🎸MIX IMMERSIVE MUSIC PRODUCTION NASHVILLE 2025

Written by Danielle Starz Garcia

We had the pleasure of visiting Nashville for the Mix Immersive Music Production Event! This was my third time attending and Jon’s fourth. We absolutely love the Nashville music community- it’s filled with passionate engineers, producers and artists and it’s a great time getting to see some friends and make some new ones each trip. For anyone who hasn’t had the opportunity to attend one of these events here is the breakdown of what it all is: 

This is an event that brings together industry professionals, top industry beloved gear, tons and tons of useful information, and great music. It gives you the opportunity to bring forth your personal knowledge and learn from so many brilliant others. You have the chance to share your own mixes and gain insight. If you ever are able to make it out to LA or Nashville, I highly recommend this event.

The best part, this event centers around our favorite thing ever- Dolby Atmos and Immersive sound. 

We started our morning off at Columbia listening to some very inspiring emerging engineers in the industry. We got to hear from Trent Woodman (UMG Tracking and Mix Engineer), Hayden Tumlin (East Iris / UMG Production Engineer), and Maddie Harmon (Independent Engineer / Mixer). The three engineers spoke to us about what inspires them, what their future goals are and how they achieved what they have already built. Hearing from these younger engineers that are making their breakthroughs in the industry keeps me hopeful and inspired!! People our age are the future of this industry and the engineers sharing their opinions and takes gives a fresh perspective. Not to mention, this panel was also hosted by the absolute legend, George Massenburg. 

Our next stop was getting to hear from another legend, Michael Romanowski. Here we got to listen to some Prince in Dolby Atmos. It was truly amazing!!! It was a 7.1.4 Neumann Audio speaker array. The music had me fully immersed in Prince’s world. This definitely did the stereo justice. The energy that these records brought and the feeling you felt in the room was like Prince was right there with us. Well done Michael Romanowski!!! 

Afterwards we made our way over to Curb Studios where we got to meet the great team from API Audio in Studio A. They were showcasing their API ASX Legacy Console alongside a pair of Augspurger Duo 15 main monitors. The room sounded beautiful and the 48 input console was ready for tracking, mixing, and finishing any records. 

We took a seat and got to enjoy a panel led by Greg Chin who is always so extremely insightful when it comes to the tech of Dolby Atmos. Many engineers discussed their studio builds and different forms of playback and the future of creation starting with Dolby Atmos. This was a very inspiring panel. 

Halfway through our day we got to enjoy a very tasty lunch - Nashville is a city of delicious food and BBQ! What an absolute treat to get to enjoy Jay Rocs Smokin Grill! It truly is some of the best pulled pork I’ve ever had in my life. This was followed by some extremely tasty donuts from parlour donuts. We were seriously so spoiled with this incredible spread. 

After lunch we were treated to something even more exciting: a panel with Ceri Thomas. This was one of my favorite panels of the day. I truly love Ceri’s passion and genuine love for Dolby Atmos and Immersive Audio. It was an empowering conversation that captivated the whole room. He recently announced his company, IMMERSV and his goals to push forward the future of this format - it is absolutely vital! 

Next we made our way to RCA Studio A for the Sweetwater panel, but before we got to check out these brand new immersive speakers, Airsound. I have truly never been so blown away by speakers. The quality was exceptional and the design was very sleek, modern and attractive. I plan to own these someday in the near future. They use 4 speakers to accomplish what 12 do. It has beautiful imaging and detail from surrounds to height. Paired with a subwoofer, these are perfect. One of my favorite aspects is the ability to change speaker orientation without having to physically move any speakers. 

The Sweetwater panel was nothing short of legendary including Jeff Braun (Anthem House), Shawn Dealey (Sweetwater Studios), Matt Soczywko (Abbey Road), and Mirek Stiles (Abbey Road). They discussed personal techniques and practices they use for their award winning works. This was yet another incredibly inspirational panel oozing with valuable information. I enjoyed hearing it. 

We next headed back to Curb Studios where we got to hear Rush in Atmos mixed by the incredible Richard Chycki. This was epic! The attention to detail and no loss of energy or feel from the original stereo whatsoever. Being in that room was indescribable. 

We ended off our time at the event by listening to some Bob Marley in the IK Multimedia Room. This immersive setup was 7.1.4 showcasing the MTM MK2 Studio Monitors with their great frequency range and detail in the immersive space. We utilize these speakers for our surrounds and heights for our studio and love them! 

Lastly, we headed to Blackbird studios to kick off the studio crawl- we were treated to a tour of the microphone room by Joey Stanca - an engineer of Blackbird studios. It was so amazing to see so many microphones ranging from brand new to vintage collectibles. It is truly a jaw dropping collection. What an honor to see it all in person. 

Overall, it was an amazing day filled with so many amazing and talented engineers, artists, producers and creatives. This event always makes me realize how talented and hardworking our industry is and it’s such an honor to be part of this incredible community. Until next time!