New World Mix

Producer/engineer Richard Chycki shares the spatially motivated secrets behind his Dolby Atmos mix of Rush's sonically transitional 1982 album, Signals.

- MIKE METTLER

Rush's September 1982 album Signals is being properly feted with a new 40th anniversary Super Deluxe Edition via UMe, and it's a spatially inclined box set that contains a stunning new 24-bit/48kHz Dolby Atmos mix of the core album by longtime Rush confidante and noted producer/engineer Richard Chycki on Blu-ray. In a recent Zoom interview, Chycki and I discuss his overall Atmos mixing M.O. for Signals, the one specific request from Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson that was honored in "Subdivisions," and why "Countdown" truly lifts off into the stratosphere in Atmos. (A longer version of this interview appears in my monthly Spatial Audio File column on the S&V site.) Mike Mettler: Tell me the philosophy behind your approach to the Signals Atmos mix. Richard Chycki: The label had said to me, "We want this mix to be true to the original," so I had to honor that. Now, you can hear there are a few little adjustments that were made. For example, Al's guitars for "Subdivisions" are a little bit more prevalent in the Atmos version. On everything I've done for Rush-any of the 5.1 mixes, or anything I've done for them in Atmos-Al's always wanted to have a little more googjh to his guitars on "Subdivisions." Overall, it's very accurate, and I've tried to stay true to the original.