Barcode Studio Sessions
Mixing & Mastering for Immersive Audio
Pioneering the Future of Mixing Music for Stereo and Dolby Atmos
Our mixing and mastering services are trusted by Grammy and Emmy winning artists and composers across hundreds of songs, albums, and scores. Based in the greater Atlanta area, we deliver polished, emotionally engaging mixes in stereo and immersive audio formats such as Dolby Atmos, Apple Spatial Audio, and Sony360.
Our philosophy is that mixing is a collaborative process — you shouldn’t have to blindly send your mix off and hope for the best. We take the time to work with you through online collaborative tools and in-person sessions at our studio in Athens, GA.
Whether mixing film music, classical recordings, or bands and singer-songwriters — we create mixes that ensure your music translates across every platform.
Dolby Atmos Music Mixing
Elevate the emotional impact of your music with an immersive mix that adapts to your audience’s listening environment. Whether in a theatrical release, a home theater, or even headphones, spatial audio facilitates a new level of connection with the listener.
We’ve been delivering award winning immersive audio mixes for film scores and albums for over 15 years — you can trust us to deliver a mix that will transport you directly inside the music.
Future Proof Your Music
Because of the ability to dynamically adapt to different speaker layouts, Dolby Atmos future proofs your music against changing standards. Additionally, we include hard-renders of 5.1 and 7.1 with every mix for backwards compatibility and sync delivery.
Stereo Mixing and Mastering
Our dynamic stereo mixes add depth and clarity to your music. And our precision mastering ensures your music is release-ready across all streaming platforms.
What is Mastering?
Most people talk about mastering in terms of making music louder — while that is often part of the equation, it’s not the whole story.
In addition to refining the sound, a mastering engineer adds a fresh perspective while preparing your music for distribution. They ensure your album and songs flow together with a cohesive emotional ark.
Expand Your Existing Stereo Mixes Into Atmos
Already have a stereo mix you love? Using stems, we can expand your existing mix into an immersive space. This will add more dimension and depth to your mix while preserving the character and tonal balance.
And this isn’t a cheap shortcut, it’s industry standard practice. Some of the most celebrated immersive mixes have been created this way.
What do I need for Atmos up-mixing?
We’ll need stems exported from your mix session — ideally both with and without reverb — but all EQ, compression, and other mixing effects should remain.
This gives us maximum flexibility to retain the clarity of your mix while placing it in an immersive space.
Meet Paul Parker, Grammy-Nominated Mix Engineer
With over a decade of experience mixing and mastering music, his diverse portfolio includes work on over 100 television episodes, albums, and feature films across major studios and streaming platforms.
Whether mixing a full band or an intimate classical recording, Paul’s detailed work re-enforces the artist’s creative direction, elevating the emotional depth in every mix.
Mixing Film Scores and Mastering Soundtrack Albums
Deeply familiar with the technical demands of music delivery for films, Paul ensures that every musical detail shines under dialogue and sound effects.
While mastering soundtrack albums, he preserves the emotional ark of a score while maintaining the expressive detail and dynamic impact in each cue.
Rates & Services
Mixing and Mastering Packages Tailored to Your Needs
Let us work with you to build a package that serves the size and scope of your project.
Stereo and Immersive Mixing
Starting at $300/track up to 3 minutes
Add’l $50/min above 3 min
We take your recording and mix it into a dynamic and engaging mix.
And Dolby Atmos is included by default — no additional fees. We’re committed to delivering the most emotionally engaging mix for your music across all platforms.
Audio Restoration
Starting at $50/hr
Shit happens — and sometimes re-recording just isn’t an option. Don’t let an errant cough or background noise ruin your music.
Stereo Mastering
Starting at $100/track
We fine tune the dynamics, tone, and stereo image or your mix to ensure it plays back in pristine quality across all platforms.
Stem Mastering in Stereo
Starting at $150/track
An in-between of mixing and mastering. Stems give us additional control over the balance of your mix to deliver a radio ready master that will translate across very platform.
We’re happy to take a listen to your mix and advise you on what would be best.
Atmos Upmixing
Starting at $200/track
Expand an existing stereo mix into an immersive experience using stems to add depth and dimension.
We also offer a discount on stereo mastering in combination with Atmos upmixing.
Full Album Mixing & Mastering
Starting at $3000/album up to 8 tracks, 40 min
Add’l $200/track up to 3min ea. + $50/min over
Full album packages include everything needed to release your album in both stereo and Dolby Atmos.
For detailed breakdown of cost, reach out to us for a quote.
Albums With High Track Counts
If you album has a significantly higher than normal track count (ie, film score soundtracks) reach out to get a custom quote for your project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Dolby Atmos, Immersive Audio & Apple Spatial Audio
What is Dolby Atmos?
Dolby Atmos is an immersive audio format that breaks a mix into ‘Objects’ that pan sounds in a 3 dimensional space. These Objects are dynamically placed in relation to the listeners speaker layout which allows for a universal listening experience across all systems, including headphones.
For music, the standard layout is for an Atmos mix is 7.1.4, which adds height channels traditional surround sound formats such as 5.1 and 7.1.
What genre's work best in Dolby Atmos?
All genres sound great in Atmos!
A common misconception is that immersive audio is reserved for cinematic experiences or music with large ensembles — this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Dolby Atmos adds an extra sense of depth to any genre of music, even intimate performances with only 1 or 2 instruments.
How can I listen to Dolby Atmos?
You can listen to Dolby Atmos mixes across Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music.
The most common way to listen is on headphones through a binaural experience. If the headphones have head-tracking, such as AirPods, this enhances the experience by allowing you to move around inside the 3D space.
We mix your music on a precisely calibrated 7.1.4 Focal monitor system in addition to monitoring the binaural mix on headphones. This ensures a consistent listening experience across all environments.
Do you mix for Apple Spatial Audio?
Yes. What we deliver to you will be a Dolby Atmos ADW BWF, which will playback on all supported streaming services, including Apple Spatial Audio on Apple Music.
What do you need from me for an Atmos mix?
For up-mixing existing stereo mixes, you will need to send us stems for your mixed songs, as well as your stereo masters (if your tracks have already been mastered — we can also master your stereo tracks at a discounted rate if needed.)
Ideally, if you can provide two versions of your stems — with and without reverb — this will offer us the most flexibility for positioning elements inside the Atmos mix.
If we are mixing everything from scratch, then the delivery requirements are no different than for a normal stereo mix.
Mixing & Mastering
How do I make stems for stereo mastering?
To make stems for mastering, solo groups of tracks and bounce them together. For example:
• Lead Vocals
• Backing Vocals
• Lead Guitar
• Rhythm Guitars
• Bass
• Drums
• Keyboards
All effects and reverb should be left on — when playing all stems together, it should sound exactly like your mix.
Is there a difference between stems for Dolby Atmos vs Stereo Mastering?
For Dolby Atmos you will generally need to make more stems than you would for stereo mastering.
While we only need stems with all effects included for mastering — we prefer to have stems both with and without reverb for Dolby Atmos. (This allows us to use more immersive reverbs for some tracks, while retaining your more characteristic reverb choices for others.)
In both cases, leave any EQ, compression, and creative effects on while printing stems.
How long does a mix or master take?
This largely depends on the size and scope of the project. We have spent over a decade perfecting our workflow and pride ourselves on fast turnarounds and excellent communication.
Do you offer in-person mixing sessions?
Absolutely! We offer in-person sessions and realtime, online collaboration using tools such as Audiomover’s Listento. This allows us to stream audio directly from our studio to yours.
This immensely enhances the collaborative process and is great for making final revisions.
Should I Use AI Mastering?
It’s not that an AI master won’t sound good. Honestly, it’ll probably be fine.
Probably.
Our mastering services are curated to your artistic voice and ensure that your music shines across all platforms.
You can also rest easy knowing that we will never use your music to train any AI models of any kind.
How do I book a session?
Fill out the form below to get the process started!