Keywords Studios
Atmos Mix Room & ADR Studio
Burbank, CA
World-Class Audio Services
Starting as pioneers in adapting the earliest video games for multiple geographic locations, Keywords Studios has been delivering outstanding audio assets for more than two decades. Today, Keywords provides audio services for film, TV, and some of the biggest titles in gaming, with notable works including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Dark Souls III.
With 70+ studios operational across 24 countries in Europe, Asia, Australia, North and South America, Keywords Studios provides clients with the highest levels of expertise from around the globe.
Among these studios is Keywords Studios LA, which offers full-service audio post production and content localization from their campus in Burbank. These audio development services include ADR & Voiceover Recording, Sound Design & Implementation, and Audio Mixing, just to name a few.
Upgrading To Dolby Atmos
With VR and Immersive video game experiences gaining in popularity, and major media studios requiring immersive formats as a standard deliverable, Keywords Studios LA decided to take the leap and enter the world of Immersive Audio, which required one of their studios to be outfitted with a brand-new Dolby Atmos system.
Westlake Pro’s Design Services Group had worked with Keywords Studios LA before, having designed and integrated a retrofit to their existing ADR room to support 5.1 surround mixing. With that project serving as a testament to Westlake Pro’s expertise and quality of work, Keywords Studios called upon Stephen Bannister and the Design Services Group once again to install and integrate a new ADR studio with a Dolby Atmos setup.
The Design Services Group got right to work on designing a new room that would be outfitted with everything that the Keywords LA team needed to start recording and mixing in Immersive formats.
Building The Studio
Our team of design experts generated a Dolby Atmos layout to inform precise speaker placement recommendations, and created detailed equipment layouts for the new machine room rack and control room rack. From there, custom racks and cabling for analog and digital audio, data, sync, and video reference were built to the exact specifications of their machine room.
Keywords’ new control room was outfitted with a 7.1.4 Dolby Home Entertainment Atmos system with fold-down and array setups for 2.0, 5.1, 5.1-Array, and 7.1 surround, allowing audio to be mixed in almost all major formats for video games and film. Additionally, Dolby Atmos Production Suite and Dolby Audio Bridge was installed and configured for a single-CPU ‘in-the-box’ Atmos workflow.
The room was also integrated with an array of outboard gear, and a producer’s desk with an integrated pair of Avid S1 Control Surfaces alongside an Avid Dock. On the other side of the glass, an acoustically treated live recording room was set up for talent to record voice-overs.
Installed Gear
- 7.1.4 Immersive Monitoring
- 13 Genelec Monitors
- Avid S1 Control Surfaces
- Avid Pro Tools | Dock
- Argosy Eclipse Desk
- Argosy Eclipse Rack
- AVPro Edge MX Net Video Integration
- Avid Pro Tools MTRX Studio
- Avid Pro Tools HDX Card
- DAD-MOM Monitor Operating Module
- Focusrite ISA428 MK2 Mic Preamp
- Audio Technica ATND971a Condenser Microphone
- Sony MDR-7506 Headphones
- Mac Studio M1 Max
- Pro Tools Ultimate
- Dolby Atmos Renderer
- VoiceQ
