Rig Tour: Chris Lord-Alge Shows Us His Incredible Atmos Rig

[@sweetwater]

Chris Lord-Alge has gone Atmos! Check out his rig and let us know your thoughts on Dolby Atmos and other immersive audio formats. Watch more producer and engineer interviews here 👉 kzbin.info/aero/PLlczpwSXEOyYyjonnueghA0vl-5C20Qut

[@ibrakadabra3918]

@Sweetwater i got a mention and it says i won a prize and i should contact you on telegram? Real or scam? I guess it’s a scam but you never know. Lol

[@msgdob86]

@@ibrakadabra3918 anything that says “telegram” is a scam.

[@ibrakadabra3918]

@@msgdob86 lol thx

[@dachreport]

@@ibrakadabra3918 I got the same

[@ibrakadabra3918]

@@dachreport it is a scam

[@NickSoundAuthentic]

This is one of my favorite interviews with CLA where he’s not being pushed to sell a product or anything. Just straight shooting with his mind. Great job, Mitch!

[@x86FTW]

Look at his tshirt LMAO

[@TheNewFlesh]

How is this anything but an ad for Atmos?

[@kieranniemand2939]

Holy shit I was thinking this exact same thing. He is just chatting about something he loves and not some Waves nonsense lmao

[@agoogleuser7832]

How is this not a promo for Atmos and Sweetwater?

[@x86FTW]

@@TheNewFlesh CLA is soon going to have his own breakfast cereal

[@riktascale4]

I liked how he was honest about the growing pains of Atmos vs the pros of stereo mixes.

[@charlesrocks]

ATMOS seems to be a gimmick right now.

[@subtractivemusic]

@@charlesrocksit's a business opportunity. I don't think CLA lets his opinions stop him from making money where there's money to be made.

[@PacificIslandDrive]

Chris mixed my band’s album back in the early 90’s, and it was such an amazing learning experience. He’s a true master of sound!

[@dharkknight4747]

Green Day???? 👀

[@skyDN1974]

What band?

[@fakinlunatik3553]

@@skyDN1974 chris and his borders i guess

[@PlatinumHustle]

@@fakinlunatik3553 🤣

[@GurnBograt1986]

I love the fact that Chris has always shared his experience and knowledge freely for years. Great engineer, producer, and great teacher.

[@abdulwazedcharu4915]

Cla sir you are a honest man who talks straight about the all of your feelings.

[@popolokross444]

i like that it caught Mitch Off-Guard when CLA says he's excited for Mitch's next record, it's rare to see Mitch like that.

[@Backyard_Sounds]

99 percent of people don't even experience stereo the way we do. We have treated rooms and professional speakers. We have an augmented experience of stereo and even that is tricky and now we want to add 20 more speakers in the mix👀

[@marcusdwaynegonzalez5557]

Speakers under the stage above and all around, opera will never be the same again.

[@MayotheMaker]

I also appreciate the genuine talk about whats good and not as good. His point about mixing libe recordings in atmos sounds AWESOME

[@6coups6mouches]

The sound mixer made these lavs sound great on almost every sweetwater videos. Kudos, great job!

[@LeChapeauMusic]

Looking at all of these processors in professional studios and thinking that every single one of them costs 3000 bucks makes me cry.

[@MrBikboi]

Gotta love CLA, what an icon.

[@KevinSmith-wb4ju]

Blown away!!!! What a BEAUTY room. I'd never leave. Well... almost, ha,ha. Would learn extremely much head, heart &soul. LOVE IT. THANKS!!!!!!!

[@Behnan]

„Comin‘ to a streaming service near you“ 😂

[@mickeymiguel2726]

This man is purely a genius

[@iocomposer]

I've heard several Atmos remixes of Bohemian Rhapsody that are quite good. That track is ripe for Atmos remixes and the stems are readily available. Impressive application of the technology here though I'm not a big fan of Atmos music. I am a big fan of cinema Atmos though and it's become my standard mixing format over the past few years.

[@agesonjohanesburg2915]

Where do you get stems? Thanks

[@midlifeadventures3138]

The professional Atmos setup cost is like the professional recording studios were 20 years ago. Little studios aren’t able to replicate what his studio has now. Smart business move for CLA. It will be affordable and downscaled but for now only well known studios and mixers will get the big atmos jobs.

[@RichieCastellano]

Elliot Scheiner did a 5.1 mix of Bohemian Rhapsody and it’s incredible.

[@roderickaugust3918]

He says “console” and I am happy.

[@davidasher22]

I’ve been using the Dear Reality Monitoring system for Atmos using headphones. I tell ya, it seems to be working great! I’ve even had a few clients release their mixes on iTunes and it sounds great via binaural translation. I still wanna hear them on an actual spatial set up but I’m small time. Maybe some day!

[@jeremythornton433]

Just wondering, how popular is the Atmos system? I've experienced one in a Best Buy and it blew me away but that was 5 years ago. I have yet to meet anybody who actually has one.

[@d3vp131]

Very. Have Amphion Atmos 11.2.4 setup in studio and a Bowers n Wilkins in wall Reference 13.2.4 in home theater. Only issue has been Labels not wanting to pay extra for Atmos mix at first. Now it’s baked in.

[@theaudiorampage]

Apples new earpods have a axis sensor in them, so when you move your head around it can simulate atmos. That's why this has been getting such a big push.

[@msgdob86]

I’ve seen it with Apple (AirPods Pro work great with this), have it on my home TV and Sonos using HDMI ARC send, and my car doesn’t have Atmos but it does decode in a virtual surround format. For bass, he’s absolutely right. I prefer to have a separate mix to the sub in my car, but doesn’t come that way in the factory, so I turn surround off and listen to lossless stereo instead.. this way, I can hear the engineer’s intended sound

[@MikeTS13]

these go hand in hand with high end theaters… Chris described my system lol i use apple tv 4k for content into a atmos processor out to 11 power amps to make a 7.2.4 system. I have the same issues with bass out of the box so i’ve made tweeks from the original setup to get it better. Biggest complaint is i think the every mix house has a different speaker setup to i have to tweek levels for each movie or album to get the 3d to pop out. Once it’s balanced for a movie it’s glorious but it’s a bit strange because the objects are supposed to be independent of the speaker set up. All the movies from a single house (like Disney+) tend to work but interestingly Star wars features are slightly different. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@marctronixx]

mitch is just awesome. period!

[@BeauStephensonVoiceActor]

Man, CLA is one charming sonofagun. This was great.

[@bigjohnson7415]

Wow! All that tech and equipment, putting music together that people are listening to on a phone speaker! Sledgehammer to drive a finish nail?

[@luxerism331]

😌

[@Sam-zo2ho]

Maybe for the average joe but people who actually appreciate music will invest in a quality system to do so

[@bigjohnson7415]

@@Sam-zo2ho Just commenting how most people consume music today. Thru a phone and earbuds, not on a big expensive home rig. Kinda like people who still get vinyl. Very small percent, but it is a thing. But the other 99.99 percent don't indulge that way anymore.

[@62chuckm]

Awesome interview! Not over the top technically, so I could understand the challenges without a rabbit hole. Thanks for putting this out there.

[@dmcgilvrey]

Great interview and really cool to see yall hang out and talk shop. But wow, If this is where things are going please take SW public cause I'm buying...

[@treyhudson73]

REM "Automatic For The People" was remixed in Atmos and the difference is jaw dropping. It sounds like you're hearing them live in an intimate club. Edit: I notice a significant difference when using decent on ear headphones, but ATMOS really shines, imo, with actual "space" to work with.

[@skierpage]

How many speaker channels did you wire up? And Ihope you have 9 subwoofers for the .1 channel like Mr. Alge 😉

[@treyhudson73]

@@skierpage Haha! Nope, I just run 3 L/R (one being in ceiling) a center and sub. I don't even have ideal rear placement or acoustics, but it was jaw dropping

[@TigroGumi]

Because CLA is now doing Atmos, it’ll be amazing to see what he learns about the mixing techniques. He’s been getting a “sound” in the stereo world, but will there then be a whole to bag of magic formulas that’ll be completely different for Atmos mixing? Atmos is very theatrical, but there will be a desire over time to keep the music very forward sounding. When the gimmick of movement wears off to just what’s necessary and tasteful and what then becomes like the way we view L C R in stereo. Where it’s less about movement and now we try to hold and glue the music surrounding us now. Even when that happens, funny little intros and intervals will be quite epic. Often the start of a song has two people talking in a cafe, but now you sit right in the middle of the cafe. The aspects of creativity that can bring into production. It’s a exciting world Atmos. The only reason it’ll stay and become a thing is a Atmos file is just one file, so it can play on anything Atmos enabled. Unlike surround sound, where in 7.1, you have 8 separate tracks so can only listen to a 7.1 song with a 7.1 speaker setup… which is why it was destined to fail. It was too much to make music just for one type of speaker setup. I’m still getting my head around spatial audio performed on headphones or stereo speakers, but in a short while the algorithms for that has gone from a gimmicky bit of silliness to OMFG how the H*** are they doing this? As the programming improves for this, so does the songs created in Atmos do also. Because it’s a file of all the information not audio tracks

[@philipbenjamin4720]

Mitch Gallagher is a gentleman.

[@BlackRootsAcademyOfSoul]

I can easily live in there! Holly Molly 😳 Greetings from Uganda 🇺🇬👊🏿🖤

[@JuanHernandez-mu6og]

This is such a good video, I can't wait for the future of music production and how we listen to music :)

[@manifestgtr]

I wanna hear tears for fears’ songs from the big chair like this. You wanna about layers and density…you could spread that record all over the place…

[@giorgib]

I am making the move to Dolby Atmos. This was a very informative interview. Thank you to Chris for being a great mentor… and how many of ___ do you have 😊?

[@ItsSkyler007]

That's a huge rig!!!

[@chucknkd]

where most labels etc are missing the boat is not having the main mixer that does the most important mix (stereo) to continue and follow through to the atmos mix. otherwise its 2 diff visions from 2 diff mixers, usually one legendary doing the stereo and one that quite often is the intern in an in house studio working with stems

[@kumareshhalder4214]

I also did 5.1 Atmos recently in my home studio Rokit5 new version jbl nano k8, Fluid fx5, Presonus e44, Presonus eris, also bought Rode k2 tube mic, Art mpa 2 tube mic pre, Behringer ada 8200, and Presonus 2626 interface.....

[@mellobotstudio]

And?

[@uriel-heavensguardian8949]

Woooooweee!!!! The MAN!!!!!! Awesome video!!!!!!

[@MattyS54]

great stuff! previous surround standards never really took off but i have a set of DVD-Audio releases kicking out. Talking Heads were probably some of the more impressive mixes!

[@rockrecordreport7136]

The T. Heads album were excellent examples of how rock albums can come live in 5.1 like stereo cannot do. "Remain in Light" i simply stunning in surround.

[@DuckForPope]

Looks like a cat puked on the floor next to Mitch. Couldn't focus on anything else when the camera shot went wide 😂

[@davidmaraisthecampfireguit2596]

Gorgeous, but looks super complicated. I'll leave atmos to the pros - I'll stick with good old basic stereo. I'm sure CLA is already a whiz at it - what a legend.

[@castawaymusic144]

Great interview! Answered questions about Atmos I didn't even know I needed to ask.

[@TigroGumi]

This was something I was wondering… because I am looking to go Atmos, I’d still like to build a song in stereo. Would be nice to hear to opinions on making the movement complex or not? My thought is the exciting thought is all this movement going on… but the reality I can see being is this will be a interesting experience but not something that’ll be appreciated time and time again over time. The Atmos format also can be stereo, because those files will play on a pair of headphones or stereo speakers… how have you found making this translate to the simple devices?

[@zvotaisvfi8678]

such rad dudes

[@jason.martin]

Chris is one of the most entertaining and passionate engineers out there. Love his interviews. Atmos seems intersting but this would be the new version of quad sound or surround sound. Music wasnt really meant to be mixed that way, besides who is going to set up an atmos system in their home. I like how the live bands thing could work with it.

[@DDWyss]

I'm still waiting for the Dolby / Presonus merger which would create "Atmos-Sphere"!

[@Spidouz]

It can’t happen if you have too much space…

[@citizenworld8094]

I left Presonus after years for Protools precisely because Studio One is geared for EDM and zero video. I asked and asked, and eventually didn't even load Studio one on my new Mac. I hope you're right but I'm not holding my breath. If they can't give us a decent video track, how do you expect DA? Unless they do a Walmart version of it like Apple.

Great sharing

[@sound4label]

thanks we want more of it ! :)

[@helloworldstudios412]

Great interview! Looking forward to hearing the new technology on my favorite songs!

[@nicholaslepp1502]

My friend's grandpa gifted me a Herman-Miller Aeron chair a month or so ago (it will make sense in a second) and i've had the Audio Technica headphones for years now so today i decided to start playing/experimenting with Waves CLA NX so i'm clearly and obviously in this room smoking a joint while listening to Queen right now Lmao don't judge me.

[@ludwingdb]

Great Interview!! Thanks guys.

[@aestheticsinger]

Atmos is NOT in it's infancy.. Just wasn't designed for music production. Was designed for movie scores. Interesting that labels are asking for atmos mixes.. 95 percent of the population can't hear anything in true atmos. Music industry behind as always. Rip

[@ET2carbon]

Your 95% figure is pure guessing and whatever your source data of that is, just isn't true. Spatial audio is already in laptops, sound bars, TVs, earbuds, over the ear cupped phones, Home theater receivers, video game consoles, car audio manufacturers, etc. your figure should be more like 60% and those are good numbers. Every streaming app installed on smart TVs and smartphones are now capable of pushing spatial as it was in demand. This is the highest demand surround format we've ever seen beating our SACD 5.1 DSD of the 90's. Quad vinyl and tape from the 70s failed. We are finally here.

[@cineplus-ch]

As always, you are a Master!

[@ronmoes42]

I think the problem or rather chance should be like this, every mixer used to mixing in stereo should not look at it like facing the mix from the front, and see depth and heigh, but rather imagine being right there in the middle for atmos, and give all tracks the same reverb, but in different measurements, also imagine what the effect of other instruments/elements would do to track in the back for instance. neat stuff this surround mixing, but still most people will enjoy simple stereo music much better.

[@sandwich-breath]

That’s a big commitment for a passing fad

[@citizenworld8094]

Not true. The likes of CLA don't spend this type of money on a passing fad. All of the major mixers for music and movies have invested. They're not wasters nor fools. Anyone who's serious knows that there's no going back. Stereo is here but atmos has arrived.

[@sandwich-breath]

@@citizenworld8094 we’ve seen this dozens of times in the past, the industry trying to find ways to monetize once mass adoption of technology makes it affordable and easy to produce professional results without industry gatekeepers. It’s marketing 101, launch a new product that few have access to and charge exorbitantly for it.

[@mellobotstudio]

​@@sandwich-breath The people who defend it are people who spent all that money on speakers when they couldn't even pull off a good stereo mix.😂 You're right, Dolby is great at marketing hype. The gear became affordable, so they needed something new to separate the big studios from the little guys. Keep people spending money instead of mixing music.

[@VideoNash]

Awesome!

[@donnybristol]

Great interview!

[@AndrewMasters]

Great video

[@davidherbert9601]

God I love CLA. He is brilliant.

[@BearlyVocalRadio]

The sub/subs you should look at are the M-Force from Powersoft, speak to Dave Rat, he'll hook you up. it's on a whooooole different level. The response transients are insane. Their 30" subs are used for PA as well as cinema so it'll work well for your application. All the best from Sunny South Africa.

[@marcusdwaynegonzalez5557]

Transferring a mix to give the user a feel of being in the scene, it's 3D audio hehehe

[@taks359]

Who listen in atmos ?

[@Fastvoice]

@Brent Harmon's Music Corner A lot of consumers already have Atmos devices at home.

[@skierpage]

@@Fastvoice but how many of them are actually listening in 5.1, let alone the extra Atmos speakers?

[@Fastvoice]

@@skierpage Why wouldn't they when they already have the gear?

[@krzysieksalapa]

OMFG !!!!!!!!!

[@JonathanGalle]

Chris: "don't look at the console the wrong way who knows what'll happen" Bob Clearmountain "yeah I just moded my SSL like 15 years ago for surround so I can mix surround without having to use the computer, then I just had to make another change when I went to dolby Atmos, I'm too old for this computer stuff..."

[@phoenixmediaforge]

2 humble legends giving away thousands of dollars worth of billable time telling how its done.

[@gregrodrigueziii8075]

Really want those JBL Series 7s

[@fakinlunatik3553]

he was born chris lord (already weird) and he was so long in the studio he grew alge on his name

[@brennyC]

Have heard that an Atmos mix track convert to a Stereo track, would perform with "An expanded Stereo width" . Any true in it??

[@muazzabal1627]

What about importing midi files because most midis freezes my program. What can I do about it? I'm using soft soft Bundle Pack by

[@busywl69]

great vid. wish atmos was affordable and practical.

[@morbidmanmusic]

Built into logic. The monitoring system is the cost.m

[@joeydego2]

What’s the DOS looking computer screen over his left shoulder?

[@mellobotstudio]

That's the SSL automation.

[@golbeatspro]

Simplicity is crucial in music production, Atmos brings a lot of complexity. From a philosophical point of view, it doesn't make sense. That's how i feel about it, maybe tomorrow will feel different!!!

[@SamHocking]

Atmos isn't the best spatial system for music. There are better, but this is a format war and early days. I can see with Apple delivering Atmos as Apple Spatial, Netflix now delivering it as AMBEO 2, Tidal as Dolby Atmos there's not going to be a definitive format. If anything Atmos is more likely to be the tool to produce spatial audio rather than listen to it.

[@mcramp20]

Great video!!

[@rachidajewher8649]

i always wanna know what is the job of the screen behind chris with the green table there with a time signature and names is it connected to a custom digital recorder or what ? i saw it in manny pro studios

[@normnoel6240]

What about the mix bus? Stemming out all the subgroups bypasses the mix buss. Need an atmos ssl buss comp/ pultec atmos eq etc… lots of glue switched into the box.

[@brettgrindlay166]

CLA is a national treasure

[@citizenworld8094]

...and Fort Knox is a great mixer....

[@aarongranger]

When the only equipment in the room you recognize is the Aeron chair…

[@MS-Patriot2]

I only just browsed this, is that desk an old SSL ?

[@agoogleuser7832]

Film and theater yes. Music? Home regular surround systems cost into the thousands. The fact is most people are listening to music on cell phones, little round mono devices that are spying on you all day long, ear buds and car stereos. Ive been doing this a long time too...and I just don't think most people are listening and saying I want to hear the piano above me to the left and the acoustic guitar behind me two floors down and the singer walking around the block while the bass is straight above my head hovering in a small circle . and the drums coming below from the depths of hell while moving from left to right. I could be wrong though. The future of music? It is the second coming of quad and for music will probably die a quad death. Sure its 'Neato'! but just doesn't seem practical. I t wont make the song better. Listen to 'BARN' Neil Young lol What say you Niko? ;-)

[@leecalvinmusic]

Can I ask a stupid question- is Chris related to 80s/90s famed producer Tom Lord-Alge who produced albums for REO Speedwagon and Stevie Winwood among others?

[@brendenrodgers7821]

theyre brothers

[@leecalvinmusic]

@@brendenrodgers7821 thank you Brendan.

[@christianterreros1856]

Make more videos dude . Youre good :P

[@citizenworld8094]

I'm building an atmos rig with excellent gear and all Dynaudio speakers. However as Chris said, this is in its infancy and they need a way for folk to listen to it. However, how many people using earphones are going to change the way they listen to music? Not many in my opinion.

[@agesonjohanesburg2915]

Maybe, but tell that to vinyl, tape, cd believers that digital everything is coming....

[@raoulduke8720]

would've be cool to hear him mixing

[@AboveEmAllProduction]

what happened to his old studio mix la?

[@Jakeman90210]

If you want the most killer sub, get a clair CP118. It’s unbelievable

[@waynepayne864]

bro def practiced the namm-thrax line LMAO

[@Brutuscomedy]

I can see how this might be cool for movie theaters. But the average listener? Most are using cheap ear buds and Bluetooth speakers. Just doesn't seem important for most bands and singer-songwriters... Anyhow, it would be cool to hear one day. Nonetheless, I'd still like to record all analog at 1979 in the future and cut directly to vinyl, maybe even doing a mono mix. 😊

[@SlumdoggVII]

And I'm supposed to believe he uses any of his own plug ins in an actual mix lol Look at this board All those compressors! Guarantee he's not using the Black Lion Bluey either lol

[@citizenworld8094]

Good observation. We don't need half the plugins.

[@coffeehigh420]

Omg !!! 😳

[@pareshmota]

Super 👌

[@FLH3official]

As 80% pf people listen to music with stereo headphones or earbuds and not with 12 speakers having a convincing binaural rendering (which is not the case yet) is essential. Without that atmos will be the quadriphonic of the 3rd millenium.

[@martincaz7772]

10:55 So...(thinking) how exactly would we track specifically for ATMOS? Wish he would've commented that.

[@Fastvoice]

That's left to your creativity - the possibilities are virtually endless. 😉

[@jasonfaria2439]

he mentioned the crowd mics at the live concert. Using that Same concept with throwing up more mics to capture the room in the studio, EX. drum room mics or Gang Vocal room mics and being able to place those extra mic elements in your mix to surround your listener as if they are in the room. Lots of cool micing ideas when you keep all those speakers in mind in the tracking phase .

[@martincaz7772]

@@jasonfaria2439 Yeah, I guess he means like having a map of all the places where you can put stuff in the mix, so cool.

[@microlinscruzdasalmas4416]

working for today

[@PAULPINBALL]

Is this the new quadraphonic of our time?

[@Fastvoice]

I guess no. The consumer products already exist for a long time thanks to Atmos movies. So there's no big step to use it also for specially produced music. When quadraphonic sound was invented it was primarily meant for music, not for movies - so nobody bought it.

[@morbidmanmusic]

Nope. It's hear to stay.. and progress. Sadly.

[@rockrecordreport7136]

No, it's an extension of 5.1 mixes which have been coming out on music and film soundtracks for well over 25 years.

[@gaelfrenchy]

you need to time align the subwoofer and match the phase with your monitor , 9 subwoofer , you can set up as an arc subfoofer set up, not align all these subwoofer will end of phase cancelation at different frequency ...

[@MixandoAD]

que studio é muito top trabalhar com equipamento desse coisa de outro mundo

[@alanpassmore2574]

What is the point? Most people listen in mono or through ear buds. I respect the skill of the great engineer but in reality a beautifully crafted mono mix will give you the emotional journey. A stereo mix if listened to on a well set up hi-fi can sound 3d. I miss the old days.

[@KKMcK1]

I want one!!! I'm guessing $1M in that room.

[@JoshL1976]

Needs our subs we have at Aftermath and Record One

[@AutopsySuiteable]

Wow, no ns10’s. The end of an era.