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  Wilmette, 2009    |
LEVEL 10 SOUND
Level 10 Sound was founded by Tom Krol, a suburban Chicago native with vast music and electronics backgrounds and professional experience in the recording industry dating back to the days of analog recording and editing at Chicago’s Universal Recording. In early 2008, Level 10 Sound replaced Tom's first company of 14 years, TK Audio.
After years as a session guitarist and freelance sound engineer, Tom Krol started TK Audio in 1994 as a music and narration post production audio facility. At that time, he started with a portable Pro Tools system. Later, the first studio installation opened in downtown Chicago. A notable project was an audio mix for an award-winning quadraphonic audio presentation for a tradeshow.
Since 1994, Tom has produced commercial and industrial voice over demos containing sound effects, library music and custom music using his expertise of sound design of vocal acoustics with narration and custom music production.
In 1995, Tom began to manage long-form narration projects as well as work with various corporate producers and record music groups. The studio moved to the northshore suburb Northfield.
In 1996, Tom took on more music projects as composer and producer as well as sound engineer. A client of his long-form narration production claimed that the high-quality audio products from TK Audio had helped them to be more competitive in their market. The studio moved to a larger installation in Wilmette.
In 1998, Tom began producing and composing ad music for TV, radio, film and industrials. He also began producing and managing audio projects in both English and Spanish. Tom sweetened audio and mixes soundtracks for various television productions and continued his specialty with providing high-quality internet audio for various clients. The studio moved to a larger commercial facility in Skokie.
In 2002, TK Audio moved to downtown Chicago’s River North area at 325 W. Huron. Tom recorded, produced and managed very large audio projects along with a staff of sound engineers.
In 2005, TK Audio relocated to 211 E. Ontario, near Chicago’s “Gold Coast” East of Chicago’s “Magnificent Mile” along Michigan Avenue. Tom cast Hispanic actors as well as directed and produced Hispanic dialog replacement to picture. He continued production for ad agencies and mixed independent films and record projects. At times, he created music for films and played as a session musician for other music producers.
In 2008, TK Audio was transformed into Level 10 Sound adding live event sound support services and location recording. The studio moved back to northshore suburban Wilmette.
In 2010, Tom mixed and mastered a soundtrack for an 18-CD Audio Bible and it became Amazon's top-selling audio book during the 2010 Holiday season in two categories. Amazon.com's description: "Elegantly blends voices, sound effects and original music." Voices were performed by more than 70 actors including international stars: Stacy Keach, Kristen Bell (who, by contract, had to approve Tom's mix before releasing her performance media - no changes were ever requested), Michael York, John Rhys-Davies, Sean Astin, Malcolm McDowell, Brian Cox, Neal McDonough and Julia Ormond. A client brought Tom to Argentina to record audio for their documentary that would later air on TV worldwide. Later that year, Tom performed classical guitar live on Chicago radio station WFMT.
In 2011, Tom added more companies, such as Big Shoulders Digital Video and AnswersMedia, to his list of clients. He also released his self-made solo classical guitar music CD "Primero." Phoenix Classical, a division of Phoenix Records in Canada, offered to promote this CD. Among their comments were "emotive and expressive," "excellent performance and production quality" and "very good radio potential."
In 2012, Tom continues to repair audio recordings and mix soundtracks. Several large Spanish production came in as well. The studio adds a Pro Tools HD 2 Accel system featuring HD processing plug-ins from McDSP and Bombfactory.
2013-2014, Tom relocates the studio to north Deerfield. He freelances as an A1 for live broadcast audio and web stream events. He scored original guitar music to picture for a financial firm's web site home page. His soundtrack mixes for documentaries have been viewed online over 2,000 times and viewed on television by people in 58 countries around the world. A corporate client sent Tom to Singapore to be the sole on-site AV technical director and sound engineer to support a week-long Asia/PAC Director's meeting.
2015-2017, Tom is the top-call freelancer for studio audio at AnswersMedia in Chicago for SMT's, broadcasts and virtual studio tapings. He is also the preferred A1/A2 audio freelancer for webcasts for Abbvie and complicated audio mixing for video shoots.
2017 - present, Tom provides flawless audio mixing at webcasts for international corporations on Chicago's northshore, enabling his production client to procure more on-going webcasts from these companies.
His recording studio is upgraded with the latest and best Digidesign Pro Tools Ultimate HD system. He has released his solo classical guitar music albums “Passionart” and “DRIFT” as found at all online music outlets and streaming services. Follow Tom Krol Music on Instagram and FaceBook. |
Audio is only as good as its engineer
 Tom Krol Plays 5 instruments and sings professionally
Met in the studio: Frank Sinatra, James Earl Jones, Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys), Ramsey Lewis, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Baxter (The Doobie Brothers) and The Dells.
Met & recorded Marion Brooks (NBC), Zoriada Sambolin (NBC), Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, WBBM's Felecia Middlebrooks, His Excellency Paul Kagame - President of Rwanda, Chicago Bears Matt Forte, Chicago Cubs Kris Bryant, Chicago Cubs Javier Baez, MLB Ryan Dempster, Fox Sports Troy Aikman, Victoria's Secret supermodel Karlie Kross, Tiffani Thiessen (90210, Saved by the Bell, Cooking Channel), S Epatha Merkerson (Law & Order, Chicago Med, major movies), Bill Rancic (first season winner on "The Apprentice"), Giuliana Rancic (E! news), Monica Pedersen (HGTV), WNUA's Denise Jordan Walker, Dr./Fr. Michael Pfleger, Dominic Capone (great nephew of Al Capone), CDW CEO Chris Leahy, Stepan CEO Quinn Stepan, Abbott Labs CEO Miles White, Marcelo Balboa (US Soccer Hall of Fame), Elimar Ugueto (Univision, ESPN), Steve Downes of WDRV "The Drive," children's book authors Ridley Pearson and Tom Watson, Top Chef Stephanie Izard, Chef Raghavan Iyer, Ty Pennington, Grammy Award winner Kurt Elling, and Archbishop Burke of The Vatican.
Played guitar on the HALO 2 soundtrack to complement guitar tracks by Steve Vai, as well as guitars on countless national commercials and for Atlantic Records. Performed guitar live on WFMT.
Solves Rubik's cube
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