Company type | Private |
---|---|
Founded | 2012 |
Founder | Jack O'Donnell |
Headquarters | , United States |
Number of locations | 12 |
Products | Music production equipment |
Owner | Jack O'Donnell [1] |
Website | www |
inMusic Brands, Inc. is an American enterprise that is the parent company for a family of brands of varying audio products used in the DJ, music production, live sound, musical instrument, pro audio, software, stage lighting, and consumer electronics industries. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Cumberland, Rhode Island, with additional offices in Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Japan, and Bulgaria.
In 1992, future inMusic founder and CEO Jack O’Donnell was working as Vice President of Sales at Stanton Magnetics when he learned the assets of Numark Electronics were available for purchase. Founded in Edison, New Jersey in 1971, Numark was among the earliest DJ equipment manufacturers, and responsible for innovations like the first DJ mixer with a built-in sampler (the DM1775) [2] and the first dual-well CD player (the CD-5020). [3] [4] [5] O’Donnell proposed to Stanton management that they should acquire Numark's assets, but they chose not to, and O’Donnell decided to resign from his position at Stanton and purchase Numark himself. [6]
Under O’Donnell's management, Numark recovered and grew, and he found himself looking for new opportunities. In 2001 O’Donnell acquired Alesis, [7] a company that had established itself in the recording market with affordable effects and later the revolutionary ADAT digital tape recorder, as well as drum machines and synthesizers. The following year he introduced the ION Audio brand, focused on entry-level and consumer electronics products. [8]
In 2005, O’Donnell purchased the Akai Professional Musical Instrument division (previously spun off from Akai Electronics). Musical instrument designer Roger Linn has accused that immediately following the acquisition, Akai ceased all royalty payments owed to him, and that O'Donnell sent legal threats warning him away from attempting to collect further royalties. [9] His company additionally acquired DJ software brand Mixmeister in 2007 and Alto Professional in 2010. [10] Despite continuing to sell the product through Numark, development of MixMeister was subsequently abandoned with the last update being v7.7.1 in 2015. [11] [12]
In February 2012 O’Donnell acquired software synthesizer company Sonivox, [13] and in July of the same year, he acquired M-Audio and the AIR Software Group from Avid Technology, Inc. for $17 million. [14] [15]
In April 2014, inMusic acquired Denon DJ, Denon Professional and Marantz Professional from D&M Holdings, who retained the non-professional consumer divisions of those brands. [16]
In August 2015, the company launched a new brand of lighting products, MARQ. [17]
In July 2016, inMusic acquired Rane Corporation. [18]
In 2017, leveraging the legacy of the Akai pedal of the same name, inMusic launched a new line of guitar effects processing products branded HeadRush. [19]
In May 2018, the inMusic company Denon DJ acquired SoundSwitch. [20]
In April 2020, inMusic acquired ROLI's subsidiary FXpansion's drum software instrument BFD. [21] In May of the same year, inMusic acquired Stanton from Gibson Brands. [22] [23]
Digital music technology encompasses the use of digital instruments to produce, perform or record music. These instruments vary, including computers, electronic effects units, software, and digital audio equipment. Digital music technology is used in performance, playback, recording, composition, mixing, analysis and editing of music, by professions in all parts of the music industry.
Akai is a Hong Kong-based manufacturer of consumer electronics. It was established as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo, Japan, in 1946.
Acid Pro is a professional digital audio workstation (DAW) software program currently developed by Magix Software. It was originally called Acid pH1 and published by Sonic Foundry, later by Sony Creative Software as Acid Pro, and since spring 2018 by Magix as both Acid Pro and a simplified version, Acid Music Studio. Acid Pro 11 supports 64-bit architectures, and has MIDI, ASIO, VST, VST3, DirectX Audio, and 5.1 surround sound support.
Marantz is a company that develops and sells high-end audio products. The company was founded in New York, but is now based in California.
The Akai MPC is a series of music workstations produced by Akai from 1988 onwards. MPCs combine sampling and sequencing functions, allowing users to record portions of sound, modify them and play them back as sequences.
Traktor is DJ software developed by Native Instruments. It is also used as a sub-brand for Native Instruments' associated DJ hardware products.
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Alesis is an American company that designs and markets electronic musical instruments, audio processors, mixers, amplifiers, audio interfaces, recording equipment, drum machines, professional audio, and electronic percussion products. Based in Cumberland, Rhode Island, Alesis is an inMusic Brands company.
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Stanton Magnetics, doing business as Stanton, is a business unit of inMusic Brands that designs and markets turntables, cartridges, DJ mixers, DJ media players, and DJ controllers.
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Controllerism is the art and practice of using musical software controllers, e.g. MIDI, Open Sound Control (OSC), joystick, etc., to build upon, mix, scratch, remix, effect, modify, or otherwise create music, usually by a Digital DJ or Live PA performer, often called a controllerist. Controllerism is also a nod to traditional musicianship and instrumentalism paired with modern computer sequencing software such as Ableton Live and Native Instruments Traktor. However, a working knowledge of scales and chords is not necessarily required as the performers typically focus their efforts more on sequencing events, software effects and instrument manipulations using buttons, knobs, faders, keys, foot switches and pedals than on instrumental notes played in real time.
ION Audio is a privately held consumer electronics manufacturer based in Cumberland, Rhode Island, United States. It is part of inMusic Brands. The company was founded in 2002 with the stated aim of providing easy-to-use audio products at an affordable price.
Focusrite PLC is an English music and audio products group based in High Wycombe, England. The Focusrite Group trades under eight brands: Focusrite, Focusrite Pro, Martin Audio, ADAM Audio, Novation, Ampify Music, Optimal Audio and Sequential. Focusrite designs and markets audio interfaces, microphone preamps, consoles, analogue equalizers (EQ) and channel strips, and digital audio processing hardware and software for professional and home studios.
Serato is a music software company founded in 1998 in Auckland, New Zealand by Steve West and AJ Bertenshaw.