Your Music in Dolby Atmos

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: [laughter] Full digital — period. You see, I'm not young. The all analog warmth, presence, bla-bla, I've been there, done that. It's not that it wasn't great but honestly, we just had no choice. I remember too well mixing 48 tracks with two 24 track Studer tape machines synchronized together with a Lynx module. Never again. Frankly, that was a nightmare. Besides, with immersive audio we now have something that the analog world simply cannot do anyways :-)

Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?

A: I started in 1984 in a recording studio attached to a music store where I was in charge of the keyboards and midi equipment. Then moved to London in 1988 at Roundhouse Studios, then Paris in 1990 where the Studios Davout became my second home for a decade or so. I started a first surround dedicated studio in 2005 up until 2009, but the industry was not ready, too afraid by the filesharing they could not and still have not understood. Today's new generation audio has solved the major issue that prevented wide use of surround sound as the mix can now adapt itself to the device it's played back on. This is why, this time, I think massive adoption is closer than ever.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Make decisions on the spot, do not use technology to delay. If what you've just added actually adds something to your track, keep it. If not, be merciless and delete it. And for more tips, regarding immersive audio and Reaper, I have a Youtube channel.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Going Dolby Atmos was quite challenging. As I very much love my Focal main speakers, and since I already had 5 of them, I added 2 Solo 6BE for the 7 main speakers. Dolby recommends that all speakers should be able to reproduce frequencies as low as 40Hz, but there is a tolerance about that for the elevation (ceiling) speakers, as the human ear cannot really tell the origin of a sound below around 100Hz, because of the great wavelength of thos low frequencies. So I went for 4 Elipson Planet L speakers, which go as low as 47Hz. They're also great looking and that has its importance. The subwoofer is a Mackie TRS150, delivering 750W for a perfect low-end. But with 12 speakers in a room, it rapidly became obvious that acoustic treatment alone would not make the listening experience accurate enough. This is why I added a Trinnov MC Pro which truly is remarquable at fine tuning the speakers to the room. Finally, this still allows me to listen with the Merging Technologies converters that I love so much and would not trade in for anything in the world.

Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

A: I'm now specialized in Atmos/Immersive/3D mixing. This means I can mix a song from scratch, as I always did, but also "atmos-izing" an already mixed track. To that end, I need to receive all processed audio elements as distinct audio files. I can then import them into my favorite DAW (Reaper) and have the correct mix as it is in stereo. So I can start placing these elements, with slight adaptations if need be, into the 3D space. Some artists also start their own 3D mix on headphones in binaural mode. But eventually, they need to have those mixes checked in a room with actual speakers as it reflects sounds placements/movements more accurately, I also help them with that.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Technical details aside, I like to hear about the story behind the song or album. It helps me finding the right overall color and space of the track. I also pay a lot of attention to the lyrics, the instruments must tell the same story.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I love taking my time and mixing in Atmos is slightly more time-consuming than simple stereo as it requires more thinking ahead. Every element of the mix, position, effects, eq, etc. must really be fine tuned throughout the track, not only for the immersive mix itself but also for stereo version, which must be checked at all time. This is why I will mostly listen to a song during the first day, maybe making a few edits to limit tricky pan automations later on, setup eq and compression and call it a day. Then, the fx settings, reverbs, delays and modulations and then automation, often lots of it as immersive audio offers far more fun than stereo.

Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

A: In my 30+ years in studio, I came across almost all types and enjoy most of them. To me, the quality of the relationship with the artists transcends the music genre.

Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A: To make sure that the track is indeed ready for mixing. Meaning that everything is correct time and tune wise and that all the artistic decisions the team could make are final. That being said, there is always room for constructive talk...