Michael's thoughts on pro

It's true, tuning has been around forever yet the pro community shy's away from the very thing that makes music "music. I have always questioned this and feel like in order to take music to the next level we need to always be willing to rewrite even reinvent this still young industry of "recording".

Someday "tunable" halls, listening rooms and playback systems will be the way to record and listen. But it's a long road to turn an engineering world's backward thought process that has been pumped into the music industry's head for so long around. Yet from time to time I have people come up to me and say they have never heard anything like being "in-tune". I think this is because I have tried not to get stuck in my thinking.

It's easy to get narrow minded when only focusing in on the numbers game and many in the music industry haven't connected the dots when it comes to the entire process of recording and the follow through to playback. Playback goes way beyond the mastering room, equipment designing and speaker building, and there are many technical pit falls (losing signal) along the way. Creating and listening to the creation of rooms and how they carry the soundwaves and pressure is an absolute must to understanding how to design audio products that allow the end user to hear the "absolute truth" of the music.



above the Hunt Ballroom with MGA PZC technology


below a wide angle of the hall empty



I've always thought that rooms should be designed like musical instruments. The closer we get to keeping the music information intact the more we're going to get on the listening end. For myself being a part of the entire audio chain has taught me how not only music works but how the audio signal works as it converts from one form of energy to the next. Mechanical to acoustical, then to mechanical to electrical, back to mechanical, then acoustical again.

Being acoustical consultant and designer for the music instrument industry helped me to get inside of the instrument makers mind.



Not only does it give a knowledge on the vast sound of materials, but also the key to all audio harmony "tuning". Our world is all about matching material to material and then material to room (space). This special art is the birth of music and it's tuning that carryings the signal's integrity through the musical chain.

I want to be very careful here and paint the picture accurately because this is where much of the disconnect happens between the music signal and the audio pathway. The industry has allowed this world to be separated when it really insn't. There's a very important thread that carries from start to finish. Some how there is a mindset that has become a part of the fiber of this industry that has made it move away from the simplisty of music itself. My life's work has been to make the parts and pieces one, because they are. The same technology that makes a musical instrument make sound is in acoustics and electronics as well. The music pathway and the audio chain are one and use the same energy form "vibration" to function. Take vibration out of the equation and nothing makes sound. No signal can be created without vibration. There has been a lack of understanding and teaching in this area and this has stopped the music industry as a whole from reaching the next level of "the absolute sound". This will reverse itself and when it does we will be much closer to "original sound".

The first step is playing music back in rooms that can reproduce a full range representative of the musical notes.


here's one of my bigger recording rooms



If your room is made of the proper materials it's far easier to tune it. Don't mistake proper with dampening materials either cause this takes you further from the natural harmonic structures that makes musical notes distinctive and individually real. I have spent many years developing materials that reproduce the same musical vibration codes as do the instruments we play. The trick to this is "vibratory range". From the instrument forward I look at creating a range that will allow all instruments and vibratory codes to develope. This is where I pass up the competition. If they are looking to absorb (removing) or diffuse (tearing apart) they cut the range short losing content. I don't seek to lose content but control it. Making it the size, shape and response I want is more musically responsible than to turn the sound into a form of distortion which is what comes from many acoustical techniques.


this particular room will hold 250 voices and full orchestra



here's a view of an MGA room from the above control room


and a view so you can see the tuning screws if you look at the wall closely

Tuning pro rooms for me goes back a while. Steinway and UMI had me tune this room for the Eastman School of music.

the famous classical pianist & string room 209


The RoomTune Pillow product "out performs every acoustical design ever used in room 209 by quite a margin" according to the artist and professors.

The Hit factory used PZC FS for many recordings "I wanted to create the purist sound" VH1 interview with the factory



The room is an extention of the music instrument and playing back the music instrument during the recording should be treated the same as instruments original setting.

RoomTune treatment allows the original voicing to maintain it's sonic signature throughout the audio chain.


The on axis setup at Soundstage only went to the speakers till the RoomTune was installed then the stage went well past the walls in the mastering room.





below one of our clients EMI studio



It's nice to list clients. Saying Warner Bros, Abbey Road, A&M, Capital, Sony and others sounds good on my resume. What sounds better to me though is the creation being playback and the thought that as we research how the signal from start to finish works we can make products that allow even more of the music content to be heard.