The spatial accuracy of the SR1 is off the charts.

Caesar Edmunds

Caesar Edmunds

Grammy-winning mixing engineer and producer

Caesar Edmunds is a London-based Grammy-winning mixing engineer and producer, with a discography that reads like a who-is-who of modern and alternative rock. His credits include PJ Harvey, Queens of the Stone Age, The Killers, St. Vincent, Beach House, Foals, Wet Leg and more.

After working for several years alongside Alan Moulder in the legendary Battery Studios, he transitioned to his own Dolby-Approved mixing studio in London. From there he has become a go-to Dolby Atmos mixer for modern rock productions that embrace the immersive audio revolution. Among his latest achievements is 2026’s Grammy nomination for delivering the Atmos mix for Wet Leg’s number-one charting album “moisturizer”.

Caesar was introduced to Areal’s technologies, and more specifically to the SR1 spatial reference headphones a few months earlier, while he was about to transition studios from his previous location to his current brand new Palatine Hill studios, which mark his return to the former Battery location.

The SR1 helped Caesar to not miss working while renovating, and moving to Palatine Hill studios, in a period where his Dolby room was not available. He was positively surprised on how close the sound of the SR1 was to that of his very nearfield, Genelec powered, previous room.

It surprised me how close it sounds to my previous room which was very nearfiled. That gave me a lot of confidence for working on the SR1 and use it as a reference. It was like returning to my familiar setup while being in a different location. The learning curve of the system was minimal, if any

Caesar Edmunds

While initially skeptical about how the SR1 will behave with the usual phantom centre issues occurring in most headphones – especially when using binaural emulations – he found the SR1 to behave differently.

I expected the usual phantom-centre issues, but I was surprised to notice that while mixing it really wasn’t a problem at all. The spatial accuracy of the SR1 is off the charts. When using binaural sometimes we may force ourselves to hear the object spatialisation based on what we see on our screens. With the SR1 I could pinpoint to the direction from which the sounds are coming from, without looking at the screen at all

Caesar Edmunds

Caesar found the SR1 very easy to use, which led to him integrating it very quickly in his day-to-day workflow.

It really didn’t require any fine tuning. After just setting it up as an audio device on my laptop, I just selected it as the playback engine inside ProTools. I could instantly work using the immersive panner and didn’t need to do any custom routing. My projects were working already when I opened them with the SR1 connected.

Caesar Edmunds

In his recent getaway trip he even brought the SR1 with him, as his main monitoring device while on the go. He found the headphone easy to listen to, while doing his regular mixing sessions of a couple of hours. The travel case made it easy for Caesar to pack and carry the headphone in his much needed escape from London, but still not miss work. The whole system was easy to use, as was loading new firmware.

Loading and testing new firmware is easy and can be done on the fly. The Areal team was also receptive to my feedback and ideas about what could be integrated in later firmware updates

Caesar Edmunds

Now that the renovations in Palatine Hill, Caesar’s new studio, are finished, he has thought of a way to incorporate the SR1 to his daily workflow beyond when travelling or being on the road. When mixing in Dolby Atmos, the listening position is critical, and there is a limited amount of people that can sit in the studio’s sweet spot.

It would be a great idea to have some sets of SR1 in the artist sofa in my control room, so that they can monitor the mixes in real-time, without having to exchange positions all the time, when doing attended mixing sessions

Caesar Edmunds

Caesar Edmunds, as an accomplished mixing engineer who lives and breathes immersive audio from the start, highlights exactly where the SR1 sits in a professional workflow.

It keeps the immersive workflow continuous when the room isn’t. In the middle of a studio move and renovation – when his trusted Dolby Atmos setup was temporarily out of reach – the SR1 gave him not only the ability to continue working, but it also felt instantly familiar and helped him make confident decisions, while bypassing the usual headphone pitfalls. And now that Palatine Hill is fully operational once again, that same benefit translates into his attended sessions.

Not everyone can sit in the sweet spot, but everyone can still monitor the mix decisions in real time. 

SR1 is not just a “travel solution” , but an extension of my control room and workflow, that allows me to make reliable creative decisions while I’m on the move

Caesar Edmunds

Areal’s SR1 makes immersive mixing more flexible, more collaborative, and less dependent on a single seat.

In three words:

Immersive

made

accessible