ABOUT THE “A” Range
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Trident Recording Studio’s started operations back in the 1960's as a recording studio. Many things came out of the
Recording Studio that led to what Trident Audio Developments is today.
Trident Recording Studios recorded legendary bands like David Bowie, The Beatles, James Taylor, Queen, Supertramp,
Mott The Hoople, Bad Company, Free, Rush, Elton John, Manfed Mann, T-Rex and so many more, we simply do not have
the space to list them all here. These recordings were done by incredible recording engineers like Roy Thomas Baker,
Ken Scott, Tony Platt, Tony Visconti, Adam Moseley, Dave Hentschel, and many others. Trident Studios was the place
known by the very famous bands as the place to record in London.
Trident studios was the first studio to acquire the first ever 8 Track from Ampex. No one in London had an 8 Track…not
even EMI. When Trident got its first 16 track recorder, they decided to buy a new recording console but simply could not
find any commercially available console to do 16 track recording with the feature set they needed. It was decided by the
powers to be at Trident that between the recording engineers, and the technical staff under the direction of Barry Porter,
Trident would attempt to build their own custom console.
The first console was designed purely for Trident Studios and was designated the 'A' Series. It was hand built to the need
of the facilities and designed to be ergonomic. In those days, the integrated circuit (i.c.) had not been invented, so all of
the circuits used individual transistors (known as discrete design). This and the use of inductors in the lower and upper
mid equaliser sections are said to account for much of the unique sound of the 'A' Series. From this first successful
design was borne Trident Audio Developments Ltd, which went on to become a leading manufacturer of music recording
consoles. One of the company's earliest advertising slogans was 'designed by recording engineers for recording engi-
neers'. This became a key component of what made the 'Trident Sound' unique. As a recording engineer rather than an
electronics engineer, Trident Audio Developments was designed by the engineers ears, rather than a text book of
electronic design, and it is this, coupled with over thirty years experience that has enabled Trident Audio Developments
to develop its own 'philosophy of sound' that is Trident's trademark.
The “A” Series eventually led to the development of the “A“ Range Console, which became the console everyone wanted
to work and record on. The “A“ Range was quickly labeled as the best sounding console ever. Today, PMI Audio has
created a two channel version of the A Range Mic Preamplifer and the “A“ Range 4 band EQ of the console and housed it
in a 2U 19” Rack unit. This new dual channel unit is an exact replica of the original all discrete transistor circuitry, and it
faithfully follows the original electronic circuit design to the absolute degree. So much so that it has taken three years of
circuit analysis and testing by PMI Audio’s designers and many of its former engineers who undertook the mammoth
task of recreating the original’s designs. Needless to say, Trident Audio Developments and PMI Audio are extremely
pleased and proud to offer this unique piece of recording history.
There were only thirteen A Range consoles ever built back in the 1970’s, and almost all of them have been rebuilt and
are still in use today, despite being nearly forty years old. This says a lot about the heritage of these iconic items of
recording equipment and the artists that have used them.
We hope you will enjoy the A Range as much as we have enjoyed designing it.
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