David Stagl is a mix engineer based in Atlanta, Georgia, and this year  he has decided to mix every music project in Dolby Atmos and Stereo simultaneously in the same session. In this video, he shares why he is doing this now and then shows some of the technical detail of how he does this Pro Tools. Over to you, David…

00:00 Intro

01:07 Why Mix Everything in Atmos

03:41 What If Delivery Format is Stereo

06:40 Bob Clearmountain Influence

07:13 My Atmos & Stereo Process

08:25 Final Deliverable Considerations

09:14 How Atmos & Stereo Works in My Setup

10:09 Why I Don’t Use the Atmos Stereo Foldown for the Stereo Master

12:30 Atmos Panning Considerations in Stereo

13:52 Technical Setup

15:39 Atmos Buss Compression

16:28 Stems for the Stereo Mix

18:16 The Stereo Busses

19:33 How I Monitor Stereo or Atmos

21:29 Wrap-Up

First off, I, I love working in immersive. I made a big investment in setting up my studio this way, and I love hearing music this way. I love creating music this way. To me, it was a no-brainer.

I think immersive music really is the future of music, and I think object-oriented workflows are here to stay for working in music production. To me, music production was kind of the last frontier of audio production to really get into an object-oriented workflow.

We've had object-based content in the film and video world for a long time now, and objects have been in multimedia and gaming for probably even longer. I've always felt like this is inevitably where everything, including music production, will move to using object-based workflows more and more. So I figured it would be good for me to work in Atmos as much as I possibly can.

Even when I was installing Dolby Atmos and getting up and running, it’s always been a goal in the back of my mind to be able to just work in Dolby Atmos. Whether someone only needs stereo, 5.1 or Atmos, I just want to be able to work in Atmos and objects, whether that’s the final delivery format or not.

For example, I do a lot of music mixing for social media releases and streaming for platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. For now, and probably in the foreseeable future, those are likely to be just stereo.

So why am I mixing that content in Atmos? Part of it is just practice. The best thing I can do for myself and for my skillset is to do this as much as I possibly can.

I learn something new on every mix, and this is an opportunity to continue that learning process and to continue refining my way of doing things. Why would I not want to do that? The other benefit is if, down the line, somebody needs one of my mixes in Atmos that I delivered in stereo, I've got it. It's almost ready to go.

Note the Atmos mix is not finished, but it doesn't take me much more work to actually get the Atmos side of things across the finish line.

What is very interesting is that the way I'm working through this doesn't add any time to my workflow, which is really important to me. Initially, as I was figuring out how to do this, it did take some more time, but with practice and refinement now doesn’t take any longer.

A big inspiration for me has been Bob Clearmountain. Bob has been mixing, surround and stereo at the same time for well over 20 years. He moved over to Atmos a couple of years ago, and now he mixes Dolby Atmos and stereo at the same time. There are some differences between the way I am working compared to Bob’s workflow. He works on a giant SSL console, whereas I am working entirely in Pro Tools.

The other thing that is different for me is Bob starts his mixes in stereo and then moves into Atmos. I do things the opposite. I work in Atmos, and then I move over to stereo. I get to about 80% of the way there in Dolby Atmos before I start switching over and checking in the stereo.

One of the ways I'm doing that is I use the 2.0 re-render, which is basically folding the whole Atmos mix including objects, down into a stereo mix down. On my monitor controller, I have a button that enables me to switch between the Atmos version and my stereo re-render, so I can go back and forth and check them both. I'll also be checking the mix through my Auratones at that point. I might check it on my laptop to see where everything is sitting as well.

When I get to about 85 or 90%, that's when things start to change a little bit for me. Depending on whether the final release is going to be released in Atmos, I will finish the mix in Atmos at that point in time.

For something I know is only releasing in stereo, I will switch over and work only in stereo and finish the mix. If, at some point, I need to take that mix and finish the Atmos side of things, I need about another 60-90 minutes to finish the Atmos side of things.

But until people ask for Atmos versions, those stereo mixes are just kind of sitting, waiting to be finished off in Atmos. For projects I'm mixing in Atmos that also need a stereo mix to go alongside it, I finish the Atmos side, and then I move over and finish the stereo side.

I do this using a very elaborate set of stems in Pro Tools, where I can trim things differently if I need to, and I use that to finish off the stereo mix. One thing I’ve found is if you have some automated panning going on in the Atmos mix, it won’t necessarily work in the stereo.

To assist with this, I have ways of turning the pan automation off inside my stems so that automation doesn't apply, which enables me to finish the stereo version.

Why don't I just use the Atmos fold-down for the stereo release? Ultimately, if Atmos becomes the standard, I think that is what will end up being the norm for the stereo option for people to listen to. In the meantime, there is a key thing that limits that, and that is loudness.

Right now, in my experience, there are still expectations to deliver songs at certain levels and loudness with a certain amount of dynamic limiting. I did some experiments last year, and it ended up being a lot more work on my end because what I found is once I start putting the amount of limiting on a mix needed to get it up to the “modern” levels between -6 LUFS and -10 LUFS, the balance starts to change.

When this happens, I can go into those stems and make some small adjustments to get the balance to stay where I want it so things like the vocals, reverbs, and effects sit where they were intended to sit when I did the Atmos mix. This way, I can tweak the stereo side, and everything translates in a way that I am happy with it and my clients are satisfied.

Something else I've been messing around with a little bit is some of the placements in the Atmos field.

The balance, at least in the immersive mix, doesn't always translate the same way when it folds down to stereo. It tends to stay where I like it if I'm working in 5.1 or 7.1. But when I bring it down to stereo, sometimes things like the lead vocal will end up sitting back a little bit further in the mix than I'm really comfortable with. This is another reason why I have all those stems. They enable me to go in and take that lead vocal up a dB or two, or maybe even turn it down a dB or two, depending on what's going on. Half a dB is sometimes all it takes.

Then I can put it through a mastering chain and check the balance. If the mix needs to go off to another mastering engineer, I can print it and send it off as is, and it'll just work.

Now I’d love to show you how exactly I'm doing this in my template.

My current mix template for doing everything in Atmos is already on version seven for the year. The template is changing a lot for me this year, and I am still refining workflows. Plus, when I learn something new from somebody else, I want to put that in my template.

At this point, it is going to be best to watch the video so you can see what I am doing and I hope it helps you.