Webster Tileston Talks Immersive Plug-ins

Nashville, TN (July 23, 2024)―An early practitioner of immersive mixing, Webster Tileston has appreciated the evolution of software tools for spatial platforms over time.

“When Dolby Atmos was first being implemented, the integration of any plug-in for that application was a little challenging,” he says. “I revisited this later on, when I got my hands on Nugen [Audio]’s Halo Upmix, and it was nice to dive in and see how the technology has evolved. What I most appreciated was the functionality and simplicity of it. The user interface and metering functions are great. It’s easy to see how the energy is being distributed around the space and the speakers, and how you can work through all of that. Plus, the ability to go ‘under the hood’ and tweak a lot of the intricate settings is nice.”

A tracking and mix engineer, Tileston works in some of Nashville’s premiere recording studios and mixes at his own studio, Axis Audio, while also system engineering or training personnel. Fueled by his fascination with cutting-edge technology and workflows, he began working in immersive formats, which led to his work with EDM artists Diplo and Dillon Francis, country artists Maren Morris and Little Big Town, and R&B artist Emily King, among others.

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A veteran at tracking and mixing in stereo, Dolby Atmos for Apple Spatial Audio and Sony 360 Reality Audio, he often turns to a variety of Nugen Audio plug-ins, such as Halo Upmix, Paragon and Halo Vision, he says. Among Tileston’s favorite features of Halo Upmix are the vertical distribution sliders, specifically when working with stereo stems. “This comes in handy for me, especially if I’m doing an immersive mix from stems, and the stems have reverb baked into them,” he explains. “Halo Upmix has given me a very quick and easy way to push more of that ambiance and reverb out and around the room, especially into the ceiling-height speakers.”

Tileston says that Nugen’s Paragon reverb has also become one of his primary solutions. “Paragon is a great tool as well. Again, the layout of the user interface is very simple, yet still offers the ability to get technical when needed. It also has very similar metering to what is found in Halo Upmix, which is very convenient.

“I also really love the way that you can easily navigate and filter using keywords to find different presets—this is super helpful in terms of workflow efficiency,” Tileston continues. “With Paragon, I can quickly manipulate things and the mic distance feature allows me to make things more spacious in a short amount of time. I want a plug-in that makes me not have to think about those elements, so I can really focus on the creative aspects rather than the technical. That’s exactly what Paragon does for me.”