Name: Bob Clearmountain
Occupation: Mixing engineer
Nationality: American
Recent events: Bob Clearmountain has recently worked on a variety of Atmos mixes and is educating mixing engineers in mixing Atmos in Apogee software environments.

If you enjoyed this ob Clearmountain interview and would like to find out more about his work and current projects, visit the official website of his studio.



Most rock gigs are in stereo and techno is often in quad on the dance floor. So why would Atmos provide you with a more “natural” sound?

I’m not sure if it really is more “natural.” But, as opposed to a live show with the artist on a stage, for a studio recording I often try to imagine I’m sitting in the middle of the studio with the band set up and playing all around me.

Of course, often recordings have many layers of overdubbed vocals, guitars, keyboards and synthesizers so I’ll tend to spread them out in as natural a way as I can, without distracting from the narrative and impact of the song. I try to keep the focus of the mix - i.e. the lead vocal, drums, bass, etc. - in the front speakers, with emphasis in the center channel, especially for the lead vocal. That way, I can move around the listening area and the basic placement picture stays the same. The same goes for mixing movies.

I have a 5.1 system for my TV and feel it makes movie watching much more engaging - so why shouldn’t a music-only mix do the same thing?

Prior to working with Atmos, you've been mixing surround for many years. Was there a learning curve when moving to Atmos?

Although I believe having the experience from mixing in 5.1 gave me an advantage, I’ve had to find new interesting ways to handle reverbs and delay effects, besides just instrument and vocal placement in the expanded spatialized environment. After three years, I’m still discovering interesting ways of using the height and side channels.

Mixing music is like solving a very interesting puzzle. It’s always different and a really fun challenge, especially if I love the music!

One big piece of that puzzle are the “center channels” and “what to put there”. How do you approach this yourself?

As I said earlier, I believe the center channel is crucial to an Atmos mix as it can be the main focus of the music. The reason it exists for movies is so that not matter where you’re sitting in a movie theater, the dialog audio is where the main character usually appears, in the center.

To me it’s much the same for music in that the main focus of pop or rock music is the vocal and drums. So no matter where you are sitting in the listening area, your attention should be where that voice is. So I put it in the center.

It’s usually there along with snare, bass drum and bass, with a bit of divergence in the left and right front channels - so it’s not totally isolated but the main focus is the center channel.

That sounds pretty straight-forward.

In fact, it can be a challenge if the mix must be done from pre-mixed stereo stems! And that seems to be a common “requirement.” It's a practice that I have a big problem with.

It’s quite difficult, if not impossible in my humble opinion to do a great, engaging Atmos mix from pre-mixed stems.

When it comes to working with surround, do you feel as though in the box or hardware solutions yield fundamentally different creative results?

No, it’s really more about what the mixer does with a much larger canvas than is available with stereo. I don’t think it’s about the gear he or she is using to do it. It’s more about their imagination, appreciation and understanding of the music they’re mixing, not the equipment.

If you don't have that, you get a bad mix, which is a mix that, even though it’s a good song, causes the listener to become uninterested and to never get or care about the meaning or vibe of that song.

Do you feel that it's true, as has often been suggested, that speakers should all be from the same manufacturer?

No, as long as they’re similar sounding and the speakers have all been equalized to match somewhat. It’s far more about what the studio owner can afford.

I’ve been using cheap, $100 passive speakers for my height channels and they work just fine.

I know a few Atmos engineers who will use the binaural headphone mix for their spatial mixes. What's your take on headphone mixing in Atmos versus using speakers?

I find it’s a really good idea to check the binaural output of the Atmos Renderer on a good set of headphones, as most listeners will be hearing the mix on headphones or earbuds.

But the problem of only using headphones is that the binaural algorithm is evolving as Dolby is working on improving it. So what it sounds like now may be different in the future. What comes out of the speakers, on the other hand, will not change. So mixing on speakers is sort of “future-proof.” Also, mixing Atmos on speakers is more inspiring and simply, more fun!

Do you have a recent example of your approach?

As an example, listen to anything I’ve mixed lately - like the new album by the band A Bad Think, called X, or Bruce Springsteen’s latest studio full-length Only the Strong Survive.

Be sure to listen to them on a proper 7.1.4 or at least a 5.1 speaker system, though, not headphones.

As part of your current work, you're also introducing other engineers to Atmos. Provided the room is properly set up, what are the challenges?

Every artist, producer and mixer has their own concepts of what a great Atmos mix should sound like. So I don’t like to tell people how to do it.

I can only explain my particular approach and let them take from that whatever the feel might work for them … or not!

Many mixing and mastering engineers prefer silence over music at home. Provided you still feel like listening after a hard day's work – what does your listening room look like?

It’s my living room sporting a 5.1 audio system which is usually playing the audio from whatever is on the TV. Usually a movie or TV series!