Montreal, Canada (October 29, 2026)—Canadian producer and mix engineer Douglas Romanow has upgraded his latest Toronto studio with a new 7.1.4 system for stereo and Dolby Atmos mixing.
Romanov, who spent 35 years working in multiple genres, installed Focal Twin6 ST6 monitors for left, center and right channels, Solo6 ST6 monitors for the surrounds and overheads, alongside a Sub12 subwoofer. He produced 5.1 surround music for DVD-Audio releases in the late1990s, but says, “It wasn’t until Atmos arrived in 2017, with enough industry support and a real push from Apple in particular, that it was clear Atmos would turn into something.
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“My clients have loved our Focal 2.1 system with Twin6 ST6 and the Sub 12, so when it came time to invest in an immersive mix room, it made perfect sense to build it out with Focal. I love the crossovers. I’ve always loved the beryllium tweeters, I mixed a ton of records on the Focal SM9s, so I knew adding a third Twin6 ST6 L/C/R would create a consistent image across the front.”
Working in other Atmos rooms over the years, Romanow identified one non-negotiable: “I need monitoring to stay consistent all around, not go smaller or change color in the rears or ceiling speakers. When I pan Atmos objects from the Twin6s up to the tops or out to the sides, there’s no shift, because the Solo6s have the same tweeter and the same response. There’s no change in tonality. That’s really important to me.”
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He adds, “You never want your monitors to remind you that you’re monitoring. You just want to be listening to music, as transparently as possible. When I say the beryllium tweeters are ‘silky in the top,’ I don’t mean they’re overly pretty or add something that isn’t in the program. The top-end is just easy to listen to. It’s not hyped, and it’s not rolled off. I don’t hear a shelf, a weird crispiness or any kind of processing. That’s what I like about Focal’s beryllium tweeters. And I find the Focals really dynamic and exciting to work on.”
