Who are considered the best Atmos immersive audio mix engineers out there?

[jimfisheye]

He would get mine too, if it wasn't for his annoying habit of ALWAYS mixing lead vocals isolated in the center of the soundstage. That really does no justice to multi lead vocal harmonies like with Yes and Gentle Giant in my ears. Other than that, his choices are generally tasteful and well executed. Just my modest opinion of course.

Isn't that more him following the music though? It's the prevalence of music with the annoying habit of including a featured solo vocalist! Often mixed to sit in front of the music even in stereo. This is what needs to be shaken up!

 

[sjcorne]

I love the effect of having the lead in the center and harmonies spread to the rears (or tops) on the Yes and Gentle Giant mixes.

 

[AYanguas]

For me, another of the "best" Atmos mix engineers is Bruce Soord.

The problem of the current "available" AI services that make human speach, is that we expect the AI program to "make evaluations and juzge" the same way a human would do.

We dont have to forget that the AI only construct a human dialog based on the all information available in their databases. The AI then "transcribe" only the information more relevant or more repetitive that find in his databases.

Just ask ChatGPT why Steven Wilson or Bruce Soord is missing in that list. Ask it: if they are not well considered as the best? .....
Then ChatGPT will answer: "Yes you are right. Steven Wilson (or Bruce Soord) are considered one of the best inmmersive audio eingeneers, specially in Dolby Atmos and will "transcribe" lots of information about why Steven Wilson is considered one of the best.

These AI's are "language" robots that manipulate very well all its information available.

You don't have to trust it, just it will help you providing information that you Have to check and evaluate later. Specially when asking ChatGPT to provide program code, as I usually do. It helps a lot but you must compile, test and evaluate that provided code. And it does not always work.

 

[jimfisheye]

Asking ChatGPT for code is interesting. The results never work "out of the box". You see pure gibberish in the code. But you also get actual elements of structure and some actual bits of correct code genuinely related to the search. It's often a useful search result with that at the end of the day.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

there are others sources to draw from for a list...

Immersive Audio Album

https://immersiveaudioalbum.com/2024-immersive-audio-album-listeners-choice-awards/


2024 GRAMMYS

https://www.grammy.com/news/kendric...best-rap-album-win-speech-video-grammy-rewind

83. Best Immersive Audio Album

For vocal or instrumental albums in any genre. Must be commercially released for physical sale or on an eligible streaming or download service and must provide a new immersive mix of four or more channels. Award to the immersive mix engineer, immersive producer (if any) and immersive mastering engineer (if any).

Act 3 (Immersive Edition)
Ryan Ulyate, immersive mix engineer; Michael Romanowski, immersive mastering engineer; Ryan Ulyate, immersive producer (Ryan Ulyate)

Blue Clear Sky
Chuck Ainlay, immersive mix engineer; Michael Romanowski, immersive mastering engineer; Chuck Ainlay, immersive producer (George Strait)

The Diary Of Alicia Keys - WINNER
George Massenburg & Eric Schilling, immersive mix engineers; Michael Romanowski, immersive mastering engineer; Alicia Keys & Ann Mincieli, immersive producers (Alicia Keys)

God Of War Ragnarök (Original Soundtrack)
Eric Schilling, immersive mix engineer; Michael Romanowski, immersive mastering engineer; Kellogg Boynton, Anthony Caruso, Peter Scaturro & Herbert Waltl, Immersive producers (Bear McCreary)

Silence Between Songs
Sean Brennan & Mike Piacentini, immersive mix engineers; Aaron Short, immersive mastering engineer; Madison Beer & Leroy Clampitt, immersive producers (Madison Beer)

*and of course our own Poll threads for Atmos releases
(type ATMOS into the search field at the upper right to narrow the results)-

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/TabbedPollChart.htm

 

[Sal1950]

For me, another of the "best" Atmos mix engineers is Bruce Soord.

Good Call! Shame we didn't give him the nod till now.
Also Michael Marquart, A Bad Think

 

[H.A.L.]

Compile a list of suggestions, then have a poll. It will probably lean toward those engineers
who post here, but not because they are voting for themselves.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Bob Clearmountain should be on the list.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Has SWT even had an Atmos mix released yet?

No.

 

[SomethingAnything]

Stephen W Tayler, Richard Whittaker and David Kosten all deserve to be in the Top 10.

I'd love to put SWT in the top 10. He's become my fave 5.1 mixer, but I'm pretty sure he has yet to be engaged to produce any Atmos mixes for us. It's only a matter of time, but for somethings, time still moves slowly

 

[SomethingAnything]

Good Call! Shame we didn't give him the nod till now.
Also Michael Marquart, A Bad Think

Actually I did, pretty close to the beginning.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

ATMOS QQ HIGHLY RATED RELEASES (& their MIX ENGINEERS)

*I just did a search through our Poll threads with the following criteria for Atmos mixed titles.

FILTERED BY ATMOS MIX-> HIGHEST SCORE-> MOST VOTES (OF AT LEAST 30 VOTES)
* I believe a lot of this list is skewed due to overall popularity of the title and/or, how one is rating how much they like the music or not. Also, I'm sure the list would change somewhat if certain titles (under 30 votes) had more votes than the cut-off of 30. Went down to about 14 different mixers to just above a 9 vote, with one name in particular being a decisive favorite. And if anyone finds an error for the mixer or other errors, please point it out, as some I had to do a little digging on it.

Jones, Howard - HUMAN'S LIB [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Bob Clearmountain (partial album in Atmos)

Yes - THE YES ALBUM [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Steven Wilson

Mitchell, Joni - THE ASYLUM ALBUMS (1972-1975) [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Ken Caillat and Claus Trelby

Kraftwerk - 3D: The Catalogue [BluRay]
Fritz Hilpert

Pineapple Thief, The - HOW DID WE FIND OUR WAY: 1999-2006 [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Bruce Soord

Morrison, Van - MOONDANCE [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Steven Wilson

Yello - POINT [Blu-ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Stefan Bock

Gentle Giant - FREE HAND [Blu-Ray Audio]
Steven Wilson

Beatles, The - ABBEY ROAD (Dolby Atmos Mix) [Blu-Ray Audio]
Giles Martin & Sam Okell

Zappa, Frank - OVER-NITE SENSATION [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Karma Auger and Erich Gobel

Gabriel, Peter - I/O [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Hans-Martin Buff

Tears For Fears - THE HURTING [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Steven Wilson

Tears For Fears - THE TIPPING POINT [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Steven Wilson

Air - MOON SAFARI [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Bruce Keen & Gildas Lointier

Wilson, Steven - THE HARMONY CODEX [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Steven Wilson

Zappa, Frank - WAKA/WAZOO [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Karma Auger and Erich Gobels

Pink Floyd - ANIMALS [Blu-ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
James Guthrie

McKennitt, Loreena - THE VISIT [Blu-Ray Audio]
Jeff Wolpert

ABC - THE LEXICON OF LOVE [Blu-ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Steven Wilson

Air - 10000 Hz Legend [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Bruce Keen & Gildas Lointier

Pink Floyd - DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION) [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
James Guthrie

Gentle Giant - INTERVIEW [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Steven Wilson

XTC - THE BIG EXPRESS [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Steven Wilson

Beatles, The - LET IT BE [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Giles Martin & Sam Okell

Ten Years After - A SPACE IN TIME [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Chris Kimsey

xPropaganda - THE HEART IS STRANGE [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Stephen Lipson

Suede - SUEDE [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
Steven Wilson

Oldfield, Mike - TUBULAR BELLS [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]
David Kosten

 

[ar surround]

I love the effect of having the lead in the center and harmonies spread to the rears (or tops) on the Yes and Gentle Giant mixes.

I'm not thrilled that SW isolates the lead vocal in the center speaker. It's not a problem on my system because I have an insanely large center channel speaker. However, it was problematic when my center speaker was a bit small compared to the front tower speakers.

I think that there is too much variability in peoples systems to have the lead vocal solely isolated in the center. I prefer that they be included also in the L/R speakers to offset this variability.

Now, one could say that everyone should have a properly balanced surround sound system with properly matched speakers all around. But decor, pressure from a significant other, etc may not make that possible.

 

[sjcorne]

I'm not thrilled that SW isolates the lead vocal in the center speaker. It's not a problem on my system because I have an insanely large center channel speaker. However, it was problematic when my center speaker was a bit small compared to the front tower speakers.

I can't think of many mixes (SW's or anyone else's) where the lead vocal is truly 100% in the center speaker and heard nowhere else. Maybe The Allman Brothers' Idlewild South and Bruce Botnick's work on The Doors' catalog? Usually there is some support in the fronts (or sides in Atmos), so it doesn't feel too detached from the rest of the band. The recent Atmos mix of Van Morrison's Moondance is a great example of this.

 

[Horbus]

The problem with those searches is always the non specified question we ask the search engines. By which standards do you mean "best"? Also this forum is a tiny niche on the web and does not have a remarkable influence on the search results given all the data "floating" around. Even if you ask a human the answer will be very subjective and based on overall knowledge about the subject. So the key normally is to specify the question as narrow as it could be to get more accurate results.

 

[GilWave]

Who do you consider to be the best?

Steven Wilson gets my top spot.

Steven Wilson, James Guthrie, Bob Clearmountain my top three.

 

[Thonolan]

I'm not thrilled that SW isolates the lead vocal in the center speaker. It's not a problem on my system because I have an insanely large center channel speaker. However, it was problematic when my center speaker was a bit small compared to the front tower speakers.

I think that there is too much variability in peoples systems to have the lead vocal solely isolated in the center. I prefer that they be included also in the L/R speakers to offset this variability.

I think you are right. I absolutely LOVE lead vocals isolated in the center speaker, but seeing how a considerable number of people complain about that, my conclusion is that it might be, partially at least, system dependent, and possibly not just a matter of artistic taste. My center speaker is huge as well - it's the largest speaker of my system.

 

[jimfisheye]

A mix element put to a single speaker vs put to a pair of speakers as dual mono can and does make a difference! There's a reason we still use old school moves like dual mono in a pair of speakers.

I don't want to suggest that a center placed vocal will always sound wrong vs dual mono. Seems to me that a whole speaker for a direct front and center solo mix element and then the whole rest of the speaker array for reflection support and ambience should be able to deliver that mix element with bells on! (There's a sound guy pun in there somewhere...)

Anyway, the two examples can hit different. Certainly just taking a center panned vocal from a stereo mix and putting it in a center channel in 5.1 with nothing else done makes for a very different mix. There might have not been any extra reflection or ambience in the stereo mix... But that's because you had this big vocal sitting along with everything else from every direction because it's dual mono in both speakers! Now you have to introduce some of the reflection and ambience elements "implied" in stereo when you go to surround and a solo center channel. Or something like that! I don't want to suggest absolutes or formulas. Just that this is a good observation and a very fair point to bring up. And this is the same way up/down mixes into different non 1:1 speaker arrays with Atmos will skew things and sound 'off'. 12 channel folded down into fewer will have some mono elements landing in pairs of speakers or more. 12 channel upmixed to 16 or more can have some surprises with paired mono mix elements landing in a single speaker.

Depending on the mix, sometimes this doesn't matter at all and sometimes it really breaks it!

 

[minimumtumbleweed]

Are these AI searches even drawing off recent information? Go back only five years and you essentially have no Atmos mixes.

 

[Willie Wilson]

Best being a relative term here, but I believe this forum gets what I'm getting at (perhaps top 10.) I was just pondering some of this today and decided to run it past Google's AI to see what it would come up with.

here are the results from the Google AI

Mills Logan
A Grammy award-winning immersive mix engineer who has mixed over 600 songs in Dolby Atmos at his Nashville studio.

Stan Kybert
A UK-based Atmos mixer who specializes in immersive music.

Andy Bradfield
A leading mix engineer who has shared lessons learned about Dolby Atmos.

Greg Wells
A Canadian super-producer who has created real-world Atmos content.

Mert Özcan
A Los Angeles-based recording and mix engineer who was among the first to explore Dolby Atmos music creation.

Leslie Mona-Mathus
A two-time Emmy award-winning audio mixer, sound designer, and producer who has also won multiple Clio and Promax awards, an Independent Music Award, and a Gold Record.

Nathaniel Reichman
A Grammy award-winning immersive mix engineer who worked on John Luther Adams' orchestral piece Become Ocean.

Richard Chycki
A multi-platinum mixer and engineer who has worked with clients such as Rush, Aerosmith, and Dream Theater.

*Seems there are a lot of holes in this list.

About Chycki, I have the Road Apples box from the Tragically Hip which has an Atmos mix that is rather tame. Has he done better on other projects?