An interview with Michael Green on The Tunable Room

Q. Michael, what is The Tunable Room?

A. The Tunable Room is every music lover's toy store. Whether you are an engineer, musician or music enthusiast, you'll find something at the Tunable Room that will take you a step closer to the art form of music.

Q. What types of products do you have at The Tunable Room?

A. Well, it's important to understand that tunability is a "method". It's taking the basic fundamentals of instrument building and applying them to all the areas of music. So, when you come into The Tunable Room, you see all kinds of toys -- from magical feet called MTDs and Harmonic Feet to electronic, clamping and tuning devices -- as well as tunable loudspeakers and a whole array of tunable acoustical products. We're like a one stop shop for everything you would need to tune up your system or instruments.

Q. Give me an example of tuning in action.

A. Let me make it a simple one for the sake of the people just becoming exposed to us. Let's say somebody brings in their guitar and guitar amplifier and let's say their guitar amplifier has a head amplifier with it. Let's also say that this person has their own practice room/studio at home, as well as playing live gigs occasionally. Now that we have qualified the person, we start to take the potential client through a process. We take the client and his or her guitar amplifier and find a suitable place, acoustically, to do the demonstration -- a basic room, mildly treated with carpeted floors, a tunable listening room or even an ISO-booth (of course, tunable). Then we begin doing our magic.
We would start with Harmonic Feet, which are easy to apply. We simply unscrew the rubber feet from the guitar amplifier/speaker and attach the Harmonic Feet instead. Then by setting the guitar amplifier on the floor (remember that when setting these on a carpeted floor, we would need to add the use of a tuning board), we can then determine which size Harmonic Foot to use for that particular guitar amplifier. The client can stop here or graduate to their own custom built, "clampable" tuning device which will allow the artist to "tune in" any desired sound the artist desires. Once we determine a sonic reference, we can now show the client the best way to get the desired response in every application.

Q. Michael, can you explain further?

A. Sure I can. It's what we call the "audio chain". Einstein taught us that everything affects everything else. This applies to all walks of life. In the audio chain, you are basically affected by three technical venues -- mechanical, acoustical and electrical. We look at these three, not through the eyes of test equipment, but very practically. Without getting long winded, let me explain. Everything that passes a signal, or energy, can be tuned and tuned as simply as a musical instrument. It does not matter how big nor how small the object is.

Q. Are you saying that this been something that has been overlooked by the technical world?

A. Most definitely. I don't believe it was done intentionally and it probably happened around the time of the development of electricity. It seems that the engineer's schooling became maybe a little too caught up in the world of "sum", meaning the fascination of measuring and testing, rather than the art form of creating. There's a big difference between a frequency response and a musical note. Anyone can throw together a system which creates frequency responses, yet it takes an artist to make it musical.

Q. Michael, are you also saying that the engineers and designers have done it wrong?

A. No, not necessarily. They're just ready for the next step and what we do at The Tunable Room is to show, and have fun with, that next step. If I can, let me give you an interesting example. When people finally get to the point where they accept tunable rooms and tunable loudspeakers, I like to blow their minds by then tuning their electronic components. In some era of teaching, we've been taught that you cannot change the electronic signal. I've always laughed at this. It's probably the most delicate and vulnerable signal to change and I love demonstrating it on computer drive systems, mixing consoles, amplifiers and even, believe it or not, effects and line conditioning products.

Q. It sounds like your philosophies and products apply to everything.

A. Yes, as a matter of fact, they do. We now have over 250 products, to choose from, to aid in the tuning of any environment, electronic component or instrument. You see, your "entire environment" is the musical instrument. Do you catch what I'm saying? Once that sound is created from the instrument, all the other parts now become part of the tuning. It's really cool to watch and it's so effective that it's hard to explain with words. You "kinda gotta" hear it.

Q. How big of an effect do your products and methods have?

A. This is the part which is the most exciting in my job and that is watching someone go through the process. Let me just quote a friend of mine: "Michael I didn't realize that after I completed purchasing my system that I was only one tenth of the way there. I've always bought a lot of components to get my system there where I wanted it and yet didn't realize that it's a method and not components which get you all the way there."

Every designer craves to hear these words. It makes you feel like you've just created the light bulb.

Q. What do you think is the future for the music industry?

A. That's a very good question. That's why we've moved to Nashville. Nashville is a city that is not "stuck". Since we moved here, we have heard many stories about the Nashville music scene, how it was not "forced" and how it just "happened". Nashville is one of those rare jewels that has not been over "technified". There are so many great musicians, engineers and music venues that want good sound. I believe this is the desire of every person who purchases, listens to or even watches the media. We all want good sound. We all want good video.

Yes, there may be a few in Nashville who are numbers driven, as in other major music cities, but technology and quality will always prevail over numbers in the long run. Not to say that numbers are bad, but I believe that the hope for Nashville, over some of the other cities, will be our open-mindedness and our love of the art.