Acoustician and studio designer Eddie Veale has been honoured with an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of West London.

The award recognises Veale’s contributions to the audio industry and his commitment to educating the next generation of acousticians and sound engineers.

In addition to designing some of the UK’s most loved studios he has been responsible for pioneering the first professional home studio in Europe, introducing the Moog and ARP synthesisers to Europe, creating the “compression” ceiling to improve control room bass response and creating the first presenter driven commercial radio station.

More recently Veale has been working in education designing state-of-the-art facilities for the university students.

His work can be seen at The University of West London where, together with his team from Stevenage-based Veale Associates, he created professional recording, post production studios, professional radio studios, an ensemble area within Pillars restaurant, the acoustic and finishes for Weston Hall (loved by the English Chamber Orchestra), together with several other projects.

Veale’s award was presented by Dr. Andrew Bourbon of the London School of Music.

Said Bourbon: “We teach our students to cherish the music and look after the music so we can all enjoy fantastic music and Eddie is one of the great pioneers who have allowed us to do this. Nowadays when we want something new we just buy it, but when Eddie started his career if you wanted something new you had to invent it. It is this inspiration that plays such an enormous part in the lives of our students. Eddie is such an inspiration and inspires us to keep pushing forward and sharing great music.”

Veale added: “I am honoured to receive such recognition for my services to the audio industry. It’s been one heck of a ride! I am pleased that we have helped the university to rise up the rankings with our recent work and I would like to congratulate all the students here on their hard work and achievements and now urge them to go and do what they are passionate about, and above all to enjoy it“.

Veale’s career started in 1960 working on noise control in passenger aircraft for De Havillandmoving to Advision.

A chance meeting with John Lennon resulted in Veale designing and building the UK’s first professional home recording studio at Tittenhurst Park where John recorded his legendary Imagine album, and which Eddie worked on.

As one of the UK’s most influential studio designers, Veale is responsible for the private studios of George Harrison, Gus Dudgeon, Eric Clapton, Mike Oldfield and many others.

Veale was a speaker at the most recent PSNPresents, which was held in central London on Tuesday 6 June.