ResonantLive Sound Archive

Equipment file · Live mixing console

Clair Brothers Folding Console

Clair Brothers Audio · c.1975

Evidence status · documented

Identity and core specifications are documented; some historical fields remain unavailable.

In the mid-1970s, Ron Borthwick and Bruce Jackson developed a highly unconventional live mixing console for Clair Brothers Audio, the Lititz, Pennsylvania touring sound company founded by Roy and Gene Clair. The console's control surface folded directly out of its road case, eliminating the need to lift a heavy top panel into place, and it was the first mixing console fitted with plasma bargraph meters capable of showing simultaneous RMS and peak levels, positioned beside the faders for quick reading. Jackson has stated it was also the first live console to include parametric equalization, letting engineers continuously sweep frequency and bandwidth rather than choose from fixed bands. The desk became Clair Brothers' mainstay touring console for major acts well into the 1980s.

Introduced
c.1975
Category
Live mixing console
Intended use
Front-of-house mixing for large-venue touring rock shows
Production
Custom-built in-house by Clair Brothers Audio for its own touring rental inventory

Why it mattered

  1. 01

    First live mixing console with plasma bargraph metering and (per its designer) the first with true parametric EQ, both later standard in professional live consoles.

  2. 02

    Designed in-house by a leading concert sound-reinforcement company (Clair Brothers) specifically to withstand and simplify large-scale touring.

Engineering record

Form factor
Control surface folded directly out of its flight case rather than requiring separate lifting/assembly[1]
Metering
First live console with plasma bargraph meters, displaying simultaneous RMS and peak levels beside each fader[1]
EQ
Continuously variable (parametric) frequency and bandwidth control, described by co-designer Bruce Jackson as the first on a live console[1]

Original pricing

No reliable period price located

2026 equivalent

Not calculated without a reliable original price.

Public price evidence was not sufficient to publish a defensible original figure.

Use in the field

Became Clair Brothers Audio's mainstay touring front-of-house console for major acts from the mid-1970s well into the 1980s[1]

Manuals & original documents

No authoritative manual or original document has been located for this profile.

Sources

  1. 1Driven By Demand: A Golden Era Of Mixing Console DevelopmentProSoundWeb · reference · 2023-03-24
  2. 2Roy & Gene Clair: The Sound of Sibling SuccessFOH / Front of House Magazine · reference · 2008-09-18

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