Based in West London, Blue Box Studios is a boutique Recording Studio complex offering state of the art equipment in a creative, cutting-edge environment. They offer tracking and writing sessions in Studio 1 and as of this month, they can offer Dolby Atmos mixing in Studio 2. Their Atmos engineers include Tom Hough, Graeme Baldwin, and Kurt Martinez. Blue Box Studios is one of only five music studios in the United Kingdom to have a Dolby accredited studio for Dolby Atmos Music and they have chosen to use Genelec for monitoring.
Demand for Dolby Atmos mixes has seen an incredible increase as more devices and streaming services are able to deliver Dolby Atmos enabled content. Apple Music’s latest announcement has contributed to the need for more studios and engineers capable of mixing in Dolby Atmos. However, Blue Box Studios made the decision to upgrade well before Apple’s latest announcement. The main driver behind the recent upgrade in Studio 2 was the pandemic.
Like so many businesses, recording studios have had a rough year. For Blue Box Studios it meant shutting doors for months, and when finally able to reopen there were restrictions on the number of people allowed in each room. Mixing sessions present a good solution to this problem as the majority of a mix can be done with only the engineer present. With the ability to mix in Atmos, Studio 2 has already benefited from the need for Atmos mixes, helping this studio after over a year of pandemic related restrictions.
Dolby Atmos mixing requires eleven or more monitors, including over head speakers for the height information. This can prove difficult to retro fit into existing studios however, with the right mounting solutions it can be achieved without too much additional equipment. “Genelec was an easy choice for us. Our engineers have used them before, they pack a punch for their size, and they allow for really flexible mounting,” commented Alex Reid, Studio Manager for Blue Box Studios “which is exactly what we needed for the overhead speakers.”
“We were delighted to work with the guys at Blue Box on this project. We love the versatility of Genelec’s 8000 series speakers, whatever the room size, shape, or other technical aspects to overcome, there’s always a speaker and a mounting solution that can deliver for an immersive system,” says Sean Evans, Account Manager and Genelec Product Specialist at HHB Communications.
