Andy Bereza

Andy Bereza was born at Penley Hospital, Wales in 1949^[1] a unique post-WW2 social community, where his father was the medical administrator. He has a younger brother and sister Stanislaw and sister Marysia.^[2]

External video

Oral History, Andy Bereza talks about the first mixer he ever made. Interview date April 14, 2011, NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Oral History Library

Career

After moving to London in his early 20's to study a degree in electronics, he embarked on a notable career as an elecronics engineer.^[3] He built cutting edge audio mixers in partnership with Ivor Taylor for bands such as Pink Floyd, The Who and The Bee Gees. In 1969, he was obliged to recuscitate a loss-making company with the help of "old man Batiste" called Allen & Heath,^[4] which to this day still specialises in the manufacture of audio mixing consoles.

In the early 70's, Andy Bereza formed a company called AB Audio and was responsible for the board used in the live soundtrack recording of the cult movie "A Clockwork Orange".

Portastudio

Andy Bereza's audio engineering career peaked in 1979 with the creation of the Portastudio, finally developed by TASCAM. The Portastudio was a device which enabled artists, for the first time, to carry a "portable studio" around with them. Although today, with digital technology, portable recorders are almost ubiquitous; at the time, the Portastudio revolutionized how artists recorded music. It was the first device that had four inputs for microphones and a tape recorder to record four simultaneous tracks. This meant that musicians, for the first time, could record almost studio quality music whenever and wherever they liked.

Bandive/Turnkey

Consolidating deep conviction in a burgeoning market for musicians desperate for musical cuccess;

Fostex

For 4 years, there was intense development and marketing of a new generation of multitrack recording for Fostex Japan, overshadowing sales of TEAC recording in the 1980's. Once again, being on an incentive program, he was dismissed as being redundant to needs.

Bereza Associates/Mediactive

Having spent many previous years applying his creative talent to marketing rather than product design. affinit for new media grew. A new company,dedicated to producing digital markting products took shape. "Digital Postcards": simple applications which thrust clients products to the forefront of technology; were the order of the day. From 1998 onwards, floppy disks with calculators, databases, product animations etc., were the forerunners of the "apps" phenomenon. Andy Bereza achieved pioneering success with his vision of the future.

Notes

1. ↑ "Growing up at Penley". BBC Wales. Archived from the original on 19 November 2004. Retrieved 30 October 2009. 
2. ↑ "The hospital". BBC Wales. Archived from the original on 26 January 2005. Retrieved 30 October 2009. 
3. ↑ http://google.com/search?q=cache:ljT4iVg9iwQJ:www.bereza.biz/ajb.pdf+andy+bereza&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk Retrieved 30 October 2009.
4. ↑ Pub Genius... Retrieved 30 October 2009.