Malcolm Toft is an
audio engineer
An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduc ...
and
businessman
A businessperson, also referred to as a businessman or businesswoman, is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial ...
who worked at
Trident Studios, first as an
audio engineer
An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduc ...
, then as the studio's manager, and eventually as co-founder of
recording console maker Trident Audio Developments. Toft went on to form another console company, Malcolm Toft Associates, which eventually led to Toft Audio Designs and the founding of Ocean Audio. Currently he manufactures a range of professional audio products under his own name. Toft was also co-owner of The Music Mill Studios in Newton Abbot, Devon. In 2009 he was awarded a visiting professorship by Leeds College of Music. He is also a member of the University of West London Student Advisory board which mentors students during the last year of their degree courses in music technology. In July 2023 The University of West London awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Science.
Trident Studios and Trident Audio Development
Toft started at Tony Pike music in 1964 as a trainee and two years later moved to
CBS Studios
CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television production company which is a subsidiary of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by CBS Corporation as CBS Paramount (Network) Television, as a re ...
. He joined Europe's first 8-track recording facility,
Trident Studios in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, in 1967 as its first engineer after being offered the position while attending the studio's opening party. He worked with
Tony Visconti
Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...
during the recording of British band
Tyrannosaurus Rex's first three albums and
David Bowie's Space Oddity album. He later engineered
James Taylor's debut album and was the mix engineer on
The Beatles' song "
Hey Jude
"Hey Jude" is a song by the English rock music, rock band the Beatles that was released as a non-album single in August 1968. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The single was the Beatles' fir ...
."
In 1971, Toft became Trident Studios' manager. The next year, the studio decided to upgrade from 16-track to 24-tracks but wasn't able to source a console with the size, features, and configuration that they wanted, so they decided they would design and build their own. Working together with Barry Porter, Toft took on management and systems design of the project which became the Trident A Range console and led to Toft becoming Managing Director of Trident Audio Developments, Ltd. (TRIAD), an offshoot of Trident Studios that built and sold professional recording consoles. He was responsible for the concept and many design aspects which led to the unique sound of the Trimix, Series 80, TSM, Series 65 and Series 70 consoles. In 1981 Toft, together with Jack Hartfield, bought TRIAD, but in 1988, unhappy with the direction of the company's new product designs, Toft sold his interest and left the company, although under the stipulation of a three-year non-compete agreement.
Malcolm Toft Associates
In 1992, with encouragement from one of Trident's United States distributors, Toft designed a new console. Building on which he intended as something of an update to his Trident Series 80 designs, he released a range of consoles and related products under the Malcolm Toft Associates (MTA) brand. Toft later partnered with Ted Fletcher and Fletcher ElectroAcoustics to form Trident-MTA.
Malcolm Toft and Toft Audio Designs
From 2001, Malcolm Toft was hired as a consultant to design products for the PMI Audio Group.
These products were released under the brand name Toft Audio Designs which is owned by PMI Audio Group. PMI Audio Group acquired Trident Audio Developments' assets in October 2008, Toft was once again developing products under the direction of PMI Audio for the Trident name.
Ocean Audio
At the end of 2012, after 12 years working as a freelance consultant for the PMI Audio Group, Malcolm Toft formed a new company:
Ocean Audio
Under the brand name Ocean Audio, Malcolm Toft designed the first analogue console with full support for 500 series modules
The Ark
The Music Mill
Toft and Rick Edwards co-founded the Music Mill Studio in
Newton Abbot
Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge, Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its population was 24,029 in 2011, and was estimated at 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in ...
(
Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
),
UK, a recording and broadcast studio and education facility for music technology and music composition where, in partnership with
South Devon College, courses in recording, radio, music, and the performing arts are taught.
In January 2009, Toft was awarded a visiting professorship in music technology by Leeds College of Music. At the 2011 Music Producers Guild awards Toft had the honor of presenting longtime colleague Tony Visconti with the PMI Audio sponsored award for Innovation in Production.
Bassics
In 2015 Toft decided to move into the musical instrument field and designed the Bassics pre-amplifier system designed specifically for bass players. A unique approach to bass guitar pre-amplification which moves the controls normally found on the amplifier to a unit that can be placed directly on the floor in front of the player.
Currently, He designs a range of professional audio products under the 'Malcolm Toft' brand which combines his various products under one identity.
Engineering credits
Selected engineering credits:
Malcolm Toft: Album Credits
on AlbumCredits.com
* 1967: David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...
– '' David Bowie (1967 album)''
* 1968: Tyrannosaurus Rex
''Tyrannosaurus'' () is a genus of large theropoda, theropod dinosaur. The type species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' ( meaning 'king' in Latin), often shortened to ''T. rex'' or colloquially t-rex, is one of the best represented theropods. It live ...
– '' Prophets, Seers & Sages: The Angels of the Ages''
* 1968: James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the single "Fi ...
– '' James Taylor (album)''
* 1969: David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...
– '' Space Oddity''
* 1969: Tyrannosaurus Rex
''Tyrannosaurus'' () is a genus of large theropoda, theropod dinosaur. The type species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' ( meaning 'king' in Latin), often shortened to ''T. rex'' or colloquially t-rex, is one of the best represented theropods. It live ...
– ''Unicorn
The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead.
In European literature and art, the unico ...
''
* 1970: Brian Davison – ''Every Which Way''
* 1970: Aphrodite's Child
Aphrodite's Child was a Greek rock and pop band formed in 1967, by Evangelos Papathanassiou, later known professionally as Vangelis (keyboards, flutes), Demis Roussos (bass, acoustic and electric guitar, vocals), Loukas Sideras (drums and v ...
– ''It's Five O'Clock
''It's Five O'Clock'' is the second studio album by Greek progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child.
Track listing
All songs written by Richard Francis and Vangelis Papathanassiou, except where noted.
Personnel
Aphrodite's Child
* Vangelis ...
''
* 1970: The Nice
The Nice were an English progressive rock band active in the late 1960s. They blended rock, jazz and classical music.
Keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist Lee Jackson (bassist), Lee Jackson, guitarist David O'List, and drummer Ian Hague ori ...
– '' Five Bridges Suite''
* 1971: The Nice
The Nice were an English progressive rock band active in the late 1960s. They blended rock, jazz and classical music.
Keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist Lee Jackson (bassist), Lee Jackson, guitarist David O'List, and drummer Ian Hague ori ...
– ''Elegy
An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...
''
* 1971: The Nice
The Nice were an English progressive rock band active in the late 1960s. They blended rock, jazz and classical music.
Keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist Lee Jackson (bassist), Lee Jackson, guitarist David O'List, and drummer Ian Hague ori ...
– '' Keith Emerson With The Nice''
* 2004: Ace Kefford – '' Ace The Face''
* 2008: The Move
The Move were a British Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1965. They scored nine Top 40, top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any real success in the United States. For most of ...
– '' Anthology 1966-1972''
References
External links
www.malcolmtoft.com
Ocean Audio
Malcolm Toft on Recording The Beatles "Hey Jude"
at Electronic Musician TV
Malcolm Toft Q&A
Mix Magazine, October 2009
*Universal Audio Webzine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toft, Malcolm
British audio engineers
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people