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Immersive audio is a natural and exciting evolution from conventional stereo, allowing producers and engineers to make more dynamic and creative mixes than ever.
Plenty of strides have been made with immersive audio over the past several years, but the concept can still be somewhat intimidating for some. More importantly, the idea of having mixes done in immersive software like Dolby Atmos as well as regular stereo mixes can be a bit intimidating (and expensive) for everyday indie artists.
That’s where producer and engineer Bobby Holland comes in. At Pentavarit, Holland has created an Atmos room that looks and feels like a classic, comfortable studio space. With help from the versatile and Atmos-friendly Antelope Audio Galaxy Series audio interfaces, Holland’s streamlined setup allows him to mix in both Atmos and stereo at the same time — which he calls the “single-mix process” — making immersive audio more affordable than ever for artists.
We recently caught up with Holland to learn more about the joys of immersive audio, his unique workflow, and how the Antelope Galaxy makes it possible.
Tell us about your studio and the work you do. What does a typical day in the studio look like?
My studio is called Pentavarit, and it's actually five studios in one building over in Berry Hill, which is a neighborhood in Nashville that, last I heard, has over 200 studios in it. So there’s a bunch of buds and really amazing people in the area. It's just the best community ever. I'm lucky to be over there.
The building has studios A through E, and A and B are mine. Studio A has an Antelope Galaxy 64 and an Atmos 9.1.4 setup, and Studio B has a Galaxy 32 and also Atmos 9.1.4. There’s also a larger tracking room and some booths that are wired into both control rooms, so you can do similar tracking sessions in both rooms, which is really handy. I tend to use Studio A more than B, which is more for overdubs and even as an overflow room. Being that it’s a very well-treated, great-sounding room, I do use it as a dead drum room sometimes.
There are two or three different kinds of regular days for me at Pentavarit. I do a lot of tracking, both as a producer and as an engineer. I engineer most of the stuff I produce, but I also do a lot of work just as an engineer. Generally speaking, I book full days for recording. And then I also mix a ton, and both of the rooms are great-sounding mix rooms.
I typically work in Studio A, and I'm really lucky that the room sounds unbelievable. It's one of my favorite sounding control rooms that I've used in my life, and I've been there for almost 10 years. I'm so happy with it and so used to it, in fact, that I don't even have an alternate set of speakers. I just mix on one set because I know the room really well and my mixes always come out the way that I want them to sound.
You’re a big advocate for making Atmos more accessible for everyday working artists. How is your studio setup different from the typical Atmos room?
I think that a lot of people think if they want to work with Atmos, then they have to have an Atmos room. And, well, I have two Atmos rooms, but they're also recording studios. I have an old 1982 SSL E Series console in Studio A. There’s a bunch of outboard gear and analog synths and guitars everywhere. So it's a recording studio that happens to also be an Atmos room.
When I was getting into Atmos mixing it was important to me to not change my room so much that it didn't feel the same. My favorite thing about my studio is when people walk in and they take their shoes off—I work really hard to make it super comfy and conducive to a creative workflow for both the artists and for me.
I didn't really want to have it become this, like, space station with speakers all around you. I feel like a lot of people have their Atmos mix room, and it's like a little mastering-style desk and a very minimalist setup that’s made specifically as a mixing environment. And I don't have a room that is specifically a mixing environment, so I just made it work with what I have.
I feel like that's kind of a misconception with Atmos: you can have an Atmos-capable room that is also your normal tracking or control room. Basically, the way I do it is I have two different I/O setups on the monitor controller. If I'm going to be mixing in Atmos, I just load one set of files, and if I'm going to be tracking for the day, I load a different file. It's super easy to switch back and forth.
In your Vintage King video session, you mentioned that another way you make Atmos more affordable for artists is by mixing for Atmos and stereo at the same time. What was the learning process like for that?
I guess I can roll this into the previous question: Another part of the reason that I went the route of making my existing recording studio also an Atmos room is that I didn't want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to build out an Atmos room. I’m a pretty big nerd, so I just read about it a lot for months and months and I designed it myself and I learned how to calibrate the space. To have a 9.1.4 setup isn’t cheap, but it's not anywhere near as expensive as what a lot of people think or expect it to be. I feel like I got a really great system that sounds world-class, and it wasn't $300,000.
To answer your current question on what I call the “single mix process”: I think it's doing a disservice to your project if you hire a mixer to mix in stereo, and then a different mixer to do the Atmos mixes. I feel like that's very bad for your budget. Number one, it's way more expensive than it has to be. And number two, it's a disservice to the product. Maybe it made more sense like when Atmos was first coming into play in the music world, but it's been around for a few years now.
I feel pretty strongly that if you need Atmos mixes, you should hire a mixer who can also do Atmos. I work really hard on that front too, especially for independent bands. I love working with indie bands; most of the time, it's a lot more creative and there's a lot less pressure. But they can't afford to mix the record twice — they can barely afford to mix the record once.
So I decided I was just going to put in a ton of front-end work and come up with a single mix system that I felt good about, where I pretty much listen to the stereo rerender half or more of the time. I definitely focus a lot on just the stereo rerender, which ends up being the stereo mix that gets sent to mastering as the stereo mix. It takes longer than just mixing one song in stereo, but it doesn't take as long as mixing in stereo and then mixing it Atmos.
I do some kind of fun routing to make it so I don't feel like I'm losing anything on the stereo mix. I outlined my routing in that video. It was a bit of a learning curve, and I just spent forever on it until I felt good about it. Now, I don't really feel like I'm losing anything by doing a single mix there.
And then the last part of the puzzle is that I also feel pretty strongly about Atmos currently being like the Wild West and a bit of a cash grab right now. The music industry is a weird place; it's hard enough for anybody to pay for their music. And we're all just trying to make a living at this. I don't want to take advantage of anybody, so I pretty quickly decided that I wouldn't really charge extra for Atmos. I'm not charging twice. My rate includes Atmos.
These days, I'm mixing almost everything in Atmos just because it's included in my rate. I hope I don't piss anybody off by not charging extra for it when most people do, but I just feel like it's my job to keep up with the technology and provide that for artists who often already have a hard time paying for records in the first place.
Walk me through your setup and the Antelope Galaxy’s role in your workflow. What key features do you utilize the most?
I gotta say, I was pretty skeptical that the Galaxy could be this awesome. But I am still blown away by it.
I bought the Galaxy 32 first and I was looking for a new setup for the B room. The previous I/O units were fully maxed out, and my monitor controller was a bit clunky. A lot of companies say they support Atmos, but I feel like that’s misleading because they support volume control only. You can do level trims. And you can have one volume knob that controls the volume of your speakers. But the interface has no DSP, so it can't do time alignment, which is hugely important.
So I ended up going with the Galaxy 32 in the B room and, like I said, I was a bit skeptical. But instantaneously, I became the hugest Antelope fan on the planet. I don't know how they fit all that stuff into one rack unit. It sounds fantastic and the conversion is great. The control panel software is phenomenal as well.
I later bought a Galaxy 64 system for Studio A. Because I have recording studio rooms that are also Atmos mix environments, having it all self-contained in one unit is a game changer. Having all of my analog audio for recording, my speaker outputs, the monitor control software — controlled by one piece of software.
It's unbelievably simple compared to the way a lot of other people are working with Atmos. And it’s so easy to use; I've set people up to work in my room in 10 minutes, with their own computer. Both of the rooms are sort of a bring-your-own computer setup.
And the other thing about the Antelope stuff is it's Thunderbolt and HDX simultaneously. I could have Ableton open and Pro Tools open and record the same thing to both DAWs. Like, if I want to pipe my drums into Ableton and make some loops or do some nonlinear stuff. I can do that without rehashing or reopening anything. That single feature alone is worth the price of the unit, so people can come in and bring any DAW they want.
In terms of Atmos, the Galaxy works really well because, in the control panel software, there's this sort of patch bay-esque routing page, where you can send any signal to anywhere. And you can also mark without thinking.
I also have the MRC monitor controller, which has some presets on it, and so what I've done is I've programmed the preset buttons on the remote to effectively just change my monitor setup. So one button is for 9.1.4, one button just monitors the stereo output of my console, one button is for the stereo rerender, and one button is Atmos system playback. I also have another one that basically just turns off all the speaker delay, so there's no latency.
On the Pro Tools side of things, I have it routed so that my main mix is outputs 1 - 14, the binaural goes out 15 and 16, and then the stereo rerender goes out 17 and 18. I have that all on its own aux return in Pro Tools, so I can see the meters of everything, but then those are routed out to the Galaxy.
Then I saved presets that let me switch between the Atmos mix, the Galaxy routes, the binaural mix, and the stereo rerender from the same set of headphones. That's super handy and lets me stay in my sweet spot for speakers or the headphones. I can't even measure how much more efficient things run with the Galaxy compared to without it.
What’s your go-to example of a great Atmos mix?
The gold standard most engineers will tell you is the Atmos mix for “Rocket Man.” It's a phenomenal mix. My personal favorite is actually a little off-brand for me as a music consumer, but as a mixer, Snarky Puppy's latest album is a very tasteful, immersive Atmos mix. Props to whoever did it.
What are some of your other go-to pieces of outboard gear?
Oh man, this one is tough. For mic preamps and channel strips, my favorite new piece is the Chandler Limited TG Microphone Cassette. It sounds crazy good on everything, and I really mean that. And the build quality is unparalleled, like everything Chandler Limited does. For a vintage channel, everyone is a Neve fan, and of course, I love mine, but the unsung heroes in my studio are the pair of vintage Calrec 1161s.
For compressors, I’d have to say that my favorites in the rack are the Retro Sta-Level and pair of Universal Audio LA-3As. Totally different, and both are incredibly useful without being boring.
What was it like working with Cody Angel from Vintage King during the upgrade process?
Cody is a buddy of mine, and we were already friends before working together through Vintage King. But Cody is an amazing person and phenomenal at his job. He listens to you and helps you find the best thing for what you need, not the thing that pays more commission. I will be a long-term repeat customer because of that.
Are you working on any exciting projects right now that you're able to talk about?
Yes! I’m currently making a record with an amazing artist/band called Paul McDonald & The Mourning Doves. It’s one of my favorite records that I have ever made.
I also recently made another record with Maggie Rose called “No One Gets Out Alive,” which is out now.
Both of these records were recorded with Atmos in mind as the primary mix format, so there’s a lot of fun immersive stuff to experience on Atmos systems, or in binaural. Of course, I also spent a lot of time monitoring in stereo, so those mixes will hopefully not disappoint, although I’m partial to the immersive ones!
Want to learn more about Bobby Holland's mixing setup and his approach to mixing immersive audio? Watch the video below for an inside look at how Bobby sets up mix sessions and runs them with his Antelope Audio Galaxy 32 Synergy Core audio interface and MRC multi-channel remote controller.
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