Topic

Industrial design

The shape of mass-produced things, and who decided it.

1: in audio
10:20: average
10 min: in total
255: across the network

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10:20

Gretsch White Falcon

Gretsch

The Gretsch White Falcon is an electric hollow-body guitar introduced in 1954 as a non-commercial showpiece for the NAMM Convention. It was conceived by Jimmie Webster as an improvement over the Gibson Super 400. Strong demand led to rushed production beginning in 1955 under model number 6136. Gretsch marketed it as 'the finest guitar we know how to make – and what a beauty!' and priced it at $600 — second only to Gibson's Super 400CESN. Its finish design drew from Gretsch drum finishes and American car aesthetics of the era.

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10:23

1176 Peak Limiter

UREI

The UREI 1176 Peak Limiter is a fast, characterful, all-solid-state audio compressor introduced in 1968. It uses a field-effect transistor in feedback configuration for gain reduction. Compression is soft-knee with a fixed threshold controlled by input level. Four ratios — 4:1, 8:1, 12:1, 20:1 — each raise the threshold. Attack and release are program-dependent. Stereo linking is supported. The 'all-button mode' adds harmonic distortion and alters compression behaviour. It marked the transition from vacuum tube to solid-state technology in studio dynamics processing.

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8:31

API 550

API

The API 550b is a four-band analog EQ re-issuing the 1967 API 550 with an added band. It offers seven switchable frequency centres per band, ±12 dB boost/cut, shelf/peak switching on bands 1 and 4, Proportional Q, reciprocal and repeatable filtering, and a +30 dBu clipping level. It uses API’s 2520 op amp and is built to original blueprints.

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8:19

Mutable Instruments Braids

Mutable Instruments

Braids delivers radical timbral variety in minimal space—but with no internal editing, no tuning stability guarantees, and no analogue circuitry. It is a selector, not a synthesizer.

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8:40

Mutable Instruments Clouds

Mutable Instruments

Clouds is a granular audio processor for Eurorack that transforms live input into dense, overlapping grains. It records continuously into a short, variable buffer (up to 8 seconds), allows freezing that buffer to isolate a sonic space, and provides hands-on control over grain position, size, pitch, density, timing distribution, and envelope shape. A diffuser blurs transients using all-pass filters. It supports 40–60 concurrent grains and operates in stereo with extensive CV control, dry/wet blending, feedback, and reverb-like effects during freeze mode. It does not store or recall samples, nor does it support offline processing or waveform editing.