Podcast 219: Anthony Mattana - Hooke Audio

Art + Music + Technology

This episode of Art + Music + Technology is brought to you by Recording Magazine. You can learn more about Recording Magazine, check out articles and subscribe at www.recordingmag.com.

What a path. From theater tech to hardware manufacturing - who'da thought? Anthony Mattana has taken the hard road, developing a new method for binaural audio recording, developing a wireless interface to your phone (Android or iOS) and funding the whole thing on a wing and a prayer - but he's done it. I got a chance to try the Hooke Verse headphones when I was at NAMM, and they are worth the price of admission.

In talking we Anthony, we get a sense of his passion for binaural recording, but we also get a sense of his passion to make it accessible to people. His experience with the $9000 dummy head system pointed out that, as amazing as the recording was, it wasn't something that he or his friends would be able to experiment with - the risk and costs were just too high. Thus, he made a mic!

In this chat, we not only talk about the advantages of binaural recording - and the amazing spaces it can reveal - but also dive into the process of creating a hardware device, coding up a new codec for the wireless interchange, passing standards for a bluetooth device and getting things onto the various app stores. It's a wild ride, but the story is amazing.

Enjoy, and take a peek at hookeaudio.com to check out the story. Oh, and if you listen through the podcast, we get a nice little discount code to use for the purchase of a Verse as well. So enjoy!