Better known in Hollywood than in Burnley

Music lifts the soul and film soundtracks heighten our emotions and help instantly recall moving pictures, long after the film credits have rolled.  Think of a favourite music track or film score and chances are they’ve come to life on equipment created by AMS Neve in Burnley, Lancashire

Mark Crabtree established Advanced Music Systems in 1976 when his early customers included Paul McCartney, EMI and Strawberry Studios. He then went on to design the world’s first microprocessor controlled effects units and invented the use of recording sound to a solid state hard drive; thus inventing digital music. In 1992 AMS amalgamated with Neve Electronics to form parent company AMS Neve based in Burnley, Lancashire, founded and owned by Mark.

There’s something about meeting people you really admire that can change your opinion of them, and not always for the better.  But in a recent meeting with Mark Crabtree OBE, whose Burnley-based company AMS Neve boasts a trophy cupboard full of music and film industry awards, this certainly wasn’t the case.

Few would question the fact that Mark and AMS Neve have put Burnley on the world stage though in Mark’s own words and emblazoned on their exhibition stand, the company is ‘Better known in Hollywood, than in Burnley’.  He may appear modest about his success but ask Mark about audio, film and technology and this rather unsung Lancashire hero, speaks passionately about the industry in which he and his team have made such remarkable advances.

Alongside Mark in this winning-over of the world’s music and film giants, is Huw Gwilym in charge of business development for over 30 years; they both gave time out of their day to talk to Marketing Lancashire about their road to success.

Huw studied music and sound recording at the University of Surrey and on graduation, in the early 90s, embarking on his career was aware that “There was quite an upheaval in the studio business.  Artists were doing more work from home and post production was coming to the fore. What attracted me to AMS Neve was their innovation. I thought that in changing times, you’ve really got to back a horse that’s innovative and forward-thinking because in our industry things are always changing.”

Huw’s job takes him all over the world and he believes that there’s no substitute for meeting face-to-face, for demonstrating their consoles and gathering feedback in person.  “In the 90’s we were at NHK, a broadcaster in Japan, who at the time was introducing super hi-definition and surround sound. They had put out feelers to see who could come up with a sound system, a sound mixing system, that could address their needs and we were the only ones that could actually do that.”

Thirty years on, Huw says “It’s staggering when you look at the studios that we’ve installed our equipment in, the people that use our equipment on a daily, if not hourly basis throughout the film and music industry.”

“Saying I’m from AMS Neve opens doors” says Huw, adding “The reputation is very, very high, worldwide. The door is open to us as people probably know someone who uses our equipment or they may have used our equipment in a very prestigious, well known studio. In the music industry you’re talking  Abbey Road, Capitol Records, Sony Music and so on…and in the film industry, its Skywalker Sound, Warner Brothers.  It’s very much top down in that respect.”

Mark adds “Part of our popularity is our equipment helps creative people do their jobs much better. There’s something they want from us, as well as something we want from them.”  Smiling proudly, he recalls a trip to San Francisco for an exhibition in 1996 “We had eight Oscar-winning film mixers sitting cross-legged on the floor of our booth listening intently, as we described what working on our film console would be like and taking their advice and input on what would make it for them, the perfect production tool.”

As it says on the company’s website, AMS Neve provide the most creative people with the best possible sound, a reputation nurtured and developed for over 60 years.

Huw inevitably spends a lot of time on the road and his days not travelling, are pretty full-on too. He starts early, communicating with customers in China and Japan when it’s their afternoon, Europe during his afternoon and then, often late into the evening with the US.

“I travel to see customers, for their feedback and to see how they’re getting on and to promote what we’re actually doing.  We have consoles that have been installed for over 25 years, people don’t want to part with them, which is down to the foresight and design of the system. (He nods towards Mark)

“We do offer upgrades and now in terms of sustainability, people are more interested in power consumption and are concerned about the needless disposing of tech.  When we can say that we have something that will last them twenty years,  it’s a very powerful argument for our equipment.  There are companies that will produce disposable technology, that will pretty much last about 5 years – but that’s not us.

“There’s foresight in the technology but also in the operation that we have. People using our equipment are constantly discovering new features.  They buy a system for doing one job and then a few years down the line say – gosh, I didn’t realise you’d designed that into the system as well!”

In the company’s latest news release they announce that their equipment played a pivotal role in this year’s Best Sound Oscar winner, Dune: Part two, as well as in the production of fellow Oscar contenders The Wild Robot, A Complete Unknown, Conclave and Wicked; what better way of demonstrating the leading role that AMS Neve plays in world cinema today.

Is the job a glamorous one? “It’s terrible” Huw laughs “You do meet some interesting people. Last week I was down at Abbey Road and Dave Gilmour from Pink Floyd was there. He has one of our desks – his personal desk.  So, yes I meet very interesting, very creative people and when we’re dealing with the console side of things, especially the large consoles, they’re always for very prestigious projects.  There are a number of clients too that we can’t actually publicise. Every month or so, I have to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) with a client who buys a system but doesn’t want us to tell anyone about it.”

He goes on to explain that in the 1990s, film studios were using quite dated equipment and were looking at the possibilities of using digital technology, to give them greater flexibility and power, because they were using more and more audio tracks.

“You look at a film for example and there’s dialogue, there’s an explosion, there’s a car sound and you may think that’s just three sounds, but in fact an explosion can be made up of about 24 sounds to get the right timbre.  Then you add several more explosions and you’re looking at a huge amount of audio tracks. The first generation that we produced could accommodate 250 audio tracks, which was already three times more than the studios were using.  Within two years, they were demanding 500 and by early 2000 it was up to 1,000 tracks.”

The first film AMS Neve worked on was Lost in Space, a big budget Sci-Fi extravaganza created in Hollywood. Huw recalls it was quite nerve-wracking to come into the film at the end of the process at post production “You go back to your hotel and see billboards everywhere with the release date and you know you have to make that possible. So, it’s a fraught time. There are late nights and a huge amount of pressure, with people’s expectations of the equipment and its reliability, all up against the wire at that point.”

Mark adds “With our kit it sounded better, it was also much more capable, and though they could do things quicker, people then wanted to spend more time on it. Which can put even more pressure on post production.”

Huw draws a comparison with the step from typewriter to word processor, with regards the digital film console “It allowed a huge amount of flexibility for directors.  They realised they could review and make some changes without too much bother. Needless to say final decisions were not being taken as quickly and that adds to the pressure as well – having that flexibility.”

There’s no chance though of the machines taking over the creative input of humans then?

“No, not at all ” say’s Huw “You still need the talent, that human element. You’ll witness two chains of communication. There has to be very good understanding between the director and the person mixing the film, then the relationship between the mixer and the equipment.  Mixers say our equipment ‘feels natural’ and whatever they want to do with the audio there’s no barrier to it, as well as an immediacy to carrying out their job.”

Mark believes strongly that “what sound does is generate an emotional response, which is something I don’t think AI can do – to go off and mix a film.  The directors and the mixers know exactly how to get the hairs on the back of your neck tingling.  That’s what you want in a film and that’s what helps sell the film.”

At the start of the conversation Mark said AMS Neve is better known in Hollywood than in Burnley, or Lancashire. When customers do visit Burnley what do they think of the place AMS Neve calls home?

“Visitors absolutely love the place. When we were developing the digital film console we cleared a floor in our offices, re-carpeted it and made it very welcoming for the visiting senior staff from Warner Brothers.  We took them out to the local pubs, where the food is fantastic. They also saw that within just a few minutes of Burnley, that you’re in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

“I remember driving them around and there was a bit of a queue at the traffic lights in Burnley town centre. I started apologising for it being rush-hour, they just fell apart laughing.  They genuinely love it here.”

“It resonates a lot with visitors from The States” adds Huw “They think that we have a charmed life, with this incredible audio company in such a beautiful part of the world.”

Finally, Mark wants to make clear the contribution AMS Neve has made to the British film industry “Because the film consoles that we established in The States became an industry standard (Warner Brothers have eleven of them and they’re a million dollars each), this led studios in London to buy them as well.

“With that new compatibility it meant sound for the big Hollywood blockbusters could be mixed and recorded in the UK.  Some of those studios were then bought by Warner Brothers and the like. So AMS Neve has seeded quite a lot of business in London and helped grow the industry in this country.”

If anything should be a Hollywood blockbuster, it’s the story of AMS Neve and the people who make the world’s best sound mixing and recording equipment, here in Burnley, Lancashire.

To find out more about Mark Crabtree and AMS Neve visit www.ams-neve.com