Remembering Graham Blyth

Graham Blyth, who has died aged 76, was a true giant of the pro audio community. Founding Soundcraft Electronics with Phil Dudderidge in 1973, he went on to design some of the industry’s most iconic mixing consoles and electronic audio equipment. After Soundcraft was acquired by Harman in 1988, Graham remained as a product designer for the brand until he retired in 2014.

Graham was also a talented musician and performer, a passion that progressed in parallel with his genius for electronics. A keen piano student from the age of four, he won a scholarship to London’s Trinity College of Music where he learned to play the organ before transferring to Bristol University to study electronic engineering. A job at the Compton Organ Company after graduation led him to his early mentor, Bill Kelsey, who educated him in the art of circuit-laying on PCBs and started him on his first mixing console project, a large-format desk for Emerson Lake and Palmer for the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. A spate of console designing for Kelsey’s new venture, Kelsey & Morris, followed, with clients including T Rex, Ten Years After and King Crimson. It was during this time that he met Dudderidge, and the rest is history. Early milestones included the first flightcased live console, the Series 1S, and the 1624 – later known as the 2400 and one of his favourite projects. Others included the Series 4, the S8000, the MH4 and MH2, the Series Two and the GB Series. One of Graham’s first major projects under the Harman banner in 1991 was the Spirit by Soundcraft range, while the early 2000s saw him working on Soundcraft’s first digital console, the Vi6, released in 2006.

Upon arriving in Wantage, Oxfordshire, in the mid-1980s Graham instantly found his crew of local musicians, creating Wantage Chamber Concerts and proceeding to put on concerts. These started at the local church, moved into the private music hall at his home, Challow Park, then into the purpose built Challow Park Recital Hall, which housed a Lares audio enhancement system allowing him to adjust the acoustics.

Graham’s twin disciplines of electronic design and music dovetailed beautifully, affording him insight into what musicians demanded from their equipment, whether in the studio or live. One of Graham’s electronic designs outside of console circuitry perfectly exemplified the synchronicity of his talents: a Veritas digital organ, built for the original Challow Park Recital Hall. This organ was subsequently reimagined on a grander scale for Challow Park Recital Hall “V2”, otherwise known as Challow Park Studios. Graham’s son-in-law Will and daughter Amy designed and built the new hall with associated recording facilities in 2013. After surviving an aorta dissection that year, the usually workaholic Graham was forced to stay at home, watching the build from his bedroom window. He was able to return to running his regular Chamber Concerts in the new hall, with its impressive organ speaker installation hidden behind bespoke organ pipes. According to Graham’s family, his only extravagances in life were connected to making and experiencing music.

Graham also played on an international scale, as visitors to AES conventions the world over will recall. He frequently combined a trip to the shows with organ recitals in venues including St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, the Église de la Madeleine in Paris, the Jesuit Church, Vienna, the Dom ze unserer lieben Frau in Munich, the Temple Church in London, the Cathedral of Angels in Los Angeles and the Grace Cathedral and Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption  in San Francisco. In recognition of his musical talent, Graham became a fellow of the RSA (Royal Society of Arts) in 2006, while pro audio recognition came a year later when he was named a fellow of the AES; an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Hertfordshire followed in 2012.

A man of strong conviction, deep passions, great stories and playful humour, who lived life to the full, Graham is one of the original pro audio veterans to have shaped the industry as we know it today. His legacy will live on in the recordings of countless artists who have used, and continue to use, his ergonomically and economically designed mixers to create their music across the decades. Graham is survived by his children Amy and Henry, grandchildren Charlie, Jamie and Romulus and brothers, Julian and Hugh.