Hi Andrew!
First of all, I’m a big fan of your work, and your attitude toward mixing and music in general has been a huge inspiration to me!
I haven’t had the chance to watch your new episode yet, so apologies if you’ve already touched on this, but I couldn’t wait to ask:
What are your thoughts on mixing Atmos entirely on headphones?
How much of your Atmos work do you typically do in headphones?
And do you have any go-to plugins or techniques that help you shape an Atmos mix more confidently in that environment?
Thanks in advance, I really appreciate your time!
Those are all really good questions. I spend quite a bit of time in headphones on my Atmos mixes. I think it’s important to pay attention from the beginning to the Dolby Binaural and Apple Spatial since that’s what most people will hear. The speaker version of the mix is definitely the master, but the headphone versions are crucial. I do think that you need to hear your mixes on speakers though. It’s very easy to make it sound big and spatial in headphones, but on speakers you realise that you’ve separated musical elements that need to be together or something like that. That’s exactly how you can musically wreck the song and make it something people don’t get excited by.
So, I start every mix in headphones, make decisions there based on what I’m hearing as well as what I want to hear when it’s spread out on speakers. Then I go the speakers and tweak and experiment. Then it’s back to headphones to double check.
Some great tools are Audio Movers Binaural Renderer for being able to monitor the Apple Spatial in real time, Perfect Sound Penteo and Nugen Halo Upmix for spatializing a few elements in the mix, and APL Virtuoso for a great virtual environment for listening to spatial mixes in headphones.
Atmos mix studios are really expensive to set up (though you can absolutely save some money if you want to do some of the work yourself, check out my friend Jules who built an entire Atmos speaker system for waaaaaay less that you would normally pay. (https://www.instructables.com/Sound-Sleuth-714-Mixing-Rig/)
Thanks so much, Andrew! Super helpful