Trinnov Pro User Interview: Frank Wiedemann (Âme - Innervisions)

We are here in my studio/experimental lab or whatever you call it. We have a label called Innervisions, that's where it started. In here, I do all my productions with either my partner Christian, with which I have a project called Âme. We have an agency here and also a distribution/event company basically. All this is combined here and it's a nice place.

The most important thing in here for me is that it feels really good and recording sounds actually quite good, the vibe is nice and that makes for better music if you ask me. I don't mix my music myself, it wasn't really important for me how it sounded in the studio until I figured out that it's actually so much work for the engineer to kill all the frequencies that are running around my mixes and bass is a problem, especially in club music.

So let's say you have a kick drum that sounded amazingly big in my studio because it was just one frequency that had room resonance. And then when I get to the engineer, it's not the same at all. So I felt I have to do something about it. The first step was really getting good speakers, obviously. But then soon with the treatment and small improvements we got where we are and one of these improvements is obviously the Trinnov system.

Frank Wiedemann in his Berlin-based studio

My first time hearing a Trinnov was actually when we made the first improvements here. We still felt like something was really wrong. Then I spoke to a friend who presented the Trinnov to us, installed it, made the measurement with the microphone and immediately I was like wow ! So that's how much it changed and it was not only the frequencies that helped a lot in this room but also the phase correction. I never had in mind that this could be a problem but it's such a big change and that's how it started with it. Then over the years we improved it and now we have extra subwoofers that are controlled via the Trinnov and so on.

I think it's actually really simple, you have to find the right place basically and that's it, be quiet and it’s done. I like that you can do this multi-spot thing, especially for us, it is interesting because we're often two people. Likewise, I have two settings, one is when I work alone and one for when I work with somebody else, which helps a lot. I think the main impact the Trinnov has on the sound is the clarity. When I switch it off (I sometimes do to get an idea) you immediately feel kind of like lost in the room. Again, I don't mix here but I want to have the mix as close as I can. Therefore, it's really important to hear everything. The Trinnov really gets that extra push which makes that you're in the mix basically. I can't imagine working without it, to be honest.

It was probably one of the most important investments for my studio for sure in the last few years. I should say that, emotionally, I'm more attached to a synth or a piano or whatever, but many years ago I was cabling everything by myself. Since then, I had a guy here who cabled everything really neat and clean and after that, you don't think about it anymore. As soon as you have that state, you don't want to lose it and it's the same with the Trinnov. It's not something that is sensational every day for me, it was sensational in the beginning, of course. Now I can't live without it, it's totally unthinkable that I could let this piece of gear leave the studio.