Sony

Sony's console business covered both ends of the late-analog / early-digital divide. Through the 1980s the MXP-3000 series — large-format modular analog consoles built in Japan — became the standard for high-end post-production and broadcast facilities worldwide. The MXP-3036 and MXP-3056 in particular sat at the heart of major film mix stages and broadcast houses through the late 80s and 1990s, with Sony Music Studios in New York and Skywalker Sound in California among the marquee installations.

In parallel, Sony's Oxford Research Centre in England spent the early 1990s developing what would become one of the most sophisticated digital mixing consoles ever built. The OXF-R3 was the result — extraordinary complexity for the highest-tier mastering and post-production. Its processing quality was so highly regarded that when the hardware was eventually discontinued, Sony's algorithms were licenced to Sonnox — the plug-in company that carries the Oxford legacy today in their respected digital processors.

A smaller-format companion line — the MXP-2000 (1988) and later DMX-R100 (1998) — brought Sony's console quality into broadcast and project facilities at more accessible price points.