Carl Tatz Design has earned a ninth TEC Award finalist honour for work at Taylor Swift lead guitarist Paul Sidoti’s Scarlett Sound Studio in Nashville.
Carl Tatz Design (CTD) – the US company behind PhantomFocus studio monitoring systems – has been chosen by a panel of peers as a finalist for the 2025 TEC Awards in the Studio Design Project category for Sidoti’s Scarlett Sound Studio, a 9.1.4 PhantomFocus Dolby Atmos MixRoom Studio.
The studio features several CTD acoustic design hallmarks including the MixRoom Acoustic Lens, subwoofer enclosure bass traps, Axial Mode Absorber and a sound expansion canopy in the tracking room.
All of the rooms 13 loudspeakers are PFM HD-1000 Mk II Master Reference Monitors mounted on Sound Anchor PhantomFocus stands except for the height speakers which use Adaptive Technologies MM-3RDX-18 assemblies.
Both the TV and centre channel monitor are controlled by motorised lifts and positioned according to whether the system is in the stereo or Atmos mode. Each mode has its own processor setting as frequency response varies with each position of the TV and centre channel and all elements are switched remotely at the console. Tuning and monitor positioning follows both Dolby and PhantomFocus protocols rendering extreme accuracy and emersion.
Drawing on techniques, proprietary protocols, and hardware and software, the PhantomFocus System is a powerful tool in optimising monitor systems. Without the use of any sort of psychoacoustic DSP, 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.
Full and accurate frequency response is achieved by incorporating several elements that can include loudspeaker/listener position calculations; proper loudspeaker stands; damping and isolation devices; subwoofer systems; laser alignment; 360° phase control using all-pass filtering; crossovers; and corrective EZ. The success of the system will only be limited by the room acoustics evaluation that must precede the process.
‘We are always honoured to be recognsed in the company of our talented colleagues for such a prestigious award,’ says CTD principal, Carl Tatz.
