From a rented room in a small studio in Burbank a decade ago, producer/engineer Todd Tarverdia has graduated to opening Tonik Capital – ‘a unified space for recording, rehearsal and performance’, and home to the first Dolby Atmos set-up to use Augspurger MX-65 monitors.
Reflecting on his start in 2011, Tarverdia says: ‘I was a new engineer in this industry and having a hard time finding a job. I rented a room and built up some clients, but the early days were challenging, especially when the studio I was in got robbed. Thankfully, they didn’t touch my room – but I knew it was a sign to move on.
The new facility is more than a business venture for Tarverdia, it is a realisation of a vision to host showcases, enhancing the experience for both artists and audience. However, the path to opening the studio came with challenges – soon after leasing part of the building and moving in, the pandemic hit and upended all plans.
‘A few weeks into the pandemic, the landlord had told me that many of the other tenants were struggling financially, and he needed to sell the building. With all the uncertainty, I knew I had to secure our spot. And so, I bought the whole thing.’
This proved a decisive step in establishing Tonik Capital’s primary recording space, the Gotham Room.
During his search for monitor speakers, Tarverdia stumbled across an online seller from Chicago offering pre-owned Augspurger Duo12s at a price that his now stretched budget could afford. This led to a call with Dave Malekpour, President of Augspurger Monitors, to confirm the speakers’ authenticity. Some months later Tarverdia was looking to upgrade the studio to Atmos, and contacted Malekpur to talk about how he might incorporate Augspurger monitors into his Atmos set-up.
‘We hadn’t installed a wholly Augspurger system before, but Todd was pretty adamant that’s what he wanted, after being impressed with the sound of the pair he’d bought previously,’ Malekopur says.
‘People have been asking me for years to create a small speaker that could live on the meter bridge but that has Augspurger’s power and clarity – and MX-65 was born of that concept. At the time it was still, in fact, being refined and tested ahead of its launch later that year. We had considered that it would be great in Atmos, but when Todd contacted me for this project – we knew this could be the perfect opportunity, and were sure that the MX-65s would complement Todd’s Duo12s.’
Augspurger Director David Anthony was also instrumental in the project, as he was able to visit the location and connect with Tarverdia in person. Working closely together, they evaluated the room, and other equipment that would be needed. ‘We overcame immense challenges, from global chip shortages to lockdown restrictions, to bring this project to fruition,’ he says.
‘Todd trusted in the vision and the Augspurger brand, and this led to our collaboration, and ultimately the installation of the system – before the world had even seen or heard MX-65. All pretty incredible, given the difficulties we faced during such trying times. When the project was completed, and Dave Malekpour came out to tune it, the three of us got to experience the sound for the first time altogether – and that was amazing.’
Tonik Capital can handle 9.2.4 Dolby Atmos immersive mixes using a 32-fader Avid S6 M40 console.
Despite its cutting edge technology, Tonik Capital remains dedicated to its core values and has now completed more than 70 Atmos mixes. ‘We’re highly focused on independent artists. Working with them often feels more organic, and genuine, and bypassing the complexities that sometimes come with labels has its own benefits,’ Tarverdia reflects. ‘I’m so glad to have collaborated with Augspurger Monitors on this project; the system sounds incredible. Our clients are consistently impressed, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.’
More: https://tonikcapital.com
