United Recording Electronics Industries (UREI) was a manufacturer of recording, mixing and
audio signal processing
Audio signal processing is a subfield of signal processing that is concerned with the electronic manipulation of audio signals. Audio signals are electronic representations of sound waves—longitudinal waves which travel through air, consisting ...
hardware for the professional recording studio, live sound and broadcasting fields.
History
Bill Putnam Sr. founded Universal Audio in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
in the 1950s as a design and manufacturing addition to his recording studio business,
Universal Recording Corporation
Universal Recording Corporation was a recording studio in Chicago founded by Bill Putnam, Sr. for the purpose of investigating new recording techniques and the development of specialized recording equipment.
Universal Recording was seminal i ...
. After Putnam moved to Hollywood in 1957 and established the
United Recording Corporation, his company acquired Studio Supply Co. and rebranded it as the Studio Electronics Corporation (SEC) and moved all manufacturing to the second floor of
Western Recorders. By December, 1965, Universal Audio had been completely absorbed by Studio Electronics, although Studio Electronics continued to produce some Universal Audio-branded products.
In 1967, Studio Electronics acquired the broadcast division of Babcock Electronics, including Teletronix and the patent rights to the electro-optical
LA-2A leveling amplifier. In anticipation of further acquisitions, SEC was rebranded as United Recording Electronics Industries, or UREI.
UREI subsequently acquired National Intertel; from this acquisition came technology which developed into the
1176 peak limiter in 1968, and the 1108 FET preamp. Other notable products included the UREI Teletronix LA-3A electro-optical leveling amplifier, LA-4 electro-optical compressor limiter, and UREI 500-series graphic equalizers. By 1976, UREI had moved their manufacturing and service center to
Sun Valley, California.
UREI collaborated with Edward M. Long of E.M. Long Associates in
Oakland, California
Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
to create the 813 family of time-aligned large-format studio monitor speakers, introduced in 1977.
The 813 and subsequent models introduced in 1979, including the 813A, 815A, and 811A, used
Altec Lansing and Eminence drivers. In 1983, financial and quality control problems at Altec led UREI to introduce the 813B, which utilized
JBL loudspeaker drivers.
[
Putnam sold UREI to Harman in 1983, and UREI became a division of JBL Professional.][ Harman began releasing "JBL-UREI" co-branded products such as the 5547A graphic equalizer in 1986.
In 2005, another Harman division, Soundcraft, introduced a "UREI-by-Soundcraft"-badged 1620LE mixer, with 'LE' standing for 'Limited Edition'. The mixer was a re-issue of the UREI 1620, a 1980s-era clone of Rudy Bozak's classic 1960s-era rotary-style DJ mixer, the CMA-10-2DL.Soundcraft News. July 2005. ''UREI 1620LE PROVIDES THE HERBAL REMEDY'']
Soundcraft provided the new product line with its own website.
References
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External links
Studio Electronics - UREI product information documents
Defunct electronics companies of the United States