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Harry Thumann Musical artist

Harry Thumann (born 28 February 1952; died 2001) was a German electronic composer, record producer and sound engineer. He designed and built groundbreaking synthesizers and studio equipment from the early 1960s onwards.Born Harald Thumann in Germany, he started out as a drummer while getting a thorough grounding in audio engineering in German broadcasting. When touring lost appeal, Thumann put his musical and technical experience to work and started his first recording studio in a bedroom at the family home. Thumann participated in the development of the SSL 4000 series of consoles, and took the first one for this studio. Premises for a permanent studio with live-in accommodation were found in Germering near Munich, and Countrylane Studios were born.Thumann later recognised the potential of MIDI, and used Commodore 64 computers with MIDI cards, controlling a system that evolved into a synthesizer installation including Fairlight II and Moog 3C modular system. This led to a string of albums for Rondò Veneziano, which married both acoustic instruments and synthesizers. Thumann's own second solo album was Andromeda (1982).Thumann had a run of what he called "dog records", under the 'Wonder Dog' name, which received some success in Germany and the UK (through E&S Music). The single, "Ruff Mix", peaked at #31 in the UK Singles Chart in September 1982.With the introduction of the Yamaha DMP-7 digital mixer, Thumann built a second control room housing several DMP-7s as an integrated digital console system, interfaced with a rebuilt Neve broadcast console. Countrylane moved into audio-visual production, and started producing its own telefilms.