 Hi, I'm Ian Robinson, managing director of Blackstar Amplification in the UK, and I'm Laurent Vignole, the R&D director. Something we've been aware of, probably a trend over the last four or five years, something like that. There's been guitarists looking for more portable, more flexible solutions for their amplification. There's been kind of a growth in the category that people call amp replacement. There was a lot of discussion around what would be the best solution for people, and the thing about amp replacements is that they're in the traditional, traditional amp replacements are quite technical, and they don't actually have an amp in them, and we wanted to do something that was perhaps simpler, more intuitive, but also gave you that feel of using a real amp, which is so combining the two things really, which was giving the convenience and the flexibility of some of the floor-mide digital processors, but with the ease of use of something simpler and with a real amp in it that delivered the actual tone and feel of a proper valve amp. So that's why we felt that it was a good way to go for us. That's funny, I mean every single product that we do, it takes ages and ages to get the name, and every time we do it, marketing at the beginning of the project, we should be like 18 months, you say right, you always say it as well. We need to know the name as soon as possible so that we can get the panels done, and the handbooks and all that stuff, and it always ends up that, quite often ends up that it takes the full 18 months for us to decide on the name. Myself and Paul, we still are involved very much in this, and that was one where we were just absolutely struggling to find a name, and it just, for me, I think it might have been, I was at home and I was texting Paul about some ideas, and it was really just amp-pedal, because it was an amp-pedal, and I thought it just sounds like the obvious thing to do. Amped, I thought it sounded cool, so it was kind of my idea to do that, and the reason it's amped one is because we knew that there was more than one product, and that they were all for very, very different types of users, so it's like amped one, amp-pedal one, it was that simple, and yeah, we thought it was a cool name, exactly what it says on the tin, that's what it did, and it seems to be really popular, so we're happy with that. Yeah, the design process is the same for any product we do, so we do some technical research at the start, and then we define the product in its specification, or the product in the range, and then after that we develop the product, once we've defined the specification we know how much it costs, how it looks, all the features, and all the accessories that go with it, and then we've done the product design team. Yeah, I think this was, it was one of those where, when we were brainstorming the ideas, we start using, start with the white board, in terms of once we've identified there's a market requirement, we'll start with a blank white board, and then we'll get the, you know, like the products team together, and on the surface of it, I think, you know, we wanted to use our existing digital platform, you know, which we've used since ID series, Silverline, ID Core, and we already have a lot of expertise in Valve and Solid-State power amps, so on the surface of it, putting the two things together was not, it was made sense because it shouldn't be too problematic, but I think putting together something very loud and great sounding, that's very reliable and robust in such a small package, that was, actually became the biggest challenge of all, and integrating in the same physical area, the digital part of the system, and the analog part of the system was a big part. And on benchmark was the HD Club 40, so we want to say, can we have something that sounds as good as the HD Club 40 in a small pedal format? So we use the HD Club 40 for all the listening tests, and for all the setting up of all the levels and everything, for determining all the rails, for the power amp power supply. So we had an HD Club 40, and we basically looked at the output of the power amp, because we wanted to measure that and model that exactly right, and then from that, we were buffering and putting it to the Silverline power amp, and then we did some measurement about what the rails need to be, so we got the variac, so we can adjust the voltage. But the rails, that kind of controls the amount of power, so that's the power supply, you can't go, effectively, you can't go above the power supply here, so that set the overall volume. The control volume, let's say 70 volts, and then we did a lot of A-B test, so we measure all the curves with an addictive load, so an addictive load is like a speaker, but without the sound, so it's got all the model of the resonance and the presence of the loudspeaker impedance, and then so we matched on a resistive load, we matched an addictive load, and when everything was matching really well between our HD Club 40 and our prototype, then we did lots of listening tests. Because, I mean, valve power is what everybody's after, you know, that's the kind of Shangri-La in terms of power and performance, and HD Club 40, for us, has a proven chart record of like, it's 10 years, at least 10 years old, maybe 12, that that's been delivering on stages all around the world, so we knew if we could get the same perceived volume and feel as a Club 40, then there'd never be any problem in a live scenario with a live drum kit, and we did test with a live drum kit as well when we got the Sony State setup, one of the first things we did was put it against a bass, a big bass rig, and against a live drum kit and make sure that it reacted in the same way as a valve amp as well. With current feedback, so it's something that we've been using for years in all design, so basically a valve power stage has got some, what's called an output impedance, and then it basically behaves differently depending on which cab you put in, so every time you change your cab, then the response will be slightly different because of the power transformer and the impedance of the valve, so we will produce that in kind of Sony State circuitry with the help of current feedback, and then we can tune the current feedback to make sure that in 8 ohm or 16 ohm, it delivers still the 100 watt, so the voltage will be lower because the impedance is smaller than the wattage calculation, it's like mathematical model really. Yeah, this current feedback thing, it's kind of been around forever in terms of electronics, so it's like you can find it probably in valve textbooks back in the day, or very old Sony State textbooks, but it's first real musical instrument application in volume was actually Marshall Val State back in the day, and Bruce, our founder, technical director, actually worked on the very original current feedback application back in 1980 something or other, and then every other people used it, but after that, they popularized it, Bruce helped popularize that, and then that was used by everybody else in the industry as it were, but I think it's interesting that it's kind of an idea, Bruce thought about using current feedback on a class D power amp earlier, and he never kind, we never got around to it, and then I think it was Roboos like one of our main engineers, he picked up that, the thing that's a little bit unique for us is that we use this, we use the application of current feedback, but around a class D, what's called a class D power amp, and it works out really well, so in a way the way the power works, it's a combination of the ID series, a TVB patent, and something more traditional using current feedback, it's both things, isn't it, put together, so it's kind of unique, that power amp's got loads going on in it, so it's not just an analog circuit, not just a current feedback circuit, it's also got a load of augmentation for the voice control from the digital circuit as well, so yeah, probably the most advanced power amp of its type around. Yeah, and going back to Bruce Keogh, which was augmented, and there are so many things, the approach we've got is always very scientific, so we measure, we model things, and then we listen to you know, which is the chair and the cake when it sounds exactly as we want, but everything is carefully checked and designed, and we want to make sure we understand every single little detail about everything, so that's why it takes time to develop as well. For me, it's always two sides really, one is the guitarist requirement, the artist requirement, which is actually we're mostly guitarists, and we get a lot of feedback from external. It's that, the other half is our internal technical and creative discussions about products, because all the time we're trying to drive forward with new ideas, new ways of doing stuff, and that's where the magic happens, isn't it really, it's talking to people, looking at how people use equipment, what the requirement is, but then just as equal as important is us having internal conversations and always trying to push the benchmark forward in terms of innovation, and that's the bit that we find excited. Yeah, it's the most exciting part, the more creative part, I mean the human-centered design is super important, because at the end of the day we design product for our customers, and we want them to be really happy with the experience, they like it, and innovation is interesting as well, because it's not because something has been done in a particular way before, they can only be improved, so we have quite a lot of young guys and with bright ideas and plus some less young but with a lot of knowledge, and then when you combine the two, you've got some sparking discussions, and then we always think it would be cool if we could do that, and then some people think well actually we can't do that, but we need to change that, and so we change the design, and we've got what we call the stage two process, where really there is a research phase where we prove that we can do the technology before we implement into a design phase, so that's really important at research side. Laurent and I have worked together for 26 years, and yeah we met at Marshall, and actually we had a joining offices, and I started one day before you didn't I? Yeah, back in 1995. Back in 1995, so I always teased Laurent that I was the senior partner, although but that's not true at all, and yeah we were super lucky, so both of us graduates, and then you were in the UK on some, were you doing your masters or what? I was doing the water acoustics at Lofboro, and one of our friends said oh look, they're looking for somebody to play guitar, do acoustics, and electronics, that's you, isn't it? I said oh my god, yeah so yeah, so we actually, we worked together for eight years at Marshall, and then when we left to start BikeStar you stayed there, and you carried on very successfully as R&D manager at Marshall, and then when we started the company, you know, we got going and then we were desperate to find a, you know, what we wanted was a really technical person who was happy to manage, and that's really difficult to find, and Laurent's ethics and the things that I think inspire him around innovation and, you know, like doing the right thing and being very technically minded rather than the Geruism, because we were both taught by Bruce, we speak exactly the same language technically, and yeah so it was like a dream come true to get Laurent on board and you've been with us, nine and a half years now? Nine and a half years, so yeah, you've probably done, I don't know if you've done as many products for Blackstar as you did for Marshall, but I guess between us, how many products have we put to market between us? 200? At least, at least maybe more. Yeah, and I'm going back again to Bruce, the reason why we were so lucky is that the guy that recruited us, Bruce Keer, was a mentor, he's like, he was a genius in electronics and that's the best thing we could have wished for, is starting on our career with somebody that was so focusing on engineering and practices and, yeah, so in terms of like the development of R&D Blackstar, it's absolutely fundamental to what we do, and when we started, the four of us, it was like me and Bruce in the garden shed, and then Paul was doing a lot of the ID, Richard was building the product, you know, on the patio in the back garden, and then as we formalized that, we've been very lucky to build a full R&D team here, so we have mechanical engineers, we have software engineers, we have hardware engineers, so we've built a really, really amazing team now, Laurent heads up the team, and for us, we're really trying to integrate all the disciplines together to be as efficient as possible, I think. That's right, we have a quite a team of very clever people, and then we're trying to make sure that they focus on engineering issues, and then we, yeah, we get the mix of talent combining to each other. Part of the secret as well is that we also, our kind of extended team, we have two great manufacturing partners in China, and we're constantly, you know, friends and partners, and what we do is we very much have an attitude of, we get involved them right at the beginning of the design as soon as possible, because we want to make sure that we're using efficiently using the components and materials that they have readily available, so right at the beginning there's always a conversation around, you know, what bits have you got, what should we be using, what should we be sharing, because we don't, for many, many reasons, we don't want to be constantly sourcing, using new stuff, if they're using stuff already, then, you know, in terms of components, then we would tend to try and use what they do and have that discussion early in the design. Well, we have a very extensive process of testing that covers everything from heat test, entrance test, drop test, EMC capabilities, and yeah, we have like 16 stages of testing and we've got a room downstairs, which we call the entrance testing room, where product are being left for weeks and weeks and weeks for last, you know, to make sure that we have not tested at least six or more products. Sometimes we call it the amp torture room, like people visit us. And we are refurbishing it, we will test more things in parallel elements. So, yes, and it's all monitored by computers, so that if something goes wrong during the development process, we can go back on the recordings and find out exactly in which order things died and stuff like that. So, yeah, we spend so much time, I mean, that's coming from Ian's philosophy, where before we used maybe to test stuff at what we thought was acceptable, we test it now to a level where it's got to be the hottest stage in Mexico for a concert that's going to be going for how we can, where people are playing music all the time and have tiny little breaks, you know, so we're trying to push all our products to a level of endurance that is never going to be achieved, knowing that when people are in the field, they're not going to be fine. Do you know how there's a funny story on that, is I wonder if this is the reason why we're so bloody strict. One is Bruce was really, really strict, so, you know, every single power component is rated at sort of twice the power rating, so if it's dissipating half a watt, we'll specify one watt, so what it basically means, it extends the lifetime of the product and things don't go pop. But funny story, when I was in a band in Manchester, I like a bit of reverb and the JCM 800 didn't have any reverb, so I had an effects loop fitted, I don't know if you know about this, and effects loop fitted by a local engineer, who did a brilliant job. Apart from, it broke down twice in gigs, and it was a serial effects loop, so when it was a loose connection, so I think I had some kind of effects process in the loop, when that broke I basically got that sort of on-off thing happening during the gig. I think I might have had a spare amp, but it's pretty horrible, and maybe that just burnt something into my mind that you never ever want to be in that position where your live and your equipment goes down, because it's just horrible, most horrible feeling. The other thing for us on reliability, really important, you got a kid opens their present at Christmas, or you know, you're presenting a product with them, it's unacceptable for us to have one product not work, because that's their dream, and that's what they're doing, and it means so much to them, and we all know what it feels like to get something, and it's not right, and for us I think because guitar amps and guitars and all that, it's such an emotional thing for people, we don't want people to have a negative experience, and it's not for commercial reasons, it's just because we know how that feels, so it is really really important for us that whole reliability piece is massive. Tony innovation and reliability are the three cornerstone, really. We've tested, and there is a saying that it's going to be all right in the end, if it's not all right it's not the end, you know, so it's got to be correct. That's a brilliant thing about Blackstar as well, I think is the guys who own it, a guitarist, and we own it, so we can say we don't want to, we're not going to put it out until it's right, and me and Paul are extremely pedantic about that, and sometimes it's not the best thing to do personally and commercially, but we just, we just have to get it right, and that's the brilliant about working the wrong is exactly the same philosophy. I think part of the reason why we we chose like the ID series Silverline power amp as the as the basis for amp was that it's got some amazing short circuit protection, hasn't it, which Bruce designed in the original ID series, and it's kind of crazy, so you can have the thing running full blast, and you can short circuit the output with a crot lead, and it will just close down without any problems, and you can do it repeat, please don't do this at home, but you can, if you do short circuit that, that product, then it's still very, very reliable, and we did a lot of work, as you say, it's quite a compact unit, we did an awful lot of work on heat, and also because it's on stage, you've just got to be careful around moisture as well, but as Laurent said, we test for all those things, kind of to the end of the degree, you know, we test all our products at plus and minus voltages, you know, he mentioned about the Mexico stage, well the way you do that is you wind the variac effectively, but then the amount of testing that we do, and the test signals that we use are really, really extreme, they're quite metal, but yeah, they're pushing it to way beyond the point of a normal band situation, but you know, the idea is that none of them ever break, and they, you know, when we design an amp 1, 2 or if there's any more of them, then our plan is that they never break down, so they're not designed to work for five years, and then go, oh no, the battery doesn't work, or you know, the stuff you might get in consumer electronics, they're designed to work forever. I have very few electronics, and there is a 10% chance sometimes you can have a component failure somewhere, so it's like, when you say never, never, ever, it's, yeah, sometimes it does, isn't it? Yeah, but not for my design. Yeah, absolutely, so we don't just design a new bit of technology for the sake of doing it. If we have something that works, we reuse it. I think also, what tends to happen is when you reuse something in a new design, you're inevitably having to tweak it, because no two designs are ever exactly the same, so it's, it's silver line, but we needed the current feedback to allow the different impedance selections automatically, but that's really important for us is to, is to use the same technology if it's proven. Yeah, always. Yeah, mate, you're right, I mean, we're designing with, we're designing with 26 years' heritage, including our Marshall Times, taught by Bruce, who'd been at Marshall 15 years, and, you know, and at Marshall we were very fortunate to have all that heritage behind us as well. The great thing about the way that we were taught right from the beginning is it doesn't matter if it's digital, it doesn't matter if it's analog, it doesn't matter if it's solid state or hybrid, the product's got to be reliable and sound amazing. The technology's, it's some degree kind of irrelevant, so that's the way that we've always approached it really, it's the right tools for the job, really. Yeah, and Ampuan is interesting because all the paramodelling is all done digitally. The, the param inside is to deliver the power at the right impedance, you know. So, so there's a lot of work that was done on silver line that, that is used in Ampuan, so you could, you could say that's, Ampuan is a bit of a silver line in a different form factor.