What is Flow?
Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios will collaborate with Dr Ruth Farrar from Bath Spa University to research immersive music production workflows. ‘Flow’ will develop and trial new immersive audio workflows to overcome current industry challenges of moving between stereo and immersive formats. It will explore equipment set-ups for studio and reproduction environments to evolve new ways of creating a scalable immersive music experience for audiences. Central to ‘Flow’ will be a Creator-in-Residence, Adrian Utley from the band Portishead, who will create novel immersive audio compositions. These captivating compositions will be shared with public audiences and industry experts at three listening events, culminating in a final production and performance at WOMAD25 Festival.
Flow’s outputs will build on Real World Studios’ world-renowned capabilities, facilities and current platforms and improve on the state-of-the-art by enabling seamless production of truly immersive audio recordings instead of re-purposing stereo-based productions. This will unlock new creative opportunities for artists, producers, music festivals, venues and record companies regionally, nationally and internationally to push their creativity and technology to new limits.
Understanding how to create a scalable immersive music experience for venues investing in immersive audio playback systems also opens up new revenue streams for venues and RWS’ immersive music production. Successful commercialisation will create and safeguard hundreds of creative sector jobs in the West of England and thousands in the UK music industry and wider supply chain. Outputs will also support the development of training in immersive music production and playback delivery in the West of England.
An insight into Real World Studios
Real World’s versatile recording and mixing and post-production studios are some of the best sounding and most acclaimed in the world. They house an array of the finest audio equipment ever made, operated by a dedicated team of recording, mixing and mastering engineers. Embraced in its breath-taking natural environment, Real World inspires creativity. It’s been the source of many landmark albums by musicians from all over the globe, and is also home to world music festival WOMAD and Real World Records.
More about the collaboration
Katie May, Project Leader and Head Engineer Real World Studios, says: “‘Flow’ has the potential to completely change the industry’s approach to immersive music production and opens up a wealth of opportunities to develop new recording, mixing and performance techniques dedicated to the immersive listening experience.”
Bath Spa University’s Dr Ruth Farrar, Lead Academic on ‘Flow’ and Founder of the Immersive Audio Network, says: “We’re excited to explore new creative and technical frontiers of immersive music production and playback delivery with our ‘Flow’ project, helping position the West of England as a centre of excellence for immersive audio innovation.”