https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wolff_(audio_engineer)
I prefer to embrace new technology and explore the capabilities rather than try to prevent the inevitable change that will occur anyway. My most repeated saying is “It is 1967 all over again, the future is a train that doesn’t stop. You can get on the train or lay on the tracks, the choice is yours. I prefer to drive the train”
In 1972, I
was hanging out at a local TV shop, a guy comes in with a Strat with "no sound". The shop owner had no clue, I pulled the jack out and fixed it, the guitar player said "from now on, your name will be FIX…". That was the beginning of my course on the road to the studio to designing. Both parents were in Big Bands during the 40’s, and later my Father was a civil engineer and my mother was a custom jeweler. I am the well known “middle child” of 3 kids, with my older brother Glenn Wolff (www.glennwolff.com) is a well known artist and my sister Lisa runs the operation of her husbands home restoration and building business. My education centered around electronics, taking night classes during high school, starting school radio stations, and eventually leaving Traverse City and going on the road with several bands, as the FOH engineer. From Live sound on the road to running sound at a club in Washington DC called the Bayou, I did FOH for such bands as Foreigner, Dire Straits, Pat Benatar, etc. I was the FOH for many showcase bands attempting to get signed. From live to the studio, I was an engineer at a studio called No Evil Multimedia in DC during 1976 through 1978, it was a nice facility, we were the Aphex dealer, and the Synclavier dealer for the reagion around DC. We eventually purchased the Sunset Sound Studio One console from Paul Camarata, and started making very good sounding records. From the studio, I was offered a job at Datatronix in 1979, they had just purchased Automated Processes, or API. This company also invented the credit card slot on pay phones and that became their focus and we developed a system for MCI that improved the sound of the phone lines they were leasing from AT&T, and later found that the bad quality was caused by AT&T purposely altering their phone lines, which let to a law suit and the eventual breakup of AT&T. In June of 1985, I was offered API from them at a very low price because they wanted to trim the assets so sell the company. I purchased the company and opened in a 20X30 foot office, and received a phone call from a guy named Shelly Yakus, looking for API 560 equalizers. Shelly was my first customer and has remained a good friend since. At API, I designed the 5502 Rack Equalizer and the 3124 Quad Mic Pre, the first touch screen resettable console in 1995, and went on to design the Legacy console, Legacy Plus console and the Vision resettable discrete console, and most of the other product that the company is still selling today. In 1999 I sold the company and worked for them for the next 4 years, eventually leaving and starting Tonelux Designs Limited in June of 2004. Tonelux quickly became the 4th sound, among API, Neve and Trident. Throughout both API and Tonelux, I designed several discrete op-amps and transformers, used in our modular console designs. These consoles have been the sound behind the Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium album, Avett Brothers, Depeche Mode and many other top acts. In 2009 I sold Tonelux to the PMI Audio Group.
4 Years ago, I started FIX Audio Designs, LLC, to make consoles again…. The current product line includes a Stereo input module, a 5.1 input module and an Immersive input module with Object Sends. I am currently the only company in the world making analog Immersive consoles. The console can be fitted with any op-amp/transformer combination to get any console tone you desire. The Stereo input module allows you to choose 3 different tones, and each of the 3 mix busses can have any one. The stereo module also has a DAW monitor loop, much like an inline console. I have also designed products like the Tony Shepperd/A-Designs MIX Factory, The Sunset Sound Tutti Mic Pre, A Lindell input module with EQ and a compressor, Analog Alien EPI universal pedal interface, the Slate VMS1 Mic Pre, the Slate Control monitor system, The new Slate Audio Monitor system, and was involved in the new Slate Audio VSX headphone system.
