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DUY was established in 1972 as a manufacturer of electronic hardware.
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From 1972 to 1987 DUY designed and manufactured sound equipment, synthesizers, drum
machines, audio compressors, limiters, mixing consoles,
and samplers.
Two of DUY´s most outstanding developments were the
world´s
first digital drum machine and one of the very first
polyphonic synthesizers (see photo).
The ALFA1024 was a hybrid synthesiser equipped
with 32 digital oscillators, 8 voices analog
processing and a 1024 notes sequencer.
The system was controlled by an on-board
Rockwell 6502 CPU with 32K of RAM. It was 1983.
IN 1986 DUY created its first recording
studio.
Initially conceived for sound and music produccion, it
attracted the advertising agencies and film production
companies. Advertising was a flourishing business at that
time in Barcelona.
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The great success of the Studios led the company
to concentrate and specialize in the production area of the business,
leaving aside its hardware developments. However, as a matter
of fact, DUY used its technological experience to take an advantaged
position in the music and sound production market. As an example
DUY designed its own mixing console, a 56 channel digitally controlled
analog console. It was the Spain´s biggest console at that
time and the only existing prototype.
On 4 October 1993 DUY Sonido made the only ever simultaneous recording of choir and orchestra from two different countries. In a "historic link" (according to Studio Sound magazine) the choir was recorded at DUY-Barcelona, while the London Symphony Orchestra performed the instrumental parts at CTS-London. Still today, the LSO hasn´t done any other recording in this way for anybody else. Since then DUY have recorded five more musical projects with the LSO and hundreds of other projects in London with other orchestras, singers and musicians.
Over the years DUY has provided music for more than three hundred films, TV and advertising campaigns and has won numerous awards in International film and advertising festivals. DUY has licensed its music to clients like Volkswagen, Martini, Seven up, Red Cross, Bacardi and Expo 92 among many more.
From the beginning the company has always tried
to combine the artistic and technological aspects. As a result
in 1992 DUY come round again with the audio developments. But
this time it was in the form of software. Not in a hybrid form
like in the early eighties, but in its purest form. DUY had created
its software division.
DUY's first Software developments were mainly in the research area. One of DUY's main goals was to recreate the sound of its original hardware. That was the seed of the current Valve and Tape Plug-ins. The former ALFA1024 now comes in the form of SynthSpider, and so on.
All those early developments and experience
have evolved into the current line of DUY´s software products,
which are currently being used by producers like David Reitzas,
Mutt Lange, Chris Porter, Jean-Michel Jarre, Mike Hedges, Chris
Porter or Spike Stent, who record artists like Celine Dion, Madonna,
The Corrs, U2, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Robbie Williams,
Texas, George Michael, and a very long list continues.
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