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1980 Trident Series 80 Console

It isn't often that a console company comes out of a recording studio, but that's the case with Trident.

It isn’t often that a console company comes out of a recording studio, but that’s the case with Trident. Located in London’s Soho district, Trident Studios opened in 1968 and having the first 8-track recorder (Ampex) in Europe, it attracted top artists from the start, including The Beatles, who recorded “Hey Jude” there. In 1972, longtime Trident engineer Malcolm Toft founded Trident Audio Developments, to sell products based on the consoles the studio had built for its own use.

With its “A” and “B” Trident Audio prospered and expanded, adding designer John Oram to its team in 1974. At $160,000, its 1979 TSM console had high-end performance. At $45,000, 1980’s Series 80 was more affordable, yet from its English ash exterior to its TSM-based circuitry—with clean preamps and musical four-band equalization—it never seemed second rate and was hugely successful. Today, in addition to vintage models in use throughout the world, the Series 80 lives on in various forms as modern reissues.

Click mixonline.com/online_extras/trident_80pdf.pdf to read a vintage Trident Series 80 brochure.

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