Alaska Studios Opens a PMC-Outfitted Dolby Atmos Facility in Belgium
Belgium – A musical hub catering for each stage of an artist’s venture has opened in Belgium with a Dolby Atmos mixing and mastering studio at its core.
Positioned in a big new constructing in Lokeren, close to Ghent, Alaska Studios has 5 acoustically separate rooms together with the 11.1.6 Dolby Atmos facility, which is supplied with a PMC monitoring system equipped by Joystick Audio.
Producer and engineer Peter Phillips, who arrange Alaska Studios with dwell sound engineer Frank Voet, says: “We constructed the studio from the bottom up as a industrial facility that would take artists and bands right through from songwriting, recording, mixing and mastering to making ready dwell for excursions. We share the constructing with a dwell sound touring firm and a merchandising firm and there may be additionally area for purchasers to retailer tour gear.”
The Dolby Atmos studio – Combine Room 1 – has a important LCR monitoring system consisting of PMC MB2S-XBD audio system. These are supported by 14 PMC Ci65 encompass audio system, all powered by MC2 amps. The power additionally has a stereo studio, Combine Room 2, which is supplied with PMC IB1S displays. The three different studios are designed for band rehearsals, tour pre-production, dwell recording and recording vocals and podcasts.
With over 25 years’ of expertise within the professional audio trade, Peter Philips has spent the final ten years dealing with audio publish manufacturing for TV reveals, dwell music productions and festivals. This, he says, is what sparked his curiosity in encompass codecs and specifically Dolby Atmos.
“After we began wanting into Dolby Atmos in 2020, we had been primarily investigating its prospects within the post-production market as a result of at that stage Atmos for music was not one thing many individuals had been eager about,” he explains. “I already had my very own studio, so I upgraded it from 5.1 to five.1.4 so as to get to know the workflow and do some testing.”
In the summertime of 2021, Apple Music introduced its help for immersive audio codecs together with Dolby Atmos and this was the catalyst for constructing an Atmos room at Alaska Studios.
“We had been already working with artists corresponding to Stromae, Oscar and the Wolf, Selah Sue and Charlotte Adigéry, so the query Apple’s announcement raised was the place would Belgian artists like these perform their Dolby Atmos mixes?” Philips says. “It was clear that immersive audio was the following step and right here to remain, and as we had been already constructing a studio facility from scratch, we determined to construct a room that was one hundred pc as much as Dolby Atmos specs.”
The selection of PMC displays was straightforward, he provides, as a result of he was already engaged on PMC IB2S audio system in his personal studio and was very pleased with their efficiency.
“When you’ve heard the element mixed with the punch and energy of PMC audio system, there’s actually nothing higher,” he says.
Alaska Studios’ displays had been equipped by PMC distributor Joystick Audio, who labored carefully with Pinna Acoustics to make sure that the correct displays had been chosen for the room measurement.
“Each Joystick Audio and Pinna Acoustics have been actually supportive and have helped us with each a part of the design and set up course of,” Philips says. “Our Dolby Atmos room sounds really wonderful, with an excellent decay throughout the entire spectrum and the best bass response I’ve ever heard. I believe everybody who has listened to mixes on this room will agree with me on that!”
With Alaska Studios now open, the Dolby Atmos studio is already busy and is getting used for plenty of initiatives.
“We particularly wished to construct our Dolby Atmos room to mastering grade requirements as there aren’t that many Belgian mastering studios that may supply a reference Dolby Atmos set-up to finalise Atmos mixes,” he explains. “Though mastering within the conventional approach is technically not attainable in Atmos, we do imagine that Atmos mixes created in smaller – and subsequently much less superb – rooms could be improved if given a bit contact up in a reference room like this. Additionally transitions between songs on an album and relative loudness ranges could be a huge problem for people who find themselves not used to Atmos.”
Mixing music in Dolby Atmos could be a problem for people who find themselves new to the format, however Peter Philips says his expertise in audio publish, mixed together with his Professional Instruments abilities, have made him well-equipped for the duty.
“Numerous the technical and logistical facet of issues aren’t new to me,” he says. “Nevertheless, the artistic side of the combination is each releasing and a bit scary as a result of, in contrast to stereo, there isn’t any reference (but). The definition of Atmos combine remains to be a shifting goal.”
