Chris Huggett (1949 - 22 October 2020) was a British engineer and designer who co-founded

Electronic Dream Plant Electronic Dream Plant (EDP) was a small British synthesizer manufacturer, active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. At the time their products were not particularly successful commercially. In later years products like the "WASP" became prized ...

(EDP), founded Oxford Synthesiser Company and who was also a design consultant for

Novation Digital Music Systems Novation Music is a British musical equipment manufacturer, founded in 1992 by Ian Jannaway and Mark Thompson as Novation Electronic Music Systems. Today the company specialises in MIDI controllers with and without Keyboard instrument, keyboards ...

, Paul Whittington Group Ltd, and other manufacturers of audio technology.

Electronic Dream Plant

In 1977, Huggett had been working for Ferrograph, for 3M in their digital multi-track division, and as a freelance studio maintenance engineer. He met up with synthesist Adrian Wagner (a descendant of the German composer

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

), who had ideas for an inexpensive synthesiser. (see also ) Electronic Dream Plant (commonly abbreviated to EDP), a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

sound synthesiser manufacturing firm in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

was formed. Huggett designed EDP's most successful product, the Wasp, a synthesiser with a hybrid digital VCO / analog VCF design. Employing a unique contact keyboard (with no moving parts), the Wasp was priced at £199 (about

GBP Sterling (symbol: £; currency code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound is the main unit of sterling, and the word '' pound'' is also used to refer to the British currency general ...

today), which was less than half the price of any comparable synth at the time. Huggett later designed the Spider sequencer and the Gnat synthesiser before EDP's demise in the end of 1981: "'' ..neither company lasted very long. By the end of 1981, production of Wasps, Spiders, Gnats, and Caterpillars had stopped.''" or 1982.

Oxford Synthesiser Company

After EDP, Huggett went on to form Oxford Synthesiser Company (OSC) with financing and management from his parents. (see also : "''In 1983, Huggett reemerged with the OSCar, produced by the Oxford Synthesiser Company, which was financed and run by Huggett's parents.''") He designed the

OSC OSCar The OSCar was a synthesizer manufactured by the Oxford Synthesiser Company from 1983 to 1985. It was ahead of its time in several ways and its later versions were among the few mono-synths of its time to have MIDI. Around 2000 were made. Hist ...

with Paul Wiffen and Anthony Harris-Griffin. The OSCar was intended to be an affordable yet sophisticated performance synthesiser with state-of-the-art sounds. The OSCar was a more substantial synthesiser than the Wasp, with two digital oscillators and a full-size three-octave keyboard. The OSCar was also one of the first digitally programmable synthesisers, and included both an

arpeggiator A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis an ...

and a

step sequencer A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or Open Sound Control ...

Akai

Huggett later moved on to Akai, where he wrote the operating system for the

Akai S1000 The Akai S1000 is a 16-bit, 44.1 kHz professional stereo digital sampler, released by Akai in 1988. The S1000 was among the first professional-quality 16-bit stereo samplers.Russ, Martin (2004). ''Sound Synthesis and Sampling''. Elsevier. p ...

sampler alongside David Cockerell, who designed the hardware. Huggett remained at Akai for successive models of Akai's rackmount sampler line, including the S3200, whose operating system he completed in 1993. (see also : "''After working as a freelance programmer for Akai for over a decade, during which he created operating systems for their samplers, Chris Huggett is now on the design staff for Novation.''")

Novation Digital Music Systems

While working for Akai, Huggett provided advice and support to Novation's founders, working on the development of the BassStation, which used similar Oscillators and filters as the Wasp. He later joined Novation full time to design the

Novation Supernova The Novation SuperNova, released in 1998, was a 3U rack-mounted virtual analogue polyphonic synthesizer with 16+ note polyphony and multitimbral operation, made by the British company Novation. Unique to the Supernova was the addition of multipl ...

. Huggett's involvement with Novation had continued through many of their hardware synths and MIDI controllers ever since, including the Nova family of synths, the Bass Station II, the Peak and Summit synths, and the ReMOTE & ReMOTE SL series of controllers.

Death

Huggett died on 22 October 2020, of cancer.

References

;Bibliography * * * ;Citations

External links

*
Biography on Novation's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huggett, Chris 2020 deaths Inventors of musical instruments Place of birth missing Place of death missing British electronics engineers Deaths from cancer in the United Kingdom 20th-century British engineers 1949 births