With Apple Music and Tidal now embracing Dolby Atmos, an increasing amount of recorded music is being remixed for this immersive format, with an increasing share of newly-recorded music also ready for Dolby Atmos playback. For Copenhagen’s Black Tornado Studio it a was natural next step to expand its reach by upgrading to a 9.1.6 monitor system. The reason for this particular configuration instead of the more commonly used 7.1.4 is due to the size of the control room.
‘Our control room is quite large, and in order to cover the area sufficiently, we added a few extra speakers, as well as two subs to handle the LFE-channel,’ explains co-owner and audio engineer, Lars Lundholm. ‘This set-up gives us the benefit of having a pretty large sweet spot by the console, which means that we can have an entire five-to-six piece band listening to immersive mixes at the same time rather than taking turns.’
The new loudspeaker system comprises 15 three-way Dynaudio Core 47 studio monitors for the surrounding and upper layers, as well as two Core Subs for the LFE channel. When calibrating the room, Dolby’s engineer did bass management on every speaker, and applied room-corrective EQ and delay adjustments as part of the Atmos certification process.
‘We have been using Dynaudio BM15A speakers for many years for close-field monitoring, so when we decided to upgrade to immersive sound, we had no doubt that Dynaudio’s Core series would be the perfect choice,’ Lundholm adds. ‘We ran pink noise through the speakers overnight to break them in properly, and the immersive tracks we have played through the system after the Dolby Atmos calibration simply sound amazing. We can’t wait to welcome recording artists to this brand-new, mixing environment and help them present their music in Dolby Atmos.’
Black Tornado Studio was established in 1998, specialising in recording bands and ensembles of up to 30 people. The immersive set-up was officially opened on in November 2022, and the studio is now ready to welcome Scandinavian artists and producers looking to release music in Dolby Atmos.
