Glendale, CA (July 19, 2023)—As immersive music increasingly makes inroads with the listening public, artists are starting to consider the format’s possibilities earlier and earlier in the creative process. With that in mind, rather than approach immersive solely when it comes time to mix, Iron & Wine (aka singer-songwriter Sam Beam) recently recorded tracks that will be released in stereo as well as a dedicated immersive Dolby Atmos release with the help of 4x Grammy-winning producer/engineer Dave Way. He in turn put an Audio-Technica BP3600 immersive audio microphone to use on an orchestral recording session for the album.
“All the recording was done here at the Waystation Studio with the exception of the string section date we did at Silent Zoo Studios in Glendale, CA,” said Way. “I recently read about A-T’s new 3600 Immersive Audio Microphone and figured that would be perfect to capture strings. Doing strings for an Atmos mix usually involves putting up more distant mics and using dedicated ambient room mics to spread out the image, but it doesn’t really deal with the heights in a way that are coincident and timed in a way that is realistic. After looking at the 3600, I immediately thought, ‘Wow, this looks like something that could be great for many things, but definitely for strings or other ensembles in a big room, and perhaps even something in a smaller room.’ I was intrigued by applications that it had already been used for, which were sporting events, capturing ambience and crowd audio.”
Silent Zoo Studios, formerly The Bridge Recording, is an L.A. scoring stage that features a 1,750-square-foot live room, adjoining isolation booths and a 875-square-foot control room with a 96-channel Neve VSP Legend console.
Mix Cover Story: Dave Way is Digging Atmos Music
On hand at Silent Zoo for the session with the 26-piece string section were Beam, string arranger Paul Cartwright, vintage equipment specialist/engineer Dave Boucher and Way. “I was excited about putting the BP3600 where the Decca Tree would normally go, which is basically above the conductor,” noted Way. “We put up our normal kind of mic array—the Decca Tree and spot mics—as well as the BP3600. I had additional assistance for mic placement from David Boucher; we just set up as you normally would for a string date, but rather than putting up extra ambient mics up for Atmos, we ran each of the 3600’s eight elements into eight channels of the Neve.
“I was only monitoring in stereo, and one of my biggest concerns was how it was going to fold down to stereo. When I soloed it up, I instantly knew that it sounded great. Even though I wasn’t listening in any kind of surround format, let alone Atmos, that it sounded great in stereo was a great sign to me. When I got back to the Waystation, I immediately put up the tracks through the Dolby renderer and spread things out as they’re supposed to be with the height speakers, and it sounded incredible. When I was mixing, I used a blend of the 3600 and my spot mics and my Decca Tree and the other room mics, and then Sam walked in and said, ‘Wow.’ He was blown away. When I played it for Paul a few nights later, he said, ‘This is what it sounds like when I’m playing in the room.’ I took that as confirmation that we were really on to something special.”
Way continues, “The thing that impressed me the most when I was listening to playback at the Waystation, was really hearing the focus of the imaging between the front and back; it felt like you were in the tracking room. It was very natural, just the way we normally hear things. It’s all about phase and coherency, which is exactly what I was hoping for…. There are different ways to do this, but none of them have a coincident center like the BP3600, which is very important, and that’s what drew me to it. It’s all coming from a very single source. It’s a very impressive microphone.”
