STAX MUSEUM ACQUIRES FAMED MIXING CONSOLE FOR PERMANENT DISPLAY

Our great friend and supporter, John Fry, founder of the renowned Ardent Studios, has donated the historic Auditronics console, which was used for many years in his studios, to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. The console was often used in shaping the sound of countless Stax Records hits during a period when Ardent worked closely with the Stax label and recording studios.

The console was made by the Memphis company Auditronics, owned by Welton Jetton and Steve Sage. Auditronics had supplied smaller consoles to both Ardent and Stax in 1966. The donated console was fabricated from amplifiers and equalizers made by Spectrasonics of Odgen, UT. The 20-input, 8-output console was installed at Ardent's location on National Street in 1969 and moved to Ardent's present location on Madison Avenue, where it served in Studio B until 1985. Auditronics also supplied Stax with an identical console for its A Studio in 1970.

Songs recorded on the Ardent console now at the Stax Museum include Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul; The Staple Singers' The Staple Swingers; Best of Sam & Dave; Led Zeppelin III; James Taylor's Mudslide Slim and the Blue Horizon; Big Star's #1 Record and Radio City; ZZ Top's Fandango and Tejas; the Bar-Kay's Too Hot to Stop, Booker T. & the MGs' McLemore Avenue, and hundreds of other recordings that define the sound and songs of a generation.

A little-known fact to many: Estelle "Lady A" Axton produced the crazy 1977 Rick Dees mega-hit "Disco Duck." And yes, it was mixed on this console!

Thank you, John, for this great donation and ALL of your support.