In early 2020, seeing that the coronavirus was spreading, spatial audio pioneer Herbert Waltl moved the operations of his AV production company mediaHyperium to an abandoned music school, where he equipped a former auditorium with a studio monitoring system made up of 18 loudspeakers from the Neumann KH range.
The system easily switches between the Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio immersive music formats, without needing to reposition the speakers, thanks to a combination of nine height speakers and three floor speakers within a 7.1 layout.
Herbert Waltl, an award-winning producer, musician and technology champion, founded mediaHyperium in 1996 and was already planning to set up a new studio before the pandemic
For years he had focused on his work at Skywalker Sound, in the San Francisco Bay Area, where for the last five years he collaborated with Eric Schilling, a recording engineer and broadcast audio mixer who has received numerous Grammy and Emmy awards. But when the new virus forced everyone into lockdown and closed the music school, "we thought the best thing, the safest thing, because of the pandemic, was to work from here," says Waltl.
The 7.1 monitor setup consists of seven tri-amplified Neumann KH 420 midfield monitors and a pair of Neumann KH 870 subwoofers with bass management. Five stand-mounted, tri-amplified Neumann KH 310 nearfield monitors—three at the front, plus the left and right height channels—reproduce the overhead channels of Sony's object-based 360 Reality Audio system. Hung from the ceiling and placed a little closer to the mix position, as recommended by Dolby Laboratories, four bi-amplified Neumann KH 120 nearfield speakers reproduce the overhead zone of the Dolby Atmos mixes.
In a way, Waltl took a leap of faith in choosing the Neumann system for mediaHyperium, although not without grounds, since he had spent many hours working with one particular model on several projects.
"I had already heard the KH 310s at Skywalker and at other studios where I worked with them. They really impressed me," he says
"I had never used the big ones, the KH 420s," says Schilling. Like Waltl, he adds: "I had only used the 310s before. In this room I'm roughly two and a half meters from the speakers. What I like most about the system is that it has a great level of detail and you don't need to play it at full volume to hear it. I work at a fairly moderate gain most of the day. Otherwise, I'd get too tired. I'm using the system at about 20% of its capacity in terms of volume, which leaves me plenty of headroom. And it's great to have two subwoofers, because the low end is a bit more even. In other words, it's a system that doesn't tire you out and has great richness of detail."
Until now, initiatives to introduce formats beyond stereo have failed commercially because consumers were reluctant or unable to install lots of speakers in their homes. Today, however, manufacturers offer simple, low-cost solutions, such as soundbars and smart speakers capable of immersive playback. And that's why, says Waltl: "We have another room, a listening room, where we've set up a Sennheiser AMBEO soundbar. Now we can hear how the audio plays back on a soundbar."
And although Sony's immersive format, based on Fraunhofer's MPEG-H technology, was initially conceived for playing 3D music on headphones, "The Sennheiser AMBEO soundbar is already compatible with the Sony 360 format, and there are receivers that will send the signal to a speaker system," Schilling explains.
As Waltl also points out, "Sony's format requires three floor-level speakers at the front, but it's impossible to get an accurate, faithful representation if there's furniture or mixing consoles in the way. That's why we set up this room, specifically for immersive sound," he explains.
The room has only the bare essential furniture for the mix controls and the Pro Tools display screens
"Mixing immersive music in a stereo control room is a challenge, because there's a huge console between the subwoofer and you," Schilling agrees. "It's not that it's impossible, but it takes a lot more work to figure out where to place everything. This room is much more like a mastering room, because my controller takes up very little space."
Schilling adds that "We considered installing a rail system so we could move the overhead speakers, but it's more efficient and faster to have different sets of speakers." Schilling has created templates for routing and quickly switching between Dolby's and Sony's immersive formats in mediaHyperium's mix room.
"The room was practically ready to use," notes Waltl. "The walls and ceiling already had acoustic treatment, because it had been an auditorium." That said, Schilling recommended additional treatment including bass traps. Now, Waltl concludes, "The room sounds magnificent."
Schilling has been working on mixing Alicia Keys's catalog in Sony 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos formats, in collaboration with producer and engineer George Massenburg and under the direction of Ann Mincieli, an engineer who has been with Alicia for many years. "I've done almost 30 songs for them in this room," says Schilling. "We started with the most recent one, ALICIA, and have been working our way back in time. We did the entire 2016 album HERE; it's just been mastered. The next project was SONGS IN A MINOR, but we had to finish the other one first, because June marked the 20th anniversary of its release."
"For Alicia Keys's first album, I had to use outboard gear because without it I couldn't get certain sounds. I had to use external compressors. Plug-ins are fantastic, but they don't work exactly the same. But between the two of us we have a good amount of gear I can use when I need it, so it's more of a hybrid room"
According to Waltl, other Sony 360 Reality Audio successes to come out of mediaHyperium include Víctor Manuelle's Grammy-winning 2018 salsa album 25/7; two albums of Bach organ works; and HAUSER PLAYS MORRICONE, a tribute album to the work of film composer Ennio Morricone, transcribed for cello and orchestra and performed by Stjepan Hauser.
"We always want to stay true to the original stereo release," explains Waltl, who has spent the last 20 years remixing music for surround and immersive formats. "Our motto has always been that we want to create the same feeling as the stereo mix. I don't want it to be a shock; it's not a DJ remix. However, we have to take advantage of the possibilities the space offers us, and I don't want to be too conservative with immersive concepts. We have a whole range of creative tools at hand and we develop the original vision. So the immersive mix should be a genuine alternative listening experience to the stereo version. You have to keep an open mind and explore thoroughly. It's an opportunity we should all take advantage of."
