Epicentrum's Primary Four-way Stack, consisting (top to bottom) of an EHF high frequency unit, an EMB mid-range bin and two EBR bass bins.

After The Fire are an up-and-coming British band whose keyboard player, Pater Banks, has a special interest in amplification. While sharing the same musical role as his probably better known namesake in Genesis, ATF's Peter Banks wears a quite different hat offstage. For he's the director of a sound company called Epicentrum, and as such he's one of the increasing number of professional musicians who have diversified into the equipment design and manufacturing field.

The remarkable thing about Epicentrum speaker systems is that they're truly modular - each unit with its particular componants designed to perform specific functions, being housed in an identical box - and this idea has a number of advantages which is making Epicentrum an increasingly well-known name among newcomers in the PA field.

But more of that later. When I met Peter a little while ago, it was the idea that he, as a musician, had moved successfully into the equipment business while managing to retain his full-time status as a musician, that had grabbed me. I asked him how it came about.

"It started with the way it often does - doing a bit of home building. I and the other guys in the band I was in at the time started cutting down the size of some of the cabinets we had ... to begin with we were mainly modifying secondhand cabinets for other people. Later, another band I was in needed some monitors and and I designed some cardboard models to test out my ideas."

The ideas were obviously spot-on - Epicentrum still uses that original design for its current moniters. Incidentally, Peter wasn't born with a book on acoustics in his band - in case you're wondering - he does have a degree in physics.

"The third stage came when I met up with a guy doing a musical instrument technology course and we decided to combine my design ideas with his practical knowledge."

From there they were offered a 'reasonable' PA hire contract and they built the PA so they could take up the contract. But it wasn't long before they able to phase out the hire side and with capital accumulated, they were able to set up a proper marketing and retailing organisation. Epicentrum was registered as a company in May 1975 and began full time trading the same November, so the company is just about to celebrate it's second anniversary.

Two years, you may say, is not an awfully long time to have been going and, in the rather crowded world of amplification and PA system manufacture, no sure guarantee of long term prospects. So what exactly has made it possible for the company to create the response it has?

"You have to find your own little niche: you have to know just what you're doing",

is the answer. And that little niche is, of course, the modular system.

"You have what is basically a flight case, covered with glass-fibre resin,"

Peter explains.

"Features of the cabinet design are a lid which fits on the front and locks in place with butterfly catches. There's one flip handle, a bar handle in one corner cutaway and castors in the other."

The accent is on compactness, portability, acoustic performance and, to top it all, good looks. Features that, from other PA designs, you would rather tend to assume are not compatible! Because each unit is housed in a flight case, it tends to be more expensive than a regular bin, though by no means overpriced.

"I think we appeal to people who want to spend carefully but can afford just a little more ... people who're looking for quality. At the same time we're always very well disposed towards full-time or aspiring bands, and the same with discos and hire companies."

Prospective customers without too much to spend can start with just a couple of 1x12 units and, failing that, the company offers a complete componant service for people who want to build their own units.

"We don't sell empty cabinets but we do sell compatible componants. We advise people where to look for the the other things they'll need, and we will also advise on the type of loading."

The accent seems to be on giving as much help as possible and, says Peter, that approach pays off particularly with younger customers, of whom Epicentrum has a fair amount.

As you've probably gathered, the size and construction of the modules are guaranteed to keep the roadies happy - each one is only 3ft high, 18 inches wide and 20 inches deep and a typical rig - the so called Primary Four-way Stack - would consist of four such modules stacked on their sides (presenting a relatively small frontal area of 6x3ft).

But what about keeping the sound engineer happy? Well, acoustically, the designs aim for maximum clarity and very good dispersion by using reflex bass, direct-radiating mid-band and compression-driven horns on top. A couple of percent of bass horn efficiency has been willingly sacrificed in preference for the uncoloured and even dispersion of reflex loading.

And the best thing, from the small band's point of view, is that you can start with a small system and add as you can afford to. The Epicentrum System 4, for example, consists of one EBR bass module (two 12 inch ATC drivers handling up to 300 watts) and one high frequency EHF (one Peavey Spider 22 and two Beyma tweeters). Add another EBR and an EBM mid-range bin (ATC drivers) and you've converted your small but good quality rig into the 1,000 watt-handling Primary Four-way Stack. And so it goes on ... everything modular, everything compatible.

There's a whole range of other equipment and you can see a lot of it in use at any After The Fire gig. In fact I wondered if Peter got up and did a hard sell to their audiences. The answer was no, certainly not, but quite a few people have shown an interest in the sound system and been pleasantly surprised to learn that it comes from within the band.

And the whole thing started because Peter needed to augment his income from music in some way. Although Epicentrum will now function as a company without Peter's constant presence, he says without the band it wouldn't exist and without Epicentrum, the band couldn't continue.

Personally, the idea of getting one's PA from a company which is run by musicians appeals considerably to me - after all it's usually the poor old muso's who suffer in the end if the sound system isn't up to scratch. An interesting application of the old maxim: if you want something done properly, do it yourself!