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9/2/2006

Mike's Dorrough official website Here



Michael Dorrough, left, receives the Radio Engineering Achievement Award from NAB Senior Vice President, Science & Technology, Lynn Claudy at the NAB 2000 Technology Luncheon. Dorrough was honoured for his significant contributions to the art of audio processing and audio monitoring.

Biographical Profile:

Mike Dorrough grew up with a love for radio and an insatiable desire to understand how sound devices worked. As a young man in the early 1960's Mike worked for a recording company owned by Casey Kasum and Bob Hudson, as a sound mixer. During that period he devised a revolutionary multi-band or DISCRIMINATE AUDIO PROCESSING method that provided greater loudness with no reduction in fidelity through achieving optimum relationships between FREQUENCY, TIME and AMPLITUDE in the complex waveform. The system worked so well it helped to make Dorrough a much sought-after sound engineer, leading to a position with the legendary Motown in Detroit. He left Motown for RCA in the mid-sixties with high hopes of employing his prototypes in even more diverse recording environments. Continuing to refine the concept, it didn't take Dorrough long to realize that his system had even greater implications for broadcasters and in 1965 one of his first Multi-Band Composite Audio Processors was installed at KGFJ. The improvement in perceived loudness was spectacular. Shortly thereafter he left RCA for KRLA in Los Angeles. It became clear by 1971 that Mike would have to set up his own factory to produce the unit. With the able assistance of his wife Kay, Mike launched "Dorrough Electronics". By 1975 a new technical lexicon defined a whole new "audio culture". Terms used widely in the audio field today, like "Multi-band Processing", "Psycho-Acoustics", "Relative Audio-Power to Peak Amplitude", and "Sound-Density" were coined, or first popularized by Dorrough to describe the effects and benefits of the Discriminate Audio Processor.

Dorrough and his company are being honored by the Academy as inventor/manufacturer of the Dorrough Loudness Monitor with a patented technology developed to give broadcast and recording engineers a true indication of "loudness" as perceived by the human ear. This invention actually grew directly out of the DISCRIMINATE AUDIO PROCESSOR as a means of graphically displaying the degree of increased audio power. Dorrough realized that the perceived loudness of sound is a mathematical function of TIME and AMPLITUDE.

The patented "Dorrough Ballistic" is based on the immutable mathematics intrinsic to audio waveforms. The AVERAGE integrates amplitudes in the context of time for a true reading of audio power that satisfies both ear and machine. At the same time users are provided with an unfettered real time PEAK, so nimble as to be able to pick up destructive "burst anomalies" the ear might miss but that are all too noticeable to recording devices. The mathematical cohesion between Peak and Average also provides users with a unique window into qualitative aspects of the sounds they are recording. By observing the relationship (gap) between the Peak and Average displays, the user can observe graphically the effects of processing, compression and even detect distortion. Dorrough's Loudness Monitor and Meter line has diversified to fill every audio/video requirement. Short months after being recognized by the National Association of Broadcasters with a Lifetime Technical Achievement Award, Dorrough, cofounder of Dorrough Electronics of Woodland Hills CA is the recipient of the Acaderny of Television Arts & Sciences Technical Achievement Award for the year 2000. For the first time in history the Academy's technology committee awarded the prize by unanimous vote.

For General Release:

Short months after being recognized by the National Association of Broadcasters with a Lifetime Technical Achievement Award, Michael Dorrough is the recipient of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Technical Achievement Award for the year 2000. For the first time in history the Academy's technology committee awarded the prize by unanimous vote. The award ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on July 8th.

Mike Dorrough is best known internationally as the father of technology to produce better sound for television, radio and recording. His sound enhancement concepts have been widely embraced by broadcasters worldwide. (Multi-band Audio Processing allows maximum audio loudness with no loss of clarity.)

Dorrough, a homeowner in Wisconsin for a quarter of a century, is best known locally as a dedicated advocate for the special needs community. He is attempting to establish a short wave broadcast service/recording archive from his new home in Oregon, to be run for and by blind and visually impaired people.

Dorrough and his company are being honored by the Academy this year as inventor/manufacturer of the Dorrough Loudness Monitor with a patented technology developed to give broadcast and recording engineers a true indication of "loudness" as perceived by the human ear. The audio loudness monitor is also in use worldwide in television, radio and motion picture production.

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