DV or not DV...Zat iz ze question

A forum for DV customers, suppliers and staff – past and present – to post their experiences of the wunderbar new shopping experience

The background.

On May 10^th 2013, White Rabbit Records Limited, the owners of DV247 (Digital Village) ceased trading. Simultaneously, a new company, DV247 Limited, took over the assets of the company (but not the liabilities) and attempted to continue business as if nothing had happened.

Not quite…

At 10.42 am on May 10^th, minutes after this magical Paul Daniel-esque disappearing (white) rabbit trick, in a piece of disinformation that would even make Tony Blair blush, Gavin James of Digital Village posted this remarkable piece on the Sound On Sound forum.

 Hi,

Something very exciting has happened here at DV247 and it is with great pleasure that we unveil our new partnership with the European retail giant, Music Store.

As part of the transition we will be moving all our back orders over to our new system where we will be able to allocate existing orders which should ship immediately. As a result, customers will receive an email from either the sales person they placed their order with or one of our ‘My Order’ team who will provide a date on which to expect delivery.

Please be assured that this is a well-planned procedure and we have made every effort to ensure a smooth transition…

When I first read this, I assumed it was an attempt at sarcasm by a hacker. After all, who in their right mind would sack a third of their workforce, write off millions of pounds owing in redundancy pay, unpaid invoices to suppliers, VAT and PAYE due to HMRC, close seven stores without warning and effectively decimate the lives of many staff and small suppliers and then announce brazenly that ‘Something very exciting is happening here…’

Has the man no shame? Has he not one iota of sympathy for longstanding colleagues sacked overnight without warning or proper compensation? Has he no embarrassment at stiffing scores of suppliers who have supported his business for twenty years?

I think this statement speaks volumes for the ethos and callousness of DV management.

Oh, and it’s also factually misleading.

Firstly, DV’s relationship with the new owners (Koelner Parkhaus GmbH, as associate company of MSP - Music Store Cologne) is as much a partnership as my relationship with you, whoever you are. MSP, or their convoluted holding company (details please, DV 247 - I'd love to know the tax and other relationships between all involved) own the new company, lock stock and barrel. There is not the slightest whiff of partnership involved. DV247 Ltd is as German as BMW, Volkswagen or Bratwurst.

Back orders…ah, here’s an interesting issue.

As part of his purchase of THE ASSETS of White Rabbit Records Ltd (including the website, customer and mailing list, Romford property, goodwill – ha! – fixtures and fittings and stock), Michael Sauer, the owner of Music Store, claims that he will honour in excess of £350,000 of back orders - £350,000 of customer’s money taken by DV almost certainly in the full knowledge that they would never be able to supply the goods. So well done, Herr Sauer. Hmmm…looking a little more closely, he’s not being quite as generous as first meets the eye. Firstly, because Music Store now has the right to collect over £400,000 of money owed to DV, somewhat more than the ‘generous’ agreement to supply gear already paid for by customers. And secondly, because I am very reliably informed that MSP paid the whopping total of £27,000 for all DV’s stock. Yes, that’s right – less than the price of an average second hand Mercedes.

Now, just how much stock has he acquired for the around the cost of a modest bedroom studio? It’s impossible to say, as according to the administrators, Grant Thornton, they didn’t bother to get a valuation of the stock, the fixtures and fittings (computers, networks, desks, vehicles if any, shop display units and a mass of other trappings) or even the Romford property, acquired as part of MSP’s dodgy ‘prepack’ acquisition.

So DV had £27,000 of stock, did they? Not according to accounts filed eighteen months before, where the figure seems closer to £4 millions. Not according to strong rumours of £1.5 millions of stock currently locked in the warehouse of their distribution company. And not according to the flashy photographs of the ‘Romford Superstore’ blazoned all over their website.

But as Gavin James so proudly and publicly bleats, customers awaiting their orders should be in receipt of an email from the salesman they dealt with (maybe forwarded from the dole office) detailing when they should receive goods. If you’re one of these customers, please post details of your experiences below. Did you receive the email? More to the point, have you received your order yet? I’d like to hear from you – ideally good news, but if not, let me know anyway.

So what of this stock? Of course, most (and more) was unpaid for and in all likelihood will never be paid for. The most recent figure I’ve heard was that unpaid bills to suppliers top £3 millions and counting. Most suppliers have something called ROT (retention of title), which means that if the goods haven’t been paid for, they remain the property of the supplier, who can reclaim them. But as with all aspects of this appalling saga, nothing is as simple as it seems. Indeed, as more and more information comes to light, it seems that this prepack was rushed through with indecent haste, maybe because the directors knew that the warehouse was about to foreclose on stock due to unpaid bills, or maybe because DV had not submitted their accounts for the year ending 30^th September 2012 and were about to be blacklisted by credit rating agencies and therefore suppliers, who’s insurers would immediately stop cover because of the failure to submit accounts.

Anyway, what of the very, very many items of unpaid stock that have already been sold? Well, the unlucky purchaser may soon receive a letter telling them that they don’t actually own the goods they paid for and have received, which must now be returned to the original supplier. And as for all the goods in the Romford store and distribution warehouse subject to ROT, the lawyers are sharpening their teeth and polishing their fins as they circle what by all accounts is becoming an embattled and increasingly isolated company. There is a sniff blood in the waters around Romford…

The managers of DV Romford (the same bunch that cleverly steered the company onto the rocks) are still at the helm and are refusing to release anything to suppliers including, I’m told, stock loaned to them for demonstration purposes and to which, therefore, DV 247 Limited have not the slightest legal claim. So much of the much vaunted stock that the advertisements and website loudly promotes and shows in the racks at Romford actually belongs to others and is effectively being held hostage. But the bulk of stock - £1.5 millions – is locked in a distribution warehouse in lieu of unpaid warehousing and shipping bills. And my understanding of the legal position is that irrespective of whether much of this stock belongs to suppliers, the warehousing company may have the right to auction off the gear to settle their outstanding account, adding insult to injury.

So where are we now?

It may seem that the initial outrage and kafuffle surrounding the bankruptcy and prepack sale have died down. Not a bit of it. For despite the tailing off of public protest, behind the scenes the legal artillery are lining up. The MIA (a trade association) have taken specialist legal advice, which has questioned the legality of several aspects of the sale. Indeed, I suspect that our friend Gavin James may live to regret so proudly trumpeting the ‘…well planned procedure’ as many aspects of that planning may prove to have been so ‘well planned’ as to be unlawful.

http://www.mi-pro.co.uk/news/read/mia-challenges-dv247-deal-calls-for-creditor-unity/017730

Mr. James may well have to explain his ill-chosen words in the High Court one of these days.

So while the battalions of lawyers sharpen their quills and wade through a pile of statutes, DV will attempt to persuade the outside world that it’s business as normal.

But is it?

I have yet to hear of a single UK supplier who has agreed to sell to the new DV247 Ltd company. There may be some, but in that most if not all are owed money, none are likely to reopen accounts and resume supplies until and unless they are paid. And White Rabbit Records Limited would appear to have no remaining assets with which to satisfy creditors – MSP bought pretty much anything of value (for a pittance it is rumoured). Similarly, all the UK suppliers I’ve spoken to have made clear that they won’t repair or replace faulty goods until their outstanding bills are paid, even if they are under warranty. Why should they? Indeed, many already have goods awaiting repair in their workshops where they will continue to malinger, possibly until Romford freezes over.

But never mind, MSP will now undertake future repairs and honour existing orders and warranties, won’t they? Early news is less than encouraging. The much vaunted ‘next day shipping’ seems to be taking more like four days than one to arrive, and I have stories of incomplete shipments, B stock and broken goods being received. And can MSP cope with the tidal wave of faulty returns (for the next four years, remember) let alone a doubling of orders for their empty looking warehouse? And what about the DV 30 day money back guarantee? Word is circulating of unhappy customers being offered credit notes or alternative goods in place of their money back, as was loudly promised when they bought their gear. I’d be interested to know if this is true.

Of course, these may just be isolated incidents, but one of the main reasons for this post is to provide a forum for you, the Great British Public, to share you experiences, opinions, concerns and news with others. I’m going to sit back for a couple of weeks before posting an update, so for now this forum is all yours…


www.proaudioeurope.com

Digital Village

On May 10^th, White Rabbit Records Limited – the owners of the Digital Village music retail chain – quietly announced that they had gone bankrupt and called in an administrator. But then, as if by magic, a new company, DV247 Ltd, rose like Phoenix from the flames, promoting a flashy new website and claiming to be bigger and better.

Should anyone care about the latest company restructuring to hit the high street?

Well, yes. Because there’s more to this than meets the eye. And there are a lot of losers from this carefully planned, cynically premeditated business sleight of hand. There are scores of loyal hardworking staff, for instance, who turned up to work at eight of the nine Digi Village shops to find the doors locked and the business closed forever. Only one ‘Superstore’ will remain open in Romford. Or should that be ‘Supershowroom’? Because by and large, all sales processed by the new company will now be handled and shipped from Germany rather than the UK. Goodbye jobs and goodbye UK taxes. Or should that be auf wiedersehen, mug.

This prepack administration (whereby a new structure has been carefully prepared behind the scenes so that the company can fold and write off debts but then resurface minutes later under new ownership with a clean balance sheet) leaves plenty of people out of pocket – staff, who must now hope they’ll one day receive some or all of overdue wages, holiday pay and other benefits, the VAT and tax authorities, suppliers and possibly landlords of the now defunct shops facing unrecoverable rent arrears. And of course, DV’s loudly trumpeted ‘four year warranty’ isn’t worth the paper it is printed on (not that it ever was). Indeed, all warranty on goods sold by the company are now invalid. Thirty days sale or return? Forget it. If your gear breaks down, you’re stuffed.

There may well be other losers – time will tell. For example, as a supplier, Funky Junk received and shipped valuable orders just three days before the bankruptcy. I’m sure these were prepaid by DV customers and the proceeds safely banked, but we’re most unlikely to be paid. We’re now in a long queue of suppliers classified as ‘unsecured creditors’, despite the fact that our invoices make clear that we retain ownership of the goods until the invoices are paid.

"...the administrator sells the business before the creditors have an opportunity to say whether or not they approve of the sale transaction. It is this aspect that has brought some pre packaged sales into some disrepute." --Purnells (read more)

By most reasonable definitions, this verges on fraud. The DV directors had been planning this for some time. The new (German) owner had been in place and a new website built for weeks if not months. The directors knew full well that there was no chance of suppliers being paid for orders shipped in the days before administration. They must have known that staff wouldn’t be paid (and no doubt hid the knowledge behind friendly smiles as they passed longstanding employees in the office, the shops or the car park) and must have known perfectly well that the VAT they were collecting on behalf of the government (and paid by their customers and suppliers alike) would never be handed over to the relevant authorities.

These prepack bankruptcies would not be legal anywhere else in Europe. And nor should they.

So how did this state of affairs come to pass, and what are the implications for the future?

For the last few years, Digital Village have pursued a policy of aggressive pricing and discounting, attempting to force down pro audio and instrument prices and drive the competition out of business. It was a crazy policy and had the opposite effect from that intended. At times, DV advertised prices equivalent to or only marginally above their buying prices. And the result? Irrespective of sales volume, the company has been unable to generate enough profit or margin to pay their bills. Hence bankruptcy. Most well run businesses in the same sector saw this coming, and like us have had to grit our teeth and shrug our shoulders when clients asked us to match DV’s prices. No, we can’t price match, we said politely. Not if we want to stay in business, anyway. But of course customers neither know nor care about the business nuances of pricing in a competitive market. Damn it, I even had pressure from within my own company to match DV’s prices on our website, as otherwise we would appear ‘expensive’. And much as I understood the logic and the pressure, I always resisted. To pay good wages to keep the best crew in the business and to continue to give our unique service report, we have to make a modest margin. No one drives a Mercedes at Funky Junk (my wheels are a screwed onto a 1990 BMW 320 which cost me £300 six years ago. I love it though – that’s a different story). I take no pleasure in having been proved right about pricing, but then again, it didn’t need John Maynard Keynes to work out that any company that tries to sell at cost or marginally above is destined for Carey Street.

So what about the future?

The assets of White Rabbit Records Limited (trading as Digital Village) have been purchased by the owner of Thomann-stylee Cologne music supermarket, Music Store, via a brand new company called DV247 Limited in a carefully planned and executed ‘prepack’ administration. As I said earlier, DV have effectively written off all their debts to suppliers, customers, staff, landlords and the taxman, retaining their profile, trading name, website (revamped to provide a new front page for the English version of the German Music Store site), mailing and customer lists and stock – all purchased for a pittance from the receiver for a previously agreed amount (almost certainly well below open market value).  And a careful study of the website makes crystal clear that orders placed with DV will be shipped directly from Germany (taking two to three days to arrive). Want specialist advice? Learn German. Need to return or exchange faulty goods? Allow at least a week for international shipping. Need gear repaired? God knows what you’ll do – the new glitzy website is strangely silent on the matter. And what about warranty support? That certainly isn’t going to happen in the UK. Almost certainly DV will be buying all their gear in Germany. And as official service agents for Royer, Manley, Tube Tech and others, we certainly won’t be authorised to repair equipment supplied directly by a German company, even if ordered via a UK intermediary.

It’s interesting to note that DV’s website prices have risen overnight, by anything up to 30%. Well, they had to of course. But keep an eye on the value of the Euro. We may well see prices flopping around like The Pet Shop Boys in a hurricane as exchange rates wander too and fro.

Lest you wonder, these words don’t reflect professional jealousy. I wouldn’t engage in such sharp business practices even if the roof over my head depended on it. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I believe in honouring my word, whether that means paying my bills (if not always bang on time), honouring warranties, commitments to staff and customers or being straight with colleagues as to my business plans and strategy.

Overall, this shave-down is very poor practice, verging on fraud. But ultimately, all that really matters to you, the customer, is that you can get good prices and a professional level of service and support.

That remains to be seen. But I, for one, will neither buy from nor sell to this dodgy outfit. You can’t divorce morality and honesty from business (or life, come to that) irrespective of what the lawyers and accountants tell you.

Eccentric (11.05.2013)

UPDATE 14.05.2013:

MIA questions DV247 deal

The MIA has issued a statement following the purchase of Digital Village's business and assets by German-based Music Store.

In the statement, MIA chief executive, Paul McManus, voices his support for the 31 Digital Village employees who have been made redundant due to store closures and announces that the MIA legal team will be reviewing the SIP 16 report that is set to be published shortly by White Rabbit Records administrators Grant Thornton.

The full statement reads as follows:

“This is a bad day for UK MI. There is no pleasure to be taken in the falling of what was our largest UK retailer. There are many, many staff today without a job who have given years of loyal service to the industry and I would encourage any of them to send me their CV’s so that we can act as a resource centre for the industry. We did this with Sound Control and managed to bring affected staff together with employers.

Aside from the tragedy of the staff, there is, naturally, the wider issue of what this means to UK MI. The many millions that DV brought to the UK economy and industry in terms of sales would now appear to have gone offshore.

Our first priority is to ensure that the due diligence applied by Grant Thornton under SIP 16 has been correctly discharged. This Code of Conduct is there to ensure that the sale of the business was achieved in the best interests of both Digital Village AND the creditors.

The MIA legal team looks forward to viewing the SIP 16 report that Grant Thornton will shortly publish, accordingly. There may well be good reasons highlighted in this report, but it is a huge shame that, as far as we are aware, no UK retailers or suppliers were given the opportunity to make a counter bid for the business in order to keep it UK-owned”. 

For more information, contact Paul McManus via e-mail or the MIA office on 01403 800500.

http://www.mi-pro.co.uk/news/read/mia-questions-dv247-deal/017713

UPDATE 18.05.2013 from Music Industries Association:

Urgent MIA update on Digital Village

The MIA recently held a meeting of major creditors of White Rabbit Records Ltd (DV) where a number of issues were raised, as well as some important points of action that may be to the advantage for creditors to consider:

1) The MIA feels that the only practical way to have a reasonable chance of creditors succeeding in recovering what is rightly due to them under their 'retention of title' (ROT) clauses is to join together as a single voice to put the case to the administrator or liquidator.  Recent experience with large retail insolvencies have shown that for creditors to maximise their recoveries in respect of ROT stock, it is essential that they join forces together, paying lawyers/accountants as necessary to achieve the required result. Without this leverage and action taking place without delay, it is likely that creditors will not be as successful in recouping as much of their debt as they are entitled to.  This is because the new business continues to trade and is, in all likelihood, using creditors' stock to bolster their sales.

2) The industry is waiting for the SIP16 report from the administrator to confirm that the pre-pack arrangement was carried out on a valid basis allowing for the best return for creditors and the UK industry in general.  It has been reported that the DV web site had been managed by the purchaser prior to the company going out of business/ceasing to trade. This would seem to be contrary to best practice and possibly illegal.

3) There seems to be confusion regarding the marketing of the pre-pack, as no UK Company appears to have been advised of it.  It will be interesting to see the administrators' reasoning for this lack of marketing as it may be contrary to best practice and ultimately, if proved, there may be a potential to bring claims against various parties because of the concern that the sale may never have been marketed through the appropriate channels and therefore effected at an undervalue.

4) A critical element that can't be overstated is the fact that the facilitators for the liquidated company, iforce group (distribution), are currently holding the bulk of the stock that will be subject to ROT and are themselves a major creditor. As such, they are highly unlikely to allow any access to our industry stock until they have been paid all outstanding debts.  This is immaterial to any promises from the directors of the new or old company and/or the administrators.

5) There remains much confusion and mixed messages amongst the UK's distributors about the structure, purpose and format of DV247 Ltd. Many companies are hesitant about signing any fresh distribution agreements until clarity is established.

6) It is advisable for MIA members to insist that a creditors committee be set up to consider and question the actions of the directors and possibly the administrators as without this there will be little leverage that can be applied to achieve a successful outcome for the UK MI industry.

7) Ultimately, MIA members may conclude that they are unhappy with the actions of the directors and/or the administrators in effecting the pre-pack sale of the business in the manner they have.   Accordingly, subject to the having the support of creditors, which is only really achievable if we stick together, it may be necessary to consider appointing other independent insolvency practitioners to look into the actions of the directors and the administrators so as to confirm that the sale has been at arm's length and carried out to an acceptable standard.

In conclusion, we believe it is essential to resolve the ROT position as soon as possible and creditors are urged to contact the MIA with a view to us co-ordinating matters.  We hope to write to you shortly after receipt of the SIP 16 report but, in the meantime, should you require any further information or explanations, please do not hesitate to contact us.

MIA - Music Industries Association

For those interested, please now see my follow up blog -

http://theeccentricblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/dv-or-not-dvzat-iz-ze-question.html


www.proaudioeurope.com

How Music Works

Well, it’s spring and that means snow…oh, and the return of Pop Pornography in the shape of prime time Karaoke, The Voice.
As (both) my regular readers will know, I made my views on this glitzy garbage known first time round and I have little to add now.
Except…

I’ve just started reading an extraordinary book by David Byrne called ‘How Music Works’. And when I say extraordinary, I mean it.

I can’t recommend this collection of essays highly enough to all of you – all of us – involved in the creative process. Although it’s an easy read – the ten chapters are really stand-alone essays covering different aspects of music – the content is so thought provoking that the ideas stay with you, feed your mind and plant seeds that grow and grow and grow. This truly is ‘baby bio’ for any musician’s brain.

Whether you like Byrne and/or Talking Heads or not, the man is a great communicator and paints such a graphic picture about music, technology, the creative process and the music business that everyone involved in our industry, from absolute beginners to grizzled old cynics like me, can learn a huge amount.

For those involved in recording and production, chapters such as…
Technology Shapes Music; Analogue
Technology Shapes Music; Digital
In The Recording Studio
And
Business and Finances
aught to be essential reading,. Indeed, the thousands of music technology and recording courses up and down the country should put How Music Works on the curriculum immediately. They won’t because most don’t know their recording arse from their musical elbow…but therein lies another bugbear of mine.

The contrast between the creativity of Byrne and the bland manufactured vacuum that is ‘The Voice’ could not be starker; it is the difference between a musician and a mimic. Although not a biographical work, Byrne’s enthusiasm for all forms of music shines through as he describes his lifelong love of and search for emotion through sound from every continent and culture. And his explanation of his personal creative process is enlightening. Never satisfied with a conventional approach to writing – music or lyrics – recording or even releasing his work, Byrne strives constantly to push his art to the limit, to find new ways of expressing himself and explore the possibilities of technology. Standing in front of a microphone and singing has as much to do with his music as lacing up boots has for a mountaineer; both are essential but tiny parts of a larger process.

Although only part way into the book, I’ve already learned a lot. For example, like most of you I assumed that the classic Talking Heads albums were children of their time (the late 1970s/early 1980s), recorded at huge cost over months in top class studios. Not a bit of it. Indeed, Byrne, his fellow band members and Brian Eno, the producer, worked in a way that anticipated many of today’s artists, demoing material on Tascam portastudios or Teac four track machines, then rehearsing and laying down backing tracks in bass player Tina Weymouth’s loft apartment before mixing in the studio. Even where the band did record in a conventional studio, they worked quickly and, at Brian Eno’s suggestion, played together in the live room rather than relying upon acoustic separation, isolation and overdubs as was the production vogue back then. But there was more…

Talking Heads ‘Remain In Light’ changed the way I heard and made music. It was, and is, a quite extraordinary album that shattered convention when it was released. It was the first rock album I heard that relied upon groove to define the songs in a way that even the great Funk projects of the time didn’t quite manage. I guess I’d always taken the album for granted, as a natural progression from a talented and adventurous band. But Byrne’s description of the process that led to the tracks has made me reassess my assumptions.

The band set out quite deliberately to redefine song structure and work in a unique way, starting with a collection of rhythmic grooves without chord changes or conventional structures and then adding textures and finally Byrne’s incredible melodies and lyrics. What is of relevance to my present waffle is the fact that these songs could not have existed without recording technology – the songs relied upon tracking and overdubbing , chopping and editing (on tape of course – it’s easier now) and then sophisticated texturing and mixing in the studio. But this was not an expensive process. As I said earlier, the grooves were cut in the bass player’s loft apartment, Byrne then worked with a stereo recording to experiment with melodies, structures, textures and lyrics and modest studio costs only really kicked in during the later stages of dubbing and mixing. The greatness of what is, to me, one of the seminal albums of the last thirty years lay in the talent and creativity of those involved, not big budgets and glitzy production values.

If I’m trying to make a point, it’s that today’s musicians, producers and record companies appear to have lost the desire to experiment and push creative boundaries. We seem to live in an age where the ‘artist’ requires (or demands?) expensive equipment, production teams and sophisticated technology to express him or herself. It is almost as if there is an assumption that without such trappings, recordings cannot exist. And the result? A decade of bland recorded sterility, lacking or maybe even overwhelming the creative spirit.

Are The Voice and X Factor a cause or a symptom of the stifling of talent? Well, maybe both. Because firstly they present ‘music’ as a soulless, homogenised product – the result of a carefully contrived and expensive production manipulated by show business spivs - and secondly they promise a short cut to popular acclaim. These shows suggest that the route to making a recording career can be from warbling in the bath via a television talent show to massive budget recording sessions and international promotion over the course of a few months – your milkman can easily become the next Elvis Presley overnight.

Do we get what we deserve? Maybe. Maybe we don’t search hard enough for that rare, true talent that still exists and if we glimpse it, perhaps we don’t appreciate it sufficiently and support it through the trials and tribulations of the early years of development. Indeed, we offer loud and usually false praise for every vague talent that comes along rather than allowing it to mature and develop a unique identity before shivering in the spotlight of critical appraisal. Everybody wants to cash in quick – ‘Money, money, money’ (to quote one of the ‘mentors’ on The Voice) – rather than nurture and allow the creative buds to slowly bloom.

But all is not doom and gloom. It never is. There will always be truly talented musicians ploughing an individual furrow in bedrooms, private studios, backroom bars or sweaty gigs around the country. I know many young engineers and producers pushing their limited technology to unexpected limits and digging new furrows in the tired fields of our industry. But what do they do with the results? Again, Byrne offers answers by examining different ways to release and distribute music, and invaluable advice about retaining rights and licensing where appropriate.

Look – if you haven’t ever bought or read a book in your life, break the habit and pick up a copy of ‘How Music Works’ by David Byrne. If you are in any way involved with recording, writing or making music, you’ll not merely enjoy it, but you’ll learn so much; this book will stay with you forever. And for the cost of a couple of takeaway Pizzas, you can feed your soul for years.

Oh, and if possible, please order it from your local bookshop rather than those tax-dodging scumbags at Amazon.

David Byrne – How Music Works…published by McSweeney’s

The Eccentric Blog… reproduced in conjunction with www.proaudioeurope.com

API 500 series...some blather

                          

Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s (here I go again…) just about every major studio had a rack of SCAMP modules in their control rooms.

Made by the excellent Audio and Design company (best known for their F760 ‘Compex’ dual/stereo compressor limiter) these were slim processing modules designed to slot into a 19” ‘mother’ rack or lunchbox, capable of taking a dozen or four units respectively. Modules included an excellent compressor (based on the Compex), a couple of pretty useless gates and some very useable deesser, panners (based on the ‘Panscan’), phasers, flangers and miscellaneous goodies.  And the concept was very logical; in that much of the cost of a piece of outboard comprised the power supply and metalwork, driving multiple units from a single power supply and sharing a single rack bought down costs, reduced space and offered a mass of processing in a relatively compact space.

For a decade or more, the Scamp Rack rules the roost and then, almost overnight, fashions changed and the system seemed to become redundant. Which is actually a real shame, as I think a whole generation of recordists would be delighted to rediscover the quality, variety and astonishing value to be had by ferreting out, dusting down and resuscitating a long forgotten Scamp rack. After all, they could probably pick up four or six top class compressors, a panner, deesser and other goodies for less than a grand. The trouble is, fashions have changed and their ignorant, elitist friends on Gearslutz would not be impressed.

Audio and Design were not alone in promoting the mother rack/sub-unit concept. In the UK, a company called Rebis made a budget version and in the States DBX offered their excellent 900 series modules, now best known for the 902 deesser, although the 903 compressor is a well-kept secret (and original 160X in subrack format). Other proponents included the original Inwards Vac Rac, now highly collectable, and…API.

API offered subrack systems pretty much by default. Like the early Neves, API console design incorporated separate eq and compressor modules into a ‘building block’ design (API mic pres tended to be built into the routing modules, so were never available as stand-alone modules). Fans of API consoles started to demand these modules for  processing purposes apart from the consoles, so a basic ‘lunchbox’ was produced to house two or four modules (the lunchbox was so called as it resembled the compact sandwich-boxes builders and others took to  work). As well as API modules, these would accept compatible ‘thumbnail’ eq’s made by related companies (APSI, Angus etc) and some small volume eq’s from a few bespoke manufacturers. So the API lunchbox format came into life by default, in order to provide a convenient home for existing modules, rather than by design as did Scamp and others.

When API was taken over by the current owners in the mid 1990’s, the company was a shadow of its former self. Indeed, Funky Junk were the first pro audio company to become involved with distributing and promoting the range, either here or the States, and grew API sales from a pathetic £8,000 turnover in Europe in 1996 to over £250,000 by the time that we surrendered distribution for personal reasons in the early 2000’s. Along the way, we persuaded API to open an account with my friend Mike Nehra at Vintage King, who has since gone on to become the world’s largest API dealer.

So API became a market leader in the outboard eq, mic pre and compressor market, with the 500 (lunchbox) series leading the way. A few other companies had always made compatible modules, particularly Brent Averill (now BAE), who’s 312 mic pre was closely based upon the original API design. And then, about five years ago, a few companies realised the potential of offering their own designs to fill the thousands of empty slots in existing API lunchboxes and racks around the world. API finally agreed to ‘approve’ 500 series modules from other manufacturers (an academic exercise really, as no approval was needed – the format had no copyright or patent) and the floodgates opened. Now, barely five years on, there are countless 500 series modules available, a veritable sweetie shop of confusing choices for the bedazzled buyer.

I have no intention of reviewing the options here. Maybe I’ll do a comparison one day when I have a spare millennium on hand. The main purpose of this examination is a simple examination of why the 500 series has merit, why for some it may have no merit and generally what to look for when choosing suitable units.

As we saw earlier, the economics of subrack systems make sense. Sure, entry level costs are quite high, in that a rack and power supply (or powered rack/lunchbox) are required before any modules can be used, but costs have come down a lot over the last decade (partly at our suggestion. When we distributed API throughout Europe we suggested a dramatic reduction in lunchbox prices as an incentive for customers to buy into the platform).  However, once a rack has been acquired, a variety of relatively low cost modules can be fitted, and the more purchased, the greater the economy of scale becomes.

But is this a logical way to go? Here my feeling are mixed.

The original imperative for 500 racks was that by and large, the superb API eq and mic pre could ONLY be purchased in a 500 series format. Of course, API do now do four channel mic preamps (3124+) and two channel rack mount eq (5500) but by and large, API remain committed to marketing their products in 500 series format. So if you want a selection of API eq’s and mic pres (and the odd compressor), then the only realistic choice is a lunchbox or 500 rack. But with many other choices, the logic is less clear cut.

In my experience, most professional engineers require ‘one box, one job’. So if, for example, they want A-Designs (Quad 8) mic preamps, most would buy a Pacifica 2 way rack mount unit.  However, there’s no doubt that the 500 series offers a bewildering degree of choice for those who want more variety. Personally, I’m a bit ‘old school’ and subscribe to a growing body of opinion that the glue that gave so many classic albums of old such a well-balanced sound was the fact that all the mic preamps and much of the eq was consistent – the engineer used the desk preamps and equalisers for pretty much everything, giving the finished result a unity and consistency of sound that knitted everything together in the mix. So whereas I’d be happy with a 500 rack of, say, ten API 550 512 preamps or ten 550A (or B) equalisers, I’d become frustrated with half a dozen different preamps or eqs competing and giving  different flavours on a recording.  Going back to the classic Scamp racks, for example, I think it’s no coincidence that most we see are fully loaded with largely compressors and gates. In the pre SSL and Neve VR days (manufacturers who incorporated gates and compressors into their later desk channels), the need for an outboard rack of compressors and/or gates was obvious and this is where the Audio Design units came into their own.

Having said this, we’re now seeing some excellent modules designed for 500 series racks that are not available in stand-alone format. The Retro Double Wide, for example, or the new BAE Neve style 1073 offer compact format quality processing in an easy size that can add real muscle to the audio armoury. Similarly, like good chefs, all audio engineers have their own recipe for sound, so the option now exists for either mixing and matching a variety of processors in a compact space or for multiple compressors, eqs or processors on a cost effective basis. Once upon a time, if you wanted (say) ten good compressors in your rack, this might occupy 20U and cost £15000. Now a ten way 500 rack will cost less  than half that at occupy three U, a very important consideration in today’s scaled-down control room. But there are compromises. Firstly, some 500 racks won’t offer sufficient power to deliver juice to the more sophisticated units, which is why BAE and others produce racks with external power supplies. Secondly, accessing side chains, direct outs, links etc can be limited and thirdly, some units are scaled down or electronically compromised, despite the manufacturers claims. I’ve been very unimpressed with a number of the Gearslutz blather about some 500 modules, and wonder whether those posting glowing reviews have ever actually used the units (or alternatively, whether they’ve got much experience of decent pro outboard).  As with every bandwagon, many of those hurtling onto the gravy train are destined for a short life as the true wheat is gradually sorted from a plethora of chaff. And finally, please be aware that build quality and serviceability are crucial with audio equipment. A broken module is no more use than an empty slot. Some 500 series modules are too miniaturised, lack decent transformers and try to pack too many components into too small a space.

Hopefully, this overview helps to explain the history of the current fad for 500 series modules. In the coming weeks and months I’ll put a bunch of modules through their paces up at SNAP! Studio and jot down my own opinions and comparative reviews.

Eccentric. 01.02.2013


www.proaudioeurope.com

When I was seventeen, I spent a month in New York.

My father had a teaching post at NYU for a semester and flew the family over for an extended holiday.  It turned out to be a memorable break, not least because I witnessed the city erupt in an very scary racial cauldron following the assassination of Martin Luther King. That was the first time I saw guns waved at me in anger, not an experience I would recommend.

Equally memorable was a visit I made to a small record store in Greenwich Village.  A half-hidden staircase led to a magical emporium of albums, posters of local gigs (Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Joan Baez, Spider John Koerner and dozens more) and mlling hippies – sandals, straggly hair and flowery shirts. For an hour or more I browsed, engrossed, a kiddy in the proverbial candy store, until, overwhelmed and bedazzled by choice, I asked the guy behind the counter to suggest four albums that he particularly recommended. On his advice I scored a collection of music that quite literally shaped my musical life for ever.

1.       Mothers Of Invention. Child Is Father To The Man

My least played choice. Although I was already a fan of the Avant Guard, my tastes were more for Coltrane and Archie Shepp in those days. However, Zappa opened my mind to later passions such as Soft Machine and Captain Beefheart by proving that rock music was as adept as jazz in breaking the mould and exploring new pastures.

2.       Buddy Guy. A Man and The Blues

‘If you want Chicago Blues, this is the guvnor,’ I was told, and it was no word of a lie. Without belittling BB or Albert or any of the other masters of the electric blues, Buddy Guy spoke directly to my guts in a way that none of the others ever have. Any maybe my love affair with Mr. Guy was the reason why I could never take the note-perfect vanilla of Clapton seriously – it’s not the lines you play…it’s what they say.

3.       Gary Burton. Duster.

This album totally blew me away. Beautifully recorded and presented, I had never heard playing like this in my life. To me, the vibes had always been a somewhat saccharine instrument, tinkled politely by Milt Jackson or Red Norvo, but always veering towards the cocktail lounge. But Gary Burton was a totally different animal, somehow squeezing emotion and beauty from his instrument. He was (and is) one of those rare, rare musicians for whom technique is a given and music becomes an extension of his emotional expression. And behind the maestro stood a group that were ground breakers in their own right, including the amazing Larry Coryell on guitar, Steve Swallow on bass and Roy Haines on drums. ‘Duster’ is an utterly extraordinary album that sent me in a musical direction, both as a listener and a player, that inspired me for decades.

4.       Hamza El Din. Al Oud.

What a weird recommendation to have made to a stranger, but what a revelation this turned out to be. Hamza El Din was a Nubian student who dedicated his life to preserving the culture of his ancient nation when it disappeared beneath the Aswam Dam in Egypt. And what a beautiful musical culture that country had. ‘Al Oud’ features Hamza El Din’s soft, throaty voice accompanied only by his Oud – a fretless Egyptian lute. The singer is a virtuoso of the instrument and although the lyrics are in Nubian, the emotions – love, pain, beauty, heartache – come through as clearly as ever they could. More than forty years later, I still listen to this album and find new nooks and crannies to lift the gloom of a stressful day.

One hour spent browsing the shelves of a basement record store in Greenwich Village led to years of pleasure and opened doors to a lifetime of musical discovery, all because the place was run by a human being, a music fanatic, who had the extraordinary ability to match a visitor to a bunch of perfect albums after sixty minutes of conversation, trial and error (there were other suggestions followed by listening that were discarded, I guess).

I’m not exaggerating to say this was a life changing experience.

Now, then, stuff that in your computer, Mister Amazon. I bought a couple of CDs from the tax-dodgers last year and paid the price of endless spam emails from an automated server assuming that those two purchases accurately define my taste. The fact that I bought an African album doesn’t mean I want press releases about every bloody CD emanating from that continent. In fact, if truth be told, I’d like Amazon to bugger off and leave me alone.

I recount this tale in the aftermath of the (hopefully temporary) demise of HMV, to prove a point. Downloads have not and never will provide a substitute for the best record stores and the personal service, advice and choice they offer. Sure, maybe HMV wasn’t a particularly good example, (but that’s a different issue). Such places are about people, after all, and I’ve never found a level of personal service in any corporate enterprise. But the best independent record stores can steer the browser into exciting unknown territory. Even today, I’m a sucker for shuftying through the racks of every record store I come across and I guarantee that the titles I come out with were nowhere in my thoughts when I went into the shop. I find things in the racks I’d forgotten or didn’t know about but fancy from the producer/musicians/songwriters on the credits. (Credits, for you download fanatics out there, are the words that tell you who did what in making the album. And an album without credits is a bit like a book without a story as far as I'm concerned...) 

For me, the excitement of shopping for music is precisely the joy of discovering something new and unexpected. Yes, if I know precisely what I want, Amazon (or HMV on the rare occasion they have it) are useful resources, particularly when I need a present for a friend or relative. But they’re on a totally different wavelength when it comes to my musical needs. Last weekend, for example, I picked up a Sheila Chandra CD on spec. I saw it and grabbed it and it’s hardly been out of my CD player since. But I bought it because it was there and a lightbulb lit in my head, recalling an extraordinary vocal percussion track I’d heard ten years ago. There is no possible way that I would ever have deliberately chosen and bought that album on-line, and I would have missed what has been a richly enjoyable week immersing myself in the intelligence and pleasure of Sheila Chandra’s beautiful music.

So please support your local record store. Don’t believe what the mainstream media scream at you. Neither the CD, the Album nor the record shop are dead yet. Far from it. Indeed, I’d stake a bundle upon some gradual revival over the coming decade, as off-centre record stores reopen and take the place of their dying high-street competition.

At least, I hope so.


www.proaudioeurope.com

Late last year, I made two predictions for 2013

Cassandra…
Late last year, I made two predictions for 2013;

Night would continue to follow day
And
HMV would go bust.

Surprisingly, both have come true (but please don’t ask me for next week’s lottery numbers).
HMV have been appallingly managed for at least a decade. What sums this up as much as anything was that when grossly overpaid fat cat CEO Simon Fox waddled off to run Trinity Mirror, the national comic publishers, his successor was headhunted at great cost from that other titan of the High Street, Jessops Photographers. Trevor Moore, the new head honcho, introduced the same cutting-edge strategy that he implemented at the camera –shop chain with similar results…a collapse in sales followed by bankruptcy.

While the national press drone on sympathetically about HMV being a victim of technological change, unable to compete with digital downloads and on-line sales from Amazon, the truth is altogether more prosaic – those running HMV had not the first idea of the needs, mindset or culture of music lovers. As with so many (now defunct) major record labels, the money men believed that a pot of gold lay at the end of the musical rainbow, and this could be excavated by endless growth, acquisition and marketing strategies based upon monopolistic practices and the throttling of ‘competition’. In HMVs case, this meant buying up competing chains, such as FOPP, expanding into every vacant High Street slot that came available and using their increasingly dominant position in the market to demand ever better deals from their suppliers (record and film companies) as a means to bludgeon the independent sector to death. The strategy was successful. Small, local shops could not compete on price, particularly on new releases and best sellers – bread and butter sales which pay the rent and effectively subsidise the eclectic back catalogue that is the lifeblood of true music lovers everywhere.

The major labels and distributors colluded in this savage assault on independent record stores. Whereas it might be logical to assist the small shops by offering them lower prices and extended terms, the suppliers did the opposite by putting all their eggs in the supermarket and chain-store baskets. Sure, a few enlightened independent labels did their best to support small shops by offering exclusive, usually vinyl, releases but to nothing like the extent that they should. And the upshot?
HMV decimated their competition. And now that HMV have gone, we have…we have nothing left.

Of course, Simon Fox’s great salvation strategy for HMV was to rebuild the company fortunes by selling…what? Cut price CD’s? HMV branded downloads? Special edition DVDs and CDs? No. His lightbulb moment was the belief that his 239 High Street Mega Stores could be reborn on the back of Dr. Dre headphone sales, Chinese memory sticks and high-tech-tut. In other words, this grossly overpaid buffoon sought to reinvent HMV as a latterday Woolworths, and I guess he was successful in at least one respect – HMV have followed their illustrious forebears into Carey Street. Both are now history.

So much for the past. What of the future?
Well, here’s another prediction. Half of HMVs defunct stores will be purchased by a venture-capital group for peanuts, within the context of a deal with major suppliers offering reduced prices, extended credit terms and possibly even an equity interest. Because the major labels simply cannot afford to lose the monopoly sales opportunities that they themselves allowed HMV to create. But choice will become even more limited as the ‘new’ HMV abandons any stores that are even marginally loss making and increasingly becomes an outlet for major labels rather than offering any cross-section of choice for customers. So once again market forces will be distorted by the monopoly that HMV became. Like Clinton’s cards or Thornton’s chocolates, HMV will, to all intents and purposes, be ‘Universal/Sony/Warners Records’, promoting a narrow choice of ‘in house’ brands to the exclusion of consumer choice or demand. Because with birthday cards or chocolates, if you don’t like the Clinton or Thornton’s offerings, there is plenty of alternative choice down the road. But with records and CDs, if HMV don’t have what you want, it’s our tax-dodging chums at Amazon or nothing.

Gone will be the days of in-store promotion, knowledgeable staff, extensive back-catalogue, varied in-store and window displays or the opportunity to check out minority releases. HMV will cater for any colour or shade of taste you want, as long as it’s black, black, black.

In the short term, our industry will suffer. Most small labels will lose money from the store collapse and some may well go bust. The larger labels will lick their self-inflicted wounds and carry on, demanding a stake of future action along the lines suggested above. Yes, they’ll lose dosh from the liquidation and no doubt try to grab this back from unwitting artists who weren’t consulted and didn’t agree to the debt-for-equity swaps and extended credit the majors gave the retailer. Universal will take a long term hit, I gather, because EMI (now owned by Universal) hold forty of the most expensive high street leases on larger branches. Indeed, having grossly overpaid for EMI last year, I bet Universal are regretting ever having got involved with such a basket case – all the news is negative. But it was that old ‘bigger is better’, ‘economies of scale’ and ‘screw the competition and customers alike by becoming a monopoly’ school and vampire business philosophy at work again.
So, what can a small label do to combat the megaliths? How about this…?

High Streets up and down the country are overflowing with charity shops, something that will increase as more and more chain stores feel the pinch and fold (and of course, if an owner leaves a shop empty, he’s liable for rates and taxes, whereas of he allows a charity shop to take the space, he avoids these). Is it beyond reason for a union or cooperative of independent labels to join together to form a distribution network and offer to stock Oxfam, say, with racks of new releases and prime back catalogue at a reasonable selling price (£3.50 - £5.00) and a decent 25/30% margin? The distributor could supply CDs on sale or return (or consignment – paid as sold), management software and listening booths.

Overnight, hundreds of new outlets would offer music lovers around the country an alternative to the chain-gang…er chain stores and what’s more, instead of the retail margin fattening shareholders, venture capitalists of multinational tax avoiders, worthwhile causes would benefit. And it might just put the reason and soul back into modern music.

It’s a thought…


www.proaudioeurope.com