Neumann Monitors Deliver Immersive Audio to Peppermint Park Studios

The control room of the studios Peppermint Park of Hannover (Germany) has a system Dolby State-of-the-art Atmos, in which the studio monitors of Neumann are an essential component to achieve immersive 3D audio.

The choice of Neumann technology for the control room, with a surface of 90 m2, of the Peppermint Park Studios it was an obvious choice for its owner, Wolfgang Sick, since "it has been a trusted partner for years".

For a long time, the studies opted for the resolution of their monitors KH 420 and in the subwoofers KH 870 to perform mixing tasks. "When we went to Neumann to ask them for a new system. Dolby Atmos responded quickly and were very helpful, thus confirming that we had done well to trust them.", says Sick.

In autumn of 2021, The Scorpions, one of the most successful German rock bands worldwide, had been working at Peppermint Park Studios for over a year, where dozens of amplifiers and more than fifty guitars were installed in the 120 m2 of the Studio 1. In the beginning, they planned to perform only the rehearsal and pre-production sessions of their next album, but the band was comfortable with the studio and decided to record the whole album there..

Once the recordings are finished, the sound engineer and producer Hans-Martin Buff suggested mixing the album into Dolby Atmos Music. To be able to meet the deadlines, Peppermint Park Studios had exactly three weeks to have their control room ready to get certified..

As Sick explains, this was a crucial decision for the future. "Dolby Atmos is on everyone's lips right now.. I'm sure it's a good investment because Apple, Amazon and many others have jumped on the immersive audio bandwagon. In addition, the main record labels are already contacting us with requests related to the 3D audio".

the system 7.1.4 Peppermint Park's control room consists of seven models of the three-way near-field monitor KH 310 and a subwoofer KH 870. Four compact speakers have also been installed on the ceiling KH 120 of Neumann, brand that markets in Spain magnetron.

"Our control room is very spacious," adds Sick.- and we knew how to make the most of it when we installed the Neumann monitors, and so we can offer a very broad listening point. During mixing sessions it is no longer just the engineer in charge of the controls who can enjoy this experience, but the whole band".

New mixing levels

The possibilities go further for Peppermint Park: "in the future we will offer three different levels of immersive audio mixing: the mixture Music, in which everything sounds bigger and wider; the mixture Experience, showing the possibilities of the immersive audio system, and the mixture Explosion, that offers the maximum of three-dimensional effects", points out Sick.

When recording, Peppermint Park engineers are also very open to experimenting, for which they rely on the well-known Neumann microphones, how M50, U47 or KM54.

"We love to bring our precious Neumann out of your closet.. Now we can use them to record directly in Dolby Atmos -adds Sick-. With eight individual microphones, Hans-Martin Buff reampled some tracks with The Scorpions in our recording room to capture the imposing three-dimensional atmosphere".

For this expert, immersive audio in Dolby Atmos format is not just a trend, but a real revolution. "After listening to 3D music you don't want to go back to the stereo format.. 3D audio is going to become the new standard and stereo sound will probably seem small and simple to future generations.. With our new Dolby Atmos system equipped with Neumann, we're looking forward to shaping the future of audio.

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