Fattoria Musica and Masterlab go DOLBY Atmos

In recent weeks, two studios that we have been overseeing for many years have completed extensive studio upgrades to Dolby Atmos: Masterlab in Berlin and Fattoria Musica in the Osnabrück area.

Benno Glüsenkamp has been running Fattoria since 2002 and has successfully established the studio complex as one of the prime destinations for productions in the realms of jazz, pop, classical, hip-hop, big bands, songwriting, and beyond. With two control rooms and six recording spaces spread over more than 1000m², ample lounge and accommodation facilities, and a picturesque rural setting, Fattoria Musica is booked for studio recordings by renowned national and international artists.

Acoustic measurement 2003 I Fattoria Musica

Fattoria Musica goes Dolby Atmos

This is how Benno describes his studio upgrade:

“After over 20 years of intensive work with more than 1000 productions, we decided at the end of 2022 to completely restructure our main control room in Studio A and equip it with a Dolby Atmos system in line with our motto ‘A place by musicians for musicians.’ For us, this decision was solely driven by artistic reasons, as we always prioritize and focus our infrastructure in all its facets on musicians and their creativity!

Dolby Atmos offers unprecedented possibilities for creative work. We aimed to design a space where creative action is possible already during the recording.

To achieve this goal, we had to undergo a complete restructuring of Control Room A. This meant specifically that we reset the room to its raw state and built it anew from scratch based on the plans by mbkustik”.

The collaboration with Markus Bertram and his team once again proved to be a stroke of luck! Professional, always available for the smallest question, genuinely interested, and empathetic: That’s mbakustik for me. Markus and I have been working closely together for 20 years, and through him, I felt confirmed in the initial discussions last year to really tackle the renovation and upgrade to Dolby Atmos.

Benno Glüsenkamp I Owner Fattoria Musica

CAD draft top view I Fattoria Musica

Acoustically immersive audio productions

An acoustically immersive audio production imposes high demands on the control room right from the recording stage. Unlike ‘in-the-box’ productions, immersive information is captured during recording and not solely determined later during mixing. To make technical and creative decisions during recording, a high-quality and standardized listening environment is essential.

For this reason, we subjected the large Control Room A at Fattoria Musica to an acoustic redesign, conforming to the Dolby Atmos 9.2.4 standard. The control room benefits from its size (floor area 63m2, ceiling height 4.10m, volume 231m3), allowing for significant speaker spacing, thus providing a correct immersive experience in a relatively large area around the sweet spot.

The planning and, above all, the practical on-site implementation were significantly guided by the sound engineer, Stephan van Wylick. Together, we have created a space that far exceeds my expectations. Everything for the music! Always.

Benno Glüsenkamp I Owner Fattoria Musica

Frequency response 20-200Hz before Dolby Atmos calibration I Fattoria Musica

Reverberation time before Dolby Atmos calibration I Fattoria Musica

The acoustic planning tools used for this project

• Modal Analysis
  • On-site measurement and determination of room modes (room resonances) using measurement techniques.
• Reverberation time measurement
  • On-site measurement and determination of reverberation time using measurement techniques.
• Boundary Elements Methode (BEM)
  • Creation of an acoustic room model, calibration of the model using modal analysis, determination of an appropriate bass trap setup
• Acoustic Design
  • Designing the optimal listening geometry (listening position and speaker positions) as well as the absorber setup.

At this point I would like to thank you all again for the great work on the new room and system! Our “work” has received a consistently positive and mostly exuberant response. Mission accomplished!

Benno Glüsenkamp I Owner Fattoria Musica

After all these years, a true passion project and a great challenge to build such an uncompromising Atmos studio. We have created one of the best Atmos rooms I’ve had the pleasure to experience.

Markus Bertram I Owner and Managing Director mbakustik GmbH

Masterlab Masteringstudio goes DOLBY Atmos, too

The emerging trend towards increasing demand for immersive music productions naturally presents new challenges for the established mastering studios in the industry. Consequently, Andreas Balaskas of Masterlab Mastering Studio has taken the step to install Neumann KH150, KH80, and KH750 speakers in addition to the established stereo main monitors Dutch & Dutch 8C. With this, the renowned mastering studio in Berlin now offers Mixing & Mastering in Dolby Atmos 7.1.4. These productions can be heard, for example, at the German Hi-Fi Days 2023 in Darmstadt and at Studioszene 2023.

Masterlab Mastering-Studio I Dolby Atmos

I have always admired Andreas for mastering both technical and creative challenges. He has consistently been at the forefront of technology, so the move to Dolby Atmos is a logical next step.

Markus Bertram I Owner and Managing Director mbakustik GmbH

Masterlab Mastering-Studio I Dolby Atmos