Allison Research 65K (late 1970s)

Little independent documentation survives for the Allison Research 65K. What the archive holds is mostly the company's own trade advertising. The 65K was Allison Research's second-generation console automation programmer, a system for automating mixdown levels on recording consoles. It worked with VCA faders and accepted analogue control voltages in the 0 to +5.6 VDC range. Basic capacity was 16 faders, expandable to 64. Studio Sound (November 1978, p.37) carried the company's ad listing the UK price of the basic 16-fader system at £2,362.

By its own account, Allison was doing well with the 65K. An advertisement in Recording Engineer (October 1977, p.17) claimed that around 60 systems had been delivered that year. It described the 65K as the only automation system in the field, and thanked Sphere for choosing it as the core of its new line of programmable consoles. By mid-1978 the company was claiming nearly 100 units in daily use worldwide, alongside consoles from API, Harrison, Helios, Sphere and Trident. Another 1977 ad offered first-generation owners 30% off an upgrade to the 65K. It described the system's analog interface with microprocessor busses and data terminals, and claimed a write-to-tape time of 3.2 ms. Late-1979 advertising added programme channel and group mutes, plus an automatic mute-detection system that lit an LED and provided logic to drive an external mute relay.

Known specifications, all from those advertisements: