RSR509 - Justin Gray - Composing and Mixing for Immersive Atmos, and Sony 360

Recording Studio Rockstars

Lij Shaw

Music

4.8 • 543 Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2025

⏱️ 119 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Get ready to rock the world of immersive audio with award-winning producer and mixing engineer Justin Gray! In this episode, we explore his journey from bassist to pioneer in Dolby Atmos and Sony 360, uncovering spatial sound's creative and technical magic. Justin shares his innovative recording techniques, the importance of capturing music in 3D space, and the evolving role of musicians in the process. We also discuss the challenges of funding music in Canada, how to get started with Atmos in a home studio, and the power of remote collaboration. Plus, Justin drops some golden advice for aspiring producers on embracing their creative identity. Don't miss this one, Rockstars!

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My guest today is Justin Gray, an award-winning producer, mixing, and mastering engineer based in Toronto, Canada. Justin is a leader in immersive audio music production, working with artists, producers, and labels worldwide to bring their music to life in Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio.

He has worked across a wide range of musical styles with artists like Snoop Dogg, Olivia Rodrigo, Brandy, Carlos Santana, Arkells, The Sheepdogs, Valley, Mother Mother, Jann Arden, Blackbear, Christina Perri, Orville Peck, and many more.

Justin runs his own studio, Justin Gray Sound & Immersive Mastering, one of the first Dolby Atmos and Sony 360RA-certified music studios in Canada. He's also a faculty member at Humber College, where he teaches audio production, composition, and music performance.

Thank you to Matt Boudreau for the introduction!

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Listen to this guest's discography on Apple Podcasts: https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/justin-gray-dolby-atmos-mixes/pl.u-kv9lRk5TW6eJev

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of Recording Studio Rockstars is brought to you by Isotope, Native Instruments,
0:06.5	Adam Audio, and S-A-E Institute, Nashville.
0:10.4	You're hearing my voice right now mixed through Isotope, R-X, Ozone, and Neutron on atom-audio monitors and headphones.
0:19.7	Please check out our awesome sponsors using the links in the show
0:23.1	notes below and like and subscribe to our YouTube channel and leave us a comment. It's a great way
0:28.7	for you to help support this show. Now get ready to rock. All the musicians would come in and rather
0:33.5	than us needing to be like, oh, this is going to be so cool later on, we know what it's like to be in the studio
0:38.3	with good musicians.
0:39.2	We're creative people.
0:40.6	These are, you know, the whole joy of being in the studio,
0:43.0	especially when you're making sort of jazz
0:44.5	or world-adjacent music that involves improv.
0:47.2	It's like the music doesn't really exist
0:49.0	until the people play it.
0:50.2	And when you get people at this level,
0:53.1	they can react so fast. It's instantaneous and their ability to react to it.
0:58.0	And then more importantly, to play into it to immediately be like, this would be awesome.
1:03.0	And I'm just sitting there being like, oh my gosh. And this happened day upon day upon day.
1:08.0	And that's how records are made, right? Like the records are not just a producer, Boston people around telling what to do. That's not the vibe. It's about getting good people in the room and sort of letting it happen, letting it flow. And the ability for people to hear it in real time, I don't think it could have happened any other way. I don't think it could have happened any other way. I'm Welcome to Recording Studio Rockstars.
1:37.4	I'm Lid Shaw and this is the podcast created to help you become a rock star of the recording studio.
1:48.7	Dreaming of a career in audio or the entertainment business?
1:52.7	SAE Institute, Nashville, in the heart of Music Row, offers hands-on programs where you'll learn
	...

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