Noted Los Angeles recording facility Larrabee Studios has been equipped with Meyer Sound monitoring in Studio 3 for creating mixes in the Dolby Atmos Music format, anchored in the front left-center-right channels by Bluehorn System full-bandwidth monitoring.
The new immersive environment has been used exclusively by studio owner Manny Marroquin for, in his estimation, more than 200 Atmos mixes of songs from artists including Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone, Fitz and the Tantrums, Portugal. The Man and Lizzo, notably her “About Damn Time,” recipient of the 2023 Grammy for Record of the Year.
When the Atmos Music format was introduced, Marroquin saw it as an opportunity for music creators to move forward into, literally, a new dimension. “The idea of immersive music had always been intriguing to me, but it never was executed correctly to my mind,” he says. “When Dolby started reaching out to creators like me, and shortly after that Apple put it on their platform, it was clear this would be a real progression in audio technology. So, we went all-in on Atmos.”
At about that time, Marroquin was building VERSE, an adjoining restaurant and bar that morphs nightly into a live music recording venue, which integrates a Constellation acoustic system by Meyer Sound: “I flew up to Berkeley a couple of times regarding Constellation, and on one trip John Meyer took me to the Bear’s Lab studio and introduced me to Bluehorn. He played a Michael Jackson track, and I heard things in that song I had never heard before. I thought it would be amazing if somehow I could get Bluehorn into one of my rooms at Larrabee. Now it’s here, and it just sounds incredible.”
The complete Meyer Sound installation in Studio 3 also comprises three X-400C cinema subwoofers, six ULTRA-X20XP and four ULTRA-X23XP loudspeakers for lateral and overhead surrounds, and four USW-112XP compact subwoofers for surround bass management.
Marroquin restricts his Atmos mixing to projects for which he already has done the stereo mix. “I’ve already spent hours working with the tracks, and talking to the producer and artist, so I already have insight into the recording. For me, with Atmos, it’s almost like less is more. I just want to take the stereo mix and fully immerse you in it. It’s an enhancement rather than a new mix. The last thing I want to do is pull apart that subtle glue that holds a great song together.”
The original Larrabee Studios was a small recording facility on Larrabee Street in West Hollywood owned by pop songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Subsequent owners expanded to incorporate Larrabee North in 1991 at the current location of Larrabee Studios. The first project at the newly rechristened studio was Michael Jackson’s Dangerous. Today’s facility provides five main rooms, two tracking rooms, a production suite, and a mastering room.
