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Headphones on, audiophiles and music nerds. We’re getting lost in the audio artistry at Meow Wolf in Houston.
Photo by Kate Russell
Eye-popping. Maximalist. Immersive. “Overstimulated, dripping-with-detail sparkle and glow.” These are the ways top writers in the country describe Meow Wolf’s immersive art; the quote is from Scott Stein at CNET. But there’s one facet of the art that’s the secret ingredient in the experience layer cake, the artistic element that brings a sense of all-encompassing transformation.
The answer is a whisper, barely audible, now building frenetically into a vibrant crescendo: it’s sound. Headphones on, audiophiles and music nerds. Coming to you in crisp binaural clarity, we’re getting lost in the audio artistry at Meow Wolf’s newest exhibition in Houston.
“In Radio Tave, little is as it seems,” reads a recent review of the new Meow Wolf exhibition in Houston by Garrett Martin in Paste Magazine….”and the groundbreaking technology that makes it possible is often masked behind bewildering artistry.”
Meow Wolf sound designers use technology to create soundscapes and music that make the experience feel real, whether it’s an ominous, almost inaudible hum that causes a sense of unease to piping in white noise from a much larger room to expand the feeling of a smaller space. Meow Wolf artists and employees who work behind the scenes will agree– the moment when the sound comes on in a new exhibition is a magical moment.
Meow Wolf’s sound design team includes Dylan Blanchard, Show Audio Engineer; Brendan Carn, Show Audio Designer; Crystal Cortez, Show Audio Designer; Eric Heep, Show Audio Engineer for Show Audio/Video/Lighting; Matt Hettich, Senior Director, AVL for Creative Design & Production; Steven Lewis, Show Audio Engineer; Les Stuck, Senior Sound Technologist for Show Audio/Video/Lighting; and Ben Wright, Senior Show Audio Designer. Many others contribute to each sonic masterpiece that Meow Wolf creates, including the Texas musicians who Meow Wolf licensed 30 songs from for the jukebox in Radio Tave’s Cowboix Hevvven.
The detail that Scott Stein described in Meow Wolf’s art is ever-present in both the visuals and the sound. Imagine wandering into the prismatic ruins of Radio Tave, the Bailiwick: a space where the lush alien canopy is adorned with percussion instruments chiming by themselves. With an actuated piano and metallophone, at any given moment you’ll be hearing a combination of a kinetic orchestra that is seemingly possessed, alongside other guests contributing to the symphony. You can reach out and play along using touch pads, adding your own musical touch to the space. All of these divergent sounds come together in a way that’s so beautifully harmonic, it brings tears to your eyes. (Hint: make sure to stay until you experience the whole “Transmission” event).
What makes this experience possible is the Meow Wolf sound design team’s inventive hacking of conventional technology, creating one-of-a-kind audio experiences that enhance worldbuilding. For the Bailiwick, they partnered with Embodme to develop touch pads that harmoniously integrate into the environment, offering guests the chance to become part of the kinetic orchestra. They programmed the sounds to be in the same key, sometimes even going so far as to change the neighboring installation’s soundscape so that the soundbleed is harmonious. The result is intricate, staggering, interactive, and awe-inspiring to behold; it feels like witnessing entropy turning to order.
This is the world of mechatronics that Meow Wolf has created—real instruments that play themselves in real-time, an invention unique to the type of organization that has mastered advanced technology but comes from a DIY art collective. While animatronic instruments exist elsewhere, Meow Wolf’s approach is distinctive, as most attractions pump in pre-recorded music through speakers. The magic here lies in real, mechanical instruments performing autonomously, imbuing the space with the authenticity of live sound. As Garrett Martin of Paste Magazine observes, this approach makes the environment feel “eerily alive.” With their inner workings exposed, these artful instruments also invite guests to learn about the fascinating mechanics behind the music. However, achieving this requires sophisticated technology—robotic mallets and actuators, custom software to control these robots, and a system that would allow Meow Wolf’s sound team to write music for robots to play.
Inspired by musical robotics, kinetic sculptor Trimpin, and an artist’s proposal to make a band of gremlins play music with trash, the Meow Wolf sound team first found themselves composing music for mechatronic installations when they built Gremlin Symphony—a two-story kinetic instrument at Convergence Station in Denver. This piece was a collaborative effort by many people but spearheaded by lead artist Meason Wiley, Meow Wolf’s Director of R&D and a former student of Trimpin’s. It marked Meow Wolf’s first major foray into mechatronics. Built from salvaged materials, including Denver street signs, Gremlin Symphony wows guests as they enter the space and witness a piano and other objects playing themselves. Check out the video when musical mastermind Reggie Watts came to experience and play the giant instrument.
For the newest Houston exhibition, the sound team sought to push the boundaries even further. More from the Paste article: “Befitting that radio backdrop, sound dominates at Radio Tave, defining the exhibit to a degree never before seen at a Meow Wolf installation.”
There’s the constant sonic backdrop of radio that pipes through the station, which sounds uncannily real in its absurdity and absurd in its impression of reality. There’s the 1970s therapy chatbot in the sound booth in the music room that will sarcastically question everything you ask it in a deadpan, dead-eyed sounding voice (fun fact, it is not AI). There’s the inside jokes for broadcast folks and musicians plastered with sticky notes, the Genremorpher which takes the same song and with the twist of a radio dial, changes its genre. In Pickle Boy: A Lo-Fi Recording Studio Installation, they repurposed MIDI controllers, shrouded them in custom-built housings, and powered them with proprietary software. In the next phase of this project, guests will be able to create music and take it home—a unique feature in the industry. Then there’s the Amalgam, where Show Audio Engineer Eric Heep programmed the hauntingly gargantuan space to sound like the electrical vibration of a portal sucking up a tornado-sized coalescence of household objects.
Two major anchor spaces, Cowboix Hevvven and Obsidiodyssey, have big musical ties. Obsidiodyssey’s lead artist, Janell Langford, and her vibrant technicolor dreamscape was inspired by Nenah Cherry’s “Buffalo Stance,” Dee-Lite, and Technotronic. The infectious dance music was created by Texas artist Pro Ghost. Cowboix Hevvven boasts the coolest jukebox that’s loaded with songs lead artist Cole Bee Wilson wrote custom for the experience, as well as the songs of Texas bands, and a really funny death metal song with shockingly wholesome lyrics, if you know how to find it.
Meow Wolf works with local artists in every market with the goal of giving them a platform in our exhibitions and beyond. For Radio Tave, we partnered with B Corp Marmoset to license the work of Texas musicians, supporting their exposure both within the installation and going forward. Featured collaborations include Fat Tony, who designed music for the Arcade and starred in our commercials; Pro Ghost, who created soundscapes for Obsidiodyssey; and ODAE, who composed music for Gloquarium.
For the real music nerds in the room, the most impressive part of Meow Wolf sound is the custom audio backbone for all exhibitions: a combination of QSYS and Max/MSP, used by a number of heavy-hitting smart electronic musicians for custom performance systems including Radiohead’s iconic Kid A.
According to Senior Director Matt Hettich, “We use custom software solutions because they allow for greater flexibility and meet creative demands more effectively than traditional systems. By utilizing Max/MSP, a node-based programming language famously used by Radiohead, we can build our own libraries of creative tools. This enables us to push the boundaries of audio design, creating experiences that go above and beyond.”
This means that Heep can trace a line throughout an exhibition, like Numina in Convergence Station, and the sound will move throughout the space in that pattern. It means understanding the psychological implications of how a sound will affect us depending on whether it’s in front of us or behind us. It means taking two randomized tracks that play off of each other, so no two moments are ever going to be the same, sonically.
Meow Wolf’s unique blend of DIY ingenuity and technological sophistication enables the creation of experiences that rival industry giants but remain approachable, real, and deeply personal. The innovation behind Meow Wolf’s sound design goes beyond technical wizardry—rather than tech for tech’s sake, it’s all in service of creating art that breathes. By emphasizing community collaboration, and exploring the psychology of sound, Meow Wolf invites guests not just to witness art but to feel it—offering a sensory journey that’s as emotionally resonant as it is technically groundbreaking.
