Santa Monica, CA (March 10, 2023)—The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing has archived and is making accessible six webinar episodes, titled “Inside the Mix,” that it co-presented with Dolby as a particular engagement of the Dolby Atmos Music Master Class sequence.
Each featured completely different consultants from Dolby protecting the whole lot from room configurations and tuning to metadata for immersive audio, together with a stay Q&A with producers and engineers working with Dolby Atmos immersive audio. The webinars had been launched by Maureen Droney, vp of the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing, and Christine Thomas, Dolby Laboratories head of music partnerships, and moderated by four-time Grammy Award-winning engineer Michael Romanowski.
The episodes are offered by Dolby Atmos knowledgeable Ceri Thomas; Bryan Pennington, senior purposes supervisor at Dolby; David Gould, Dolby’s senior director, content material creation options, and John Scanlon, senior supervisor of Dolby Institute and occasions; and Mike Ward, Dolby director of client leisure expertise and Romanowski.
Topics embrace deliverables; room configurations and tuning; pointers, instruments and mixing workflow; a deep dive into the technical capabilities of Dolby Atmos Music codecs; metadata; and an outline of certification choices, skilled assist boards and data bases, and different sources.
Maureen Droney remarks, “As a part of the P&E Wing’s ongoing dedication to offering the trade with essentially the most wanted info, we’re happy to current these periods recorded with consultants from Dolby. These periods had been informative, well timed and entertaining as nicely, and we invite all audio professionals to observe them for yourselves and get the within scoop. We thank all of our company from Dolby for his or her incisive commentary, and we look ahead to additional periods protecting extra subjects of significance sooner or later.”
Also a part of the “Inside the Mix” sequence, a separate earlier session, “Prelude: Immersive Audio 101,” provided an immersive audio primer. The session featured panelists Jimmy Douglass (producer and engineer: Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliott, Jay-Z); Leslie Ann Jones (recording engineer, director of music recording and scoring/Skywalker Sound, and present co-chair of the P&E Wing); Mike Piacentini (mastering engineer: Bob Dylan, Coheed and Cambria, Miles Ahead – A Miles Davis Biopic); and Darcy Proper (mastering engineer: Billie Holiday, Steely Dan, the Eagles).The panel was joined by moderator Brian (BT) Gibbs (producer and immersive combine engineer, Skyline Entertainment & Publishing) and Droney.
Three-time Oscar-winning movie re-recording mixer Paul Massey has simply moved into his new 9.1.6 combine studio, primarily based round a Harrison MPC5 console and JBL/Meyer Sound monitor system, with acoustic design by Bruce Black and system integration by AID. Photo: Bruce Black.
In Mix’s February 2023 cowl story, three-time Oscar-winning movie re-recording mixer Paul Massey and acoustic designer Bruce Black focus on in-depth the creation of Massey’s dream 9.1.6. combine studio; the story concludes right here, adopted by a take a look at the precise building course of. Don’t miss Part 1!
BRING YOUR OWN GEAR
As when he constructed a mixture room in 2010, Paul Massey labored with Audio Intervisual Design of Los Angeles on system integration, this time for 9.1,.6 Dolby Atmos Cinema and seven.1.4 for Dolby Atmos Home from the identical playback system.
While the replace included new cable and wiring, a brand new Dolby RMU software program package deal, new HDX playing cards, software program updates, and reconfigured monitor management and setup, the majority of the tools package deal was introduced over from the Ojai studio, together with the JBL and BMS Screen screens, Meyer Sound subwoofers, outboard racks, Christie projector and a beloved Harrison MPC5 console.
“It’s my favourite console on the earth; I’d by no means eliminate it,” Massey says. “I do combine on totally different platforms, and I do understand I’m swimming towards the tide at this level as a result of the S6 is all over the place, and that’s fantastic. I’ve no downside with that. The Harrison is simply my private alternative. It’s the very best sounding console I’ve ever discovered.”
Massey has actually earned the precise to work the way in which he needs, together with touring with duplicate MPC5 setups in flight circumstances—one for when he travels south to L.A., the opposite which he retains in London. There’s no worksurface, however every does embody the whole Toys package deal of plug-ins, and he’s had no issues interacting with alternate workflows and platforms.
With greater than 200 movies to his credit score, together with 10 Oscar nominations for Best Sound Mixing and a win for Bohemian Rhapsody, Massey might be forgiven for kicking again a bit of and easing right into a slower-paced life in Ventura, with household. Yet, up to now 12 months alone, his work has been heard on movies as various as The Lost City, Morbius, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Moonage Daydream (on this 12 months’s Oscar shortlist) and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody.
In October, he and Gary Rydstrom completed engaged on the brand new Indiana Jones movie, to be launched in June, and in December, he wrapped up Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, and he’s presently engaged on a musical model of The Color Purple. He doubts that he’ll ever really retire.
“I’ve performed three initiatives out of my new studio, and I’m simply actually proud of the way in which it’s translating and the general consequence—the dimensions of it, the texture of it,” he says. “And truthfully, it’s great to have the ability to stroll right into a room like this and know that mainly every part is strictly the way in which you left it. So sure, I’m comfortable.” Then he went again to work.
• • •
SIDEBAR: ACOUSTIC NUTS & BOLTS
In mid-2022, through the completion of Paul Massey’s combine studio, acoustic designer Bruce Black wrote an eight-part weblog for mixonline. com detailing the design and building course of. Here are just a few alternative excerpts:
The inside body is in place because the room begins to take form. Photo: Bruce Black.
THE FLOATING FLOOR:
The undertaking’s structural engineer had dictated a construction, constructed by itself basis, exterior of the combination room itself, to supply help to the interior room. California is earthquake nation, in any case. This additionally offered the chance to make use of the gold commonplace of studio isolation: a floating room- within-a room design.
So blue chalk strains have been snapped onto the slab, marking the situation and width of the brand new basis, and the intrepid crew fired up the concrete noticed and commenced slicing two sq. slots within the slab, one inside the opposite, roughly 18 inches aside, and as near the unit’s partitions as potential. These kerfs marked the situation of the outer construction’s new basis. The jack hammer then broke up the concrete, and a Bobcat backhoe straddled the ditch and dug it out to roughly 4 ft deep. Then got here rebar, correctly bonded to the remaining slab, and threaded anchors to carry the outer wall’s framing in place. Finally, the ditch was stuffed with concrete, and voila! There was now a concrete slab the place as soon as there was solely…a concrete slab.
The all-important body for the display screen wall is up. Photo: Bruce Black.
THE WALLS GO UP:
I wasn’t there to witness it, however one way or the other 4 burly laborers with a 3-ton flooring jack, and sure with some hefty pry bars as effectively, obtained the 2 aspect partitions (the longest and subsequently the heaviest) in place on the anchor bolts. Add a bunch of anchor plates and hefty nuts, and the partitions are in place and locked down. A giant job requiring lots of muscle energy….
The wall on the entrance, or speaker finish of the room, is far simpler to put in. The electrical panel and sprinkler tools are in that space, with constructing codes requiring not less than three ft of clear house round them for entry. Plenty of room for our fearless tradespeople on their scaffolds to put in the outer layers on this wall.
The display screen wall is up and the mounts are in place. Nearly there! Photo: Bruce Black.
NOW THE CEILING:
Layering a ceiling is at all times tough work, defying gravity with heavy, unwieldy panels. It’s not only a bunch of layers of drywall, as we so usually see in frequent studio building. My design begins with a layer of three⁄4-inch plywood, adopted by a 1-3/8-inch layer of QuietRock 545. We then put in one other layer of three⁄4-inch plywood, ending off with a layer of 5/8-inch drywall, with building adhesive between every layer. And the key ingredient? The closing layer goes on with drywall screws each 4 inches. This might sound unconventional, it might appear extravagant, nevertheless it brings an uncanny rigidity to the partitions.
Forbes Street Studios in Sydney’s Woolloomooloo has created an immersive mixing environment in its main studio complete with a 9.1.4 Genelec Smart Active Monitoring system.
Sydney, Australia (December 6, 2022)—Forbes Street Studios in Sydney’s Woolloomooloo has created an immersive mixing environment in its main studio complete with a 9.1.4 Genelec Smart Active Monitoring system in response to the increasing commercial demand for Dolby Atmos mixes.
“The studio is owned by Universal Music, which worked with Dolby from the outset to create the Dolby Atmos Music format and was the earliest company to begin mixing music across all genres and catalogues in the format,” explains studio manager Anthony Garvin, “so it made sense for us to be kitted out as a go-to destination for Atmos music mixing in Australia.”
To create the Dolby Atmos space, the Forbes Street team called in Sound Spaces as the acoustic consultant and Sounds Easy to supply the equipment, working closely with local Genelec distributor Studio Connections.
“We had many pairs of Genelecs in the studio already,” says Garvin. “They’re one of the few brands that all our producers and engineers generally agree on, and of those, certainly the best for multichannel configurations.”
The Atmos specifications led to the selection of the 13 8351 three-way coaxial monitors and 7382 subwoofer that combine to form the 9.1.4 system. “I knew the ‘sound’ of the 8351 monitors, and they were the smallest for our room that would meet Dolby’s SPL requirements,” notes Garvin. “Similarly, the 7382 was literally the smallest sub to meet Dolby’s SPL requirements for the room. And if you’ve seen the 7382, that’s an extremely crazy thought—it’s huge! No regrets, it happily got us to where we wanted to go.”
The system was initially calibrated using Genelec’s GLM 4 software. “We are using GLM in quite a simple but extremely helpful way,” says Garvin. “It boots the monitors up for us when we turn our computer on and turns them off when we shut down. Plus, it’s extremely helpful for troubleshooting and avoids having to get around the back of the monitors to change a setting!”
The decision to use the same model of studio monitors for all of the channels, aside from the sub, was one based on trying to make the sound of the space as ‘true’ as possible. “Philosophically, our acoustics consultant Mike Fronzek and I believed that for musical elements to be mixed in a truly immersive manner, then all the monitors should match, to paint the best picture of what the balance actually sounds like,” reasons Garvin. “If a thick pad, for example, is pushed towards the back, then on smaller loudspeakers, that will thin out—when in reality, it doesn’t in the mix.”
Apple introduced Spatial Audio this morning and announced a Logic Pro update that will accommodate the format. Amazon quickly responded.
Los Angeles, CA (May 17, 2021)—Apple introduced Spatial Audio this morning, bringing support for Dolby Atmos streaming at no extra cost to Apple Music subscribers — and less than an hour later, Amazon responding by making its Amazon Music HD catalog, including Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio tracks, available for free to eligible Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers.
Spatial Audio launches with “thousands of tracks” in Dolby Atmos, says Apple, and new songs in Dolby Atmos format will be constantly added to the catalog. According to the company, Apple Music will automatically play Dolby Atmos tracks on all AirPods and Beats headphones with an H1 or W1 chip, as well as on built-in speakers on the latest versions of iPhone, iPad and Mac.
For content creators, Apple is also building immersive music-authoring tools directly into Logic Pro. Later this year, Apple says, it will release an update to Logic Pro that will enable users to create and mix songs for Spatial Audio compatible with Apple Music.
Over at Amazon, the company announced that Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Canada, France, Italy and Spain may now upgrade to Amazon Music HD, previously $5/month to Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers, at no additional charge.
The Amazon Music HD catalog represents over 70 million lossless tracks at CD-quality 44.1/16. Amazon has reportedly added more than five million songs to its Amazon Music Ultra HD catalog — offering tracks at 24 bits, 44.1 kHz to 192 kHz — since launching the streaming tier in 2019, including songs remixed in immersive formats such as Dolby Atmos and Sony 360RA.
Apple Music additionally announced today that it’s making its 75-million-song catalog available in lossless audio using ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec). Apple Music’s Lossless offerings, playable on any Apple device, are available in resolutions from 44.1 kHz/16-bit through 48 kHz/24-bit. For Hi-Resolution Lossless subscribers, music is available at resolutions up to 192 kHz/24-bit.
Because of the larger bandwidth requirements and file sizes, subscribers will need to opt-in to both Apple Music lossless tiers. Additional D-to-A converters are required for hi-res lossless listening.
Amazon forced competitors such as Deezer and Qobuz to lower the cost of their high-resolution streaming services to $14.99/month to match its new offering when the company launched Amazon Music HD in 2019. Tidal, the first company to get into high-res streaming, remains the exception and still charges subscribers $19.99/month for access to its Tidal HiFi service, which offers tracks in Dolby Atmos and Sony 360RA. Deezer HiFi and Nugs HiFi also offer Sony 360RA streaming.
Spotify, late to the high-res party, only announced in February a new Spotify HiFi tier that will offer “CD-quality, lossless” music. The launch date and monthly subscription cost have not been announced.
The Future Bites is the new album by Steven Wilson, the now near legendary producer composer performer musician and all around progressive music renaissance man. The album is a fascinating study about consumerism and modern living — by way of identity loss and technology overload — in some ways it feels like a 21st-century update on Radiohead’s landmark OK Computer album which also dealt with these sorts of themes. And I mean that in the best possible way…
Steven Wilson, for those of you not in the know, came to public attention as the founder of a number of progressive-leaning independent groups, most notably Porcupine Tree. And over the years he’s become an incredible front leader of the resurgent interest in not only progressive rock but also surround sound music.
Somehow this one-man army that is Wilson seems to have gone were no other producer / engineer has been able to go in terms of making the surround sound format more visible, viable and interesting to a mainstream consumer. In the early 00s, many fantastic surround sound producers had embraced the medium (then largely delivered on DVD-Audio Disc and SACD formats, amidst an industry format war) and most efforts stalled at retail. Beyond the format confusion, support also stalled with many artists who were not always thrilled with the liberties taken in creating the surround mixes.
Thus it was a big deal years later when Wilson secured the confidence of many of the leading edge progressive rock and pop groups beginning with Robert Fripp and King Crimson. This work led to catalog reinventions for no less than Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Tears for Fears, Jethro Tull and XTC.
While there is no doubt a big vinyl resurgence — and I am certainly a huge life long vinyl fan, as many of you know — when it comes to Steven Wilson’s music I prefer to get his surround sound releases, usually on high resolution Blu-ray Disc these days.
I know that his mixes are going to be fascinating and they will probably sound the best that they can since I’m quite sure that he works in the digital domain to begin with. Plus, on these discs you usually get both Stereo and 5.1 mixes, sometimes in multiple codec options so really it is the best value in that sense.
On this Blu-ray Disc of The Future Bites there are are four different variants of the album to explore including regular Stereo plus three flavors of surround: DTS HD Master Audio, LPCM and Dolby Atmos.
As I currently do not have a Dolby Atmos-ready AVR, my primary format of choice is indeed the 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio version. I choose this not because I handled PR for the company for eight years — true story, look it up – but simply because it sounds the best on my particular system. The LPCM version sounds a little weak on this edition. And contrary to a factoid somebody on a Facebook forum told me, on my system the Dolby Atmos version gets cut down to Dolby True HD at 48K and it sounds it. The DTS HD Master Audio track plays at 96 kHz, 24 bits and sounds richer and more complete.
For those who might not believe me, I took some photos and included them here to show you what my Oppo BDP203 Universal Player was delivering into my AVR from the disc when I called up the information screen.
But really, it’s not even so much numbers of the frequency response that bothered me — I’ve heard plenty of excellent sounding 48kHz recordings! No, what bothered me is that there was some sort of alteration to the music occurring when I played the Dolby Atmos/Dolby True HD version. The DTS HD Master Audio track sounded very crisp with much discrete detailing going on in all the channels on the great track “Follower.”
However, in the Dolby True HD presentation that perspective seems to get lost and ends up feeling a bit like a fancier version of the classic Dolby Digital processing with a rather non-distinct and decidedly non-discrete approach to sound delivery. Again this is not a slam, this is just me reporting on what I’m hearing and it may well be a stylistic presentation of the music that you personally might well prefer. Also, your system might handle the sound differently than mine, so take this for what it is — just one reviewer’s perspective. Someday, when I get an Atmos systems I hope to circle back to update reviews like this once I can hear that mix (I mean, if Wilson is embracing it, I’m sure it is going to be great!).
Not surprisingly, the sound on The Future Bites is excellent, crafting a terrific balance between modern 21st century pop sheen and the rich warmth of his instrumentation and textures.
I’m especially enjoying how it seems to pick up — at least musically — where Wilson left off on his last brilliant album called To The Bone which I reviewed previously (click here to jump to that article).
There are some beautiful chord sequences amidst the new song craft, once again underscoring that Steven Wilson is a quite brilliant composer of strong pop melodies, not just epic progressive rock dramatics. In some ways, I think this type of music is actually more difficult to create than progressive rock because it has to be so concise, engaging the listener in 3-5 minutes or less. There are nice touches echoing classic 80s electronic music and synth pop from the likes of Depeche Mode, Tears For Fears and perhaps even Heaven 17 and The Human League.
And yet there is room for a gorgeous acoustic guitar driven strummer like “12 Things I Forgot” with a lovely lift in the chorus that is a classic Steven Wilson twist. It has some magnificent sequences and melodies going on there.
The Future Bites is growing on me a lot even after just a few listens. The three videos you get on the Blu-ray look fantastic and “Personal Shopper” is particularly powerful to watch with the 5.1 soundtrack. The animated “King Ghost” is quite gorgeous while “Eminent Sleaze” is dramatic, if a bit MTV-ish in it’s look and feel (that may be intentional). My only disappointment is that there was no video for the song “Follower,” which sounds like quite a take down of the whole social media universe and mindset.
The Future Bites is another bright, bold statement from Steven Wilson and I suspect it will make many people’s favorites list for 2021. I know I’ll be playing it a lot in the months to come, and that is the best compliment I can offer.
You can also find the album streaming in high resolution 96 kHz, 24-bit Stereo, in MQA format on Tidal (click here) and Hi Res via Qobuz (click here). Both versions sound excellent as streaming services go. But to get the surround sound experience, you’ll need to get the Blu-ray Disc so do seek out a copy soon.
Stefan Bock (left) and David Merkl mixed Yello’s new album in Dolby Atmos.
Munich, Germany (December 22, 2020)—Swiss band Yello’s new album, Point, has been mixed for release in Dolby Atmos at msm Studio Group, a PMC-equipped facility in Munich, Germany.
Opened in 1991, msm has two PMC-equipped mastering rooms—one stereo, the other 5.1—and a smaller editing and QC room. A home cinema-style studio designed for Dolby Atmos music mixing houses PMC IB2S three-way speakers for LCR and DB1S speakers for the side, rear and height zones.
Stefan Bock, msm founder and managing director, who has worked with Yello on previous projects, was approached by the duo’s record label, Universal Music Group, and asked to mix the new album in Dolby Atmos. “I heard a demo of the album and spoke at length to [band member] Boris Blank so that I could identify their artistic intent,” he says. “In keeping with their precise Swiss nature, Yello sent us perfectly prepared session notes and files, and I undertook the Atmos mix in Munich with my colleague David Merkl.”
Blank had planned to visit msm in Munich to approve the final mix. Due to health issues, he couldn’t travel, so Bock and Merkl went to Zurich where they arranged for him to hear the mix at Zurich’s University of the Arts, which has a Dolby Atmos studio.
Blank comments, “It was a fantastic experience for me to hear our new album Point in full 3D sound for the first time in a Dolby Atmos-certified cinema at the Zurich University of the Arts. The amazement at the new room sound was comparable to how I heard the Beatles in stereo for the first time as a little Boris. Back then, those were worlds between mono and stereo. In my opinion, Stefan Bock and David Merkl have conjured up the Yello sound with great care in a new sound dimension.”
Point is available on Pure Audio Blu-ray, a format developed by msm Studio Group, and on Dolby Atmos streaming services such as Tidal and Amazon.
Dean St. Studios in London has outfitted Studio 1 with 17 PMC loudspeakers, including PMC’s flagship IB2S XBD-A active monitors, to enable mixing for Dolby Atmos Music.
London, UK (October 8, 2020)—Dean St. Studios in London has outfitted Studio 1 with 17 PMC loudspeakers, including PMC’s flagship IB2S XBD-A active monitors, to enable mixing for Dolby Atmos Music.
Previously closed for refurbishments undertaken by Veale Associates during the coronavirus pandemic, Dean St. Studios is reopening its doors to provide artists the chance to create dynamic and immersive tracks in Dolby Atmos, taking their music beyond the restrictions of stereo and mono to a platform that provides a whole new way to create and listen to music.
The Dolby Atmos install features PMC IB2S XBD-A monitors covering left and right main channels, an IB2S-A monitor for the center channel, 10 discrete Wafer2 loudspeakers for surround and height channels and four sub2 subwoofers. The Dean St. Studio’s set up exactly replicates the PMC system initially designed for Universal Music and installed two years ago at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles. The install reportedly exceeds the standard Dolby requirements.
Dean St. Studios has welcomed a roll call of music artists through its Soho doors to record some of their biggest hits. Icons such as David Bowie, Adele, John Legend, Lady Gaga and Paul Weller are just some of the names to have stepped foot in the studio.
Jasmin Lee, managing director at Dean St. Studios, said: “I have grown up in the music industry and have seen a lot of advances and change over the years, but nothing excites me more than Dolby Atmos Music. This is a game changer for artists in terms of how they can create their music and engage with fans. I have listened to tracks in our new Dolby Atmos mix studio and my mind is just blown by it. This is music like you’ve never heard it before. We have a proud history of working with some of the world’s most successful artists and we can’t wait to offer them this new more immersive format which I’m sure will unleash a whole new creative journey for them.”
Anaheim, CA (September 30, 2020)—Extron has unveiled its new SSP 200 Surround Sound Processor designed for pro AV applications in corporate and commercial environments. The new processor automatically decodes Dolby and DTS formats from HDMI sources to discreet audio outputs.
The unit offers up to 10 built-in outputs, plus additional outputs via an EXP port, includes support for the latest immersive formats of Dolby Atmos and DTS:X; and sports an upmix function that synthesizes multichannel audio from stereo content.
Featuring an HDMI input with loop through and EXP expansion port connection to DMP Series audio DSP processors, the SSP 200 is designed for integration into pro A/V installations. The SSP 200 is housed in a 1U, half rack width enclosure that is rack‑mountable and is said to require less space than a typical consumer surround processor or AV receiver. It can be controlled and configured using RS‑232 serial control or via a network connection.
“The SSP 200 addresses the increasing demand to provide immersive audio systems in boardrooms and auditoriums”, says Casey Hall, vice president of Sales and Marketing at Extron. “It offers a host of integrator-friendly features not found on other surround sound processors, all provided in a compact half-rack package that makes the SSP 200 the AV professional’s clear choice over bulky consumer receivers.”
The Rolling Stones’ 2016 Havana, Cuba show will be remixed in Dolby Atmos on PMC speakers for the finale of the group’s new museum exhibition, The Rolling Stones – Unzipped. Dave J. Hogan
Groningen, Netherlands (September 8, 2020)—The Rolling Stones won’t be hitting the road anytime soon due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but their stuff? That’s another story. The Rolling Stones – Unzipped is a museum exhibition that will kick off its own international tour in November at the Groninger Museum in The Netherlands. Presenting classic moments from the group’s half-century of rocking and shocking, the highlight of the exhibition will be an immersive Dolby Atmos concert experience mixed and played back on a PMC speaker system.
Presented using Dolby Atmos for Music, the exhibition’s finale presentation is the band’s 2016 Latin America tour documentary, Olé, Olé, Olé, and concert footage from the band’s concert in Havana, Cuba. Five large screens will immerse fans, along with an array of PMC’s new Ci140 speakers and as yet unreleased flagship active subwoofers the BST, providing 23 channels of Dolby Atmos soundtrack powered by in excess of 20,000 watts.
This event marks the first public use of PMC’s Ci series, with the Ci140-XBD, custom designed for the Stones, providing the L, C, R channels. 12 channels of surround and rear effects come from the Ci140 and eight overhead channels feature the Ci65 model. Additional bass support is provided by the new BST active subwoofers.
PMC’s Highland Park Atmos Studio will be used for remixing the group’s 2016 Havana concert into Dolby Atmos for Music format.
Prior to the exhibition, PMC is working with the Rolling Stones’ label, Universal Music (UMG), on the remixing of the audio soundtrack into Atmos. This work is being undertaken by Nick Reeves, staff engineer at UMG’s Capitol Studios, Los Angeles, in the PMC equipped Studio C using Dolby’s technology. Additional mixing is taking place at PMC own Dolby Atmos equipped Highland Park Studio in LA, California.
PMC’s Maurice Patist commented, “To be involved in a project like this, with the biggest band in the world, is a major honor for PMC. Our close relationship with UMG and Dolby led to the creation of a state-of-the-art Atmos production studio at Capitol Studios, which is hailed as the reference for this kind of audio mixing.” He continues, “UMG will be mixing the soundtrack at Capitol and also at our own Atmos facility in Highland Park, LA, before it is replayed to the fans at this spectacular exhibition using the same speakers used for the mix. No other speaker system can get the fans nearer to the essence of the band and it is going to be a real treat for visitors.”
Artists can post tracks in Dolby Atmos format to streaming services Amazon Music and Tidal using the AvidPlay distribution platform.
Burlington, MA (July 29, 2020)—Avid and Dolby Laboratories have partnered to enable independent artists, producers and record labels to self-distribute their music in the immersive Dolby Atmos format to streaming services Amazon Music and Tidal using the AvidPlay distribution platform.
To get started, artists and labels can subscribe to an AvidPlay distribution plan that matches their needs through the free AvidLink app for mobile or desktop, and then upload their completed Dolby Atmos Music tracks and artwork. Subscribers then create songs and albums using any compatible Dolby Atmos-enabled digital audio workstation (DAW), including Avid Pro Tools, and upload their music to the AvidPlay dashboard to manage their tracks and albums and monitor their earnings.
AvidPlay is a DIY music distribution service designed to assist artists and labels in expanding their opportunities and getting discovered. The Avid Link app, which has more than 775,000 users, enables community members to connect with other artists, producers, mixers, composers, editors, videographers, and moviemakers.
AvidPlay provides a new opportunity for independent labels to support artists interested in creating new music or reimagining existing stereo tracks in Dolby Atmos, using Dolby’s set of Dolby Atmos creative tools already on the market.
“Dolby Atmos has changed how we think about music and it allows us to create things that were previously not possible. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever heard,” says Arno Kammermeier, co-founder of the Berlin-based electronic duo Booka Shade. “And most importantly, with AvidPlay, we can now share this elevated experience with our fans. It’s mind-blowing and the ultimate way to experience our music.”
