They were Aerospace engineers who moved into the design of professional studio equipment for the manipulation and control of sound.

[7] In addition to a range of reverb types, the RMX-16 had a program ("Non Lin 2") which digitally emulated the drum sound of a compressed and gated room microphone, copying the effect used on the Phil Collins recording In the Air Tonight.

[7]) In 1984, AMS released the AudioFile, one of the first 16-bit hard disk based recording systems dedicated to post-production.

[9] In 1988, AMS released Logic 1, the first dynamically configurable, fully automated digital mixing console for professional applications.

In March 2000, Crabtree was the recipient of an Oscar at the Academy Awards for the design and development of the AMS Neve Logic Digital Film Console for motion picture sound mixing.

[10] Crabtree was subsequently awarded a second Oscar in 2004 for "significant contributions to the evolution of digital audio editing for motion picture post production".