DDA AMR24
A British in-line console that promised the shortest, cleanest signal path in the room. The used market has spent three decades arguing about what that's worth.
Overview
The AMR24 is a large-format analogue recording console from DDA, the British manufacturer whose desks circulated through the London studio trade in the 1980s and 1990s. The model shows up in the period trade press constantly - not in reviews so much as in the classified pages, which says something about who owned them and how often they moved.
DDA's own advertising from the mid-1980s laid out the design philosophy plainly. The AMR24 offered "all the facilities expected from a major studio console," and the company claimed painstaking attention had gone into optimising each stage in the signal path. Its argument was that conventional large-console design had let circuit complexity erode sonic integrity. That's marketing copy, and it should be read as such. It does explain the pitch: a console for engineers who cared more about transparency than about feature count.
The most concrete evidence of that pitch comes from Hans Zimmer, who was quoted in DDA's advertising after a nearly twelve-month search for a twenty-four track desk. Zimmer said the integrity of the electronics impressed him a great deal. He noted that DDA had consoles placed in digital classical music environments where purity of sound was paramount, and said he wanted a console that would carry signals without adding colouration. He bought one, customised to his spec, installed at Lillie Yard Studios. A testimonial in an advertisement is not an independent verdict, but a working film composer putting his own money down after a year of listening is at least a data point.
The other documented sale is arguably more telling. According to Studio Sound (July 1988, p.38), PWL - Pete Waterman's Stock, Aitken and Waterman operation - chose a 36/24 AMR24 for a new room at the hit-making complex. Waterman stated the room was for the exclusive use of S,A&W and that they wanted the best sounding console available. PWL's Mike Picking explained the reasoning: the room would do direct-to-digital recording with Sony 3324 machines, so they wanted a console with the shortest, cleanest signal path, and they auditioned the alternatives before settling. That's a room built for commercial pop production choosing a British in-line desk over the obvious prestige names.
What the AMR24 actually is, physically, depends on the frame it left the factory in. The used listings scattered through Studio Sound across 1988 to 1997 describe 24-channel desks in 36 frames, 28-channel desks in 36 and 44 frames, 36-channel desks, and at least one 52-channel example. The larger configurations ran with automation. Optifile appears repeatedly, as does Mastermix, and one 1997 listing describes a 36/24 with 60 channels of Mastermix automation and 84 channels on mix. Assume nothing about a given AMR24 until you've seen the frame size, the fitted channel count, and which automation package is installed. These are not interchangeable.
On the used market the spread is wide and the condition language is doing a lot of work. A 1989 24-channel desk in a 36 frame with a phase meter was advertised privately at £12,000 in early 1997. A 36-frame desk fitted with 28 channels, full EQ on long-travel faders, a patchbay and Optifile automation was listed at £19,995 in 1993. By 1991 a 36-channel AMR24 with patchbay was being described as immaculate at £25,995, and a 44-frame desk fitted with 28 channels was at the same money. At the top end, a 52-channel Optifile-equipped 1988 desk was offered at £55,000 in 1993. A 36/24 with 60 channels of Mastermix automation was listed at £25,000 plus VAT in 1997, from Surrey Sound Studios, in excellent condition and well maintained. The seller name-dropped Simple Minds, The Beach Boys, Bruce Hornsby, The Sneaker Pimps, Ocean Colour Scene and Radiohead as users. Celebrity provenance in a classified ad counts for what it counts for anywhere else.
Collectors note that the AMR24 occupies an awkward spot. It's a large analogue console with a real recording pedigree, but it's not a Neve and it's not an SSL. The period classifieds make that hierarchy explicit. Neve 8068s and V3s sit in the same columns at comparable or higher money, and the AMR24s move at whatever the frame and automation will bear. That's not a knock on the electronics. It's how the secondhand market prices British in-line desks against the two names that dominate the conversation.
The practical problem is the same one every large analogue console faces: a desk this size needs a home, a power solution, and somebody who can service it. The period documentation that survives is largely trade advertising and dealer listings rather than technical literature, so a prospective owner should expect to do their own homework on the automation package specifically. Optifile and Mastermix are different systems with different support situations, and a dead automation computer turns a £25,000 desk into a very heavy manually-controlled one.
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