Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios has opened the Red Room with Dolby Atmos, a new mixing facility equipped with Dolby Atmos for Music.
One of the most in-demand studios in the world, the residential Real World Studios has been used by the likes of Beyonce, New Order, Harry Styles, Sir Tom Jones and many others. As part of a new upgrade it has installed a precision all-ATC loudspeaker environment to meet the rapidly increasing demand for immersive listening formats such as Dolby Atmos.
Known for its iconic Big Room and Wood Room Studios, both performance- focused spaces, the smaller Red Room Studio was a 7.1 post-production room. Now its has been equipped with a full complement of ATC monitors in a 7.1.4 array: SCM45As for L,C & R, SCM12 Pros for tops and sides, and an SCM0.1/15SL Pro subwoofer. Monitor control and conversion is provided by a Grace Design M908 connected via Dante to a Mac Pro with two Pro Tools HDX cards loaded with all the plugins you’d expect. The room was designed by acoustic engineer White Mark.
“We believe Dolby Atmos is the format for new music creation as much as, if not more than, a format to re-explore old works. As such, Real World will be at the forefront of the push to deliver that” said Tim Oliver, senior engineer. To that extent, the Red Room will be marketed as both a Dolby Atmos production room and a Dolby Atmos mixing room. “Real World still follows its ‘musicians first’ ethos but puts the emphasis on sonics in a beautifully inspirational environment with everything at your fingertips.”
The Red Room will still be used as a mix room (stereo and surround) and as a writing and production room to cater for the many people who’ve already fallen in love with its intimate feel.
“We needed to give people as many reasons to come and work at Real World as possible, so it was obvious that we should select only the highest spec gear to go in there,” added head engineer, Oli Jacobs.
“For that purpose, we’ve kept SSL summing for hybrid mixing, an array of analogue outboard gear, microphones from Real World’s comprehensive collection and a Yamaha U3 felted upright piano. We’ve made the technical install extremely versatile, so anyone can still just turn up, plug their laptops into the installed Universal Audio Apollo X8 and they’re off.”
Real World’s Red Room with Dolby Atmos is now open to book with introductory rates available until June 1, 2022. The room includes an on-call assistant for setup and troubleshooting, while its in-house engineers are available and trained in mixing in Dolby Atmos. Catering and accommodation are also available as required.