Universal Audio UAD SYSTEM ver.6.3.2 - Manual (Page 118)

UAD System Manual - 118 - Chapter 12: History
they were saying that stereo was a waste of time. But
Bill could see the potential, and around 1959 he
started recording everything with feeds to two control
rooms, one for a stereo mix, one for a mono mix. In
late '58, '59 and '60 everything Bill did was re-
corded in both stereo and mono.
“When stereo hit big around '61, none of the record
companies had any catalog. But Bill did — he had
two and one half years worth. It was a lot of material
— understand at that period of time he was doing
about $200,000 a month in the United Western
Complex — which is like a million dollars a month
now.
“So the record companies came to Bill and said,
'We'll pay you for the tape.' And he said, 'No, you
can't pay for the tape, but if you repay me all the studio time that was used in the last two and
a half years you have a deal.' And they did. They wrote him a check for the whole thing.”
It’s recollections like these that bring home Putnam's visionary and entrepreneurial style. An un-
disputed leader in music recording and in recording technology, with innumerable accolades
to his credit, it's his son, Bill Putnam, who perhaps sums it up best, in a way Bill Sr. himself might
like. Bill Jr. says, simply, “He was a guy who built equipment to solve problems in the studio.”
“There's a whole school of what I'd call Bill Putnam engineers out there,” concludes Murray
Allen. “People like Allen Sides and Bruce Swedien who worked with him and who really un-
derstood what recording sound should be about. They've carried on his tradition, and I think
we all agree that it's very important for people to know what he contributed.”
Classic Compressors
The LA-2A and 1176 compressor/limiters long ago achieved classic status. They're a given in
almost any studio in the world — relied upon daily by engineers whose styles range from rock
to rap, classical to country and everything in between. With so many newer products on the
market to choose from, it's worth looking at the reasons why these classics remain a necessary
part of any professional studio's outboard equipment collection.