STEVEN WILSON

A MASTER OF IMMERSIVE MUSIC TALKS ABOUT HIS MUSIC AND THE CRAFT.

- MIKE METTLER

STEVEN WILSON LOVES CHANGING THE MINDS OF SPATIAL AUDIO SKEPTICS. HE'S THE GO-TO DOLBY ATMOS AND 5.1 MIXMASTER FOR MANY HERITAGE ARTISTS, NEW-WAVE BANDS, AND ALTERNATIVE ACTS. BEST KNOWN FOR LEADING THE POST-PROG COLLECTIVE PORCUPINE TREE, RELEASING A SCORE OF GENRE-STRETCHING SOLO ALBUMS, AND SERVING AS A KEY CREATIVE CONTRIBUTOR TO SUCH EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS AS NO-MAN AND BLACKFIELD, WILSON'S APPROACH IS SIMPLE: BRING THEM INTO HIS STUDIO AND LET THE MUSIC DO THE TALKING.

"My biggest thrill is sitting the artist down in the magic chair that's in the sweet spot, and then I play them their own music that's now suddenly opened out into spatial, three-dimensional audio-and I just watch their jaws hit the floor. It's the best! It's the best feeling in the world," Wilson acknowledges. "And I've had it happen many times. I've had it with Andy Partridge, Robert, Martin, Roland, and more recently Mat, from Suede." That's King Crimson's Robert Fripp, ABC's Martin Fry, Tears for Fears's Roland Orzabal, and Suede's Mat Osman. Partridge, of course, is from XTC.

Besides handling a litany of other artists' immersive-audio catalog upgrades, Wilson also concocts far-reaching Atmos mixes for his own original material. He recently completed one for his seventh studio solo album, The Harmony Codex (Virgin Music Group), released in September 2023. The Atmos mixing was done on the 7.1.4 system in Wilson's home studio, located just outside London. There, he uses a Logic Pro DAW with Logic native and Universal Audio plug-ins, Dolby Atmos Music Panner bridging, the Dolby Atmos Renderer, and two Universal Audio Apollo interfaces, monitoring his mixes-inprogress on Genelec 8020 speakers.