At the time it was not unusual for leading studios to design their own consoles. Abbey Road’s REDD and TG desks, and the first Helios consoles developed for Olympic Studios, were similar responses to the demands of rapidly evolving recording practice. Trident followed the same path, but the A-Range quickly stood out as a flagship product in the emerging large format console market. Between 1971 and 1975 a total of thirteen A-Range consoles were built for studios around the world, giving Trident a place alongside Neve and Helios as an early major competitor in high end desk design. The A-Range was conceived from the outset to work with sixteen track and later twenty four track analogue tape, and offered a split console layout at a time when most engineers were still adapting to multitrack workflows.
The A-Range was designed and refined by ear as much as by measurement. Trident engineers and producers such as Ken Scott, Roy Thomas Baker, Malcolm Toft, Barry Sheffield and designer Barry Porter carried out extensive listening tests, changing components and circuit details until they achieved the sound they wanted. This process gave the A-Range a distinct sonic signature that many engineers regard as smoother, creamier and more musical than other classic consoles, with a robust and highly usable tonal character. In comparisons drawn by those who worked with it, the A-Range was often described as less bright than an API console, less overtly punchy than an SSL and not quite as larger than life as some vintage Neve designs, but sitting in a particularly balanced and musical place that suited a wide range of popular music.
One of the defining features of the Trident A-Range is its equalisation section, which became a major part of the console’s appeal. Each channel strip combined a mic preamp with a powerful, intuitive EQ. At the top of the EQ section there were selectable low pass filters with thresholds at 9 kHz, 12 kHz and 15 kHz. Below this, the high frequency band used two detented controls to select from 3, 5, 7 and 9 kHz on one side and 8, 10, 12 and 15 kHz on the other, with faders below for cut and boost.
The lower section worked in a similar fashion, with selectable frequencies at 50 Hz, 80 Hz, 100 Hz and 150 Hz on one control and 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1 kHz and 2 kHz on the other, again with faders for level adjustment. Beneath this there were high pass filters at 25 Hz, 50 Hz and 100 Hz, along with switches to bypass the EQ, monitor after fader level, mute the channel and indicate overload. Below the equaliser sat the pan control and the echo or auxiliary send matrix, with fader based send level and pre or post fader switching, and finally the channel fader at the bottom. The layout made the console straightforward to learn and use while providing a very musical response that engineers found especially effective on drums, bass and electric guitars.
The A-Range was a split console rather than an in-line design. It was divided into a master section, a section for sending signals to tape and a return or mix section for monitoring playback from the recorder. This configuration made the desk physically large, but it suited the tracking and mixing workflows of the early 1970s and gave engineers a clear, organised surface when handling complex multitrack sessions. The console was built specifically for the needs of popular music production, and by design it was intended to simplify the process of recording and mixing in a period of rapid technical change.
Because of its sound and capabilities, the Trident A-Range became associated with a very large number of high profile artists and albums. The consoles were used on sessions by all four former Beatles, Aerosmith, David Bowie, Dolly Parton, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, Queen, Elton John, Genesis, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Journey, John Cougar Mellencamp, Metallica, Neil Diamond, Ray Charles, Roy Orbison, Stevie Wonder, The Cars, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Mötley Crüe, B.B. King, Barbra Streisand, Rod Stewart, Rush, Frank Sinatra, Carly Simon and many others. The list of artists and recordings that passed through A-Range consoles during the 1970s and early 1980s is extremely long, and many of these consoles became central to the identity of the studios that housed them.
Only six of the original thirteen Trident A-Range consoles are reported as being fully active in studios today. These include desks at EastWest Studios Studio 3 in Hollywood, New Monkey Studio in Van Nuys, Control Room A at Studio Bell within the National Music Centre in Calgary, Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles, The Bombfactory Recording Studios in Los Angeles and Studio A at Avast Recording Company in Seattle. Individual A-Range consoles at various times have also been important parts of other facilities, such as OmniSound Recording Studios and the Bennett House in Nashville. The console at EastWest Studio 3, in particular, is highlighted as a key part of a room that has been used for recordings ranging from 1960s hits by The Beach Boys and The Mamas and the Papas through to more recent albums by artists including Muse, AFI, System of a Down, Rihanna and Frank Ocean.
The history of Trident Audio Developments continued beyond the A-Range. The company followed the original console with the B-Range in 1973 and later introduced the Fleximix and TSM consoles in 1979, the Series 80 in 1980, the Series 80B in 1983 and a range of other designs including the Trimix, Series 70, TIL and Series 80C. Trident also developed the DI-AN, an early digitally controlled analogue console, in 1986. Production of consoles under the original company structure ceased in the mid 1990s, and Trident went through a turbulent period before being acquired by PMI Audio Group in 2010. Under this ownership, the Trident name was revived with new analogue consoles such as the Trident 88, 78 and 68, all drawing on the sonic character and EQ approaches of earlier designs.
The A-Range itself has remained present in modern products through Trident A-Range rack units and 500 series modules that recreate the original preamp and EQ circuits, and through software plug ins inspired by the console. Despite these later developments, the original Trident A-Range desks from the early 1970s retain a special status. Built in very small numbers and associated with a long list of important recordings, they are widely regarded as classic consoles from the closing years of what many consider the golden age of large format analogue recording.
