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Universal Audio History
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Bill Putnam Sr.
 The name M.T. "Bill" Putnam retains a unique status in the audio industry hall of fame- it's legendary even among those who are considered to be legends themselves. Called the "father of moderd recording" by no less a luminary than Bruce Swedien, and a "visionary, responsible for motivating new thinking," by respeced studio engineer Tom Hidley, Putnam was a true renaissance man in the world of sound and music. As a record producer, engineer, inventor, writer, singer, technician, studio owner and businessman, he excelled at combining his talents in a creative way.
A pioneer in recording studio acoustics, Putnam is acknowledged to be the first person to use artificial reverberation for commercial recordings. He also developed the first multi-band equalizers, and with his company Universal Audio, was responsible for the development of classic equipment like the 1176LN and UREI® Time Align monitors. He was involved in the early development of stereophonic recording, and founded studios in Chicago, Hollywood and San Francisco whose legacy still lives on today.
Early Interests
Born in 1920 in Danville, Illinois, he was influenced by his father, a businessman who also put on radio programs, including a number one country music show. Young Putnam's interests surfaced early; in Boy Scouts he earned a merit badge in wireless, building a crystal set and a one-tube radio. By 15 he was taking the ham radio operator's exam and constructing his own equipment. In high school both his artistic and technical sides emerged full on. He worked repairing radios and renting out P.A. systems, while also singing on weekends with dance bands (for five dollars a night, which included the P.A. rental!), developing his interest in the music business, and realizing, as he has said, that "musicians were my favorite people."
Universal Recording Corp. Opens in Chicago
Technical college followed, then work at radio stations, and radio engineering work for the Army during World War II. In 1946 Putnam started his own recording studio, Universal Recording Corp., in Evanston Illinois. His goals at the time, besides having a successful business, were the development of new recording techniques and specialized equipment for recording studios.
To that end the manufacturing company Universal Audio, which later became UREI®, was formed. Most of the equipment, including the console, for Universal Recording was built by Universal Audio. It wasn't long before the company relocated to Chicago, and it was there, in 1947, that Putnam recorded what is generally accepted to be the first "pop" record to use artificial reverberation. The founder of the group The Harmonicats, Jerry Murad, wanted to record using an echo chamber like he'd heard on effects in spooky radio mysteries. Putnam not only financed the record for a piece of the profits, he came up with the idea of using the tiled men's room at Universal Recording to create that echo. The Harmonicats song "Peg-O-My-Heart," became the first million seller smash with more than 1,400,000 copies sold, and the rest was, well, history.
Landmark Recordings
Bruce Swedien, a teenager at the time, recalls that the sound on "Peg-O-My-Heart" was a seminal influence on him. "It was the first pop music recording where artificially controlled reverb was used for artistic effect," he explains. "Many of the recordings that were done prior to that had reverb, but it was part of the acoustics of the recording environment. Bill's contribution to the art was that he literally came up with the design of the way the echo or reverb sound is sent from the recording desk and the way it's returned to the mix so that it can be used in a variable amount.
"I was a youngster in Minneapolis in the early 50s when I first heard "Peg-O-My-Heart," Swedien continues, "And I can remember it like it was yesterday. It had an extraordinary effect on me. I didn't understand how the techniques were done, but I knew it had tremendous artistic impact."
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Putnam's engineering credits grew quickly; at that time he worked with artists such as Patti Page, Vic Damone and Dinah Washington, and had a million selling record on his own Universal Records label with "Jealous Heart" by Al Morgan. A number of firsts occurred at Universal: the first use of tape repeat, the first vocal booth, the first multiple voice recording, the first 8-track recording trials and experiments with half speed disc mastering.
Universal was becoming famous, doing recordings for the Chicago based labels VeeJay, Mercury and Chess. It was a hub for rhythm and blues recordings including cuts for Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Bo Diddley, Little Walter, and Chuck Berry. Jazz artists recorded by Putnam included Stan Kenton, Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Nat King Cole, and the master, Duke Ellington. Putnam was also producing records for Decca, as well as writing songs and lyrics.
With all this success, Universal Recording went through several incarnations, with the dream version completed in 1955. At that time it was the most advanced and largest independent recording facility in the country attracting top producers like Nelson Riddle, Mitch Miller and Quincy Jones. It was also at that time that Bruce Swedien went to work for the studio.
"It's absolutely true," he states. "Bill Putnam was the father of recording as we know it today. The processes and designs which we take for granted — the design of modern recording desks, the way components are laid out and the way they function, console design, cue sends, echo returns, multitrack switching — they all originated in Bill's imagination."
Murray Allen, who purchased Chicago's Universal Recording from Putnam in 1972 elaborates. "Bill was a brilliant person, highly talented, with a great set of ears," he says. "He was Duke Ellington's favorite engineer, among many, and at one time he had more singles in the top 40 than anybody else. At the time, if you needed something in sound, he was the guy. He designed systems for the Sands and other big showrooms in Las Vegas; John Kennedy flew him out to arrange the sound for the broadcast of his inauguration. He did it all."
Moving West- United Recording Corp.
With his Chicago studio so successful, Putnam's clients began urging him to open a facility on the West Coast, and finally he was convinced. In 1957 he sold his interest in Universal Recording, started a new company called United Recording Corp. and moved to Hollywood, taking over a building at 6050 Sunset and starting construction on new studios. Stereo was taking off, and Putnam was determined to incorporate as many technological innovations into the complex as possible.
In 1958, Studio B was completed along with two reverb chambers. The facility soon grew to three studios, a mixdown room, three mastering rooms including one with stereo, and a small manufacturing plant, all in 15,000 square feet. The studios were busy around the clock, with projects from Ricky Nelson to voiceovers for Hanna Barbera cartoons like the Flintstones.
In the early 60s Western Recorders, one block away at 6000 Sunset, was acquired and remodeled. The studio was renamed United Western, and business continued to grow. The talent behind and in front of the glass in those days reads like a who's who of classic recording: Bones Howe, Wally Heider and Lee Hirschberg were on staff. During the 60s and 70s the studios were jumping 24 hours a day, seven days a week with artists like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Nat King Cole, Johnny Mercer and Ray Charles. Charles classic "I Can't Stop Loving You" was recorded there, as well as Sinatra's "It Was A Very Good Year," and The Mamas and The Papas' "California Dreamin'". The United Western studios, still in existence today as both Cello Studios and Allen Sides' Ocean Way Recording, are still considered to be some of the best sounding rooms ever built.
Universal Audio and UREI
Meanwhile, upstairs in the 6050 Sunset building Universal Audio was thriving, and changing names. Now called UREI®, the company had acquired the patent rights to the LA-2A leveling amplifier, and also to National Intertel, which became the Teletronix division of UREI®. It was a unique situation; Putnam was always searching for better ways to do things and the combination of studios and manufacturing led readily to new product ideas. Out of this synergy came the 1176LN leveling amplifier, the 1108 FET preamp and, in conjunction with Ed Long, the 813 family of speakers.
Mentor and Innovator
Allen Sides, currently owner of Ocean Way Recording, whose studios today encompass almost unchanged what was part of United Western, calls Putnam 'my best friend.' "When Bill started designing control rooms they were about eight feet by six feet and they were calling them booths," he says. "He built the first of what we now call conventional control rooms, with speakers above the windows. The whole control room concept we think of today was Bill's. The first console that had equalizers in every channel was Bill's, the feedback equalizer was Bill's creation, he built all his own limiters, his own consoles, he could tune his own pianos; he basically did the whole deal.
"Around 1962 he was doing half speed cutting, to get the high frequencies on the discs," recalls Sides. "He'd designed his own mastering systems, because you couldn't do it any other way. He was recording on custom made 30ips machines and he was doing all the super hi fi stuff, like the Mercury Living Presence series."
Sides, who is renowned for both his golden ears and his abilities in the 'art of the deal,' appreciated Putnam on many levels. "He was an exceptional businessman, with a tremendous understanding of things," he says. "If I had a complex deal and I couldn't quite figure out how to approach it, I'd sit down with Bill and he'd reason it out in the most amazing way.
"There's a great story about when stereo was coming on. The record companies really weren't that interested — everyone was cost conscious. They didn't want to spend any more money and they were saying that stereo was a waste of time. But Bill could see the potential, and around 1959 he started recording everything with feeds to two control rooms, one for a stereo mix, one for a mono mix. In late '58, '59 and '60 everything Bill did was recorded in both stereo and mono.
"When stereo hit big around '61, none of the record companies had any catalog. But Bill did — he had two and one half years worth. It was a lot of material — understand at that period of time he was doing about $200,000 a month in the United Western Complex — which is like a million dollars a month now.
"So the record companies came to Bill and said, 'We'll pay you for the tape.' And he said, 'No, you can't pay for the tape, but if you repay me all the studio time that was used in the last two and a half years you have a deal.' And they did. They wrote him a check for the whole thing."
It’s recollections like these that bring home Putnam's visionary and entrepreneurial style. An undisputed leader in music recording and in recording technology, with innumerable accolades to his credit, it's his son, Bill Putnam, who perhaps sums it up best, in a way Bill Sr. himself might like. Bill Jr. says, simply, "He was a guy who built equipment to solve problems in the studio."
"There's a whole school of what I'd call Bill Putnam engineers out there," concludes Murray Allen. "People like Allen Sides and Bruce Swedien who worked with him and who really understood what recording sound should be about. They've carried on his tradition, and I think we all agree that it's very important for people to know what he contributed."
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