Synth Engineer and Musician Opens Immersive Track/Mix Studio

Montreal, Quebec—Composer, synth expert and modular synthesis educator Chris Meyer has unveiled his purpose-built 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos studio, which is subdivided into two distinct spaces.

The new 670-square-foot personal studio, with expansive windows and storage, took over a year to plan and build in Meyer’s Pueblo-style home in New Mexico and was designed for Atmos. The 7.1.4 mixing area features Focal Solo6 monitors for LCR, Alpha 65 Evo speakers for the surrounds and height channels and a Focal Sub6 subwoofer. The rehearsal and tracking area utilizes a quadraphonic arrangement of Alpha 80 Evo monitors, mirroring his preferred live performance setup. 

Meyer’s mastering engineer, who was using Focal Solo6 speakers, suggested that he try them out. “I was hearing details I had never heard in my music before. I was instantly sold that there is indeed a difference when you go upscale in speakers,” Meyer says. 

“What I love about the Focal monitors is that they’re neutral. They don’t have any falsely hyped bass. They don’t have any harsh highs in the name of being bright. They’re just a neutral, truthful monitor that I can trust. I hear details in the Solo6s I’ve never heard from other speakers. And that really helps me when I’m programming new sounds from scratch on synthesizers to make sure that I’m getting the blend of harmonic content that I really want.”

The immersive monitor systems are controlled with an Audient ORIA that allows Meyer’s Sonarworks SoundID studio calibration software tables to be downloaded directly into the controller unit.

Meyer grew up wanting to play music but instead became an engineer and entered the music industry, helping design and build iconic synthesizers at Sequential Circuits. He took over from the company’s founder, Dave Smith, in developing the MIDI specification, and invented Vector Synthesis. Today he records and performs original synth music as Chris Meyer’s Alias Zone and has released three albums. He is now working on an Atmos immersive release in his new studio. 

Immersive music is the future Meyer feels, especially for synthesizers, “I’m definitely thinking about the spatial mix when I’m working on music, partially because I found that working in spatial audio adds a lot of clarity to the mix… Separating the sound out among multiple speakers—or multiple points in space—just helps add a clarity to multi-layered music that you can’t get out of stereo.”