Dolby Atmos Mixing Services
Dolby Atmos mixing services in a certified studio. Not a bedroom setup with a spatial plugin. A purpose-built 7.1.4 room that Dolby’s own engineers helped design, with 11 ADAM Audio S3H monitors and a Genelec 7370A sub.
I’m Todd Hooge. I’ve been mixing records since 2005, and my work has generated over 454 million streams and 2.6 billion video views across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. In 2021 I went all-in on immersive audio and built the first fully equipped Dolby Atmos mixing room on Vancouver Island. Since then I’ve mixed Atmos for artists like Marianas Trench, elijah woods, Dani & Lizzy, and JAXXEE.
Why book Dolby Atmos mixing services
Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music all stream in Dolby Atmos now, and Apple actively promotes spatial audio releases. It’s in phones, soundbars, headphones, and cars. If your catalog only exists in stereo, you’re leaving playlist placements and better royalty treatment on the table.
But here’s what most people miss. A great Atmos mix isn’t a stereo mix run through an upmixer. It’s a new mix, built from your stems, where every instrument gets its own place in a three-dimensional space. Vocals that sit right in front of you. Reverbs that actually breathe overhead. Done right, it’s the best your song has ever sounded.
Done wrong, it’s a gimmick. That’s why the room matters.
Coming from the Apple side of the world? Same Dolby Atmos mixing service, different name: here’s our Spatial Audio page.
Ready to hear your music in three dimensions?
Send the project details below. A real quote from the engineer who’ll mix your record, in your inbox within 24 hours, usually same day.
What every Atmos mix includes
- Delivery-ready ADM BWF master, accepted by every major streaming platform
- Binaural headphone render, so you can approve the mix exactly as Apple Music and Amazon listeners will hear it
- Stereo fold-down checked against your original stereo mix, so nothing gets lost in translation
- Loudness and technical QC to Dolby and platform specs, done in a certified 7.1.4 room, not on plugins alone
- Revisions until it’s right
What happens after you book
Most people have never commissioned an Atmos mix before, so here’s the whole thing start to finish.
You send your session. I check it the same day and tell you if anything’s missing before the clock starts, which saves the back and forth that usually eats the first week. I mix in the room over the next few days and send you a binaural reference you can play on any headphones. You listen, you send notes, I revise. When you sign off, I render the deliverables and you get everything you need to release, including the stereo version.
Most single songs take three to five working days from a clean session. Albums run longer and we’ll agree the schedule before starting. If you’re on a distributor deadline, tell me the date up front and I’ll tell you honestly whether it’s doable rather than finding out halfway.
If you’re not sure what to send, the guide on preparing your stems for a Dolby Atmos mix covers it in detail.
What each of those files is actually for
Four files land in your folder, and it’s worth knowing which one does what.
The ADM BWF is the master. It’s the file your distributor needs and the only one carrying the spatial information, a single file that every playback system reads differently. That’s the whole point of the format, and there’s a full breakdown in ADM BWF Explained.
The stereo master ships alongside it because most listening still happens in stereo and every platform falls back to it. The binaural render is your reference copy, useful on the move and for sending to bandmates who don’t have a 7.1.4 room handy. It’s a check rather than something you release.
The fourth file is a loudness-matched mp3 of the stereo version, so you can A/B the two fairly. Without matching levels first, the Atmos mix will always sound quieter and you’ll draw the wrong conclusion from it. That gap is explained in Why Does My Atmos Mix Sound Quiet.
Beds, objects, and why it isn't just surround sound
Stereo gives you two channels and a pan pot between them. Atmos gives you two different tools.
The bed is a fixed 7.1.2 layer. Things you want anchored go there: the kick, the bass, the main vocal, anything that should sit still while the rest of the mix moves around it.
Objects are the other half. An object isn’t assigned to a speaker at all. It’s assigned to a position in the room, and the playback system works out which speakers should produce it. A guitar can sit behind and slightly above the listener’s left shoulder, and it’ll land there whether someone’s in a cinema or wearing AirPods on a bus.
That distinction is why an Atmos mix isn’t a surround mix with extra speakers. In a surround mix you’re deciding which speaker gets the sound. In Atmos you’re deciding where the sound lives, and the room figures out the rest. It’s also why the old approach of paying for separate 5.1, 7.1 and stereo mixes doesn’t apply. One master covers all of it.
The room
Dolby Laboratories helped spec this build, right down to the monitor selection. The system runs Pro Tools HDX with a full 128 objects, so nothing about your mix gets compromised to fit the format.
What that means for you: what I hear in this room is what your listeners get on Apple Music, in their AirPods, and in their car. Every mix ships with binaural and stereo re-renders checked against the real playback targets, not guessed at.
What certification actually means
Anyone can install a plugin and put the word Atmos on a website. Certification means Dolby has verified the room itself: speaker positions, calibration, acoustic treatment and the monitoring chain, all measured against a standard rather than described in marketing copy.
That matters because Atmos decisions are spatial, and you can’t make spatial decisions in a room that’s lying to you about space. If the height layer isn’t calibrated properly, everything you place up there will be wrong for everyone else, and you won’t find out until it ships.
Work mixed here has passed 454 million streams and 2.6 billion video views, with credits including Marianas Trench, elijah woods, Dani & Lizzy and JAXXEE. A feature film dubbed in this room screened at Cannes in May 2026.
You don't need to be on Vancouver Island
Most artists who book Dolby Atmos mixing services here never set foot in the studio. Using Source-Nexus, you can attend your mix session live from anywhere in the world and hear the actual studio feed in real time, including binaural. You give notes, I make moves, you hear them instantly. It works from a laptop and a pair of headphones.
Prefer to be here in person? Even better. The studio sits on five forested acres near Victoria, BC, and there’s nothing quite like hearing your song in the room for the first time.
Film, TV, and games
Music is the heart of this studio, but the room handles Atmos post just as well. Independent features, documentaries, and games get mixed near-field in 7.1.4, with ADR and audio post-production available in-house. Producers who’ve priced out Los Angeles stages tend to be pleasantly surprised by what a certified room on Vancouver Island quotes for the same deliverables. Send runtime, deliverable list, and timeline, and you’ll have a number within 24 hours.
How your mix behaves on each system
One file, many outcomes, and knowing them changes the decisions I make while mixing.
On a full 7.1.4 system it plays as mixed, which is what you’ll hear in the room here. Smaller speaker setups like 5.1 or a soundbar are different. The renderer folds the objects down automatically and holds the placement as close as the hardware allows. On headphones, listeners get a binaural render, and on AirPods with head tracking the image stays put when they turn their head. On anything with no Atmos support at all, they get your stereo master.
The practical consequence is that a mix which only works in the full room isn’t finished. I check every mix on the 7.1.4 system. I check it again on headphones through Apple Music’s own processing, which is not the same as Dolby’s binaural render. And I check it on cheap earbuds, because that’s where a lot of your audience actually lives.
Getting it onto Apple Music and Tidal
Apple Music and Tidal both stream Dolby Atmos, and Amazon Music supports it too. You don’t need a special distributor deal. DistroKid, CD Baby, AvidPlay and most of the others accept an ADM BWF alongside your stereo file.
What trips people up is QC. Apple rejects more Atmos masters for loudness than for anything else. The target is -18 LUFS integrated with a -1 dBTP true peak ceiling at 48 kHz, and a file that misses those comes back. Every master I deliver is checked against those numbers before it leaves, so you’re not finding out from a rejection email two days before release. The specifics are in Apple Music Spatial Audio Requirements.
There’s a commercial reason to bother beyond sounding good. Atmos tracks carry their own badge and their own playlist placement on Apple Music, and there are far fewer of them than stereo tracks. The competition for those slots is thinner.
Stereo mixing too
Every project still needs a great stereo mix, and that’s been my bread and butter for twenty years. Book stereo on its own, or pair it with Atmos and I’ll mix both from the same session so the two versions translate as one release. That matters more than people think, since streaming platforms switch between your stereo and Atmos files on the fly. When the mix is approved, Dolby Atmos mastering happens in the same room. And if you haven’t tracked yet, you can record here too.
Pricing
Every project is different, so I quote per project instead of posting a menu. Send me your track and tell me what you’re after, and you’ll get a real number back, usually same day. If you’d rather see the going rates first, I wrote up what a Dolby Atmos mix costs, with real published numbers from around the industry.
Frequently asked questions
What do you need from me to start an Atmos mix?
Your stems (individual tracks or grouped stems, dry or with your effects printed) and a reference of your released stereo version. WAV, 24-bit, all files starting from the same point. I’ll send a short prep guide when you book.
Can you make an Atmos mix from my finished stereo master?
I can, but I won’t pretend it’s the same thing. An upmix from stereo is a compromise. If your stems exist, use them. If they’re truly gone, get in touch and we’ll talk about what’s realistic.
How do I release music in Dolby Atmos?
You’ll get an ADM BWF master file, which distributors like DistroKid and most label pipelines accept alongside your stereo master. I’ll walk you through the delivery specs for your distributor.
How long does an Atmos mix take?
Typically two to four days per song depending on complexity and revisions, and I’ll confirm the timeline before we start.
Do I get revisions?
Yes. Revisions are part of the process, not an upsell. We go until it’s right.
Can I attend remotely and actually trust what I'm hearing?
Yes. Source-Nexus streams the studio output in real time, including a binaural fold-down that mirrors what Apple Music listeners hear on headphones. It runs in your browser with nothing to install, and it comes from Source Elements, the company behind Source-Connect, which studios everywhere rely on for remote sessions.
How much does a Dolby Atmos mix cost?
Every project is different, so I quote per project rather than posting a rate card. Tell me your track count (or runtime, for film and games) and you’ll have a detailed quote in your inbox within 24 hours, usually same day. No obligation, and the quote comes from the engineer who’ll actually mix your record. For industry ballparks, singles to feature films, see my straight answer on Atmos mix pricing.