James Husted

James Husted is a designer and co-founder of Synthwerks. In the early 1970s he studied fine art and drafting at Western Washington University. For course credits he managed the synthesizer studio, which had an Arp 2500, and taught the hardware aspects. After graduating he sold recording equipment and synthesizers, and taught electronic music at The Electronic Music Box, Seattle's only synth store. For about 25 years after that, and for over 60 products he was the graphics department at Symetrix Inc. There he was involved in every aspect of manufacturing from PCB etching and drilling, screen printing, panels, assembly and stock control. He then was the graphic designer at Digital Harmony Technologies Inc, followed by 9 years at Mackie.

His first synth was a EMS VCS3 in 1974. He was in many early electronic music groups in the Seattle area. Later he modified a few Oberheim SEM based systems. His explorations were slowed down by the trend towards single keyboard units and the move to digital, until he found out about Eurorack modular synths and decided to start Synthwerks making synthesizer modules.