Mixing immersive music : why make the leap ?
I began to get intrigued with immersive audio around 5 years ago , when I heard some Imogen Heap Atmos material at the Genelec Experience Centre in London . After I ’ d done a bit of reading on the subject , I got to understand the object / bed based nature of the mix workflow and this got me even more interested .
I could tell that immersive was a format that the public could easily access , and that the binaural foldowns can actually sound really good in their own right , and to me it had the potential to be a new standard rather than just a premium service – so I started talking to the guys at Dolby , to work out how best to make the move into immersive .
Upgrading the room I have a small 4 metre x 3 metre mix / production room which was already FULL with my stereo rig ! After consulting with Genelec we started to spec a sensible 7.2.4 rig that could handle the bass management and would actually fit in the space . I have great interfaces with a huge I / O count , so sparing the dedicated outs wasn ' t an issue – and I ' ve managed to keep my Atmos and stereo rigs completely separate .
My immersive monitoring set up consists of Genelec 8330s for surrounds , 7360 subs , plus 8320s for elevation . The GLM software has been vital – it made everything come together and work with zero issues , and the combination of small monitor footprint and significant power is especially valuable to me as I have such limited space .
Immersive workflow Working in immersive is a really different workflow for the majority of the jobs . A lot of the major label projects involve working from stems and matching the Atmos mix very closely to the stereo master , but in immersive space . This can be a challenge when stems are not created carefully or have been mixed in a top-down workflow , and that part just removed for mastering / stem creation .
Technical difficulties aside , I ’ d describe stereo mixing as like painting a wall - while immersive mixing is more like painting the wall , the ceiling , all the other walls in the room and the empty space between them ! You get huge benefits in dynamics , clarity and spaciousness , but it ’ s easy to make the mixes feel ‘ softer ’ than the stereo versions and that ' s not acceptable for me . I spend a lot of effort keeping impact and energy , especially in the binaural render .
The new standard The immersive work I ’ m doing is mainly for major label singles for both new and very-established artists , as well as some jazz and classical album projects and new UK artists such as Steam Down , Theon Cross and many more . It ' s really an amazing time to be involved , and we ' re even discussing producing a new album project so it can take advantage of Atmos right from the early stages of production . This could be really interesting .
I also think that Apple Music ’ s decision to partner with Dolby is game-changing - they are pushing immersive as the new standard , and that is the most important step in creating a new normal . I ' m very excited by it and feel very lucky to be working on so much immersive mixing already .
My advice for anyone considering getting into immersive is to download the renderer , learn it backwards , start on headphones and make the leap to an in-room monitoring system as soon as you can . It ' s daunting – but when you ' re in it , there ' s nothing like the feeling of being properly surrounded by your mix !
About the author Emre Ramazanoglu is a Londonbased songwriter , producer , mixer and programmer who describes his sound as “ Dysfunctional Pop ”. He ’ s worked with Noel Gallagher , Lily Allen , Steam Down , Theon Cross , David Holmes , Paloma Faith , Carly Rae Jepson and many
The Score Magazine highonscore . com
7