Bob hoffnar

Pedalsteel Guitar, Composition, Production

Prismatic Listening

with Bob Hoffnar and Max Lorenzen

Since 2019, Bob Hoffnar and Max Lorenzen have been demonstrating the effects of room acoustics on sound perception with their project, Active Prismatic Listening.

The standing waves and null points unique to each room are measured and determined by Max, and activated using pure sine wave tones. Audience members are asked to move around the space, perceiving different notes and sounds appearing and disappearing depending on their location. The audience creates their own sound experience.

Bob uses his pedal steel guitar, in a special tuning specific to each room, to accompany the sine wave tones. A piece of music is spontaneously developed through the interaction of the physical space, sine waves and pedal steel guitar. Each audience member’s perceived experience is specific to their location in the space.

Guest musicians are often invited into the fold, including Juan J. Garcia (Mexico City), Alexander Bruck (Mexico City), David Dove (Houston, TX), Sonya Gonzales (Austin, TX), Aidan Berg (Austin, TX) and others.

Past performances / installations:

Spellerberg Projects, Lockhart, TX (2025)
Lou Harrison House, Joshua Tree, CA (2025)
Texas School for the Blind, Austin, TX (2025)
Museum of Human Achievement, Austin, TX (2024)
Rhizome, Washington, DC (2024)
Casa del Lago UNAM, Mexico City (2024)
Galería Vórtice, Mexico City (2023)
Cloud Tree Gallery, Austin, TX (2019-2022)

Below are some videos documenting Active Prismatic Listening in action, though the experience of being in the room and moving through the sound waves is impossible to fully capture on audio or video recording.

About bob & Max

Pedal steel guitarist Bob Hoffnar relocated to Austin from NYC in 2009 and has since become a major contributor to Austin’s cultural landscape. Originally from Silver Spring, Maryland, Hoffnar graduated from Purchase Conservatory of Music in 1998 with a BFA in Composition that included private studies with Richard Cameron Wolf. Further private studies included time with such musical luminaries as Lamonte Young, Pandit Pran Nath, and Ernest Tubb’s steel player Buddy Charleton. Bob currently runs Liminal Sound Series — a live concert performance series dedicated to the commissioning of new works and collaborations between visionary composers and Austin-based musicians and performers.

Max Lorenzen is an audio engineer in Lockhart, TX where he runs the mixing and mastering studio, Rare Ear. Originally from Summersville, West Virginia, he graduated from American University in 2009 with a BA in Audio Production. Since moving to Central Texas in 2013, Max has become a fixture in the Austin recording community. Engineering alongside producers Danny Reisch, Jim Eno, Steve Berlin, Chico Jones and Jason Chronis. His engineering, mixing, and mastering credits span across genres and include recordings by Brown Whörnet, Tele Novella, Rattlesnake Milk, The Octopus Project, Other Lives, Spoon, and Dirty Projectors.