Once Again, Carl Tatz Design (CTD) Goes to the Head of the Class as Mix Magazine Honors CTD with the "Class of 2012" Studio Design Award

- Nashville's MontAnna Mix Room personal studio, featuring the Carl Tatz Design Signature Series by Auralex and CTD PhantomFocus™ System monitor tuning protocol is chosen as one of the hottest new studios for Mix's annual "Class Of" Studio Design Issue -

Nashville, TN: "It's clearly the leading technology in monitoring," comments uber successful songwriter/producer, Monty Powell about the new generation PhantomFocus™ System (PFS) in his new MontAnna Mix Room designed by Carl Tatz Design LLC (CTD). “If I build ten more studios, which I hope I don’t,” jokes Powell, “everyone of them will have a PhantomFocus™ System in it - I can’t imagine mixing without it.”

Multi-award-winning, Billboard chart-topping songwriter/producer Monty Powell and wife, jazz artist Anna Wilson called on personal studio guru Carl Tatz Design LLC for a second time when they decided to downsize and move from their beloved Nashville home that housed a beautiful Carl Tatz Design studio with 20' tall ceilings in the tracking room into a posh new townhouse mix room nearby. The mix room design features a custom application of the Carl Tatz Signature Series by Auralex acoustic treatment system with its now familiar trademark Acoustic LensTM modules.

"We started with a small upstairs bedroom and broke through the rear wall to create a very effective wide-band low frequency absorber partition that separates the mix room from the equipment room," explains Tatz. "And then we broke through the left wall into the former laundry room to add a very comfortable vocal/overdub booth with floor to ceiling glass that is mimicked on the right wall with the Acoustic LensTM ."

The fit and finish of the room is very polished, but as Carl points out, "Even without the high customization that Monty and Anna requested, the combination of the PhantomFocus™ System along with my basic Signature Series by Auralex, audio professionals can have a truly world-class mix room, way beyond anything they could imagine, at an affordable price point.".

Since this successful couple is spending most of their time now in their Utah home when they are not gigging around the country at various jazz venues with Anna or songwriting on the road with the likes of country superstars, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Lady Antebellum and others, it makes perfect sense to make this transition. The move reflects a trend where many personal studio owners prefer to track in a commercial studio that has all the amenities you would expect in a professional tracking room and spend the remaining 90 percent of the time overdubbing and mixing in their own facility.

“It’s always a great complement to be asked back by your client to design a second room and Monty and Anna are so much fun to work with, both being very creative people with lots of enthusiastic ideas,” says Tatz. “And upgrading their PhantomFocus™ System was the maraschino cherry on top of the cake. They were very happy with their existing PFS but when I convinced them that they should experience the new system at another studio, their mouths dropped – it sold itself.”

About Carl Tatz Design

Carl Tatz Design (CTD) is an award winning studio design firm offering design and consulting services to homeowners and entertainment industry professionals in areas of: Recording Studios, Monitor Systems, Home Screening Rooms, Dedicated Listening Rooms, Acoustic Analysis, Tuning, and Sound Isolation. Carl Tatz is also the inventor of the industry acclaimed proprietary PhantomFocus™ System (PFS) monitor tuning protocol. CTD’s many resources combine knowledge, experience and expertise in sound, picture and design to serve its clients worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.carltatzdesign.com.

About the PhantomFocus™ System
Once the basic acoustic treatment has been accomplished, Carl Tatz Design’s proprietary PhantomFocus™ Monitor System offers clients a unique opportunity to have a truly world-class monitoring experience in their room, no matter how modest they may perceive it to be. The PhantomFocus System allows their monitors of choice to perform accurately at a full 20Hz-to-20KHz frequency response with pinpoint imaging in an almost holographic sweet spot — this enables their mixes to travel anywhere with a new level of sonic accuracy. There are approximately fifty steps in the proprietary PhantomFocus System implementation protocol, some of which may include phase and laser alignment, damping, isolation mounts, careful assessment of engineer/speaker placement relative to their room’s primary axial modes, proprietary speaker distance and angle, crossover points for pass filtering, and finally parametric equalization. Hardware can include monitor stands, concrete, sorbothane and other isolation materials, custom floating plenum mounts, subwoofer system, custom crossover, parametric equalizers and the monitors themselves (passive or active). The evaluation and implementation is a full two-day process and can be applied to near-fields, mid-fields, and large soffit mounted monitors, regardless of manufacturer. Carl Tatz Design can install the PhantomFocus System in existing control rooms or in studios that are designed and built from the ground up by CTD. The result is like the aural equivalent of HD TV. Once you experience a PhantomFocus System, you can’t go back.

720P Video: Monty Powell talks about the new PhantomFocus™ System in his second Carl Tatz Design studio, The MontAnna Mix Room

720P Video: Anna Wilson and Monty Powell talk about their new Carl Tatz Design, MontAnna Mix Room

Pictured: The MontAnna Mix Room with the new generation PhantomFocus™ System featuring Tannoy 800A monitors

Pictured: The MontAnna Mix Room - rear view