Michael L. Dorrough (born January 1942), American inventor and audio engineer regarded as the “father of multi-band processing.” He is the founder of Dorrough Electronics and inventor of the Discriminate Audio Processor (DAP) in 1973, and the Dorrough Loudness Monitor. While the DAP product instantly changed audio processing in the broadcast world, the company is best known for its award-winning “eyebrow” scale audio loudness monitors in widespread use throughout the motion picture, recording and broadcast industries worldwide.

Biography

Born in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Began his career as a recording engineer in 1963 at Casey Kasam and Bob Hudson's Emperor Productions. While focusing on recording, he maintained working relationships with several of the Los Angeles radio stations, bridging the gap between the two mediums, which enabled him to experiment with audio processing. Later at

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

, he continued his research on his theory that audio processing should be directed toward perceived power and not on amplitude alone. The first composite tri-band processor was incorporated into the recording sessions of such artists as

Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American Rock music, rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1965. One of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the San Francisco Bay Area, ...

and

Carol Burnett Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American comedian, actress, singer and writer. Burnett has played dramatic and comedic roles on stage and screen. She has received List of awards and nominations received by Carol Burnett, nu ...

. In 1970 Dorrough Electronics was formed to market this product. Aware of the inconsistencies in the metering of program levels, he realized that to maintain consistent listening levels that there must be a relationship between the peak and the average content, and that both should be displayed on a common scale. His development of a LED meter displaying both peak and average ballistics with dual reference points is used for audio program level indications throughout the world. Dorrough is a native of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and lives in

Woodland Hills, California Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California, United States. History The area was inhabited for around 8,000 years by Native Americans in the United States, ...

. He is married and has five children.

Awards and honors

* 1990

Audio Engineering Society The Audio Engineering Society (AES) is a professional body for engineers, scientists, other individuals with an interest or involvement in the professional audio industry. The membership largely comprises engineers developing devices or product ...

: Fellowship Award presented for his development of multiband audio processing and the dual loudness meter, September 24. * 1993

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...

: Technical Achievement Award for design and development of the compound meter known as the Dorrough Level Meter, February 26. * 2000

National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a Industry trade group, trade association and lobbying, lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, broadcasters in th ...

: Radio Engineering Achievement Award for his significant contribution to the art of audio processing and audio monitoring, April 12. * 2000

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the television industry in the United States. A 501(c)(6) non-profit or ...

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

for the Dorrough Loudness Meter as the standard of the industry for accurately determining audio levels, July 11.

US Patents

* Dual Loudness Meter and Method; Patent number 4,528,501, June 9, 1985 * Dynamic Video Luminance and Chrominance Meter; Patent number 5,216,492, June 1, 1993 * Sequential Audio Switcher; Patent number 5,343,534, August 30, 1994 * Level Meter for Digitally Encoded Audio; Patent number 5,751,819, May 12, 1998 * Power Line Meter/Monitor with LED Display; Patent number 6,198,403, March 6, 2001

References

External links

*
This Week in Radio Tech Ep. 155 – Michael Dorrough 2-7-13Oral History Project Gallery—Michael Dorrough explains early studio signal processing

Michael Dorrough - Early Studio Recording

A History of Audio Processing: Part 2 – The Era of Multiband Processing
Living people 1942 births American audio engineers Engineers from San Francisco Emmy Award winners Engineers from California Academy Award for Technical Achievement winners {{US-audio-engineer-stub