972, Yorkville expanded operations to Europe, opening offices in the UK and Sweden. In 1976, Peter Traynor sold his shares and left Yorkville Sound. The Traynor brand would be slowly phased out over the next 17 years, until it was reintroduced in 2000. Steve Long, son of founder Jack Long, began working full-time at Yorkville Sound in 1981 and eventually became company president. During the 1970s and 1980s, the company grew. Around 1981–1982, Yorkville Sound was contracted to fabricate

loudspeaker enclosure A loudspeaker enclosure or loudspeaker cabinet is an enclosure (often rectangular box-shaped) in which speaker drivers (e.g., loudspeakers and tweeters) and associated electronic hardware, such as crossover circuits and, in some cases, powe ...

s for Martin Audio's North American market. In 1983, Yorkville Sound created their own "Sound Crew" line of concert speakers. In 1985, two new product lines appeared with the introduction of the "élite" series of portable loudspeakers with non-user adjustable 'black box' processing and the "Audiopro" line of electronic amplifiers. A thousand-watt

subwoofer A subwoofer (or sub) is a loudspeaker designed to reproduce low-pitched audio frequencies known as bass and sub-bass, lower in frequency than those which can be (optimally) generated by a woofer. The typical frequency range for a subwoofer i ...

was brought out in 1986: the SW-1000. A line of

studio monitor Studio monitors are loudspeakers in speaker enclosures specifically designed for professional audio production applications, such as recording studios, filmmaking, television studios, radio studios and project or home studios, where accurate ...

speakers was created in 1991. In 1996, Yorkville introduced the "TX" line of concert touring loudspeakers. In 2001, Yorkville contracted with designer Tom Danley to create the "Unity" line of loudspeakers which was introduced in 2003. The Unity design was licensed from Danley's company Sound Physics Labs. In 2014, Jack Long received the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

for his contribution to the Canadian music industry, and in particular for founding both Long & McQuade and Yorkville Sound. In 2021, Yorkville Sound continues to be owned by the Long family." Long & McQuade CEO on family owned business success"
RICHARD BLACKWELL, ''The Globe and Mail'', Nov. 17, 2013

References

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External links

Official website
Audio amplifier manufacturers Manufacturers of professional audio equipment Electronics companies established in 1963 Audio equipment manufacturers of Canada Guitar amplifier manufacturers Loudspeaker manufacturers Musical instrument manufacturing companies of Canada Canadian brands Companies based in Ontario Pickering, Ontario Audio mixing console manufacturers 1963 establishments in Ontario History of manufacturing in Ontario

History

See also

References

External links