Iron & Wine (a.k.a., American singer-songwriter Sam Beam), currently working with four-time GRAMMY-winning producer/engineer Dave Way (Fiona Apple, Ringo Starr, Phoebe Bridgers, Echo in the Canyon, Sheryl Crow, Pink, “Weird Al” Yankovic) at his Los Angeles-based Waystation Studio, is laying down upcoming tracks that will be released in stereo as well as a dedicated immersive Dolby Atmos release, the latter implementing a BP3600 immersive audio microphone from Audio-Technica.
“All the recording was done here at the Waystation Studio with the exception of the string section date we did at Silent Zoo Studios in Glendale, CA,” states Way. “I recently read about A-T’s new 3600 immersive audio microphone and figured that would be perfect to capture strings. Doing strings for an Atmos mix usually involves putting up more distant mics and using dedicated ambient room mics to spread out the image, but it doesn’t really deal with the heights in a way that are coincident and timed in a way that is realistic.
“After looking at the 3600, I immediately thought, ‘Wow, this looks like something that could be great for many things, but definitely for strings or other ensembles in a big room, and perhaps even something in a smaller room. And I was intrigued by applications that it had already been used for, which were sporting events, capturing ambience and crown audio, etc.”
Silent Zoo Studios, formally The Bridge Recording, is an LA scoring stage with a 1750 square-foot live room (large enough for a large orchestra), adjoining isolation booths and an 875 square-foot control room with a 96-channel Neve VSP Legend console. On hand at Silent Zoo for the session with the 26-piece string section were Beam joined by string arranger Paul Cartwright, vintage equipment specialist/engineer Dave Boucher and Way at the recording console, Way.
He received a GRAMMY nomination for “Best Immersive Audio Album,” for his work as immersive audio co-producer on the 2019 album The Savior by A Bad Think, and has provided Atmos mixes for artists including Victoria Monet, Starrah, X frontman John Doe and Maroon 5. Most recently he engineered an Atmos-remixed version of Joe Satriani’s pivotal LP Surfing With The Alien.
“I was excited about putting the BP3600 where the Decca Tree would normally go, which is basically above the conductor,” he continues. “We put up our normal kind of mic array – the Decca Tree and spot mics – as well as the BP3600. I had additional assistance for mic placement from David Boucher (a great engineer who does a lot of film scores). We just set up as you normally would for a string date, but rather than putting up extra ambient mics up for Atmos, we ran each of the 3600’s eight elements into eight channels of the Neve.”
During the string date, Way adds, “I was only monitoring in stereo, and one of my biggest concerns was how it was going to fold down to stereo. And when I solo’d it up, I instantly knew that it sounded great. Even though I wasn’t listening in any kind of surround format, let alone Atmos, that it sounded great in stereo was a great sign to me. When I got back to the Waystation, I immediately put up the tracks through the Dolby renderer and spread things out as they’re supposed to be with the height speakers, and it sounded incredible.
“When I was mixing, I used a blend of the 3600 and my spot mics and my Decca Tree and the other room mics and then Sam walked in and said, ‘Wow.’ He was blown away. When I played it for Paul a few nights later, he said, ‘This is what it sounds like when I’m playing in the room.’ I took that as confirmation that we were really on to something special.”
