Carl Tatz is an award winning studio designer and principal of Nashville-based Carl Tatz Designs. Carl draws his expertise as a studio designer and acoustician from over thirty years of experience as a GRAMMY-nominated engineer/producer, award-winning studio owner (Recording Arts), and two-time TEC Award nominee and one-time winner. Carl has shared his expertise through lectures and panels at Berklee College of Music, SAE, the Art Institutes, Mix Nashville, and AES events.
At Carl Tatz Designs, he focuses on designing commercial, educational, and personal recording studio/screening rooms for professional engineers, producers, and artists, all across the country.
Previously, Carl Tatz owned Recording Arts, a top-of-the-line studio in Nashville. Rather than focus on expansion after the studio’s initial success, Carl decided to focus on retaining the intimate atmosphere of the facility. Part of this meant ensuring the studio continued to deliver high-quality service and technical excellence above all else.
Now, Carl Tatz is recognized as the developer of the PhantomFocus System for monitor tuning and optimization. The hardware system includes dual subwoofer modules, a PhantomFocus Processor, monitor stands, and a custom chair, which are all tailored for an incredible monitoring experience!
The PhantomFocus System
The PhantomFocus System is a powerful tool in optimizing monitor systems. This system does not use any psychoacoustic DSP. Instead it concentrates first on “reach out and touch the vocalist” imaging where pinpoint detail is spread out before the listener in an almost holographic panorama. Through a combination of extremely strategic speaker/listener position calculations, proper speaker stands, damping and isolation devices, subwoofer systems, and more, full and accurate frequency response can be achieved!
Carl states that with the proper measurements and preparation, the same sound and quality the system produces in a professional studio can be achieved in a bedroom.
When someone reaches out to him about installing a PhantomFocus System, the first thing Carl asks for is photos and dimensions of the room. This is so that he can determine where the seat should be in the room, in order to be able to achieve the desired sound, as you can only tune for one spot. The size of the room may be limiting, but with the right preparation and set up, Carl can guarantee that the one seat in the centre will be properly tuned and in the perfect position.
If all of the criteria are strictly adhered to in the setup of the equipment, you can always deliver the same sound, no matter which room you are in!
