209 - David Bowie in Dolby Atmos - Reimagining the Classics

“The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” is the first David Bowie studio album to be released in Dolby Atmos® and joining us today is Ken Scott, the original co-producer of the album (and many others from Bowie), as well as Dolby Atmos mix engineer, Emre Ramazanoglu.

Ken Scott is a legend in the world of music production and engineering, and he takes our guest host, Ben Givarz, inside the studio with David Bowie to explore the production of the original album and discusses how he wanted to create a new experience for listeners in Dolby Atmos, which also led him to the creation of brand new stereo mixes.

This interview is part of our new series, "Reimagining the Classics."

“If you're going to ask people to listen to a record in a different format, you need to give it to them totally in that format, not just take the stereo and just put things in different places. It should be something different so that they become interested in it again. And I think it worked, because Woody, [Bowie’s] drummer, he heard some of it — and his first words were, ‘I felt as if I was there with the band.’ He felt as if he was on stage, because it surrounded him so much. Which is exactly what we were aiming for.”

—Ken Scott, Record Producer and Mix Engineer

You can listen to these and many other classic and contemporary albums in Dolby Atmos, on enabled streaming services.

You can purchase the album, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,” here:

https://davidbowie.com/

https://rhino.com/

Many thanks to Mike Exeter for the B-roll of Ken and Emre in the mixing studio. The full video can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/LVcagYbrd6o

Interested in creating content in Dolby Atmos? Check out our free resources to give you a jump start!

- Dolby Atmos Music Accelerator: https://www.dolby.com/institute/music-accelerator/

- Dolby Atmos Essentials Course: https://learning.dolby.com/

- Dolby Atmos Music Support: https://professional.dolby.com/music/Professional-resources/

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You can also check out the video for this episode on our YouTube channel.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.