Tom Hidley
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Tom Hidley (27 May 1931 - May 2025) has been an American
recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and Audio mixing, mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home proje ...
designer and
audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduc ...
whose companies have been responsible for the design of hundreds of professional studios worldwide since 1965. He coined the term "bass trap" and is credited with a number of recording studio design innovations, including
soffit A soffit is an exterior architectural feature, generally the horizontal, aloft underside of the roof edge. Its archetypal form, sometimes incorporating or implying the projection of rafters or trusses over the exterior of supporting walls, is t ...
-mounted monitor speakers and sliding glass doors between live and isolations rooms.


Career


Background and early career

As a teenager, Hidley spent long hours playing the saxophone, clarinet, and flute until ordered by his physician to cease after suffering a physical breakdown. Turning to other music-related activities, Hidley began working at loudspeaker and tape-machine companies while recording at clubs after-hours. By 1956, he was working for JBL Loudspeaker Co. and performing audio engineering at custom installations, including installations in the homes of
Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
,
Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April25, 1917June15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phra ...
,
Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by ''Time (magazine), Time'' in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for h ...
, and
Danny Kaye Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; ; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer, and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire novelty songs. Kaye starred ...
. In 1959, "
Madman Muntz Earl William "Madman" Muntz (January 3, 1914 – June 21, 1987) was an American businessman and engineer who sold and promoted cars and consumer electronics in the United States from the 1930s until his death in 1987. He was a pioneer in televi ...
" (Earl Muntz) hired Hidley to assist with the development of the first
car stereo Vehicle audio is equipment installed in a car or other vehicle to provide in-car entertainment and information for the occupants. Such systems are popularly known as car stereos. Until the 1950s, it consisted of a simple AM radio. Additions sin ...
. Among the first to own a Muntz car stereo was Sinatra and through Sinatra's purchase, Hidley became known to a Sinatra associate
Val Valentin Luis Pastor "Val" Valentin (January 6, 1920 – March 24, 1999) was an American recording engineer with six decades of work in the music industry. Much of his work was done for MGM Records and Verve Records. His large discography includes Jazz al ...
, who invited Hildley to assist in the building of the
MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
/Verve recording studios in New York in 1962. Two years later,
Phil Ramone Philip Rabinowitz (January 5, 1934March 30, 2013), better known as Phil Ramone, was a South African-born American recording engineer, record producer, violinist and composer, and co-founder of A & R recording studio. Its success led to expansion ...
hired Hidley to be the audio technical manager of
A & R Recording A & R Recording Inc. was a major American independent studio recording company founded in 1958 by Jack Arnold and Phil Ramone. History Before founding A & R Recording in 1958, Arnold and Ramone had been working at JAC Recording, Inc.; Arnold ...
in
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...
. Also employed by A & R at the time was Ami Hadani and in 1965, Hidley and Hadani left A & R. They went to
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, ...
, where they founded
TTG Studios TTG Studios is a recording studio in Los Angeles, California, co-founded in 1965 by recording engineers Tom Hidley and Amnon "Ami" Hadani. History The studio is located at 1441 North McCadden Place in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, near ...
. While at A & R, Hidley had begun experimenting with building monitor speakers whose frequency range extended to lower frequencies than the available speakers of the time. At TTG, he modified an 8-track recorder to create one of the first 16-track, 2-inch tape recorders in the world. In 1968, after visiting Hidley's studio with
Animals Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a ...
frontman
Eric Burdon Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941) is an English singer and songwriter. He was previously the lead vocalist of the rhythm and blues, R&B and Rock music, rock band The Animals and the funk band War (band), War. He is regarded as one of the Br ...
,
Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
excitedly told
Record Plant The Record Plant was a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and last operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it produced highly influential albums, including the New York ...
founders Gary Kellgren and Chris Stone about how great the studio sounded. Kellgren and Stone visited TTG and were so impressed with Hidley that they contracting Hidley to design a new Record Plant studio in Los Angeles. Record Plant West opened in December 1969; Hidley became the director of technical operations for all Record Plant locations. He continued to design and innovate, including creating the drum booth and the use of sliding glass doors to separate isolation booths from live rooms.


Westlake Audio and Eastlake Audio

While at Record Plant, Hidley also began selling pro audio equipment system packages from the garage of his home in
Westlake Village Westlake Village is a city in Los Angeles County, California, on its western border with Ventura County. Upon its incorporation in 1981, Westlake Village became the 82nd municipality of Los Angeles County.Baker, Pam (2002). ''Thousand Oaks We ...
, which is next to
Thousand Oaks, California Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, located in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles. Approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown Los Angeles, it is named after the many oak trees pr ...
. He named his company
Westlake Audio Westlake Recording Studios is a music recording studio with two locations in Los Angeles and West Hollywood, California. History Westlake Recording Studios was founded in the early 1970s by the American audio engineer Tom Hidley under the name ...
. In 1971, Hidley partnered with Glenn Phoenix and Paul Ford to open
Westlake Audio Westlake Recording Studios is a music recording studio with two locations in Los Angeles and West Hollywood, California. History Westlake Recording Studios was founded in the early 1970s by the American audio engineer Tom Hidley under the name ...
on
Wilshire Boulevard Wilshire Boulevard ( wɪɫ.ʃɚ is a prominent boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue (Santa Monica), Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica, California, Santa Monica east to Grand Avenue (Lo ...
in Los Angeles. Westlake specialized in selling complete recording studio packages, including not only the design and construction of a studio space but all of the related pro audio equipment. That included a line of Hidley-designed speakers. Westlake was highly influential in standardizing acoustic design in the recording industry, with prospective studio clients commonly seeking out "Westlake rooms." In 1975, after spending a few years on three new Westlake-designed studios in Europe-one for
The Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in May 1964. The band initially consisted of Graeme Edge (drums), Denny Laine (guitar/vocals), Mike Pinder (keyboards/vocals), Ray Thomas (multi-instrumentalist/vocals) and Clint W ...
rock band,
The Manor Studio The Manor Studio (a.k.a. the Manor) was a recording studio in the manor house in the village of Shipton-on-Cherwell in Oxfordshire, England, north of the city of Oxford. Overview The Manor Studio was housed in a manor house which had been est ...
, for businessman
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's
Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...
in
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
and
Mountain Studios Mountain Studios was a commercial recording studio founded by American singer and composer Anita Kerr and her husband Alex Grob in 1975 within the Montreux Casino in Montreux, Switzerland. The studio was under the ownership of Queen (band), Q ...
for country/pop singer
Anita Kerr Anita Jean Kerr (''née'' Grilli; October 13, 1927 – October 10, 2022) was an American singer, arranger, composer, conductor, pianist, and music producer. She recorded and performed with her vocal harmony groups in Nashville, Los Angeles, and ...
in
Montreux Montreux (, ; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, Swiss municipality and List of towns in Switzerland, town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, Alps. It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut (district), Riviera-Pays ...
southeast of
Lausanne, Switzerland Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Swiss French-speaking canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and facing the ...
. Hidley returned to the US and proposed opening a European Westlake Audio office. His partners unanimously opposed the idea, so Hidley sold his share of Westlake and founded Eastlake Audio in Switzerland, where he continued to design studios and sell monitor speakers. Sierra Audio, a sister company to Kent Duncan's
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recording studio Kendun Recorders, was formed to represent Eastlake Audio in the Western Hemisphere, South America, and the Pacific.


Hidley Designs

In 1980, Hidley sold Eastlake and moved to
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
intending to retire, but when Harumitsu Machijiri wanted Hidley to design Sedic Studios' new facilities in
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
, Hidley accepted with the condition that he would design and build two rooms: the first a Westlake/Eastlake design, and the second a new, improved design. Once built, the better-sounding room would be kept while the other would be demolished and rebuilt to match the better-sounding room. Machijiri agreed and Hidley worked with former Pioneer speaker designer Shozo Kinoshita on the project. Inspired by his new "Non-Environment" control room concepts, Hidley returned to both the studio design business and Switzerland, where he founded Hidley Designs in 1986. In 2005, Hidley and his wife moved to
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
on his four-year retirement visa.


References


External links


Tom Hidley: Designing a Palace (video interview)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hidley, Tom Living people American acoustical engineers 1931 births