STUDIOMASTER COVER STORY
success and failure, good times and bad, but still retain a lot of goodwill within the trade. Studiomaster is one such company. Now
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owned by Chinese audio giant, Soundking, the firm has experienced good times in the UK market through sales of its powered mixers, including the iconic Horizon console and, of course, some rocky times where lack of investment saw it lose market share. Switches of manufacturing, increased competition in a market that requires momentum in innovation to stay ahead of the pack, all of it has meant that the course that Studiomaster has plotted has meandered somewhat from time to time. But, throughout it all it has managed to hold
on to some of its most experienced team members, such as managing director K.M Malik and head of marketing Patrick Almond. He tells MI Pro: “Studiomaster has always been a company of firsts. We were the first company to have mixing consoles with MIDI on them and the first to launch compact mixers and expandable mixers. We tried to put ourselves ahead of the competition and the market. “In the ‘90s we changed owners and started to lose our way a little bit. What we were successful with was the powered mixers, which made a big impact on the market. We gave people what they wanted with the range. It was affordable, but it also had enough power in it. “We gave people the flexibility to put decent
speakers on it and get a decent sound with it from one small box, with the right amount of power at the right price point.” In 2001 the firm switched production to India, but after its manufacturing partner tried to force a sale of the company, eventually it went to China and Studioking. “In India they wanted to take us over or they wouldn’t supply us anymore. So we ended up
THE HISTORY
1976 - 1978 A small group of sound engineers, frustrated by the lack of high power amplifiers in the UK, decide to design and build their own. The name Recording Studio Design (RSD) was chosen, as it reflected the aims of taking studio quality in to the live sound arena.
1978 - 1981 As manufacturing quantities increased, the RSD operation moved to a village in Bedfordshire, called Northall.
1982-1984 With over 20 products in the range, things were starting to grow. The power amps were building a lasting reputation for reliability and the mixing consoles were finding homes in more and more sound systems and studios. The challenge of how to expand the range was met by the 8-2 powered mixer and Studio 4 professional portastudio.
1989-1991 Nearly eight years since the first Studiomaster power mixer hit the shops. Like
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he MI business has its fair share of companies that have experienced corporate upheaval, changes of ownership,
sticking two fingers up at them and moved our production to China.” Up until that point the firm had been doing well, but had started to lose ground to competitors such as Dynacord. Fresh impetus was needed. “We lost market share but we had been losing it because we didn’t receive the right funding and when Soundking took over, we had to move our other products from all our other manufacturers to Soundking.” So that also didn’t help with stability. But that was then, and now the firm has a redesigned version of the Horizon lightweight powered mixer, which it believes will act as a springboard to improve its retail presence once again. “Horizon was a premium product and
we’ve aimed it at Dynacord, who took market share from us in the ‘90s. They came out with something better then, but hopefully we can do the same to them this time. “It’s a brand new design with up to date
features and, again, it is giving people what they want. We launched it at Frankfurt and it hits retail in the autumn.” Almond feels the firm retains a certain amount of goodwill within the trade, which will help it re-establish itself. “A lot of retail guys know Studiomaster from
the beginning and they know what we have been through, so there’s still some fondness and hopefully they are prepared to support us. “A lot of it is down to the work we have done since 2000 to establish it. The younger users are the ones we need to convince, but there are a lot of diehards who know it. But, yes, we have to convince the young-bloods. “With the younger customer it is about price
rather than features, but we offer both of course. Older users tend to have more disposable income so they’re more concerned with the features rather than the price.”
the amplifier sector, a lot had changed. There was still some resistance to single package solutions. This was due to poor reliability, sound quality but also lack of facilities. To re- enter this market required something with power, on board effects good EQ and portability, leading to the first of a long line of Power House mixers.
1994-1995 The Power House Vision had defined powered mixers in the mid ‘90s and could only be improved in one area – power. The same package with 1200 Watts of power stretched the powered mixer concept even further. Called the Horizon, it was comfortably the most powerful unit for its size and was a direct response from customers who wanted high quality, high power compact PA systems.
2008
Soundking takes over and the new Studiomaster manufacturing facility in the Far East gives access to more than 2,000 production, design, sales and marketing personnel, including over 100 technical R&D engineers to support the UK based design, marketing and sales headquarters.
DIGILIVE 24 SPECS
Input Gain Range Mic: 0 - 60dB, Line: -15 - +45dB Mic EIN 129dB CMMR -84dB from 50Hz – 10kHz
Phantom Power Switchable on all mic channels Frequency Response +0/-1dB, 20Hz- 20kHz Noise Gate Threshold range -90dB – 20dBFs Compressor Thresh -60dBFs - 0dBFsdB, Ratio 1:1 – 10:1 Make-Up Gain 0dB – 30dB, Mode: Auto & Vintage Limiter Thresh -40dBFs - +0dBFsA AD/DA Converters 24-bit Delta Sigma, 114dB dynamic range DSP Resolution 40-bit floating point
HORIZON 2000 SPECS
Power output @ 4 ohms 2 x 1000 Watts RMS Amp assign switch Stereo L&R, Mono L&R/Aux 1, Aux1/Aux2 Amp power switch 100%, 40%, 15% Input Gain
Mic (to L/R) 9dB-60dB Line (to L/R) – 10dB-41dB Nine-band graphic equaliser 63, 125, 250, 500, 1kHz, 2k, 4k, 8k, 16k Frequency Response (any Input) 10Hz - 45kHz +/-0.5dB
miPRO JUNE 2011 25
Studiomaster’s Paul Belcher (left) and Patrick Almond
Almond already has around 150 dealers signed up and is now targeting the big chains. “In the UK we will be working direct with
retail shops and we want to get the message out there to dealers, including some of the bigger ones like Dawsons and Digital Village.” Horizon is just one of the “stepping stones”,
says Almond. There is also a new compact digital mixer – Digilive 16 – that is targeted at the live market, which it has high hopes for. Soundking also owns the Carlsboro amplifier brand and distributes it internationally. CPC handle it in the UK, however (see feature on page 32). “From a Soundking point of view, they
haven’t just picked up all these brands and moved them out to China, they have invested in the UK.”
It has been a long way back at times for Studiomaster, but a confident presence in Frankfurt and a good reception to its two new retail-friendly products should ensure the firm is entering another period of success.
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