People are blown away by the sound in the room, but better yet, they’re blown away by how the sound is in other rooms, even using other speaker systems, because the heart of what your mix is, was done correctly.”
Marti D. HumphreyCEO and Chief Re-Recording Mixer,
The Dub Stage
The Dub Stage in Burbank, CA, recently relocated and took the opportunity to fully outfit the facility with a Meyer Sound loudspeaker system. Marti D. Humphrey, CEO and Chief Re-Recording Mixer, invited various mixers and producers to The Dub Stage to audition the system. Humphrey said, “Everybody was absolutely blown away by the quality and the dynamics of the system.”
The system comprises 25 Meyer Sound cinema loudspeaker products, driven by two Galileo processors, and delivers the dynamic sound stage for which The Dub Stage is known. The loudspeakers consist of three Acheron Designer loudspeakers for left, center, and right. Six X‑400C compact cinema subwoofers are for LFE, and LCR extended low frequencies are complemented with USW‑210P compact narrow subwoofers for additional bass management. For the top and side surround channels, Humphrey chose fourteen ULTRA‑X23 compact wide coverage loudspeakers. Two MPS-488HP IntelligentDC power supplies provide power for the ULTRA‑X23 loudspeakers. Meyer Sound’s Program Manager, Cinema & Residential, Jay Wyatt assisted in the alignment of the system, which Humphrey appreciated, “I value the support that I have received from Meyer Sound, because the relationships that can develop in this industry are extremely important.”
At their new facility, The Dub Stage provides the ability for playback in a majority of popular configurations. The Dub Stage and its staff provide multichannel, customized, immersive sound formats for cinema and streaming in 5.1, 7.1, and Dolby Atmos Home Theater.
The new room is 24-feet long, and 19-feet wide, with a vaulted ceiling. Humphrey said, “While I’m in a smaller room than I used to be in, we’ve done a bunch of mixes for screenings for producers and audiences, and the response has always been, ‘Wow, this sounds amazing.’ So, what I want to stress is if your room is built correctly, and tuned right, Meyer Sound speakers will translate to anything, and we’ve found that to be the case. People are blown away by the sound in the room, but better yet, they’re blown away by how the sound is in other rooms, even using other speaker systems, because the heart of what your mix is, was done correctly.”
Humphrey notes that even when he’s in the studio for extended periods of time, he doesn’t experience fatigue, “When you’re sitting in a room for 10, 12, 14 hours the thing I noticed is that they are non-fatiguing speakers, they don’t need to be at ‘11’ all the time. The beauty of it is that even when pushed with level, you don’t get distortion, you don’t get any of that other kind of stuff.” Humphrey continues, “When I got into the new room, I loved the intimacy of it, I loved the fact that it was closer and that I could really hear everything. We built a terrific room that really is a pleasure to work in.”
Even though Humphrey built his studio to use now, he’s also got his eyes, and ears, on the future, “For me, I think the future is streaming, and the beauty of the room that we have is that it can do both. It can give you a high quality, home theater experience that also translates to the theater.”
Humphrey is also appreciative of the interest and support he’s received from the cinema sound community, “My peers have been very, very impressed by the quality and how good the room sounds. Greg Watkins, my partner in the build out of this studio did an incredible job on the full design of the stage.”