USER STORY

When you put the SR1 on, you’re in this space. You get to experience sound all around you, which is magical.

Caesar Edmunds

Laidback Luke

DJ and record producer

Few artists in electronic music are as adaptable, curious and forward-looking as Laidback Luke. Since the 90s, his career spans DJing, producing, as well as mentoring, and has always treated technology as a creative partner. He has a reputation for constant reinvention, scene influence, mentoring world class  artists, and applying and developing new technologies. That same fascination with new technologies is what made him get into music production in the first place.

New technology is integral for me as a music producer. I come from a musical family, but I was never the best to play the instruments really. In the 90s, I discovered that you could make music with your computer. Suddenly all that creativity that I had in my head, I could program it.

Laidback Luke

New technology is integral for me as a music producer. I come from a musical family, but I was never the best at playing instruments really. Once I discovered that you could make music with your computer, suddenly all that creativity that I had in my head, I could program.

Caesar Edmunds

That same, always curious and innovative, mindset also defines his relationship with immersive audio. As an early adopter of immersive audio he sees the possibilities that the medium offers as landscape-changing.

We are at a pivot point where we are moving from a world that's in stereo, to a world that’s immersive. To me it really seems like the experience that people had when stereo was introduced over mono back in the day. I remember listening to the first immersive mix of my music. It sounded really great overall and I was satisfied with it. Then when I switched back to stereo, my first thought was that it sounds so flat. It’s the same as going from a black-and-white TV to a color TV and back. With immersive, you’re IN the music.

Caesar Edmunds

At the same time his experience with immersive audio reflects the biggest barrier of entry in the world of immersive: accessibility. He has already released immersive work on Apple Music, but to do so he had to export the mastered stems and send them in external studios to have them mixed in Dolby Atmos because the tools to handle the immersive mixing himself are not yet realistically within reach in his own current workflow. While the results were impressive, the workflow was slow and detached from his creative process.

How do I do this? And where do I do this? I don’t have 12 speakers in my studio. I wouldn’t even know where to put those speakers in my home studio. There are still so many hurdles in the process, but the result is definitely something that people will really enjoy. An additional problem is that at the end of the process I still need an accurate way to check the mixes that I received.

Caesar Edmunds

Laidback Luke has relied so far for that process on using conventional stereo headphones with binaural emulations, but he doesn’t get the experience he would wish for.

Moreover, being a touring DJ, Laiback Luke has finished, and even mastered, his tracks several times in hotel rooms and airplanes. Especially when on a tight deadline he often finishes tracks on the road and tests them with live audiences on the same night. He jokingly calls hotel rooms and airplanes, his second studio.

Until now, immersive production, or even mix checking in these environments is impractical. Standard stereo headphones simply don’t convey the spatial depth of immersive audio. And of course while on the road, immersive rooms are out of the question.

You don’t have the luxury of having a room inside the airplane with a twelve speaker setup.

Caesar Edmunds

And that’s where the Areal SR1 comes in.

To make immersive accessible even for established household names like Laidback Luke. 

He was one of the first people to be introduced in the SR1 technology, while it was still in the prototyping and development phase. At the time he had just signed off the immersive mix for his James Brown & Laidback Luke – I Got Soul (Super Bad) track.

When I was presented with the headphones I thought ‘I know just the right track to listen to right now!’ I was immersed in the room immediately. This is the vibe! When you put the SR1 on, you’re in this space. You get to experience sound all around you, which is magical.

Caesar Edmunds

Now with the SR1 in his audio toolkit, he is able to not only monitor and review the immersive mixes of his music that other studios mix for him in a more reliable way than binaural emulations on conventional headphones, but to also start mixing the immersive versions of his own tracks as well.

I will install the Dolby Atmos renderer and start exploring creating immersive music in Ableton. The SR1 unlocked a possibility I didn't know I had prior to it. I am very excited to work with it.

Caesar Edmunds

He found the spatial information on the SR1 to be very precise and they give him the feeling of being surrounded by the sound and really being inside the mix.

Beyond his own productions, Luke is also an educator and mentor to many other household names, including Avicii in his early steps, through DJing and production courses as well as mentorship programs. Immersive audio presents a steep learning curve for students who lack access to multi-speaker setups. The SR1  could act as an enabler for them, acting as an accessible entry point to immersive audio production.

The SR1 may excite a whole new generation of music enthusiasts to start using immersive as their go-to music format. The young and early adopters really need to dive in. It’s amazing to be on the forefront of immersive audio.

Caesar Edmunds

Seeing music legends, such as Laidback Luke, being able to access the world of immersive audio through the Areal SR1, enforces our mission of making immersive accessible to everyone and from everywhere.

For me, being in the dance music scene has always been about innovation.
The SR1 ties in really well.

Laidback Luke