More Than Sound: Amsterdam's famous Wisseloord studio chooses Augspurger®

System tuned via trans-Atlantic remote.Wisseloord Studios, near Amsterdam, is a world-class recording facility originally built by the Phillips/Polygram Company in 1978. The beautiful five-room complex is among Europe’s top recording destinations, and for good reason. From the standpoint of gear, design, range of services, amenities and vibe, Wisseloord is as good as it gets. That’s why artists like U2, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Sinead O’Connor, Foo Fighters and hundreds more have worked at Wisseloord over the years. It’s a truly staggering client list.Given the top-level quality of Wisseloord and their clients, it’s not surprising the studio installed an Augspurger® monitoring system for their new Studio 4 room, designed by Jelle Van der Voet of Pinna Acoustics. The team chose a Solo 12MF Sub 12 system, acquired through Robbie Dunne of Miloco Gear, London."When Wisseloord approached us for a new main monitoring solution for their Studio, 4 their approach was that they wanted a compact system that is both inspiring and accurate. We instantly recommended Augspurgers® because we believe no other system can so effortlessly fill this requirement,” said Dunne. Wiesseloord studios

AmsterDAMN: Studio 4 with Augspurger® Solo 12MF Sub 12. 

“The choice of Augspurgers® was driven by a desire to serve a growing clientele of HipHop and EDM artists and producers, as well as offer something new,” said studio creative director Malik Berrabah, “We have a great bunch of speakers in our studios. We were looking for something different and unique in continental Europe; something with more body and low end for more hiphop and electronic producers.”Pinna Acoustics’ initial challenge was to take an old existing large tracking room and divide it in half to create both tracking and control rooms in the vintage space. This meant that the control room would not be huge but still needed to be tight and accurate. The integration of the Augspurgers® was written in to the room’s acoustic blueprint from an early stage.The system chosen was of one of Augspurger’s® most compact three-way main monitor systems, the Solo 12MF with 1X12 subwoofer. Despite a modest footprint, the active Solo 12MF system pushes out 2500 watts of clean, accurate audio. It utilizes the “MF” (Midfocus) horn, 30% smaller than the classic Augspurger® horn, which is designed for tighter, closer-in monitoring environments. The system provides Studio 4 with a true, no compromise, no-sacrifice main monitor system with low end to under 20hz.“Now with a full range and really powerful monitor system the room must be able to handle all that low frequency energy. We designed some seriously tuned low frequency bass trapping so the room acoustics don’t interact negatively with the full range spectrum of the Augspurger® system,” said Van der Voet.“Studio 4 with the Augspurgers® is for making music, more than just sound,” Berrabah said, adding,  “So far creative producers who’ve worked in the room really love the speakers, mostly the low end. For musicians and producers its great that they can feel the music.”“Working with Jelle and Malik at Wisseloord has been great. It’s an iconic and top notch facility and we’re proud to have an Augspurger® system powering the new room,” said Augspurger® president, Dave Malekpour.
 

Long Distance Call: L - Dave Malekpour tunes the system from the USA, R - Wisseloord Engineers in EU tune-in. 

Trans-Atlantic Tuning:Once the monitors were installed, the next step was to tune the Augspurger’s® to the room using advanced DSP technology, fitted in to the on-board Class D amps. This is where something groundbreaking happened. Malekpour, along with Wisseloord engineers, dialed the system in remotely, across the Atlantic ocean. Using Skype and advanced tuning software, Malekpour tuned the Holland-based system from Augspurger® HQ in Hanover, MA. The results were right on the money.Van der Voot commented, “I’ve never done a transatlantic tuning session before but it turned out great. Dave took the time to tell us a lot about the company and the speaker system. I sent him some acoustic measurement files of the room with the Augspurgers® and Dave tweaked the DSP power through a desktop remote session.”“We worked closely with the team, remote tuning the system, measuring, listening, making changes, until Wisseloord was feeling the music,” said Malekpour.“Studio 4 is now a great room for writing, composing, mixing and recording. It has a small and great sounding setup. A real new-school studio!” exclaimed Van der Voet,Drew Townson