Focused on building the best possible solutions for musicians, engineer and producers, Wayne Jones has been focused on getting every detail right.
Wayne Jones Audio have established themselves as an unmatched option for studio monitoring, with a list of artists, producers and engineers that sing their praises to prove it. At the core of the company is Wayne Jones himself, a lifelong musician and innovator, whose quest for the perfect bass cabinet for himself led him to a world-class design that now houses a superbly flat, balanced and focused monitoring system used by the likes of Warren Huart (Aerosmith, Produce Like A Pro), EastWest Studios, Victor Wooten, Record Plant LA and Krish Sharma (Rolling Stones) to name a few.
“I couldn’t afford an extra bass cabinet when I was seventeen,” begins Wayne, speaking to us from his home in Victoria. “My dad was a woodworker.”
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Wayne explains that with the generous help of Nova Sound for cabinet parts, he and his father had assembled an identical cabinet themselves. Whilst doing clinics & endorsing Trace Elliot amplification for Music Link, Wayne had the idea of splitting a 4 x 10 cab (as they were too heavy) & creating a modular system. He observed Trace Elliot making smaller extension bass cabinets for a more modular design, though still unsatisfied, he designed his own cabinet from the ground up, using Lorantz Audio speakers.
“Sound Solution built these for me using ‘Just off the shelf speakers.’” he explains. Wayne used this first model for a while, before diving deeper into the design of the driver itself.
“I went to see Michail at Lorantz, and we decided we’d design drivers for the bass cabs. So, we did, and in 2001 Bass Player magazine gave me a review saying ‘This is for every other speaker manufacturer to aspire to.’”
“There’s a trade off. There’s either restricted low end to get good mids & highs or restricted mids & highs to get good low end etc. Michail designed this driver for me to do it all with accurate reproduction of all areas in the bass, mids & highs even before we get to a tweeter.”
Wayne Jones Audio cabinets push a more balanced sound, using premium components and treated cabinets to push consistent and balanced sound out of the speakers.
This also carries through to the Studio monitor drivers where the reproduction, clarity dimension, transients & recovery are just amazing for producing, mixing and mastering applications.
Wayne recalls recording an album in QLD. Not happy with the Genelec monitors that were there he used his bass cabinets as monitors, before passing the record off to Steve Scanlon to mix (still on Wayne’s cabinets). Steve then took the record back to his studio in Melbourne where, at the time, he used Quested monitors and found he only needed to tweak some top end.
“That was how the bass cabs led to the Studio Monitors — I called Michail at Lorantz and said ‘If the bottom end and midrange is that good in my bass cabinets, they’re gonna make amazing studio monitors!’”
From there, research was also needed for the power amps & DSP. Wayne contacted companies in Europe & USA for the “D” class power amps & DSP. For three months, Wayne tweaked the internal design and acoustics of the speaker, using material and absorption to treat cabinet reflections instead of relying entirely on DSP like some other companies.
“By ear & with Michail’s guidance I got the cabinet as close to flat [as I could], to eliminate Eiger modes. Then I could fine tune it with the DSP.”
With other monitors, engineers and producers are not getting the true picture of what they are trying to achieve. Many a time after hearing their mix on Wayne’s monitors, they comment “I didn’t realise I had that much compression on the kick”, “I can now here the reverb tails & need to change the reverb!” or “I can hear things I never knew were there.”
Wayne Jones Audio’s entire range of monitors shares this sound and philosophy.
“EastWest are now raving about them,” Wayne beams. “They’re their favourite speakers.”
Wayne has an Atmos system in his lounge, also where he tests monitors. His 7.1.4 system is assembled from a combination of carbon fiber & original wood monitors as well as a 15” sub that is all routed through a Dante network and an Avid MTRX studio interface for playback.
Acutely aware of immersive sound’s arrival, his range of speakers are produced with consistent parts to ensure the high number of speakers all react and translate sound the same way. Working with Joseph Mothiba (who is a well known artist & producer) in South Africa led him to Universal Music & more. Joseph also has his own video production company with OB vans which led Wayne to design a 6.5” speaker for mobile recording, his range extending from there through a 10” model 2-way model, right up to a 2 x 10” 3-way mains monitor and 15” studio subwoofer.
The range of speakers are designed to give the same translation across the range, the only difference being the power handling of bigger or smaller speakers; a very important element in Atmos is the translation.
“It’s essential you have the same translation all around,” explains Wayne. “When a producer or engineer is mixing, they’ll want to put certain things in certain places, and you want to make sure you’re getting the accuracy— that’s it’s the same as out the front.” he says, referring to the ‘standard’ left and right stereo monitors versus the additional 10 speakers in a 7.1.4 Atmos setup.
Sonarworks
Wayne Jones Audio has additionally partnered with Sonarworks, allowing for SoundID Reference profiles to be loaded into the monitors directly. So no need for using SoundID as a plug in any more
“Initially it was used in a DAW as a plugin,” he says. “I was the very first worldwide to do this. So now you can upload your calibration profiles to each individual speaker.”
Wayne Jones Audio have a foot firmly in the present while they look to the future of Atmos and immersive sound. They have a range of speakers for any and every situation, studio and workflow, as well as future-proofing themselves with the advent of Dante, Digital audio connection, Atmos and other DSP-based technology that might be on the horizon.
With a masterfully designed speaker cabinet at their core, Wayne Jones Audio speakers are second to none, translating accurately and musically, from the mind of a man who’s in constant pursuit of the best possible sound.
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