TLA impressed in South Beach: Dave Malekpour of Augspurger® Monitors interviews Grammy Winning mixer Tom Lord Alge about South Beach Studios recent addition of Augspurger® Duo 15 main monitor system into Studio A.

The basis of the design goes back over 30 years, yet there’s no shortage of professional studios and artists that continue to rely on Augspurger® monitors. Along with venerable old names like Neve and Neumann, Augspurger® has never stopped being the sonic standard in the world’s best studios. In the past year alone, a dozen of music’s A-List producers and artists have chosen Augspurger® monitoring environments to make their critical creative decisions. It’s a testament not only to Augspurger’s® timeless design, where power and precision meet, but to the modern Augspurger® company’s ability to evolve and adapt to the changing landscape of pro audio. Artists appreciate the big Augspurger® sound, coupled with the vast DSP tunability of their new generation of systems. LA’s recording scene has always been Augspurger®  equipped, and that trend continues to grow. Recently, Snoop Dogg’s massive Beach City Studio complex in Inglewood was completed and fitted with three Augspurger® systems. The A Room, which Snoop has dubbed “The Mothership,” rocks one of Augspuger’s most powerful systems, known as the Quattro 10K for its four 15′s pushing 10,000 watts, atop dual 2X18” subwoofers. B has a pair of 2X15 Classics, and the smaller C room has the new Solo 12MF with 2X12 subs.

DOGGSpurgers! Snoop and the Augspurger® Quattro 10K system at Beach City.

Elsewhere in LA, Mega-producer Rafa Sardina, winner of 12 Grammy’s and counting, arranged for the Grammy Award voting committee (of which he is a member) to use an Augspurger®v Duo 8 system with 1X12 subs to listen to, evaluate and judge all the nominated tracks for this past year’s Grammy Awards. Sardina wanted to insure that the judges experienced the music with full clarity, dynamics and depth. The listening sessions took place at Village Recorders in Hollywood in the fall of 2015. After the Grammy committee was done (and impressed) with them, Sardina insisted that the monitors move permanently to his beautiful home studio near LA. He is now using the Augspurger® system to mix everything from film music to rock to latin pop.Mali-Beauty! Gibbs Duo 8 with 1X12 subs finished in a hand-rubbed cherry.High atop Malibu, veteran film composer Richard Gibbs has upgraded his stunning Woodshed Studio with a Duo 8 MiniMain 3-way system. Among the many artists who tracked with the Gibb’s Augspurgers® was Coldplay and their engineer Rik Simpson, who used his very own set of Duo 8s to mix the chart-topping 2015 album, “A Head Full of Dreams.”Cobb at the Console: RCA Studio A now rocks Augspurger® Duo 12′sSpeaking of Grammys, Nashville-based roots producer Dave Cobb has been pulling in Golden Gramophones by the handful for his work with breakout artist Chris Stapleton and alt-country veteran Jason Isbell. In a world of formulated Nashville pop, Cobb is the producing power behind the new gang of Outlaws, including Sturgill Simpson and Shooter Jennings, who are dedicated to bringing the twang back in to Country. Cobb was recently granted “Producer in Residence” status at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A, originally designed in the 1960s by Chet Atkins. Cobb’s first act upon moving in to the studio was to install a pair of Augspurger® Duo 12 Mains with 1X18 subs. The purchase was made through Chad Evans at Vintage King Nashville. Because he does the majority of his work with Atlantic Records, Cobb had used the Duo 12s in various Atlantic rooms around the country, and has come to rely on them. Atlantic now owns SEVEN Augspurger® systems in NY, Atlanta and Nashville.In another neighborhood of Music City, rock-pop studio owner and producer Brandon Metcalf worked through Vintage King to outfit his South X Sea Studios with TWO Duo 8 MiniMain systems. The A room system had 1X12 subs and the B room uses the Duo 8 Mains without subs, pointing to the fact that even as a two way system, the Duo 8′s low end is capable of producing 30hz.

Mix Magazine has once again released its annual “Class Of” roundup. Two of the exciting new rooms featured this year are outfitted with Augspurger® main monitor systems, as implemented by Dave Malekpour of PAD Group, Hanover, MA.WEST: First up is multi-Grammy winner Rafa Sardina’s private studio, Afterhours. Sardina’s is among finest and most well-equipped private rooms in LA, with all high-end and vintage gear, centered around an SSL Duality. Knowing he needed the most precision monitoring possible within a tight space, Sardina chose an Augspurger® Duo 8 three-way active system with Sub 12s. The modest-footprint monitors, with gorgeous Tiger Maple baffles, provide Afterhours with 2500 watts of pure Augspurger® power and unequalled performance. Duo-8’s width and depth of soundstage is essential for Sardina’s orchestral film-score work.

Rafa’s Room: Close-up of Sardina’s Augspurger® Duo 8 monitors.

EAST: Next in the Class of ’17 is NYC’s new Penthouse Studios, located just one block north of Times Square in the Quad Studios complex. It’s on the top floor; naturally! The Penthouse project was designed and equipped from the ground up entirely by Dave Malekpour and PAD Group. The room is built around Augspurger® Duo 15V-S218 mains finished in high-gloss Arctic Whiteauga. The system boasts a whopping 5Kw of pristine, punchy Augspurger® DSP-controlled power. “Penthouse Manny,” as it’s being called, has instantly become one of New York’s hottest tracking and mixing suites.

Penthouse Power: The control room featuring a 5Kw Augspurger® Duo 15 Sub 218 system.

The Legion of Boom – a.k.a. the vaunted defense for the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks – was just in town. During their stay in New York City, a visit to Quad Recording Studios’ newly renovated Studio Q1 would have been most appropriate.That’s because things most definitely go “boom” in this Midtown facility’s flagship production studio, which was recently redesigned to make additional space for its high-end clientele. And while they were at it, Quad partners Ricky Hosn and Alessio Casalini have made one of New York City’s loudest rooms even louder.[caption id="attachment_407" align="aligncenter" width="520"] Bigger, badder, LOUDER — the upgraded Q1.[/caption]Making SpaceFeedback was positive when Q1 launched in 2011, but not overwhelmingly so. The control room provided world-class acoustics, a strong Augspurger® sound system, and attracted artists including Mary J. Blige, A$AP Rocky, Wale, NeYo, Sara Bareilles, Travis Scott and Elle Varner among others. But at just 320 square feet, its original design proved to be too compact for star artists and producers that required room for their entourage — or simply to stretch out on the couch.For the next phase, Quad recruited noted studio designer John Storyk (Electric Lady, Jungle City) of Walters-Storyk Design Group. The remit: maximize available real estate, then pump up precision and power while he was at it.“The concept behind Q1 is building a studio with the producer in mind,” Hosn says. “Everything here is within arm’s reach. It’s a large format room, but the same time one person can run the ship with an easy workflow.”Between the Avid ICON control surface (which remains), the gear-packed producer’s desk in the back (which doesn’t), and frequent clients like 6’7” rapper J. Cole, there simply wasn’t sufficient square footage for work to get comfortably done. Following the update, however Q1 now has breathing room, due to some major tweaks. First off, Storyk oversaw a one-foot pushback of the rear wall, followed by the installation of a custom Storyk back wall diffusor. In addition, the contents of the old producer’s desk were split off into two new custom Storyk-designed racks on either side of the ICON. The result: creation of the much need legroom in the back area, as well as allowing for the addition of a couch, providing a “chill” factor that didn’t previously exist in the room.“It seems like it would be easy, but we had to rewire about five miles of cable,” notes Casalini. “We were pleasantly surprised it hit no problems whatsoever, but that’s because the wiring was done right the first time – that makes it a lot easier. Everything is on DL’s, so the hardest part is tearing down the soffits and getting everything out. These cables are heavy, and when you have 10 snakes together and you’re trying to pull each one individually, that’s the tedious part!”Awesome Augspurger®One listen to the room’s recharged Augspurger® system confirms that the work was worth it.The sound in Q1 is extremely powerful, while remaining clean and clear across the frequency spectrum. The bass is huge, but it doesn’t muffle the mids and highs. In a way that can only be experienced in the loudest and most accurate world-class rooms, Q1 is a full body ride – it’s a thrilling way to experience music, whether the source is a rough mix or finished track.“This Augspurger® system is a joint effort between John Storyk and Dave Malekpour of Professional Audio Design – any time you can have the speaker installer and the studio designer work hand-in-hand, it definitely enhances the studio quality,” Hosn says. “When you change something in the room, you’re changing the sound in there too – so if we were ever going to change the speakers, this would have been the right time.”Upgrades to the Augspurgers® were performed by Malekpour’s team at Professional Audio Design, taking advantage of the latest amp, tweeter and subwoofer advances available.“The system we originally installed at Quad Q1 included the GA215V dual 15” vertical mains, powered by Bryston 14B SST for the 15’ mid frequency drivers and Bryston 4B SST for the High Frequency Horn,” Malekpour explains. “That system was controlled by a BSS OmniDrive FDS-366T stereo 3-way DSP based speaker management system, providing system equalization and crossovers, and the subs were a Yorkville powered sub.“The system upgrades include new 4” Beryllium Diaphragms specially built for us by TruExtent, and fitted to our high output compression driver,” he continues. “The sub system installed is a pair of Augspurger® GA118S single 18” subs which are fitted with our proprietary 18” driver capable of 20-200hz, 97 db sensitivity, power handling of up to 2000 watts and almost 3” excursion.  The cabinet is front ported and optimized to perform flat down to 24hz.”Meanwhile, system power is provided by a pair of Augspurger® DSP-3/2500 – 3 channel Pulse Width Modulation amps with 2500 total watts: 1000 watts to the sub, 1000 watts to mids and 500 watts to the  high frequency horn. “This amp has some amazing specifications with .02% THD (total harmonic distortion) from 1 watt to 1 Kilowatt,” says Malekpour, “and one of the fastest transient responses in any amp I have tested.  It also has no fans, runs very cool and needs standard 120v AC.Quad’s Q1 Augspurger® system is designed to provide high output with detail and accuracy, and can be tuned with the onboard DSP via USB, allowing adjustment of the curve to complement the room’s performance.“The DSP is very high resolution and designed for the ability to align timing of drivers, phase, equalization and limiters if you want to protect the system,” Malekpour adds. “The equalization provides up to 16 FIR filters per band if needed, though usually we only need to use three or four filters per band. The EQ can be designed for bandwidth, Q, center frequency, gain and slope.”“Personally I feel my brain shaking when the volume is turned up!” Hosn laughs. “This system brings the excitement of a live show. It’s like being in a club.” Evolution/EssentialWord is getting around. Sessions at the new Q1 have included Natalie Imbruglia, Hilary Duff, Trey Songz and NeYo.Battling it out in NYC’s still heavily competitive world-class recording scene, Quad has rarely been one to sit still. Evolution is a constant here on the 10th floor of 723 7th Avenue, with plenty more action on the way.There is a highly stylish new luxury hotel-style lounge affixed to Q1, which takes full advantage of Quads uniquely inspiring view of Times Square. Meanwhile, a third studio, Q3 – is also in the works and should be on line in the next month or so.According to Ricky Hosn, the reason to keep reformulating an ambitious Manhattan facility is simple. “The people that don’t aren’t in business anymore,” he says. “You have to be observant of the trends, and always be on top of changes in the ways that producers and artists prefer to work.”— David Weiss

For the second year in a row, a new Augsurger monitor system has been nominated for a NAMM TEC Award in the category of Technical Excellence in Studio Monitors.Augspurger’s® new Solo 12MF is a powerful and compact active reference monitor is ideal for tracking, mixing, and mastering, featuring Augspurger®'s renowned DSP-based tuning capabilities. Free-standing or soffitable, the single 12” cabinet is built around the breakthrough “MF” (MidField) horn, which was introduced in 2015 with the TEC-nominated Duo 8 MiniMian. The Solo 12MF is a perfect design for smaller control rooms with a tighter zone between the monitors and the mix position.The system pushes 650 watts per side and extends down to 30 hertz without a sub. Add any of the optional subwoofer packages - 1X12, 2X12m 1X18 and 2X18 - and you get a 3-way system boasting 1650 per side and bass extension to 20hz.

The MF horn has opened up a whole new range of monitor solutions for engineers with limited space. They may have thought they couldn’t have a true main monitor due to lack of distance between the front wall and mix position. The 30% smaller horn enables free standing monitors in the midfield area, as close as 5ft from the mixer.

~Dave Malekpour, president of Augspurger® and designer of the Solo 12.Solo 12 MF pricing starts at $13,000 for a stereo two-way system.The 32nd Annual TEC awards ceremony will be January 21, 2017 during the NAMM convention in Anaheim, CA.