The Visions of Sound Award will be presented for the first time this year. The best immersive mixes of 2023 are to be honored.
The creative sound masters and sound engineers are honored in various categories from all releases that have appeared as regular Blu-ray. Blu-rays that were only released in limited, high-priced box sets are not included. We want to promote the release of immersive mixes on Blu-ray Disc at affordable prices.
The criteria for the evaluation are various aspects such as the spatial design of the mix, the creativity or the musical realization.
WINNER:
Trondheim Symphony Orchestra – Henning Sommerro: BORDERS
Mixing Engineer: Morten Lindberg (Lindberg Lyd)
The jury says: A great room with the most precise transparency in the location of the instrumentation, fantastic overall sound. Morten captures the space of the action with radiant natural spatiality.
Nominees:
Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Daníel Bjarnason – Atmospheriques
Mixing Engineer: Daniel Shores (Sono Luminus)
Baroque Ensemble of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra – The Trondheim Concertos
Mixing Engineer: Morten Lindberg (Lindberg Lyd)
Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko – Shostakovich’s Symphonies 8–10
Mixing Engineer: Wolfgang Schiefermair (Teldex Studios)
WINNER:
Olga Riazantceva-Schwarz – Jean–Paul Liardet: The Piano Sonatas
Mixing Engineer: Kseniya Kawko (msm studios)
The jury says: Kseniya has created a wonderful presence of the piano in this mixture with expressive naturalness that adds an extra dimension to the compositions.
Nominees:
Benedek Horváth – J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations THE FOURTH VOICE
Mixing Engineer: Kseniya Kawko (msm studios), Marcel Babazadeh
Jui-Sheng Li – Recollection: R. Schumann, A. Scriabin, K. Rathaus
Mixing Engineer: Kseniya Kawko (msm studios)
WINNER:
Cantus, Tove Ramlo-Ystad – Yggdrasil
Mixing Engineer: Morten Lindberg (Lindberg Lyd)
The jury says: Once again a great sound experience, most precise presentation of polyphony, transparency and fantastic overall sound.
Nominees:
Constellation Men’s Ensemble – Man Up / Man Down
Mixing Engineer: Daniel Shores (Sono Luminus)
WINNER:
Martin Kälberer – Raum
Mixing Engineer: Stefan Bock, David Merkl (msm studios)
The jury says: An architectural masterpiece in the capturing of a concert. Great spatial representation, with impressive presentation of the instruments and a rounded overall sound. Despite the large room, the mix offers wonderful transparency and gives the listener an immersive overall experience.
Nominees:
Ursula Reicher & The Globular Cluster – Welcome to Dark Matter
Mixing Engineer: Stefan Bock, David Merkl (msm studios)
WINNER:
Rodriguez Jr. – Feathers & Bones
Mixing Engineer: Eric Horstmann (Immersive Lab)
The jury says: Eric has created with great creativity and dynamics, with excellent transparency, an imaginative use of space and takes the listener into a sound cocoon.
Nominees:
Schiller – Illuminate
Mixing Engineer: Harald Gericke (PMP)
Silent Work – Sonic Leaks
Mixing Engineer: Lasse Nipkow, Olaf Strassen (Silent Work)
WINNER:
Steven Wilson – The Harmony Codex
Mixing Engineer: Steven Wilson (Steven Wilson Studio)
The jury says: As a sound architect, Steven creates a space that makes you curious about what is yet to come. With great creativity, he never loses his backbone and delivers an imaginative sound design with the best dynamics and wonderful transparency of the objects.
Nominees:
Jethro Tull – RökFlöte
Mixing Engineer: Bruce Soord (Soord Studios)
Franco Mussida – The Planet Of Music
Mixing Engineer: Lorenzo Cazzaniga (Alari Park Studios)
WINNER:
Prince & The New Power Generation – Diamonds and Pearls
Mixing Engineer: Chris James (Chris James Studio)
The jury says: A mix that creates a matching spatiality to the dignity of this music. This immersive mix adds value to the historical stereo version. With his creative mixing approach and the great dynamics with wonderful transparency, Chris provides the listener with a new sound for the album masterpiece.
Nominees:
XTC – The Big Express
Mixing Engineer: Steven Wilson (Steven Wilson Studio)
Richard Wright – Wet Dream
Mixing Engineer: Steven Wilson (Steven Wilson Studio)
Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon (50th Anniversary)
Mixing Engineer: James Guthrie (Das Boot)
WINNER:
Porcupine Tree – Closure/Continuation.Live.Amsterdam 07/11/22
Mixing Engineer: Steven Wilson (Steven Wilson Studio)
The jury says: This live concert transports the listener into the concert hall. In the middle of it, instead of in front of it, the acoustic experience is brought into the living room. The music retains its dynamics and the presence of the instruments creates a natural stage setting.
Nominees:
The Who – With Orchestra Live At Wembley 2019
Mixing Engineer: Richard Witthaker (starboard audio)
The Rolling Stones – GRRR LIVE!
Mixing Engineer: Declan Gaffney (Dean Street)
WINNER:
Peter Gabriel – I/O
Mixing Engineer: Hans-Martin Buff (Real World Studios)
The jury says: Hans-Martin creates an imaginative space that constantly adapts to the individual songs without losing a natural overall sound image. It creates a great transparency, with a firm rhythmic framework and strong dynamics. He allows us to immerse ourselves in Gabriel’s sound cosmos. Vocals and instruments merge with great precision into a total work of art.
Nominees:
The Rolling Stones – Hackney Diamonds
Mixing Engineer: Giles Martin (Abbey Road Studios)
Blur – The Ballad Of Darren
Mixing Engineer: David Wrench
WINNER:
Rodriguez Jr. – Feathers & Bones
Mixing Engineer: Eric Horstmann (Immersive Lab)
Nominees:
Schiller – Illuminate
Mixing Engineer: Harald Gericke (PMP)
Silent Work – Sonic Leaks
Mixing Engineer: Lasse Nipkow, Olaf Strassen (Silent Work)
Peter Gabriel – I/O
Mixing Engineer: Hans-Martin Buff (Real World Studios)
Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon (50th Anniversary)
Mixing Engineer: James Guthrie (Das Boot)
WINNER:
Steven Wilson
The jury says: In addition to his various creative mixes that always serve the music and its unfolding in the room, Steven is a tireless promoter of the format. Not only for his own productions under his own name or his band Porcupine Tree, but also for his mixes for other artists and labels such as the also nominated XTC from the 80s or Richard Wright’s Wet Dreams. Steven’s fingers also played on the console for ABC, The Who, Ultravox, Van Morrisson, Jethro Tull, Tears For Fears, Chic and many others. For this work and your efforts to establish the possibilities of the immersive format in the most diverse genres of popular music, you also receive this award!
Ralf Kemper
Owner of Riverside Studios Cologne
As a Grammy winner, producer and engineer, Ralf runs Riverside Studios Cologne. The presentation of music on the newly created “immersive stage” accompanies his work in the realization of corresponding musical concepts. It is important to him that added value is created for the consumer in the experience of these mixes.
Fritz Fey
Founder and editor-in-chief of Studio Magazin
Fritz is the editor of the professional journal Studio Magazin.
In addition to his other activities as a sound engineer and operator of a mastering studio, he has been involved in the creation of many production masters. He also focuses on studio design as a specialist planner for building and room acoustics.
Sam Donalies
Freelance Audio Engineer
Sam is a sound engineer at Riverside Studios Cologne. He specializes in immersive mixes. In the last three years, Sam has mixed more than 450 titles released in Dolby Atmos format.
Christoph Diekmann
Visions of Sound Founder
Trained as a classical guitarist, Christoph has experienced all areas of music marketing from label to publishing and artist management and today focuses on the marketing of immersive mixes on Blu-ray Disc. As an executive producer, he has also been involved in the creation of numerous mixes.
Our newsletter regularly informs you about current screening dates, music releases in Dolby Atmos and AURO 3-D, as well as the latest developments around immersive audio.