Squids on Mixing Mötley Crüe and The Hu for Atmos

Brooklyn, NY (November 22, 2024)―Brooklyn-based mixing and mastering engineer Nick “Squids” Squillante has had a busy year—one that included tackling the Dolby Atmos mixes for Mötley Crüe’s “Dogs of War” single and Mongolian metal band The Hu’s live performance at Glastonbury. In both cases, he had limited materials to work with, and wound up turning to one particular plug-in to work around those issues and ensure his mixes were as heavy as they needed to be.

Squillante incorporated Nugen Audio’s Halo Upmix in an Atmos mix for Mötley Crüe’s recent single, “Dogs of War.” The issue he faced with the materials provided was that he was working from stereo tracks—a position that can sometimes lead to difficulties.

“You don’t always have the option of doing exactly what you want in instances like this; it all depends on the stereo mix and how the stereo mixer printed the stems,” he explains. “Often times, you receive grouped stems―for example, the guitars may all come in one and keys in another, but you never want to waste the Atmos space. That’s where Nugen’s Halo Upmix comes in; it provides full control and allows for expansion.”

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Squillante found the plug-in also had a “surprising” effect on lead vocals: “In stereo, I love to have the dry vocal shoot out of multiple speakers at similar volumes. It provides a sense of intimacy, like it’s right inside your head. With Halo Upmix, I can basically get that same effect, while also taking the signal with the wetter effects and wrapping it around behind you.”

Halo Upmix also played a pivotal role when Squillante mixed The Hu’s Glastonbury live set for Atmos. “I was excited to make it feel as though at-home listeners were part of the live audience,” he recounted, “so I staged the majority of close-miked signals up front, shifted more reverberation in the rears and had the crowd behind and up to the side of the listener. This way, when audiences turn around with the spatial effect on, it feels like they are standing in the crowd and can hear the back of the venue as well. This was another instance where I was given a lot of stereo stems and I didn’t get to pick and choose, so of course, Halo Upmix helped me a ton in getting that effect and feel that I intended.”