ARTICLES & PAPERS

American Songwriter MagazineBY ROBERT DYE One of the crucial aspects of setting up your recording studio is to have your monitors properly tuned and finding the sweet spot for true sonic accuracy. Whether it’s a personal home studio or a world-class facility, the...

O’Connor Mixroom, Olympia, Wash. Carl Tatz out of Nashville designed this PhantomFocus MixRoom™ studio for John O’Connor. Incorporated in the new facility are Tatz’sproprietary PFM UHD-1000 monitors, bi-amped with a 4-channel ATI  4000 amplifier and two PFM ICE...

NEWS The album is being reinvented for the streaming era The legendary Prophet 5 synthesizer is being reissued GUEST Studio designer and Phantom Focus developer Carl Tatz Hear more from Carl on Episode #17 Carl Tatz has gone from being a studio owner in Nashville to...

BY STEVE HARVEY Nashville, TN (October 6, 2020)—The Grip II has been the home of countless recording projects and sessions since award-winning studio designer and monitoring expert Carl Tatz built the two-room facility for Jay DeMarcus, co-founder of country music...

BY ROBERT DYE Who doesn’t love looking with envy at gear other songwriters use? With so much affordable quality gear available and studios to help you accomplish your goals, we introduce our new Studio Spotlight series feature. We’ll profile all types of studios here,...

BY RUSS LONG MAR 27, 2020 The PhantomFocus System has evolved into a portfolio of physical studio designs and products that hold their ground against anything in the world today. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone more passionate about audio than Carl Tatz. Not only...

Audio Media International, February 2019 The Upper Deck (Nashville, Tenn.) - Carl Tatz gives AMI the lowdown on his custom designed, NAMM TEC Award-nominated recording studio, The Upper Deck... - How did you first get involved with the project? Carl: The owner of The...

Prosound News, December 2018 The Upper Deck (Nashville, Tenn.) In This Article –"He plays guitar and drums and is a fan of classic rock, but the owner of the Upper Deck – who wishes to remain anonymous – is a Major League Baseball player who spends his summer months...

Mix Magazine, June 2018 The Upper Deck (Nashville, Tenn.)  Carl Tatz Design created this personal recording studio within the home of a major league baseball player. This facility includes a Carl Tatz Design PhantomFocus Mixroom and a live tracking room with an...

BY DAVID WEISS Some audio solutions are simple to get your head around. Others, you just have to get your ears into to fully understand. MixRoom, the monitoring environment concept from Nashville-based studio designer Carl Tatz, falls into the latter category. Created...

Mix Magazine, June 2016 The News Room (Nashville, Tenn.) Carl Tatz of Carl Tatz Design designed The News Room, which is now equipped with his CTD MixRoom technology, including a PhantomFocus monitoring system and Carl Tatz Signature Series acoustic modules by Auralex....

Sound on Sound, November 2015 In the Article – "In a typical small-studio control room, the height and position of the monitors means that reflections from floor, ceiling and side walls all arrive at the listening position at similar times, with the resultant...

Audio Media International, September 2015 Vintage King(Nashville, Tenn.) In This Article –"As a follow-up to the 'How-To' article in the May issue of AMI, studio designer Carl Tatz explains why his Null Position Ensemble should be adhered to when arranging monitors in...

Mix Magazine, June 2015 Fly By West (Nashville, Tenn.) Carl Tatz Design handled the design of this personal mixing studio for engineer/producer Bob Bullock, whose credits include Reba McEntire, George Strait, Kenny Chesney and others. The facility incorporates Tatz's...

Mix Magazine, June 2014 Fly By West (Nashville, Tenn.) The second studio that Carl Tatz designed for engineer/producer Derek West, Fly by West, is built into a former boathouse. The CTD MixRoom includes Tatz's Signature Series acoustic modules by Auralex, and Dynaudio...

Mix Magazine, May 2014 Opened in February of this year, Yellow Hammer is a 630-square-foot, full-tilt custom Carl Tatz Design studio built from the ground up for film composer Justin Miller in the back yard of his Nashville home. The studio encompasses a CTD MixRoom,...

Prosound News, February 2014 by Jacques Sonyieux A few years ago, audio engineer Sean Spence wanted to settle down and build a studio in Brentwood, Tennessee, roughly 20 minutes from downtown Nashville. Sounds simple enough. But Sean was a South African and when his...

Mix Magazine, June 2013 Middle Tennessee State University (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) The highly regarded Recording Industry Department at MTSU hired Carl Tatz Design (www.carltatzdesign.com) to revamp two studios/classrooms. The rooms feature a custom application of the...

Mix Magazine, June 2013 Soundscape Studios recently installed Carl Tatz’s PhantomFocus PFS3 monitoring system in Studio A, and also added a Pro Tools HDX system. Studio owner and chief engineer Michael Kolar has been busy working on a number of projects, including two...

Mix Magazine, October 2012 Middle Tennessee State University (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) Renovation of the Middle Tennessee Slate University [rntsu.edu] Studio E control room-which is one of two "project rooms" where students traditionally begin their first recording...

Mix Magazine, June 2012 MontAnna Mix Room (Nashville, Tenn.) This is the second studio designed by Carl Tatz Design for songwriter Monty Powell and jazz artist Anna Wilson. Tatz employed a custom application of his Carl Tatz MixRoom™ concept. The studio is mainly used...

PAR Magazine, Oct 2011 Carl Tatz Design PhantomFocus™ System Monitor Optimization System (PFS™) PFS™ allows your speakers to sound how they are supposed to sound if your room "wasn't being so destructive," offers Tatz. Here, PAR's senior contributor enthusiastically...

Mix Magazine, June 2011 Red Door Studio (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) Date Opened: January 2011 Designer: studio bau:ton Acoustician: Carl Tatz Design Console: Yamaha DM2000 Monitors: CTD Dual PhantomFocus System: pair of custom TEC:ton Engineering mains with double 15-inch...

By Sarah Benzuly Mix Magazine May 2011 After 10 months, Nashville's Yes Master Studios is up and running. In the aftermath of the devastating flood that deluged most of Nashville last May, the studio had to be de-molded; carpet, drywall and insulation removed; and the...

By Jeff Touzeau Pro Sound News April 2011 Jim DeMain and his high-end mastering facility, Yes Master Studios, are both no strangers to change. Just over a decade ago, DeMain began to reevaluate his role in the world of studio recording, having spent the better part of...

By Dan Daley Residential Systems Magazine August 2010 Automated technology systems that light up the house and start the AC blowing are great to come home to after work, but what about those of us who never need to leave the house? According to statistics from a...

By Janice Brown Sonic Scoop July 2010 Studio designer and acoustician Carl Tatz has developed his proprietary PhantomFocus System™ on the premise that “great speakers in a great room do not equal great monitoring.” The PhantomFocus System is Tatz’s “tuning standard...

Mix Magazine, June 2010 Multi-Platinum producer / songwriter / engineer Andy Dodd, who with his West Coast partner Adam Watts has worked with Jesse McCartney, Kelly Clarkson, Jonas Brothers and more, opened his new Red Decibel East studio in April 2010. Carl Tatz ......

By Christopher Walsh Pro Sound, May 2010 Nashville's Verge Recording is a fine example of the modern recording studio, in which a diversity of commercial and in-house clients accomplish a broad spectrum of audio production. Recently redesigned and constructed by...

By Peter CooperMix Magazine, October 2009 Carl Tatz's parents used to leave him in the house sometimes when they left for an evening out. That's when the speakers would get shifted around. "My father had a component stereo," says Tatz, the designer of the PhantomFocus...

By Chris Walsh Prosound News Interview I do home theaters also, but as far as studios, home studios is my specialty. I’ve got a school coming up, but that’s what I like doing. I’m really good at small spaces. By background—I had a commercial studio for 18 years and...

Whether designing breathtaking high-performance home screening rooms or stunningly accurate monitor systems and home recording studios, Carl Tatz is master of both audio and visual experiences. As owner of Carl Tatz Design in Nashville, Carl designs home theaters and...

Interview by Kelly Magill Nashville Interiors, Vol. 8 2007-2008 Carl Tatz is a much sought after acoustic designer/builder of home theaters, or as he prefers to call them - home screening rooms. We were able to catch up with him recently as he raced between projects...

By Jeff Anderson EQ Magazine, June 2007 You've spent many restless nights dreaming about it, and now the time has finally come to build your own home studio. But how do you take a small space and turn it into a studio capable of turning out awesome sounding tracks?...

By Paul Griffith Nashville Interiors, Vol. 6, 2006-2007 Carl Tatz is an acoustic designer, and when it comes to home theaters, nobody else in Nashville can say that. With a background in the recording arts and monitor system design, Carl is exceptional because he...

By Carl Tatz I am presenting a list of some of the erroneous notions that have kept this technology from being as widely implemented, as it deserves. Hopefully they can be laid to rest. Accurate Monitors Cannot Sound Good The notion that in order to create good mixes,...

By Frank Wells Prosound News, Oct. 2006 NASHVILLE, TN - The personal production studio has come of age, and "the Grip," the personal space created for songwriter, producer (Chicago XXX, most recently) and bass player for country stalwarts Rascal Flatts, Jay DeMarcus,...

By Lynette Ingram Nashville Interiors, Vol. 6 2005-2006 A Grammy-nominated designer of professional recording studios has brought his artistic and technical talents to some of the finest homes in the Nashville area. Thanks to Carl Tatz of Carl Tatz Design, many...

By Paul Griffith Nashville Lifestyles, June 2006 “I don't call them 'home theaters,''' says Nashville acoustic designer Carl Tatz. "I call them 'home screening rooms.' That's because we do it at a much higher level-it's not just a bunch of expensive gear that goes in...

By Dan Daley Tech Living, May/June 2005 The proliferation of affordable home theater systems has created a conflict not unlike that of what happens when civilization encroaches upon the wilderness, except the bear might not limit his actions to banging on the wall....

Electronic House, May 2005 There was nothing particularly wrong with Carl Tatz's living room. The Space already had a 5.1 surround-sound system that Carl used to listen to music. That same system could also have been used to play movie soundtracks, but not without a...

By Nancy Theoret Robb Report Home Entertainment Magazine Vol. 6 March/April 2005 A wall bulging with multiple DVD players, assorted audio equipment and compact discs offers the first hints that this screening room of a Los Angeles music producer has a serious side....

After having designed a 5.1 editing suite for his company in Nashville and media room in Beverly Hills, we were engaged to design a state of the art home screening / 5.1 critical listening room in his new home that was being totally renovated. The space was a former...

by Dan Daley SystemsContractor News Music library Firstcom founder Jim Long is still a music business executive, as CEO of One Music. When he purchased beloved puppeteer Shari Lewis’ former residence in Malibu, north of Los Angeles, he needed a professional-level...

By Carl Tatz Although there have been several good articles written recently on home studio acoustics, none have specifically addressed the monitoring system performance itself. At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, the information that is about to be conveyed to...