Quad Eight

Quad-Eight Electronics was founded in Southern California in the mid-1960s, and for a decade its consoles were the dominant force in American studio recording. While British engineers were building Neve and SSL, American studios from Capitol Records to Motown to A&M were building around Quad Eight.

The company built custom consoles for Motown's Los Angeles operation, for A&M Records on La Brea, for Capitol, and for the Record Plant in Hollywood. Neil Young had a Quad Eight in his personal studio. So did the Beach Boys. Smokey Robinson commissioned one. At their peak, Quad Eight was installed in hundreds of major American recording facilities — arguably the most widely-used console manufacturer in the US during the early 1970s.

The company was acquired by Mitsubishi, which proved fatal. By the late 1980s, a brand that had defined the American studio sound for a generation had been mismanaged into obsolescence. Their consoles survive today as genuine American studio artifacts, respected by engineers who understand what the recording history of Hollywood and Motown actually sounds like.