By George Petersen
SUPERIOR, WI — World-renowned audio equipment designer and founder of Crane Song Ltd., Dave Hill passed away on Feb. 22, 2023 of complications from cancer. He was 68.
Born on November 19, 1954, David Edward Hill was a self-taught electronics whiz kid, who went from messing around with radios and analog synths, to repairing guitar amps, keyboards, P.A. and recording gear in a local music store. He became involved with friends who needed help financing (and maintaining) a 1” 8-track studio and (eventually) bought the business.
Hill later started doing live sound, toured for a while and then enrolled in a tech school, later teaching there for eight years. He applied his passion for tube electronics when he designed an entire line of best-selling processors for Summit Audio: the TLA-100 Tube Levelling Amplifier, followed by Summit’s TPA-200B Dual Tube Preamp, EQP-100 and EQP-200 program equalizers and the DCL-200 Dual Tube Compressor.
Setting out on his own, Hill founded Crane Song to create pristine-quality electronics for recording, mastering and live sound engineers, with his first product being the STC-8 discrete stereo Class-A compressor-limiter. Not only did the STC-8 provide state of the art 2-channel compression with peak limiters, but included a KI/HARA switch that inserted a “tube-like” enhancement circuit.
This was followed by more high-end components, including A/D and D/A converters, EQs, mic preamps, summing boxes, plug-ins and a line of 500-format modules. Perhaps the most unique Crane Song device was the HEDD Series. Debuting at AES in 1996, HEDD (Harmonically Enhanced Digital Device) is a 1-rackspace digital signal processor with analog and 20-bit digital I/O. The HEDD process provides real-time harmonic enhancement to create tube-like and tape emulation sounds in the digital domain. Later upgraded as the 24-bit/192 kHz version HEDD 192, and currently as the HEDD Quantum with sub-picosecond jitter clocking, HEDD processing is often used in disk mastering applications.
Hill first ventured into software in 2002 with his Phoenix TDM plug-in suite for Pro Tools HD, which was designed to put analog color into the digital domain by increasing apparent loudness without increasing gain (e.g., by modeling analog tape compression). The five different “flavors” of Phoenix result in a much more musical sound and can add effects similar to gentle tape saturation — and is ideal for giving digital systems an analog sound — either in the studio or for live front of house or monitor mixing. Phoenix II is a newer version, that runs both native and DSP on Avid’s AAX platform.
Audio journalist George Petersen inducted Hill into the TEC Award’s TECnology Hall of Fame in 2020. He will long be remembered as a one-of-a-kind inventor and designer who will have a profound impact on the way sound is recorded for many years to come.
As to the future of Crane Song Ltd, “His designs and technology were constantly evolving,” said company general manager Tim Dorsey. “To that end, he was working with two individuals he hand-picked to eventually carry on his legacy. Both Martin Reus and Ryan Rusch each worked with Dave for a number of years developing an understanding of what will be necessary to continue moving his companies forward. We are and will continue to manufacture Dave’s products and implement the roadmap he established for future developments. Dave clearly communicated that he wanted these companies to continue and so we will.”
Farewell and rest well, old friend. You will not be forgotten.
To visit Crane Song Ltd., go to: http://www.cranesong.com
For a NAMM Oral History video interview with Dave Hill, click on: https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/dave-hill
