Society Of Sound

Society Of Sound Society of Sound is a premier recording and post-production company. It is also ideally suited as a post-production house and mastering facility.

Society of Sound is a premier recording and post production company primarily focused on classical music. Since 1987, it has prided itself on producing the highest quality recordings for orchestras, choral and chamber groups and instrumental and vocal soloists. Founded in 1987 by engineer and producer Robert DiVito, the company had its start in the early years of the burgeoning digital revolut

ion and, as such, contributed substantially to the changing audio community while maintaining a firm understanding of traditional technology. Having recorded countless live concerts, label recordings, sound for film and music videos, Society of Sound is a hybrid digital and analog recording and post production company. Specializing in natural and accurate sound recordings of acoustic music our process continuously strives to artistically balance realism with a larger than life quality. Society of Sound’s Toronto studio is a large and comfortable space that lends a unique quality to voice overs, dubbing, vocals and acoustic recording. The studio is located in the Junction District and is an integral part of a vibrant arts community. Working with orchestras, chamber groups and soloists, Society of Sound’s core strength is in the field of eBroadcasting. Developing large scale media strategies through archival recordings, repurposing live performances for commercial release, internet radio and download/streaming technology are the areas of future growth and position Society of Sound as an industry leader. Society of Sound’s recordings and film work have been heard on major public and private radio and television broadcasting stations in Canada, the United States and Europe. Contact Society of Sound to find out how to make your next project a great recording. www.societyofsound.ca

12/05/2025

After purchasing these two libraries last year I finally had a chance to play with them. One is a Spitfire library by Olafur Arnalds and the other by Crow Hill called Glass Strings. Oh, and a wonderful little expression fader by Ghostnote Audio. 100% AI free.

I spent an interesting afternoon with Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel Mastering in Toronto. He was kind enough to invite m...
09/16/2025

I spent an interesting afternoon with Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel Mastering in Toronto. He was kind enough to invite me over to try some EQs I’ve been considering: the Manley Pultec, API 5500, and Manley Massive Passive. I ended up testing his Langevin Mini-Massive, which I liked a lot. It’s only dual-band, but in Mid-Side mode the smoothness of the sweeps stood out right away. It also has three transformer settings on the rear panel for additional colour options. A great unit.

His API 550Ms are the mastering versions—very rare. The 1 dB stepped controls make adjustments subtle and easily repeatable. I expected more midrange aggressiveness, but instead found a nice transient presence in the lower mids that I really liked.

The Manley Pultec needed more time. It’s a subtle box that uses the classic push-pull technique. I didn’t quite get what I was hoping for, but in fairness, the program material—acapella four-part choral music—wasn’t full-range enough to quickly reveal obvious changes.

Noah is a veteran mastering engineer, and we spoke at length about mastering, analog signal flows, AI mastering, and the handful of other veterans still working with hardware today. Even though many artists now self-master with AI tools, Noah and Lacquer Channel stay busy with a mix of projects: mastering for a wide variety of clients, CD-to-vinyl remastering, tape-based processing, and artists who still value the tools, ears, opinions, and experience a mastering engineer brings to the final product. For everyone else, there’s Ozone!

Analog gear remains the X factor. It’s never as convenient as staying ITB, but for me it’s the best part of the sonic playground. The combination of transformer colour, the quirks of component tolerances, op-amp design, tube saturation, and how sonics and transients behave inside the headroom of analog hardware—that’s what creates unique sonic signatures. While Noah and I can both agree on this, he was quick to point out that few artists or engineers still care. That surprised me, since with the rise of hybrid mixing and companies like Warm, United, Stam, and Audioscape, etc, making hardware recreations of classic analog gear, I assumed the workflow outside the box was making a comeback. Maybe it lies somewhere in the middle.

Either way, the art form deserves to be pushed forward, with sonics treated as creatively and carefully as the music itself.

David Hafler got his start with a Company he founded in 1954 called Dynaco which modelled itself around the popular DIY ...
05/02/2025

David Hafler got his start with a Company he founded in 1954 called Dynaco which modelled itself around the popular DIY electronics kits by Heath. He went on to pioneer some of the best sounding class AB designs centred around a Class A JFET input stage and a MOSFET-based output stage. He sold the company in 1987 to the Rockford Corporation, where chief engineer Jim Strickland continued the Hafler tradition. The company is now owned by Canada's Radial Engineering. I've always been a fan of Hafler amplifiers for their performance, efficiency and value for money. Radial Engineering Ltd.

Here's another original from our sessions with Eric Paetkau.
03/01/2025

Here's another original from our sessions with Eric Paetkau.

Last weekend with the Amici Chamber Ensemble at Trinity St. Paul, using the Yamaha DM1000. This is a great example of Ja...
02/15/2025

Last weekend with the Amici Chamber Ensemble at Trinity St. Paul, using the Yamaha DM1000. This is a great example of Japanese excellence and thorough design. Like having a swiss army knife of features, if you can think it, this console can likely route it in its many layers of audio processing. I normally don't do FOH duties but this concert needed three layers of audio to take care of.
1. Adding front fills to the existing PA required creating separate zones for the fills to be time aligned and equalized to match the existing PA with Smaart.
2. Mix for FOH
3. Discreet direct outs for each channel, post EQ and Fader, for recording and mixing in post to sync with film

I have another one of these tomorrow at Trinity St. Paul. I will go more in depth in another post with the Yamaha. Thanks to Amici for the invite.

Check out this session with Eric Paetkau at the studio using the newly added Beyer TG88 on vocals with a Gefel UT70s and...
01/30/2025

Check out this session with Eric Paetkau at the studio using the newly added Beyer TG88 on vocals with a Gefel UT70s and Neumann TLM193 on the acoustic and a Sennheiser MKH40 doing double duty.

Just purchased this Beyerdynamic M88TG. Ever since reading that this was Phil Collins vocal mic of choice I’ve been intr...
12/20/2024

Just purchased this Beyerdynamic M88TG. Ever since reading that this was Phil Collins vocal mic of choice I’ve been intrigued by its sound. Developed for high SPL applications like kick drum this mic is an expensive version of a 57 and the build quality is outstanding. Made in Germany, the HyperCard pattern has great off axis rejection and a substantial low frequency response differentiating it from other mic’s in this lane. Looking toward too using it tmw on a session.

I first started my journey into classical music recording back in the late 80's and would read, watch, study, listen and...
12/11/2024

I first started my journey into classical music recording back in the late 80's and would read, watch, study, listen and absorb anything I could get into to learn the craft. One of the pieces of gear I would consistently run into was the Studer 961/962 consoles. These portable broadcast mixers, although heavy, packed a large punch in the facilities it carried with aux returns, multiple talkback routing, signalling and on board compression and limiting. Not to mention the transparent preamps and simple, but very capable, EQ.

I've lusted after one ever since.

A few weeks back I met up with one of my long time colleagues and friends, Warren Beck, and I finally scratched that itch. Warren had a lovely edition of a 961 from the CBC vault and was gracious enough to let me evaluate it for a few weeks. After extensive remixing of orchestral and chamber recordings as well as getting a handle on all the monitoring, talkback and aux/send options, I pulled the trigger.

I will use this on location for recordings, but will also be used as a mix tool in studio. I primarily mix most projects in the analog world and the Studer will be part of that process. Oddly enough, the first release through the Studer is not a classical music one. Completed over the past two weeks, I recorded, mixed and co-produced a new Christmas song for the very talented singer-songwriter Delia Deacon, called Christmas At All. Check it out and give Delia some love.

More on the Studer later.

https://youtu.be/OGUb5Sbo_mg?si=zzMyN4u3PMW36HID

Really proud of all these people. Being professional, especially in the corporate world, involves more than just showing...
11/15/2024

Really proud of all these people. Being professional, especially in the corporate world, involves more than just showing up but equally having the desire to do even the mundane or simple things really well. Thank you all.

11/15/2024

Google Awards yesterday at Brickworks. Getting the orchestra mic'ed with 4099s, IEMs, mixed and balanced with playback is a challenge in patience. Just a few opening chords can tell you whether one is in the zone. Live sound is a different beast. We did manage to get a fairly flat response from 50-5kHz A-weighted.

Address

1444 Dupont Street, Suite 41
Toronto, ON
M6P4H3

Telephone

+14169375826

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Society of Sound

Society of Sound is a premier recording and post production company primarily focused on classical music. Since 1987, it has prided itself on producing the highest quality recordings for orchestras, choral and chamber groups and instrumental and vocal soloists.

Founded in 1987 by engineer and producer Robert DiVito, the company had its start in the early years of the burgeoning digital revolution and, as such, contributed substantially to the changing audio community while maintaining a firm understanding of traditional technology.

Having recorded countless live concerts, label recordings, sound for film and music videos, Society of Sound is a hybrid digital and analog recording and post production company. Specializing in natural and accurate sound recordings of acoustic music our process continuously strives to artistically balance realism with a larger than life quality.

Society of Sound’s Toronto studio is a large and comfortable space that lends a unique quality to voice overs, dubbing, vocals and acoustic recording. It is also ideally suited as a post-production house and mastering facility. The studio is located in the Junction District and is an integral part of a vibrant arts community.