Steve Nider, Silverfish Audio
In this episode, I am joined by Steve Nider formerly of Silverfish Audio, which went on to become Sound Image, one of the largest sound companies in the world. After my last episode with Greg Price, I shared a photo he sent me, of a Pablo Cruiz show in 1978 with Silverfish Audio. The console at the time was a custom-built Ashly, with features like 4 band parametric EQ on every output, LED metering, and adjustable crossovers built into the desk. These features on a console were unheard of at the time. Ashly made very few consoles before realizing the economics of it were not great, so they shifted focus to dedicated outboard gear only. Silverfish Audio was one of the few companies to have these consoles.
Based in Rochester, NY Nider was in the right place at the right time and kind of "fell into the business" at a young age. SivlerFish Audio also located in Rochester started in 1971 and moved to San Diego in 1978, during that time they had 3 touring systems for artists like Jimmy Buffet, Bonnie Raitt, Pablo Cruise, Jackson Brown, and more.
Jump in now and hear Steve's journey in and out of the touring world along with some fun stories along the way.
Ashly 16X4 monitor console at a Silverfish Audio gig
Joel Silverman mixing for Bonnie Raitt on a Ashly parametric audio console
Steve Nider mixing monitors on a Ashly parametric console with custom stage-boxes built by Silverfish Audio.
Steve Nider, Joel Silverman, Andy Anderson
Pablo Cruise in 1978, Idaho Arena. Siverfish Audio system
Silverfish Audio proprietary speaker system
Steve Nider mixing monitors for Bonnie Raitt on a Ashly Parametric console
Ashly Consoles
Images, titles, and notes from Bill Thompson
Northeastern mixer - 1976
This mixer was the first built in a case designed by Ron Rothe. This mechanical design was modular and easily customized, it worked well, and was used in all future custom mixers.
Notheastern mixer module
A module from the Northeastern mixer. Input modules each contained 4 channels.
Eastern Sound Service mixer
A mixer built for Eastern Sound Service of Long Island, NY. This was very similar to the Northeastern mixer.
Jesus Christ Superstar mixer
This 32 input mixer was built for a roadshow production of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar in 1976.
Sound Image 32 input mixer - 1979
We built several mixers for Sound Image in San Marcos, CA. This 32 input mixer built in 1978 was later expanded to 40 inputs. It traveled all over the world with Jimmy Buffet, Emmy Lou Harris, and Jackson Browne.
Sound Image monitor mixer
We built two of these monitor mixers for Sound Image. They were used as companions to the 32-40 input house mixers.
Internal view of Sound Image mixer
An internal view of the Sound Image mixer showing the modular construction and flat cable interconnect.
1981 Sound Image Mixer
In 1981 we built our last big custom mixer, again for Sound Image. This was very similar to the 32 input mixer built a couple of years earlier but was delivered with all 40 inputs.