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DOLBY ATMOS MUSIC MASTER EI speaks with with Dyre Gormsen, Immersive Sound Mix and Mastering Engineer at the iconic Eastcote Studios. Dyre is one the engineers pioneering the use of the Dolby Atmos music format. Tell us about the history of the studio? Eastcote is version 1.2 of what Philip and Chaz (Engineer - Philip Bagenal and Chaz Jankel of Ian Dury and the Blockheads) started in the 80’s. The studio had been running successfully and untouched since then, until about a year and a half ago when we had the chance to update it, adding to the arsenal of tricks and great recording features. Eastcote has a 40-year long history, celebrated in a book by Martin Terefe created during lockdown while I was refurbishing the studio with an amazing team of artists, musicians and builders of all trades. I have been working here for more than 15 years, more than a third of Eastcote’s life. The place has a certain spark to it that you rarely find in recording establishments. The studio is unique in its raw and super refined recording environment that has been producing world class records for more than 40 years. Massive Attack, The Arctic Monkeys, Adele, just to mention a few - and the sound and work ethic are still there with a dedicated and extremely competent team.
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Tell us about your introduction to Dolby Atmos Music In November of 2020 I bought some AMS-NEVE DFC consoles at an online BBC auction. I started looking at what they could do and quickly came across Dolby Atmos Music on Tidal. It had me excited to think about how artists and consumers could experience music in other ways than stereo, and how it could inspire the future of music and technology.
The first time I heard it was at Pro AV supplier HHB. My first impression was that it was an extremely powerful mixing tool that had so many possibilities. I immediately felt that the transition of Dolby Atmos into the music industry was a great move. How does the format actually differ from others? Dolby Atmos has its own set of guidelines for delivery. For Apple Music, the format is delivered via ADM files, which is a fold down WAV file whose SPL is -18db for the master with 2dB of headroom on each side. This is much lower than a stereo master, there’s about a 10dB difference. What I really love about Dolby Atmos is that dynamics are back in recorded music. The mixes are just as powerful without being smashed to pieces and we’re not still stuck in the loudness wars that stereo masters have fought for many years. The dynamics are much closer to Vinyl. What is different about how you record and mix in this format? Recording-wise it’s the same as usual stereo recording. The difference is when you start spreading it out in Dolby Atmos, you can take advantage of the use of more ambient microphones for drums etc., especially when recording live shows or streaming where there is an audience to really make you feel like you are in the room. The main difference is in the mixing stage. Rather than mixing down to stereo’s two channels, there are up to 128 channels of audio to consider when mixing in Atmos. This makes the usual
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46 NOVEMBER 2021
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