Ever since Apple’s 2021 announcement that it was embracing spatial audio, and in particular Dolby Atmos, recording artists and music producers have faced growing demand from record labels to create immersive mixes of their latest and back catalogue work.

With Apple and Dolby now working closely together to promote this new format, it is no surprise that the number of Dolby-enabled studios in major markets is growing exponentially to cater for this growing demand. Equally, large numbers of producers and engineers are facing a sharp learning curve as they work out the best methods and techniques for mixing music in Dolby Atmos.

PMC’S SEMINAR TOUR

As an industry leader in the field of immersive sound, UK loudspeaker manufacturer PMC is currently running an international seminar tour that aims to tackle these gaps in knowledge head on. Hosted by Grammy nominated engineer, Nick Rives, and PMC’s US president and head of pro global, Maurice Patist, the seminars give invited audiences an opportunity to learn directly from the experts so that they can avoid making the mistakes others have made as they navigate this new and exciting format.

“Creating best practices among audio professional who are new to the Atmos mixing process and helping audio professionals improve their skills will ultimately benefit the entire audio industry,” says Patist, whose numerous credits cover many critically acclaimed Atmos mixes including the biggest selling jazz album of all time, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue.

“This seminar tour is hugely important because it is helping to dispel a lot of the myths around immersive audio mixing and give newcomers to the format the opportunity to learn a great deal in a very short space of time.”

PMC’s seminar tour began in October when Rives and Patist spoke to a packed audience at Best Studios in Holland during an event hosted by PMC’s distributor Joystick. The tour then visited MGM’s recently opened PMC-equipped Dolby Atmos demo facility in Zurich for two days before moving to PMC’s own demo facility London where Rives and Patist were joined by PMC Studio Manager Heff Moraes, an acclaimed recording and mix engineer who is a brand ambassador for PMC products and works closely with producers and artists to introduce them to the Dolby Atmos mixing process.

TOUR MOVES TO FAR EAST

In November, the tour moves to the Far East, first to Sound City Studios in Tokyo, Japan, where the seminars will be hosted by distributor Otaritech, and then to South Korea where they will take place at Music Metro’s Dolby Atmos demo facility in Seoul. The Tokyo dates are November 10th and 11th, while the Seoul dates are November 14th and 15th.

ENGINEER NICK RIVES ON MIXING IN ATMOS

Nick Rives, who was Grammy nominated in the Best R&B Album category for recording Gregory Porter’s album All Rise, is a staff engineer at Capitol Studios in Los Angles – an internationally acclaimed facility that has been at the forefront of Dolby Atmos music mixing. He undertook his first Dolby Atmos music project in 2017 when he mixed REM’s Automatic For The People. Since then, he has tackled Atmos mixes for artists such as Billie Eilish, Bob Marley, Pearl Jam, James Blake, Eminem, and many more.

“Sharing my experiences of working with Atmos Music and bringing it from a cool idea into a worldwide reality is really exciting and I am delighted that PMC has given me the opportunity to do this,” he says. “During these seminars we are talking about the philosophy of immersive mixes, sharing techniques and tools and explaining how we interact with artists and A&Rs so that we maintain the artists’ intentions when taking a mix from stereo to Atmos.”

Patist adds: “By bringing industry-leading sound quality to Apple Music subscribers, and for no extra cost, Apple has singlehandedly created a boom in immersive audio mixing, and this has focused attention on how best to tackle the format. It is not just about techniques – pro audio professionals also need to know how to set up their studios so that they can successfully deliver Atmos Music mixes. At PMC, our understanding of Dolby Atmos means that we are ideally placed to offer practical advice to producers and artists who are installing their own Dolby Atmos mix rooms and finding their way around the format.”

PMC’S INVOLVEMENT WITH DOLBY ATMOS GOES BACK YEARS

PMC’s involvement with Dolby Atmos goes back many years. Thanks to its close working relationship with Dolby, PMC monitoring systems are now widely regarded as the standard reference for Dolby Atmos for Music because their almost limitless headroom, power capabilities, accuracy and sonic fidelity ensures that they go well beyond Dolby’s minimum requirements.

“Our joint approach towards promoting Dolby Atmos has seen us work with Dolby on many high-profile Dolby Atmos for Music studio installations, including facilities at Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Dean Street Studios and Apple,” says PMC’s CEO Jeff Willcocks.

“As a result, we now have a significant knowledge base that we are happy to impart. We are running this seminar tour because we believe much can be learned from experts like Nick and Maurice. They have unsurpassed experience of successfully delivering Dolby Atmos music projects and are willing to impart this knowledge so that others can avoid costly mistakes.”

FEEDBACK ON SEMINARS

Audio professionals who have attended PMC’s seminars in Holland, Switzerland and London are thrilled with the amount they have learned.

Benbrick, who produces Have You Heard George’s Podcast for the BBC says: “I came along to the seminar because I work in binaural and wanted to find out how that might translate to Dolby Atmos, It was amazing to hear so many different ideas and songs and see how they came together in the Atmos format. PMC’s demo studio is great, too – better than mine! I want to move in!”

His views are shared by recording and mixing engineer Will Reeves, who has worked with Will.i.am, Migos, Bree Runway and Wes Nelson. He says: “The technical side of the seminar was very interesting, especially Nick’s workflow and template, which I hope to learn from. I also liked his philosophy and approach to music, especially back catalogue material. I appreciate the care he takes and how this inspires his workflow when mixing in Atmos.”

Mix engineer Ashley Krajewski, who has worked with artists such as Jack Back, Apollo 440, Ellie Goulding and Sway, says PMC’s London seminar was his first experience of Dolby Atmos and he was suitably impressed by the format and by hearing a demo in studio equipped with high end monitors.

“Comparing a stereo mix with an Atmos mix was really interesting,” he says. “The demo of the Gregory Porter Atmos mix was particularly extraordinary because I felt like I was in the studio with him and the orchestra.”

Anyone wanting to attend PMC’s next seminar events in Japan and South Korea should contact the specific PMC distributor in each territory for details.