By Allan Maurer
RALEIGH, NC–Composer and music producer John Scott admits he was skeptical about Zenph Studio’s resurrection of an Art Tatum jazz piano recording. “I was interested in what the emotional content of a machine playing this music would be. It blew me away. It was like sitting in front of a piano hearing it live.”
Scott, formerly of Los Angeles and now based in Raleigh, composed or produced hundreds of background underscores for TV commercials and logos. At Zenph Studios, he says, “I sat there and listened and you cannot tell a human being is not playing it. I think they should demonstrate it by having a live musician behind one curtain and their recording behind another and have the audience try to guess which is which.”
John Q. Walker, president and co-founder of Raleigh-based Zenph, explains that the company’s first application takes audio recordings and discovers precisely how the musician played every note to recreate the performance as if you were in the room during the live performance.
“It redefines music production in much the same way Pixar redefined the process of creating animations,” says Walker. The process requires creating a three dimensional model of a piano (or other instrument) and how it was played, from how a key is struck, to when it was released, to how the pedals were used, to the dynamic range (the difference between the loudest and softest notes), Walker explains.
Replicating human playing
“You almost have to reverse engineer the instrument,” says Walker. Then, he adds, “We had to go back and figure out how to capture and replicate what it means to be a human player.”
The whole process, notes Walker, “Can be mind-bogglingly complex.” They start with an original recording closest to the original source as possible. They digitize it and look at the wave forms on a computer, do an analysis looking from everything from overtones to reflections off walls and microphone positioning.
The result is a sound that critics and music professionals alike say is “indisputably human,” notes Walker.
The first time Walker played Zenph Studio’s revolutionary new recording of the late Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould in his hometown of Toronto, “I thought it was for a technical audience of sound guys,” says Walker.
Particular skills
Gould, who died young, is to Toronto what Elvis is to Memphis, says Walker. “It turns out that some of Gould’s former co-workers and associates were in the audience. They came up afterward and said, ‘We heard him play live many times, and that’s what you have.’ Then the doors of Toronto opened up for us.”
The company recorded its album of Gould playing the Goldberg Variations in Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio, which is fully booked except for one day a year held open for special projects: Gould’s birthday. “That date is set aside in case something important comes up,” says Walker. “We were the important thing that year.”
It all took a particular set of skills. But, then Walker has a unique combination of skills in music and technology. Walker holds a BS in both mathematics and piano, a master’s degree in computer science, and a Ph.D. in software engineering, has been a pioneer in high-speed networking, wireless LANS, and VOIP. He managed high-tech software development teams for IBM and Ganymede Software, which he co-founded in the Research Triangle in 1995.
He co-authored a book on VOIP for Cisco press and another with Zenph co-founder Peter Schwaller for McGraw Hill on software engineering.
Investing in the people
Six-employee Zenph has had two rounds of angel investments in undisclosed amounts. It already has that first Glenn Gould album on the market via Sony. “We got Sony’s absolute best for this,” says Walker. The producer won the Grammy as best producer of the year five times.”
The Gould album hit high on the Billboard classical charts when it came out.
Zenph angel investor Stuart Take, who is based in Asia, recalls that a year and a half after he put money in Zenph Studios, he went into a Tower Records store in Tokyo to see if it was available and heard the company’s Gould album playing as a featured selection in the classical department.
Take says he didn’t need to hear the music to invest, however. “From an angel investor standpoint, you’re in at such an early stage that the main question is do you believe in the individuals? I knew these guys and when I originally invested it was a concept on a piece of paper and I said I’m in, because of who they were.”
Take says the Zenph business plan passed the test of the other initial questions he asks himself before investing. “Is it disruptive enough to make a difference to the market? Yes. It’s very disruptive in a field looking for something exciting besides the iPod. Is it readily duplicated? No.
Walker says the company, founded in 2003, is looking for growth capital of $1 million to $2 million, although he expects it will raise money in stages.
“We would like to build the next Pixar here,” he says. “It’s virtual reality for music that provides an immensely rich experience.”
For more see:www.zenph.com
To reach TJS editor Allan Maurer:
allan@techjournalsouth.com
© 2007, TechJournal South. All rights reserved.
