Drawmer LA-12
A one-in, twelve-out distribution amplifier built for cassette duplication - not for your studio rack.
Sound on Sound (1996, p.32) listed the LA-12 among the new, used, and ex-demo outboard gear offered by UK dealers. So the unit was still in the secondhand trade well after its introduction.
Overview
The LA-12 is a distribution amplifier. One stereo input goes in, twelve stereo outputs come out. That is the whole idea. It was developed specifically for realtime cassette duplication. The magazine's copy also noted the model's first UK appearance at that year's exhibition, so the LA-12 was new in 1989, not a legacy holdover.
Picture a bank of cassette decks fed from a single console output. The LA-12 gives you twelve stereo destinations from one source, each with its own output level control, so a duplication house could trim each deck independently instead of fighting a single master fader. According to the period documentation, the unit has one stereo input with master gain and balance controls, twelve stereo outputs each with output level control, and an auxiliary stereo output on top. Nominal system levels run from -20dB to +10dB, and maximum gain is 20dB. Those are modest numbers, but this is a line-level distribution box, not a preamp.
The suggested U.S. price was $749, distributed at the time through Quest Marketing. That is a professional-tools price, and it fits the LA-12 turning up in duplication facilities rather than home racks. Drawmer's own catalog positioning in 1989 placed it alongside the M500 dynamics processor and the DF320 noise filter. It was the company's utility line.
As far as the documentation supports, the LA-12 is not a signal processor. There is no dynamics, no filtering, no noise reduction. It distributes. Collectors chasing the DS201 gate or the M500 will find a different animal: a plain, functional, low-noise splitter. The auxiliary stereo output gives you a thirteenth destination, for monitoring or a feed to the duplication master, without using up one of the twelve working outputs.
Details on the LA-12's internal design, construction, and long-term service record are not documented in the available sources, so owners' reports on reliability remain anecdotal. What is clear is the intent: a purpose-built distribution amp for a duplication workflow, priced and marketed as a professional utility rather than a studio effect.
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