Who would have thought that one of the world leading developers for music product software would have been borne out of a small Swedish company? Founded in 1994, Propellerhead Software quickly made a name for itself with its ReCycle and ReBirth products that were ideal for the growing electronic dance music (EDM) market. A major advance came in 2000 with Reason, which offered a virtual toy box of remix gear, with synths, samplers, drum machines, sequencers, loop players, mixers and effects — all in an integrated environment.

Empirical Labs began in 1988 as a recording studio and electronics consulting company, founded by Dave Derr, a design engineer who was employed by Eventide as part of the team on the H3000, H3500 and DSP4000 Ultra-Harmonizer products. Stemming from Derr's love of compressors such as the 1176, LA-2A and Gain Brain, Empirical Lab's first product — the Distressor — came out in 1996.

A world-standard today, SMAART (Sound Measurement Acoustical Analysis Realtime Tool) acoustic test software for real-time sound system measurement had simple beginnings. The program was developed and coded by Sam Berkow of SIA Acoustics, a company offering acoustical consulting and design services for recording studios, performance venues and facilities of all types. The genesis began when Pavarotti's FOH engineer Alexander "Thorny" Yuill-Thornton was looking for a method of acoustic echo delay cancellation to deal with monitor issues he encountered.

Historically, digital outboard devices have had a very short shelf life. Yet even in these days of plug-in signal processing, it's interesting that TC Electronic's 2290 Dynamic Digital Delay was both in production for 20+ years (1985 to 2005) but even a decade later, still finds its way into studios, performers' racks and live sound riders. The 2290 offered a pristine sound, but offered an abundance of front panel controls for fast, on-the-fly tweaking.

Otari Electric Company was founded in Tokyo in 1965. In many ways, the Otari MTR-90 represented the pinnacle of Japanese electromechanical technology, leading to it becoming the best-selling analog 24-track of all time. Incorporated an advanced transport, with gentle tape handling combining a pinch roller-less, direct drive capstan and with phase-locked-loop DC servo circuitry, it was the right product for its time and was a popular choice in studios everywhere.

The inspiration for invention can come from many sources, and according to industry lore, ARP Instruments was founded in 1969 by Alan Pearlman who decided to build synthesizers after hearing Wendy Carlos' classic Switched-on Bach album a year earlier. And the ARP 2600 subtractive synthesizer was not the company's first product — that was the ARP 2500 — with the 2600 following shortly after. The 2600 was a semi-modular design — most of its basic synthesis blocks were configured as pre-wired assemblies.

It isn't often that a microphone — or any piece of electronic gear — remains in production for decades, but nearly a half-century later, the Electro-Voice RE20 remains as popular as ever. The RE20 is a rugged, dynamic mic design, yet emerged as a favorite among announce broadcasters, studio musicians and sound reinforcement pros worldwide. And its wide range, flat response, effective pop filtering, tight cardioid polar pattern and high-SPL handling made it ideal for capturing bass, horns and kick drum.

3M was founded in 1902 as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, originally quarrying stone for grinding wheels and later turning to making sandpaper. Interestingly, the product that laid the groundwork for 3M's entry into the audio market was the development of pressure-sensitive adhesive tape under its "Scotch" brand in 1930, which provided the company with expertise in coated thin-film technologies.

In the early 1950s, Japan didn’t manufacture condenser mics and European models such as Neumann U47's were very expensive. Seeking an alternative, Japanese broadcaster NHK created a few prototypes based on a silver-coated celluloid diaphragm, which would burn if the DC bias voltage was too high. After hearing about the NHK experiments, Sony engineer Kanane Nakatsuru wanted to build a condenser mic, but using a 6-micron diaphragm from DuPont's (then new) Mylar sputtered with gold vapor.

Perhaps one of the most recognizable sounds in jazz, pop and rock recordings, the Rhodes electronic piano was the invention of Harold Rhodes, who created the concept of rugged portable piano-like instruments that struck aluminum rods (rather than strings). His first attempt at making a piano alternative was during World War II, when he created a portable instrument used as therapy for recovering wounded soldiers. After the war, he began a business building 30-note stringed "pre-pianos," but gave this up in favor of designs using struck tines, along the lines of a series of tuning forks.