Soundcraft is a British manufacturer of mixing console

Mixing console

In professional audio, a mixing console, or audio mixer, also called a sound board, mixing desk, or mixer is an electronic device for combining , routing, and changing the level, timbre and/or dynamics of audio signals. A mixer can mix analog or digital signals, depending on the type of mixer...

s and other professional audio equipment. It was founded by sound engineer Phil Dudderidge

Phil Dudderidge

Phil Dudderidge, born February 6, 1949 in Hertfordshire, England, is a notable figure in the professional audio industry, having worked as Led Zeppelin's first dedicated live sound engineer, and later co-founding Soundcraft Electronics before serving as Chairman of Focusrite Audio Engineering,...

 and electronics designer Graham Blyth

Graham Blyth

Graham Blyth is a British audio engineer who is known for designing mixing consoles. He is a co-founder of Soundcraft, a manufacturer which Blyth helped form into a world leader in sound reinforcement and recording mixers, establishing the "British sound". After succeeding in electrical engineering...

 in 1973.

History

Soundcraft first made its mark with the launch of the Series 1, the first mixing console built into a flight-case. It was available in 12 or 16 input channels. It featured 4 outputs, Main stereo plus a post-fader ‘echo’ send and pre-fader foldback. Each channel had 4-band fixed-frequency EQ. The Series 1 also included a multi-pin connector that integrated with a multi-channel microphone snake to route signals from and to the stage from a mix position in the audience.

The Series 1S was introduced in 1975 as an upgraded Series 1. The Series 1S introduced the classic Soundcraft 4-band EQ with 2 sweepable mid-range sections. In addition to The Series 1S added a second foldback send and was available in a 20 channel version.

In 1975 the Series 2 console was introduced as a live/recording console. The Series 2 began to build Soundcraft's reputation for great-sounding desks with the classic 'British Sound'. The Series 2 was introduced as a 4 bus console and was later available in an 8 bus version. It was initially offered in 12 and 16 channel versions, and a 24 channel version was later added. The design used a semi-modular approach with individual channels in separate modules. The master section was made up of echo return, group output, cue master and monitoring modules. The input channels were available in fixed-frequency EQ standard channel and swept EQ versions. The swepr EQ version also allowed switching between microphone

Microphone

A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...

input and line input which was typically attached to a multi-track recorder output. All channels provided stereo pan as well as 4 cue send buses that could be configured as pre- or post-fader and allowed individual monitoring via a pre-fade listen (PFL) function. Each channel could be routed directly to the L/R mix bus or to odd/even pairs of sub-mix buses