Bruce Forat is an electronics engineer,

computer programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles ''software developer'' and ''software engineer'' are used for jobs that require a progr ...

, music producer, songwriter and co-founder and president of Forat Music and Electronics Corporation, founded in 1986. He is known for providing samples, service and upgrades for all Linn Electronics products after Linn went out of business in 1986. He also designed and manufactured the Forat F16 rack mount digital sampler and the Forat F9000: a debugged and improved version of the ill-fated

Linn 9000 The Linn 9000 is an electronic musical instrument manufactured by Linn Electronics as the successor to the LinnDrum. It was introduced in 1984 at a list price of $5,000, ($7,000 fully expanded) and about 1,100 units were produced. It combined M ...

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

Forat Music and Electronics

Forat Music and Electronics (also known as Forat Electronics or Forat Music) is a California-based corporation specializing in

electronic musical instrument An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronics, electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is ...

design, manufacturing, service, upgrades and customization, in particular,

drum machines A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

and digital samplers.

History

In 1982, Bruce Forat joined Linn Electronics as an electronics technician. When Linn went out of business in February 1986, brothers Bruce and Ben formed Forat Electronics Corporation in Studio City, California and purchased all of Linn's remaining assets. They hired some former Linn employees including

Steve Alcorn Steve Alcorn (born 1956) is an American entrepreneur, engineer, inventor, author and educator recognized for his contributions in the theme park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and eve ...

, former Vice President of Engineering and Chief Operating Officer. Forat revamped the original Linn Electronics line, including the LM-1,

LinnDrum The LinnDrum, often erroneously referred to as the LM-2, is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics between 1982 and 1985. About 5,000 units were sold. Development The LinnDrum was designed by the American engineer Roger Linn. It was ...

, and LinnSequencer. They completely reinvented the ill-fated

and dubbed it the Forat F9000: the first fully functional integrated sampling / sequencing / MIDI work station. They produce software and hardware upgrades and modifications for the

, Forat F9000, and the LinnSequencer and modifications, sounds and a

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

Retrofit Kit for the

. In 1987, Forat introduced the

F16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolv ...

: the first 16 bit digital sampler tailored for drummers featuring

capabilities, dynamic response to incoming trigger signals and, with a trigger response time of 0.1 milliseconds, the fastest audio-triggering digital sampler ever sold. Over the years, Forat has expanded into other aspects of electronic music technology. Today, they service, upgrade and customize most types of

and many brands of vintage

analog synthesizer An analog synthesizer () is a synthesizer that uses Analogue electronics, analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a var ...

s. They're an authorized service center for

Akai Akai (, ) is a Japanese brand & former electronics manufacturer, established as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo in 1929. It was best known outside Japan for its tape recorders during the 1960s and 1970s. The company became bankrupt in 2000 ...

, Yamaha &

Roland Roland (; ; or ''Rotholandus''; or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. The historical Roland was mil ...

. They provide repairs and upgrades for the

line of hard disk recorders, samplers and the entire Akai MPC series of

. They service Yamaha musical products including their line of digital consoles, drum machines and keyboards, the entire

line of products including MV series workstations and MC Groove samplers. They've produced thousands of custom digital sample sounds for use with the

, Forat F9000,

, Forat F16,

Ensoniq ASR-10 The Ensoniq ASR-10 is a sampling keyboard produced by Ensoniq between 1992 and 1998. The ASR-10 was a follow-up product to the very popular Ensoniq EPS and EPS-16 Plus performance samplers, and was also available with a piano style weighted ...

, Akai MPC series and the

MV-8000 & MV-8800. They've done custom paint jobs on keyboards and most of the

Akai MPC The Akai MPC (originally MIDI Production Center, now Music Production Center) is a series of Music workstation#Third generation music workstations, music workstations produced by Akai from 1988 onwards. MPCs combine Sampler (musical instrument), ...

and

music workstation A music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of: *a sound module, *a music sequencer and *(usually) a musical keyboard. It enables a musician to compose electronic music using just one piece of equipment. Or ...

s. In 2012, Bruce Forat worked as a

design consultant for

. At the time of writing (2015), Forat Electronics continues to provide products and services to music artists, producers and engineers around the world.

Notable customers

According to Forat, there are over 8,000 Forat Electronics F9000s and

s in use today around the world. Artists, producers and engineers who use Forat products, sounds, services, upgrades and modifications include: * Atom™ alias Señor Coconut alias Uwe Schmidt *

Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds Kenneth Brian Edmonds (born April 10, 1959), better known by his stage name Babyface, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has written and produced 26 number-one R&B hits and won 13 Grammy Awards. He was ranked number 20 ...

Console Confessions - The Great Music Producers in Their Own Words. Published by Backbeat Books - 2005 - "When we were recording Boyz II Men's "End of the Road" at Studio 4 in Philly, Babyface turned to me and said, "What we have here is a very good song."... We only had six hours to record all the vocals on "End of the Road," which is not a lot of time. Each guy sang on his own track and then the group sang together live while an MPC-60 drum machine and a Forat F-16 sampler kept the backbeat." *

Glen Ballard Basil Glen Ballard Jr. (born May 1, 1953) is an American songwriter, lyricist, and record producer. He is best known for co-writing and producing on Wilson Phillips' debut and sophomore albums, '' Wilson Phillips'' and '' Shadows and Light'', ...

(

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- Man In The Mirror) * Marcus Brown (

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...

) *

Def Leppard Def Leppard are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drummer), Rick Allen (drums), Phil Collen (guitar, ...

* DJ Quick *

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis James Samuel "Jimmy Jam" Harris III (born June 6, 1959) and Terry Steven Lewis (born November 24, 1956) are an American R&B/ pop songwriting and record production team. Their productions have received commercial success since the 1980s with var ...

L.A. Reid Antonio Marquis "L.A." Reid (born June 7, 1956) is an American record executive, A&R representative, and record producer who served as president and CEO of Arista Records from 2000 to 2004, as well as chairman and CEO of the Island Def Jam Mus ...

Alan Moulder Alan Moulder (born 11 June 1959) is an English record producer, mixing engineer, and audio engineer. Early life Moulder was born on 11 June 1959 in Boston, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Boston Grammar School. He had an interest in music from ...

* Dave "Hard Drive" Pensado * John "JR" Robinson (

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand ( ; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, songwriter, producer, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success across multiple fields of entertainment, being the ...

Rufus Rufus is a masculine given name, a surname, an Ancient Roman cognomen and a nickname (from Latin ''wikt:rufus, rufus'', "red"). Notable people with the name include: Given name Politicians * Marcus Caelius Rufus, (28 May 82 BC – after 48 ...

) *

RZA Robert Fitzgerald Diggs (born July 5, 1969), better known by his stage name RZA ( ) or the RZA, is an American rapper, record producer, composer, actor, and filmmaker. He is the '' de facto'' leader of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, having pro ...

(

Wu-Tang Clan Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop collective formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its members include RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and, until his death in 2004, O ...

) *

Mike Shipley Michael Shipley (7 October 1956 – 25 July 2013) was an Australian mixing engineer, audio engineer, and record producer. Shipley's music career spanned more than 30 years – mostly working in Los Angeles. At the Grammy Awards of 2012 he ...

* Will Smith * Mike D (Beastie Boys) * The Latch Brothers * Mixmaster Mike * Kenny "Tick" Salcido * Stock, Aitken & Waterman *

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

Grammy Award-winning mix engineer, Dave "Hard Drive" Pensado says "the Forat F16 is my little secret weapon." When Alan Moulder (Nine Inch Nails) was asked: "Is there a piece of equipment you can't do without?" he replied: "I've got a Forat F16 that I use to trigger kicks and snares".

References

External links

* http://www.forat.com/ Forat Music and Electronics Corporation {{DEFAULTSORT:Forat, Bruce American musical instrument makers Living people Businesspeople from California Year of birth missing (living people)