Scientists

Les Deutsch is a Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) scientist in the aerospace industry who holds several patents for electronic musical instruments. His father, Ralph Deutsch, invited the sound generator technology for the first digital organ. That instrument, produced by Allen Organ and first shown at the NAMM Show in the early 1970s, opened the door to personal keyboards and synthesizers which use the same principals. While in graduate school, Les was issued several patents, many of which were used by the Kawai company. His work with Kawai includes creating controlled harmonics fo

Sebastian Dirr has relatives that play string instruments professionally, so it was only natural that they welcomed it when Sebastian decided to become a bow maker. After studying musicology, he started an apprenticeship at Paesold in 1988. Sebastian specializes in modern and historic bows. For Sebastian, the wood of a bow is most important, and he sources much of it from colleagues who are retiring. Sebastian is a founding member of the International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative (I.P.C.I.) which was founded with the goal to protect existing trees and to ensure future suppli

Andy Hildebrand is the creator of Auto-Tune, which has had a big impact on music makers since it was first released in 1997. After a successful career as a scientist, Dr. Hildebrand had an opportunity to form his own company and began working on computer plug-ins related to music, his first love. Along the way he formed Jupiter Systems where he developed Multiband Dynamics Tool (MDT), which was one of the first Pro Tool plug-ins. The company name changed to Antares Audio Technologies in 1990 and several years later released the innovative Auto-Tune. Since that time Andy has conti

Walther Krüger was the chief scientist at the music instrument institute in Markneukirchen Germany before his retirement in the 1980s. His specialty was research on the acoustics of instruments to improve their design and production through mathematical measurements and consistency. His research has been published in a series of books (including Das Gorgonenhaupt published in 1972), volumes dedicated to the acoustics of instruments and several hundred articles published in engineering and scientific journals.  

Sean Olive received a Bachelors in Music from the University of Toronto, and his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Sound Recording from McGill University in Montreal. He was hired as a research scientist at the National Research Council of Canada where his research focused on the perception and measurement of loudspeakers, designing listening rooms, and improving microphones. It was during this time that he worked with Floyd Toole who would go on to Harman where he hired Sean to join his research team. Sean, a longtime member of the Audio Engineer Society, served as that organization's

Professor Fritz Sennheiser was the head of an engineering team of German scientists assembled right after World War II to improve the function of the electronic microphone. Using his innovative designs, Fritz developed the first product line and formed a company called Sennheiser. Since its beginning in 1945, the company grew to develop a wide range of products in addition to the microphone, including speakers and headphones. When he was interviewed in his office in 2005 he could not have been happier with the 60-year old company that bears his name, yet his family was clearly of

Floyd Toole recalls that when he was a child his father purchased a large amount of World War II surplus supplies, which contained a generous assortment of electronic gadgets and components. Access to these items ignited his passion for electronics, and he later earned his electrical engineering degree at the University of New Brunswick before gaining his PhD at the Imperial College of London, England. He moved back to Canada where he served as Senior Research Officer at the National Research Council for over 26 years. Floyd was then hired by Harman as the Vice President of Acoust