History:
Rosen Sound was started in Bob's mom’s garage when Bob was a mere 16 years of age. A high school drop out, Bob resented the idea of finding a proper job and instead began buying, fixing, and selling Yamaha DX7’s to make money with his passion for synthesizer equipment. Eventually, Bob got burned on enough deals and dealings with tech shops that he began repairing most of the DX7’s (and others) himself. Once Bob realized a natural skill for fixing electronic equipment, he began offering repair service for a paltry $25 per hour. Bob ended up helping everyday musicians he found through craigslist, and eventually ended up doing work for the keyboardists of The Eagles, Rick Springfield, Billy Idol, and many of the top studios in Los Angeles.
A “real job” was had eventually during these early years, but once Bob's position was terminated at his job in late 2013, he decided it was time to open Rosen Sound as a real brick and mortar. A few maxed out credit cards later, Rosen Sound opened on the Oak street location in early 2014 with big aspirations that were soon to be checked.
With the doors opened, Rosen Sound hosted a variety of tech services, including synthesizer repair (by Bob) and other services handled by others including guitar repair, amp repair, and pro audio repair. A recording studio was also on premise. The realities settled fairly quickly that a repair shop and studio are probably the worst businesses to run if you’d like to survive, and were it not for some smart business equity positions, Rosen Sound would have likely died by 2016.
Luckily, thanks to smart sweat equity positions, Rosen Sound carried on until word really got around the city that there was a new game in town. The rest, as they say, is history
About The Owner:
Rosen Sound is ran by owner/operator Bob (previously Rob) Rosen. Born into a family of jazz and classical upright bassists, Bob was exposed to great music quite early, leading to him taking up the drums. Bob discovered synthesizers in high school and put the sticks down not too long after.
Bob found his love for synthesizers from listening to bands like Rush, Van Halen, and other keyboard/synthesizer laden heavy metal bands from Scandinavia. Although Bob listens to and appreciates synthesizer roots in classic pop and electronic records, Bob is a bonafide headbanger, and is probably the worlds biggest Iron Maiden fan.
Tech work came naturally from a young age born simply from not being able to afford repairs while playing in local bands. A career was chosen of it after the realization that he was more interested in what and how his gear was accomplishing sonic awesomeness than actually playing them, though he still is an avid player and practicer of keyboard instruments, even still playing the occasional gig in his heavy metal band.
After doing gear repair out of the garage for 5 years, Bob opened Rosen Sound as a brick & mortar in early 2014 at the original 1008 W Oak location. Today, Rosen Sound now occupies 10,000 square feet of real estate spread across 4 neighboring addresses to the original 1008 location.
Bob's days now are comprised of working on the more gratifying electronic and restoration work that is in queue at his shop, alongside managing the day-to-day of owning a business. Other passions and activities include 3D CAD work, circuit design, smoked BBQ, Tennis, being a dad to his 2 young sons (and dog, Buster), and collecting synthesizers.
