Atomic Production embraces immersive sound with Genelec monitors

Los monitores activos inteligentes 8340A y 8330A Smart Active Monitors y los subwoofers activos inteligentes 7370A y 7360A Smart Active Subwoofers de Genelec dan vida al nuevo conjunto de mezclas Dolby Atmos al estudio californiano Atomic Productions.

Ya sean anuncios para los San Francisco 49ers, DocuSign, Hewlett Packard Enterprise o Comcast SportsNet, producciones desde vídeo corporativo a cine indie, o campañas para Fiji Water y Mountain Mike’s Pizza, Atomic Productions ha formado parte de la matriz mediática de Bay Area desde 1990, cuando su fundador y productor ejecutivo Danny Angotti opened the doors to what would become a seven-suite production facility in Emeryville, California.

In that time, they have won four Emmy Awards and have remained at the technological forefront of the industry. Recently, they have launched a new audio room equipped for production in Dolby Atmos. The new mixing room contains a complete array of Genelec monitoring, designed and installed by ALT Systems, based in Burbank, which comprises a matriz L-C-R of three 8340A smart active monitors, four 8330A smart active monitors used as left and right side surround and rear surround, and others four 8330A as overheads.

Genelec's 7370A and 7360A smart active subwoofers more than cover the low end of this surround system. ALT Systems trusted the software GLM calibration patented by Genelec to guarantee the exact and perfect placement of each component in the assembly.

“For years we outsourced most of our sound production, but when we made the decision to insource most of it to become a more full-service company, we wanted it to be state-of-the-art, so we went with Dolby Atmos,” explains Angotti.

Plan the room

“We were recommended the Genelec 8340 and 8330 monitors as those that would best maximize the impact of this new room.” He adds that Genelec also offered important design advice that helped considerably when planning the room. “Atomic Productions already had several pairs of Genelec 6010A compact studio monitors on site, used for audio monitoring for their video production and editing services, so the move to the larger 8340 and 8330 monitors was a natural fit,” he says.

And the team has been hard at work in this new mixing room, generating stereo and surround mixes for projects including an advertisement for the Visa broadcast and the opening montage for an upcoming documentary about the Vallecitos Nuclear Center.

Johnny Small, sound designer and motion graphics editor at Atomic Productions (and lead room audio engineer), says the difference Genelec monitoring makes is immediately audible: “You can hear things you've never heard before, especially in the bass, because the 7370 and 7360 subwoofers have a lot of definition and power,” he says. “When you go from a tabletop listening environment to this, it's really night and day.”

Small says the Genelecs have been especially useful for the facility's frequent work with voiceover tracks. Since the start of the pandemic, the sound quality of certain dubbing materials has become increasingly inconsistent, as more of that type of work has been done in home studios and spaces not intended for high-end recording work. "Many of those types of environments are not acoustically treated, so you can hear anomalies like reflections that weren't heard before. That gives us the opportunity to treat and address them, which increases the overall audio quality of a project. The new Genelec monitors make a difference in many important ways."

Angotti concludes by adding, "Plus, we have the opportunity to crank things up like a movie theater, which is great for having a little fun with the customers. When you put Top Gun: Maverick on Atmos, those subwoofers blow the doors off the room, and the customers love it!"