Historical Notes
Bill Putnam was awarded the 2000 Technical Grammy for his multiple contributions to the recording
industry. He was highly regarded as a recording engineer, studio designer/operator and inventor.
Putnam was considered a favorite of musical icons including Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Ray
Charles, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and many, many more. The studios he designed and operated
were known for their sound and were an experimentation ground for his continuing desire to push the
envelope. Universal Recording in Chicago, United and Western in Los Angeles (now Ocean Way and
Cello) all preserve elements of his room designs.
The companies Putnam started, Universal Audio, Studio Electronics, and UREI, built products that are
still in regular use decades after their development.
In 1999 Bill Jr. and James Putnam re-launched Universal Audio and merged with Kind of Loud
technologies – a leading audio software company – with two goals: Reproduce classic analog
recording equipment designed by their father and his colleagues, research and design new recording
tools in the spirit of vintage analog technology. Today Universal Audio is fulfilling that goal, bridging
the worlds of vintage analog and DSP technology in a creative atmosphere where musicians, audio
engineers, analog designers and DSP engineers intermingle and exchange ideas every day. Analog or
digital, UA remains committed to the “hand assembled” ideal that has been forgotten by many audio
manufacturers. Whatever the endeavor, every project taken on by the UA team is driven by its historical
roots and a desire to wed classic analog technology with the demands of the modern digital studio.
The 610 Preamp
The 2-610 was inspired by the Putnam-designed 610 console built in 1960 for his United Recording
facility at 6050 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood (now Ocean Way). As was the case with most of
Putnam’s innovations, the 610 was the pragmatic upshot of a recurring problem in the studio: how to
fix a console without interrupting a session. The traditional console of the time was a one-piece control
surface with all components connected via patch cords. If a problem occurred, the session came to a
halt while the console was dismantled. Putnam’s solution was to build a mic-pre with gain control,
echo send and adjustable EQ on one modular chassis using a printed circuit board. While modular
consoles are commonplace today, the 610 was quite a breakthrough at the time.
While the 610 was designed for practical reasons, it was aesthetic appeal that made it popular with
the recording artists who frequented United and Western in the 60’s. The character of the mic-pre in
particular made it favorite of engineers like Bruce Swedien, Bruce Botnick, Lee Hershberg and Jack
Joseph Puig; and artists including Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and The Beach Boys.
Swedien describes the character of the preamp as “clear and open” and “very musical”.
Studios 2 and 3 at Western, which featured the 610 console, were the site of many classic recordings
of the 60’s, including the Mamas and the Papas (Bones Howe), Up, Up and Away by the Fifth
Dimension, Herb Alpert, Sergio Mendes (Bruce Botnick), and of course Pet Sounds.
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