GEO FOCUS FRANCE


Amadeus Audio – Made in France MANUFACTURER


both the products we develop and the projects we work on. I think that for an architect, the starting point is to decrypt the space and to think of the way to put one’s work in a cultural, social or environmental context. T at’s the way we design our sound systems. We think about their integration in diff erent places, and we supervise this integration.


Launched in 1992 as the commercial arm of Atelier 33, Amadeus Audio was borne out of collaboration between company founder and CEO Bernard Byk (pictured)and acoustician and musician Michel Deluc. T e company is now recognised worldwide for its specialisation in sound architecture, which ties architectural fundamentals to acoustic research to off er products and installations perfectly adapted to the spaces they’re in.


What is the core ethos of Amadeus Audio?


T e Amadeus brand was initially thought of as an alternative to the so-called ‘sound reinforcement’ products. Willing to think about the sound diff erently, rather than just achieving the loudest sound pressure level, Amadeus focused on developing architectural, musical, and technological dimensions in its products to off er better sound quality and more functional installation capabilities.


How has your personal background shaped the company?


I have been trained as an architect, and this training strongly infl uences


We welcome more and more customers who wish to come back to the essential, to work in spaces specifi cally designed in accordance with their expectations, off ering exceptional tools and unique production opportunities. Our desire has always been to serve the music. T e philosophy of Studios de


www.audiomedia.com


Each space has its own acoustical characteristics and above all its own architectural properties. Our work is to take these phenomena into account to increase the transparency of our sound systems.


In such a crowded market what makes an Amadeus product special?


Willing to preserve the quality of our products, many parts of our products are built and fi nished entirely by hand, thanks to the savoir-faire of our cabinet makers, joiners and fi nishers, according to proprietary processes, some of which are patented, which guarantee the optimum quality required to market any products claiming to be high- end and ‘Made in France’. We are also the sole French manufacturer able to off er unique and optional fi nishes for most of our sound systems, varnish polyester, titanium coatings, bronze or gold stitched leather, and others. We take great pride in using


the fi nest materials and components throughout every loudspeaker we build, including air inductances, oversized non-inductive resistors, low-loss polypropylene capacitors, to bring out the fi nest timbral nuances and the subtlest tonal distinctions.


la Chine was largely inspired by Chinese philosophy. It is based on this concept, unique to the Oriental way of thinking, that tends to consider duality as complementary. It is this particular idea we wanted to express in an essentially ‘mixed creation’ space, refl ecting a perfect balance between the best aspects of two worlds: analogue and digital.


Tell me about your working relationship with Michel Deluc.


T e Amadeus brand cannot be separated from Michel Deluc, from his knowledge, his history, his experiences and his skills, which are part of the Amadeus brand. As a director of research and technical development at Amadeus, Michel was trained as an acoustical engineer. He is above all a fantastic musician who learned upright bass and electric bass during many years with Jean-François Jenny-Clark, a French double bass player who was one of the most important bass players of European jazz. T is is also part of the reason why Amadeus speakers catch people’s attention. Every nuance, dynamic, even the tiniest details of a piece are reproduced without any colouration, embellishment, or bias, because they are co-developed by a musician, not ‘simply’ a scientist.


You recently completed an Atmos room for Creative Sound in Paris. Can you tell me a bit more about this project?


We used and enhanced many of our techniques at Creative Sound that we have experimented with over the past 20 years, especially in the fi eld of music recording, working with world-renowned studios such as La Fabrique, Twin, Masterdisk Europe, Soyuz, Question de Son, Schmooze, and others.


According to the technical requirements for Creative Sound to obtain the Dolby Atmos Certifi cation, the reference mixing position has to correspond to a position two-thirds of the distance


Studios de la Chine is built around three main components. T e unique acoustical properties of the spaces, notably the 46sqm control room. T e famous SSL 9072 J mixing console, which is the only one in France, and last but most importantly, the Amadeus monitoring system, that was custom-made for the Studios.


back from the screen to the rear wall, on the centre line of the screen. T is diff erent sweet spot position – compared to control rooms in the musical fi elds – imply the need to optimise the overall acoustic treatment – LCR-based – in order to minimise local eff ects of the diff use-fi eld and other refl exives problems, without infl uencing the rendering of the additional surround-speakers.


We recreated a micro-acoustical environment for each of the additional speaker sources, in order that each one would not be infl uenced by the main acoustic treatment, using multiple custom acoustic cells (modules). By using these techniques, we provide fi lmmakers and recording artists with a faithful reproduction of their works, matching the Dolby Atmos criteria.


Do you have any upcoming projects or product releases you can tell us about?


We are bullish about the future. Our overseas expansion debuted recently and the market’s responses are more than hopeful. Some wonderful things are happening in China, Brazil, and Korea.


We are in the process of installing a huge speaker system in a world famous museum in Paris, and just fi nished designing and equipping another ‘premium’ home studio for French artist Yodelice.


At the recent Prolight + Sound event we released the smallest of our PMX Series speakers, the PMX 4, and the ML 8 compact 8in subwoofer, both designed for the installation market. www.amadeus-audio.com


Studios de la Chine


May 2014 17


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