Trained by the late Bruce Swedien and inspired by his early adoption of stereo mixing, LA-based immersive specialist AlexProMix founder Alex Solano saw a window of opportunity as an independent mixer working with Dolby Atmos. Calling on his industry experience, network of contacts and some research, he has designed and built a new immersive studio for his professional mixing and educational work.

‘When I made the decision to go from stereo to Atmos, I realised that none of my stereo equipment was compatible,’ he explains. ‘I completely gutted my old studio and started from scratch – even my computer was replaced.

‘When I started with Dolby in late 2021 it was just being adopted by the music industry. With the help of my colleagues from Avid and Dolby, I decided to pick a digital audio workstation, and then selected the additional equipment from there.’

For his DAW, Solano chose Avid Pro Tools, with the Avid MTRX Studio acting as his audio interface. ‘The thing about the MTRX Studio is that it has built-in EQ and time alignment so, when it came time to align and tune my loudspeakers, the feature was already built into my interface,’ he says.

Solano also had a Dolby engineer visit and tune his studio to ensure and verify that it was accurate before he started working in and completing any Dolby Atmos projects. Also, from Avid, Solano chose the S1 Control Surface and S1 Dock. With three total units, 16 faders and the control, Solano can isolate specific speaker channels to dissect the spatial audio mixes he previews from Apple Music.

To meet Dolby’s SPL requirements, Solano equipped his studio with Bowers & Wilkins monitors, including the B&W 801 Series 1 Tower speakers for left, centre and right channels, as well as six B&W 865 S2 speakers, which are placed in pairs of two on the sides, in the rears and in the overheads. Solano additionally relies on LEA Professional Connect 704D and 168D amplifiers, chosen for their support of Dante. With the ability to support Dante, Solano was able to create three networks for his studio: one for Dante, one for his Avid workstation and another for user interface control of the amplifiers and his Eventide H9000.

Also in the studio are two Genelec 7070A subwoofers that provide bass management and as an LFE send. ‘Bass management with Dolby is really important,’ he says. ‘You need to be able to pan an instrument above you and not lose any low end. It’s not practical to have full-range speakers over you, so you need that bass management.’

Additional gear includes immersive audio plug-ins from Nugen Audio and Sound Particles.

Solano’s studio acts as a base for both his professional and educational work – he is a certified mixer with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, and AlexProMix has quickly become a go-to Atmos mixing company for various record labels, including Atlantic Records, Photo Finish, Conq Music and MAD Solutions.

When Solano is not mixing, he is filming and educating aspiring audio professionals. From online mixing and mastering webinars to courses and masterclasses, he aims to share his passion for audio technology and inspire up-and-coming self-taught producers and mixers.

More: www.alexpromix.com