The future of mixing is spatial audio. At least, that’s what we believe at Milestone Studios, Cape Town. While spatial audio in general (and Dolby Atmos in particular) has been around for many years, it has mainly been used for cinema productions. In 2021, we received word from one of our major record-label clients that in future, all Apple Music premium releases would need to be mixed in Dolby Atmos. Atmos was finally going to become a part of mainstream music production.
Consequently, in 2021, we installed a Dolby-enabled 7.1.4 Atmos setup in Studio 4. Our spatial audio setup was calibrated by Dolby engineers to ensure we provide clients with top-quality Dolby Atmos mixes. But what is Dolby Atmos, exactly? In brief, it’s a surround-sound format that allows the engineer to split the separate elements of a song (or mix) and spread them out in a 3D acoustic landscape. The engineer maps the different sounds to different ‘objects’ and places them within the sonic environment. This gives the listener the impression that sound is coming at them from all directions.
This is different from a traditional stereo mixing approach, in which all the elements come out of two speakers in front of the listener. When we say we have a 7.1.4 setup, what that means is that there are 7 speakers at ear height, 1 giant subwoofer on the floor, and 4 speakers in the ceiling. We use 11 JBL LSR308 8” two-way powered studio monitors and one JBL 4645C-B 18” single subwoofer system powered by a Crown XTi 1002 power amplifier.
What’s usually involved in the process is for the engineer or artist to supply the separate elements of the recording as stems to the Dolby Atmos mixing engineer. For example, they might supply, drums, bass, keyboards, guitar, backing vocals, and vocals. We then assess the quality of the stems and make sure that all the elements supplied match the stereo master. Once we’re confident that we have all the component parts, we begin the creative process of spreading out the different sounds around the room. Like with stereo mixing, there are as many possible mixes as there are engineers and ears, and while there are technical specifications that need to be met, there is no consensus on what makes a great mix.
We’ve really enjoyed sharing our Atmos mixes with artists, particularly those who have never heard their work in Atmos before. Even when they’ve been totally happy with the stereo master, which took a long time to perfect, they love to hear their work with so much space for every individual element. Gone are the days of instruments having to fight for space in a particular frequency range: with Atmos, each element has room to play out without too much competition. Artists are routinely blown away by the depth of the experience provided by spatial audio technology.
The amazing thing about Dolby Atmos as a technology is that it scales. Unlike traditional surround formats, Dolby Atmos is not linked to any specific speaker setup. In other words, you don’t need to have a 7.1.4 setup in your home to enjoy the benefits of an Atmos mix. In fact, most people will be listening on headphones. The clever thing is that the Dolby technology can tell whether you have a 7.1.4 system or a 5.1 system or just two earbuds, and adjust accordingly. The software is changing all the time, and while studio mixes don’t always translate 100% into headphones mixes, Dolby is constantly updating their algorithm to get the two mixes to match as closely as possible. Engineers who don’t have a Dolby Atmos speaker setup at home may want to mix on headphones and bring their mix in to a studio like Milestone to check on our system.
Milestone Studios has been the premier recording studio complex in Cape Town for more than 30 years and, with over 200 Atmos mixes completed, we’re one of the most experienced Dolby Atmos mixing facilities in South Africa.
