Who are we?
Autograph’s 40-year history designing sound for the theater and equipping some of the world’s best known musicals has given the company a unique insight into what theatre sound professionals need to work their magic in the 21st century. In the process, its engineers have broadened the scope and arguably facilitated the development of the modern musical.
For nearly 25 of those years the company’s name has also been synonymous with the development of specialized console control software that is now in daily use by theater sound mixers around the world.
Early collaborations with both Cadac and Soundcraft together with Autograph’s independent software development work driven by Andrew Bruce, Autograph’s founder, has defined and refined a feature-set which has been adopted as the de-facto standard and has left an indelible imprint on the way modern theater software works.
Ten years after Autograph A2D opened its doors in New York specializing in sales of DiGiCo's original theater console, it has significantly widened its service to the industry by offering the expanded range of DiGiCo's SD theater consoles together with related infrastructure products and a maintenance and training facility based right at the heart of Broadway.
Led by Lew Mead, former owner of ProMix, with Andrew Bruce and Duncan Bell of Autograph Sound UK and Nigel Olliff, co-founder of BSS Audio, A2D combines their 100+ years of experience in theater sound into a truly unique entity that serves the theatre community.
It may seem somewhat fatalistic to point out but theater sound designers have always acknowledged that however complex a task they have to achieve, hours can be spent waiting for lights, automation, video and even choreography but no-one ever waits for sound.
The imperative for speed, short-cuts that avoid intensive programming and truly effective redundancy all provided the original motivation to develop the theater software extension for DiGiCo's original D5 console. Conceived entirely by theater sound designers, the D5T was the first console software written uncompromisingly for the theater sound designer and engineer.
Although the D5 platform was not originally developed to be able to handle the complicated routines it inherited, it was skillfully transformed by DiGiCo's software writers into a magnificent, fully-functioning demonstration of what could be achieved with the new breed of 21st century digital assignable consoles.
The process that started with the D5T in 2003 came of age with the SD7T console that made its first appearance at London's National Theatre on the 2009 production of Mother Courage and Her Children. The console has gone on to quickly displace virtually all other consoles in the sound design specifications of musicals and plays in both the West End and on Broadway.
In 2012 the SD7T was joined by T versions of DiGiCo's smaller consoles SD9 and SD10 which brings the same feature-set within reach of shows with smaller budgets, less space or which don't necessarily require the huge channel count of their big brother. As a result, a smooth upgrade path has been established for both designers and shows with identical software available across a wide range of consoles. It goes without saying that there is conversion software to allow sessions created on one type of console to be expanded or contracted to fit on another.
The development process and addition of features continues to this day and is still driven by some of the most active and talented theater sound designers working in the field.
For nearly 25 of those years the company’s name has also been synonymous with the development of specialized console control software that is now in daily use by theater sound mixers around the world.
Early collaborations with both Cadac and Soundcraft together with Autograph’s independent software development work driven by Andrew Bruce, Autograph’s founder, has defined and refined a feature-set which has been adopted as the de-facto standard and has left an indelible imprint on the way modern theater software works.
Ten years after Autograph A2D opened its doors in New York specializing in sales of DiGiCo's original theater console, it has significantly widened its service to the industry by offering the expanded range of DiGiCo's SD theater consoles together with related infrastructure products and a maintenance and training facility based right at the heart of Broadway.
Led by Lew Mead, former owner of ProMix, with Andrew Bruce and Duncan Bell of Autograph Sound UK and Nigel Olliff, co-founder of BSS Audio, A2D combines their 100+ years of experience in theater sound into a truly unique entity that serves the theatre community.
It may seem somewhat fatalistic to point out but theater sound designers have always acknowledged that however complex a task they have to achieve, hours can be spent waiting for lights, automation, video and even choreography but no-one ever waits for sound.
The imperative for speed, short-cuts that avoid intensive programming and truly effective redundancy all provided the original motivation to develop the theater software extension for DiGiCo's original D5 console. Conceived entirely by theater sound designers, the D5T was the first console software written uncompromisingly for the theater sound designer and engineer.
Although the D5 platform was not originally developed to be able to handle the complicated routines it inherited, it was skillfully transformed by DiGiCo's software writers into a magnificent, fully-functioning demonstration of what could be achieved with the new breed of 21st century digital assignable consoles.
The process that started with the D5T in 2003 came of age with the SD7T console that made its first appearance at London's National Theatre on the 2009 production of Mother Courage and Her Children. The console has gone on to quickly displace virtually all other consoles in the sound design specifications of musicals and plays in both the West End and on Broadway.
In 2012 the SD7T was joined by T versions of DiGiCo's smaller consoles SD9 and SD10 which brings the same feature-set within reach of shows with smaller budgets, less space or which don't necessarily require the huge channel count of their big brother. As a result, a smooth upgrade path has been established for both designers and shows with identical software available across a wide range of consoles. It goes without saying that there is conversion software to allow sessions created on one type of console to be expanded or contracted to fit on another.
The development process and addition of features continues to this day and is still driven by some of the most active and talented theater sound designers working in the field.