Swindle Trusts PMC To Mix His Latest Album In Dolby Atmos
After hearing an immersive audio demo at PMC Studio London, this acclaimed artist and producer was so impressed that he entrusted his mix to PMC’s Atmos expert Maurice Patist.
With Dolby Atmos demo facilities already operational in Los Angeles, New York and London – and with a formidable amount of knowledge and expertise in mixing Dolby Atmos Music projects – UK loudspeaker manufacturer PMC is playing a key role in helping artists and producers explore the creative possibilities of this exciting immersive audio format.
The company has always been at the forefront of new technology and has championed Dolby Atmos for music for more than five years. As well as building Atmos monitoring systems for top studios such as Capitol in Los Angeles and Dean Street Studio in London, PMC has also played a key part in the creative process – mainly thanks to the efforts of Maurice Patist, President of PMC USA and head of Pro Global, who has worked on many critically acclaimed Atmos mixes including the biggest selling jazz album of all time, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue.
Promoting the Atmos format to artists who might not otherwise have considered it is all part of PMC’s forward-looking remit, and the latest person to benefit from the company’s undoubted expertise is London-based grime, dubstep and garage artist and producer Cameron Palmer, better known to his fans as Swindle. His current album The New World has now been released in stereo and Atmos after he was inspired to experiment with the format by Patist and the PMC team.
This exciting project came about when Heff Moraes, PMC’s UK Business Development Manager, invited Swindle to PMC Studio London for a Dolby Atmos Music demo.
“Here at PMC we have long admired Swindle’s ground-breaking work and we wanted to give him the chance to hear what could be achieved with Dolby Atmos,” Moraes explains. “Since Apple’s announcement that it is embracing Spatial Audio, and in particular Dolby Atmos, we’ve been actively encouraging artists and producers to come to the PMC Studio and experience the format for themselves.”
Swindle was suitably impressed by what he heard. “It was incredible,” he says. “The experience convinced me that Atmos was a creative avenue I wanted to explore for my new album. Maurice offered to help with the Atmos mix and given his experience with the format, I was very happy to partner with him because I knew I would be in safe hands.”
Patist says: “It was an honour to mix Swindle’s new album,” Patist says. “He creates exceptionally rich and intricate soundscapes that truly reflect his life-long love of music. When he came to PMC Studio London and played us the stereo mix of The New World, we were blown away by its depth, its multi-dimensional feel and its fusion of many different genres including jazz, soul and hip hop. As soon as we heard it, we knew it would be ideal for this immersive format.”
Written in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, The New World was recorded in just two weeks at Real World Studios in the UK. The album, which explores themes such as love, grief, fatherhood, life and race in Britain, brought together an incredible community of artists including Ghetts, Greentea Peng, Joy Crookes, Akala, Knucks, Maverick Sabre and Joel Culpepper.
For the Atmos mix, Swindle transferred the stereo stems to Los Angeles so that Patist could mix them at PMC’s Atmos facility in Highlands Park. During the mix, renowned engineer Nick Rives visited Patist and was so captivated by what he heard that he also contributed to the project. The final mixes were presented to Swindle at PMC Studio London when Patist came to the UK for the launch of PMC’s new near and midfield monitor range.
“I was completely overwhelmed by what I heard,” Swindle says. “Hearing my own work mixed in this format and played back through high quality PMC speakers was mind blowing. I absolutely love the Atmos mix Maurice and Nick have created and can’t wait for my fans to hear it.”
The artists who feature on the album, along with record company executives and 15 specially invited Swindle fans, were given an early preview of the Atmos mix at a playback event held on October 25th at PMC Studio London. Maurice Patist took part via a live video link from Los Angeles and was able to describe in detail how he approached the project.
The New World is released today (October 29 2021) via BMG.
About PMC
PMC is a UK-based, world-leading manufacturer of loudspeaker systems, the tools of choice in all ultra-critical professional monitoring applications, and also for the discerning audiophile at home, where they provide a transparent window into the recording artist’s original intentions. PMC products use the best available materials and design principles, including the company’s proprietary Advanced Transmission Line (ATL™) bass-loading technology, cutting-edge amplification and advanced DSP techniques to create loudspeakers that present sound and music exactly as it was when first created, with the highest possible resolution, and without coloration or distortion. For more information on our clients and products, see www.pmc-speakers.com.