Bill Putnam

Milton Tasker "Bill" Putnam (February 20, 1920 – April 13, 1989) was an American audio engineer, songwriter, producer, studio designer and businessman, who has been described as "the father of modern recording".

He was the inventor of the modern recording console and is recognised as a key figure in the development of the postwar commercial recording industry.

Former colleague Bruce Swedien described Putnam's achievements thus:

Bill Putnam was born on February 20, 1920, in Danville, Illinois.

Putnam's father owned several business enterprises related to the coal mining business, and also ran a radio program at WDZ in Tuscola, Illinois.

While in the Boy Scouts, working toward a 'wireless' merit badge, Putnam built a crystal radio and a one-tube radio with his father's help, sparking his love of electronics.

At thirteen, he tried and failed to become a licensed ham radio operator but at fifteen he succeeded, earning a Class B call sign W9PUK and building his own ham radio.

Putnam attended Danville High School, where two of his school classmates were Dick Van Dyke and Bobby Short.

In his early high school years, he worked part time in a friend's radio shop, learning about radio repair and PA systems.

He began singing with a number of regional bands that played college campus gigs, developing his interest in Jazz and the music business, and realizing that musicians were his favorite people.

By his junior year, Putnam was earning $5 per night singing with dance bands, and owned his own ham radio shop where he also installed car radios on weekends.

After Putnam graduated from high school, he sold his radio shop for $700 and decided to study broadcast engineering at Valparaiso Technical Institute, studying under J.B. Hershmann, and the school's future Dean, Cloid Patton.

Putnam returned to his hometown of Danville to work in the Engineering department at WDAN, and later became the Chief Engineer at WDWS in Champaign, Illinois.

He began writing articles for Radio and Television magazine.

In 1941 at the age of 21, Putnam received a draft notice and became a civil service employee working on radio ranges for the United States Army Corps of Engineers under the Sixth Service Command in Chicago.

Putnam later worked for G-2 on several different projects, the first of which was to miniaturize Mine detectors to develop a miniature, concealable gun detector used by the United States Secret Service to protect President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Tehran Conference.

Putnam also worked for the Armed Forces Network to record big bands.

In 1946, Putnam founded Universal Recording Corporation in Evanston, Illinois, to pursue both the development of specialized recording equipment and new recording techniques.

Putnam secured a lucrative contract to record and delay broadcast transcriptions shows for the ABC radio network.

In 1947, Putnam moved Universal Recording to the 42nd floor of the Chicago Civic Opera Building, and struck a deal with The Harmonicats to help facilitate a recording session and record release in exchange for a portion of the sales of the record.

His use of the building's bathroom as an echo chamber for the recording of Peg o' My Heart was the first artistic use of artificial reverb in a popular song.

The song sold 1.4 million copies, inspiring Putnam to establish the Vitacoustic and Universal Records labels and attracting new clients to record with Putnam at Universal Recording.

That same year, Putnam made the first recording of a single artist singing more than one line on a recording made with Patti Page and George Barnes, who suggested the "duet."

Page sang one vocal line of "Confess", and the second part was recorded onto a large 17.25" disc, then played back as she sang the main vocal line; the two vocals and accompaniment being wedded onto a wire recorder. Shortly thereafter, Les Paul utilized his own technique for multiplying guitars and vocals, using magnetic tape.

By the mid-1950s, Putnam was one of the most sought-after engineer-producers in the United States.

In 1955, Putnam built Universal Recording a new 15,000 square foot facility at 46 E. Walton Street.

Putnam's company quickly became Chicago's largest independent studio, sometimes referred to as the "grand palace," recording projects for independent Chicago record labels like Vee-Jay, Mercury, Chess and One-derful.

His reputation grew quickly thanks to his work with artists such as Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, Little Walter, Dinah Washington, Vic Damone, and Duke Ellington, who said Putnam was his favorite engineer.

Sam Phillips sent Elvis Presley's Mystery Train and I Forgot to Remember to Forget to Putnam in August, 1955 with the instructions: "Give me 'hot' level on both 78 and 45's and as much presence peak and bass as possible!"

Universal Recording had become so successful that clients including Nelson Riddle, Mitch Miller and Quincy Jones began urging Putnam to open a facility on the West Coast.

His period at Universal saw a number of 'firsts' for the recording industry, including the first use of tape repeat, the first vocal booth, the first multiple voice recording, one of the first to use 8-track recording (preceded by Les Paul and Tom Dowd), the first use of delay lines in the studio, and the first release, in 1956, of half-speed mastered discs (on the Mercury label.)

In 1957, with support from Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, Putnam sold his interest in Universal Recording and moved to Hollywood, taking over and remodeling a defunct film studio at 6050 Sunset Boulevard to establish a new company, United Recording.

Determined to incorporate as many technological innovations into the new complex as possible, Putnam constructed new facilities, including a significant modernization of studio control room concept to permit multi-track monitoring and recording, featuring Putnam's innovative design to provide overhead forward speaker mounting and provide seating space for guests while improving the engineer's view of the studio (control rooms of the era had typically been small booths).

United's facilities included three acoustically isolated studios of varying sizes, three lacquer mastering studios (one stereo) and a stereo re-mixing room.

In addition, each studio had its own stereo acoustic reverberation room.

All facilities were cross connected electronically at a central location so that all facilities were available to each other as needed.

In 1961, Putnam acquired the neighboring Western Recorders located at 6000 Sunset, remodeled it and incorporated it into the complex, which was renamed United Western Recorders.

Putnam was Frank Sinatra's preferred engineer, and Sinatra put him on retainer to ensure his availability.

When Sinatra founded Reprise Records, his office was in the Western Recorders building.

At the time Putnam founded United Recording, stereo recording was new and considered by the major record labels as little more than a novelty.