Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy to continuously improve upon something, which we employ everywhere in our production chain. The word kaizen means ‘improvement’ or ‘change for better’, and stems from 改 kai (‘change’ or ‘revision’) and 善 zen (‘virtue’ or ‘goodness’).
Ever since the start of TRPTK almost exactly ten years ago, we’ve used the kaizen philosophy on our studio’s equipment and techniques, as well as within our team itself. The importance of this can’t be overstated; each time we improve upon our process, the our recordings are better able to translate the intention of the artists to your listening space. Here are the three basic rules of kaizen we set out at TRPTK:
Improve everything continuously
We’re always looking for ways to improve all processes, no matter how small the improvement might seem. Over time, we’ve been upgrading all our hardware and software for higher transparency, lower noise floor, and less distortion, and continuously research better recording and mastering techniques. The goal of this is not the higher transparency or lower noise floor on itself, but rather bringing you, the listener, an even more exhilarating and realistic listening experience. What’s more, over time we continuously update our albums’ master files and provide them as a free upgrade to anyone who bought their downloads before.
Abandon fixed ideas
There are very few things worse for progress than “just sticking with what’s known”. We see so many of our colleagues simply record and master the way they’ve been taught, without actually slowing down and thinking if things can be done in a better way. This way, so many recordings are still produced using outdated techniques often not even based in research, science or even critical listening.
Empower everyone and be reflective
At TRPTK, each and every single master we produce is listened to by our entire team. Not just the engineers who recorded or mastered it, but also our artistic team, our label manager and even our executive director. By having six pairs of ears on everything we do, we stay critical of our own work so we’re able to improve where any improvement can be made.
This philosophy is of such high importance at the company, that everyone, including staff interns and non-production team members adhere to it. This way, we’ll keep improving upon what we do, continuously elevating your immersive listening experience.
Kaizen and Classical Music Production
Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy to continuously improve upon something, which we employ everywhere in our production chain. The word kaizen means ‘improvement’ or ‘change for better’, and stems from 改 kai (‘change’ or ‘revision’) and 善 zen (‘virtue’ or ‘goodness’).
Ever since the start of TRPTK almost exactly ten years ago, we’ve used the kaizen philosophy on our studio’s equipment and techniques, as well as within our team itself. The importance of this can’t be overstated; each time we improve upon our process, the our recordings are better able to translate the intention of the artists to your listening space. Here are the three basic rules of kaizen we set out at TRPTK:
Improve everything continuously
We’re always looking for ways to improve all processes, no matter how small the improvement might seem. Over time, we’ve been upgrading all our hardware and software for higher transparency, lower noise floor, and less distortion, and continuously research better recording and mastering techniques. The goal of this is not the higher transparency or lower noise floor on itself, but rather bringing you, the listener, an even more exhilarating and realistic listening experience. What’s more, over time we continuously update our albums’ master files and provide them as a free upgrade to anyone who bought their downloads before.
Abandon fixed ideas
There are very few things worse for progress than “just sticking with what’s known”. We see so many of our colleagues simply record and master the way they’ve been taught, without actually slowing down and thinking if things can be done in a better way. This way, so many recordings are still produced using outdated techniques often not even based in research, science or even critical listening.
Empower everyone and be reflective
At TRPTK, each and every single master we produce is listened to by our entire team. Not just the engineers who recorded or mastered it, but also our artistic team, our label manager and even our executive director. By having six pairs of ears on everything we do, we stay critical of our own work so we’re able to improve where any improvement can be made.
This philosophy is of such high importance at the company, that everyone, including staff interns and non-production team members adhere to it. This way, we’ll keep improving upon what we do, continuously elevating your immersive listening experience.