Famous Engineering is the global touring outfit, founded by Jonny ‘Famous’ Williams, a FOH sound engineer with a wealth of experience within the entertainment industry. After 20 years of working with some of the world’s most respected performing artists, Jonny has built up a solid reputation and impressive client list to boot.​

Recently clients include Sir Rod Stewart, RAYE, Central Cee and Thundercat, as well as previously serving the likes of Anne-Marie, Freya Ridings, Maribou State, Rita Ora, Wu Tang Clan, Jax Jones, Joel Corry, All Saints, Liam Payne, Stormzy, Kylie, James Arthur etc. The list is fairly extensive and ever growing.

What is the Famous Engineering Audio Performance Engine?

Otherwise known as the Famous A.P.E, it is the world’s most powerful plugin server, specifically optimised for use on live productions.

Why does it exist?

There are only a couple of other plugin servers available that are capable of hosting any VST3 plugin. After repeatedly attempting to use these servers on live productions, and being let down by what they determine as poor build quality, improper testing and a disregard for the importance of having a stable system, it became clear something new was needed.

Upon review of the competitors’ product specifications and price point, it was decided the key aim would be to double the processing power, halve the price and provide confidence to the user.

What makes it better?

It’s not often the people that use these products also get the opportunity to design and build them as well. This is exactly what happened with the Famous A.P.E; designed and engineered by a person that is out on the road and knows the requirements.

What Famous has ended up with is a thoroughly tested plugin server that features dual-redundant power supplies, an optimised cooling system and redundant sync with another Famous A.P.E server.

How was it made better?

The initial prototype was built in to a 19” 2U case, which is also what the competitors utilise with their products. However, whilst doing shows in the Deep South USA, in horrendous heat and humidity, Famous noticed the CPU cores were running extremely hot. On occasion, little ‘clicks’ in the audio were heard and CPU spikes, which is also what they’d noticed in the competitors’ products. Famous attributed this to the unit running too hot, which was confirmed by the processor core temperature monitors.

A re-designed 3U chassis, along with a highly-efficient, fully-optimised cooling system, and 700W PSU ensures the Famous A.P.E will not struggle the same way the competitors do.

Is it ready for the road?

ABSOLUTELY! Famous knows how important it is to have confidence in your equipment, especially when it’s so integral to the show. Failure is not something we accept and so we made sure this thing has been tested to no end.

Famous knows they built something that works and is sturdy, but to make sure it would survive the inevitable fate of being “man-handled” around the world, they sent the Famous A.P.E on a 7-week tour of North America and then a 5-week tour of South America with no means of protection but that of a Pelican 1610, plastic case. Did it sustain any injuries? Not a single one! It was loaded on and off trucks and planes, as well as thrown upside down and sideways by inexperienced local crews, but it returned to the UK in the same condition it left.

Famous also found the most CPU-intensive plugin they could find, the API-based Defeedback plugin by Alpha Labs, and managed to run 22 instances over 12 hours with very minimal sample drops.