AMT Electronics

About AMT Electronics

AMT Electronics was established by Sergei Marichev, a Russian electronic engineer. In the Soviet Union during the East-West standoff, Sergei Marichev, who, however, was not a musician, was interested in the electronic instruments rarely coming from the West, and one day borrowed a Mini-Moog synthesizer from his friend to be made absolutely fascinated with its ingenious circuit configuration. Since then, he had continued to study for creating the synthesizer equivalent to the moog by use of parts made in the Soviet Union taking time out from his day job in his workroom.

Before long, he completed a replica of the Mini Moog. This led him to be commissioned to produce synthesizes by people who knew its good reputation, and then he started to sell the effectors for guitar through the distribution channels. In 1987, the Soviet Union was disintegrated and the Russian Republic was established, allowing an individual to start a company, so Marichev officially started a musical instrument manufacturing with the company's name called Asia. At that time, Asia manufactured guitar effectors, electronic drums, MIDI converters for drum and so on.

In 1991, Asia changed the company's name to Asia MT (Asia Music Technology), putting the guitar effectors at the center of the manufactured items. Their technique and originality had grown to an extent the same as that of the West by then, and their products had been used by many Russian musicians. The reason why the Asia MT products were not distributed out of the territory of the former Soviet Union may only be due to human capacity.

In 2001, Asia MT changed the name to AMT Electronics, and begun entering into the capitalism bloc. This allowed them to get the latest technology and parts from Europe and the United States, significantly accelerating the development of the products. This led to the born of the unique guitar effectors one after another as has never been seen in Europe, and much attention was attracted at the NAMM Show in North America and at the Musikmesse in Frankfurt. They also got agents for their products in countries to worldwide distribute the AMT pedals.

Additionally, as relations with European countries and the United States were forged, to AMT had gathered the skilled electronics engineering technicians, programmers and circuit designers. In 2004, they released the products with a new concept of a fusion of analog and digital. Among them the AMT MATRIX introduced at the Musikmesse in 2005 was the one representing supreme technical achievement of AMT in which a digitally controllable analog effector is built in PCMCAI-card.

They also got feedback from professional musicians using the AMT products to further improve the sound quality as well as durability and reliability. Sergei and his son, an engineer, Yan Marichev established AMT Electronics USA as a corporation in the U. S. and today continue efforts to disseminate the sound AMT creates to a wider world. Now, the quality and originality of the AMT products are recognized and used habitually by many musicians including Mattias Eklundh, Toshi Iseda, Brian Nutter (Keith Urban), Martin Haglund (Astral Doors) and Joe Walla.