When I was a kid I took everything apart; the lawnmower, all the phones in the house, dad’s rangefinder camera, and of course the family stereo. Turns out the only things I was able to actually put back together again were the phones and the stereo.
Many years later, Glenn Phoenix is teaching me how to tune studios at Westlake Santa Monica Blvd. He’s walking around Studio D hooting like a loud prehistoric bird into tape machine doors and every nook and cranny of every rack spacer, DAT machine and lighting can in the studio. At first I wasn’t sure what Glenn was doing, in fact, I had no idea what he was doing. Then suddenly I started to hear it; the ringing…..everywhere. In the tape machine doors, in the rack spacers, in the lighting cans in the ceiling and in every nook and cranny of the room. It was like an unknown part of my ears and brain opened up and this universe of sound poured in like the ocean.
Granted, it was Glenn’s unique ability to hoot at any frequency and at great volume directly into small crevasses that made these acoustical anomalies even audible. But Glenn’s attitude was that even the smallest of acoustic issues can combine into a larger anomaly which can become an audible distraction from the most important element: the content, the sound, the music.
Naturally, the next thing we did was that Glenn made me dampen every rattle, ring and resonance in the Studio. Then, and only then did we start to tune the Mains and the Studio. We started in the early evening and worked until dawn. We meticulously went through every piece of the audio system and every single acoustical element in the studio which could effect the sound to the listener. CD player, cabling, monitor system, amplifiers, more cables, speaker drivers, fasteners, brackets, grommets, crossovers, connectors, and basically every single surface in the entire room. I’d never been so impressed at someone’s knowledge and diversity of skills. He knew how the metal was formed, how the magnetic tape was manufactured, the metallurgy of the connectors, the exact resistance in each turn of a 1% twenty turn potentiometer, how the drivers vibrated in the cabinet, how the high frequency was effected by a wood horn and how every piece of the studio reacted acoustically when sound bounced off it. Most importantly, he knew how all these elements created an acoustic environment which dramatically or minutely sculpted the sound of the room.
I was hooked. In one night, I had the epiphany that Acoustics was not just Fun, it was absolutely Intoxicating. Breathtakingly inspiring.
Music is a Joyous thing. Recording Studios are a thing of wonder. The physical world in which we track, mix, master and listen in has the ability to make it sound ecstatic or painful. Every angle, seam, outlet, lamp, table, tile, VU meter or surface of any kind is part of the rubik’s cube mosaic that makes the sound come to life in a room. Put material science, random number generators and dark matter into a blender and make a captivating, multicolored painting. It’s the most complex jigsaw puzzle with moving parts with the most incredible payback when it’s done: Music so Beautiful and Life Like that you truly feel like you’re there, hanging out with the musicians while they play. What a phenomenal feeling.
This is the world of Acoustics. Fun beyond measure, creativity un-restrained, aesthetically boundless, deeply rooted in science and just like Moore’s Law and Electronics; endlessly innovative.
Peace, – H
Studio D | Westlake Recording Studios
Studio D Control Room | Westlake Recording Studios
Michael Jackson recording in Studio D | Westlake Recording Studios
Studio D Live Room | Westlake Recording Studios