Hommage to Tom Hidley

Tom Hidley was a musician who built his own studio in Hollywood (named TTG) and engineered the recordings of artists such as Frank Zappa, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Roy Eldridge, Peggy Lee… for labels such as Verve.

Adviser for Frank Sinatra, he eventually became the most influential and respected recording studio designer. His numerous designs, including for Westlake Recording and Record Plant, have housed productions of major artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Phil Collins, Shania Twain, Céline Dion, The London Symphonic Orchestra...

Composer Michel Magne's studio in the Chateau d’Hérouville, marked the start in Europe with enthusiastic Elton John about Hidley's contribution during the sessions for "Don't shoot me, I am only the piano player", as documented by journalist Frank Ernould. Most major studios in France were later designed (Studios de la Grande Armée, Davout, Les Dames, Delphine, Ferber, Marcadet, Guillaume Tell, Polygone, Plateforme, AB...).

Tom Hidley developed the “non-environmental” room acoustics for faithful sound quality monitoring. In 1988, he found in JMF Audio amplifiers the natural sound and high output power that perfectly matched the concept.

The Mix Room, Nashville, with the JMF Audio purpose designed power amplifiers was awarded best control room of the USA in 1998 by professional journal Mix.

Recording studios featuring JMF Audio's power amplifiers such as Masterfonics (Nashville), Nomis (London), Capri Digital (Italy) are used as examples and illustrations in Philip Newell's book "Recording studio design".

This page is an hommage to Tom Hidley who passed away the year of JMF Audio’s 40th anniversary, coinciding with the inauguration of our own recording studios… We have been admirers of Tom’s achievements and express our gratitude.