Moving into new premises, gave Milan’s Molok Studios – a prominent multilingual game, movie and digital localisation and postproduction company – the opportunity to measure games’ move towards spatial audio environments. The resukt was the decision to create two Genelec-powered 7.1.4 rooms, making Molok the first Dolby Atmos gaming studio in Italy.

‘We knew Atmos was going to be made available on PS5 and consoles, and we thought, “no one is taking advantage of this, so let’s make it happen”,’ says Molok CEO, Andrea De Cunto.

Chief Audio Engineer Samuele Daccò led the project, ensuring the design was tailored to the Atmos 7.1.4 specifications in both control rooms. ‘Genelec was our first choice when we designed the rooms; we just needed to choose the models and think about what would sound better for us and our needs,’ he explains.

Genelec monitors have long been a mainstay in Molok’s audio production, starting with the ultra-compact 8010 close-field model. ‘I first encountered Genelec monitors when I started engineering in 2018 – and in a lot of studios I’ve worked in, there’s usually the 8010,’ Daccò says. ‘They’re very popular in Italy – it’s hard not to spot them.’

The newly built studio complex comprises six recording rooms and the two immersive control rooms – Scorpion and Sub Zero – which take their names from Mortal Kombat characters and have an identical Atmos design, but with inverted colour schemes.

Both Scorpion and Sub Zero feature three coaxial three-way 8351s as LCR monitors, with 8340 two-ways for the surround and height channels and a 7380 subwoofer to handle the bass. ‘Molok’s twin spaces have asymmetrical colours and identical acoustic and technological performance,’ says Studio Sound Service Acoustic and Civil Engineer and partner Cecilia Torracchi, who worked with Molok on the studios’ design. ‘We were happy to know that the initial choice was Genelec because we know the products very well. We’d already designed many Dolby Atmos rooms with Genelec and the results have always been excellent.’

Transitioning to 7.1.4 systems has transformed the audio production approach, enabling the studio to offer immersive experiences that could be accurately translated across various playback systems. ‘It’s so cool to work with Atmos – and by integrating Genelec, it creates a whole new world for us,’ Daccò says. ‘The end-user’s game experience can be similar to our mixing room with different playback levels, but the immersive level of the mixing has changed everything for us.’

With PS5 and other consoles adopting Atmos and many game titles supporting the format, Molok is well-prepared to meet new standards. ‘We’ve had brilliant vertical growth in the last few years and we only see that increasing, as we start to really utilize Dolby and see its full capability,’ De Cunto says. ‘It feels like we’re at the right place, at the right time.’

‘Working for the Molok guys was very nice, they’re among the kindest and most enthusiastic clients we’ve ever had, and it was a pleasure to see their satisfaction at the end of the project,’ Torracchi says. ‘For this project we tried to respect these human features: the rooms have simple geometries, but a lot of character, their style reflects the technological state of the art. When we discovered the guys had named the new rooms after Mortal Kombat characters we went crazy, it sounded perfect.’

Looking forward, Molok Studios aims to expand its use of Atmos beyond gaming to music and home entertainment, targeting a global market. ‘We’re trying to expand our reach with our focus on Sound Effects and Atmos mixing,’ concludes De Cunto. ‘Our goal is to explore new frontiers and deliver immersive audio experiences beyond the gaming realm on a global scale.’

More: www.genelec.com