LONDON― As a Mix and Mastering Engineer and Co-founder of virtual instrument company Void & Vista, Aneek Thapar works on everything from immersive mixing projects to high-profile media productions. Over the past decade, he has built a career that ties together both technical expertise and creative design, as well as a deep involvement in the Dolby Atmos space. With Thapar’s most recent focus being immersive mixing, the NUGEN Audio Halo Upmix plug-in has become an essential part of his toolkit.
A longtime NUGEN user, Thapar became reacquainted with Halo Upmix as an immersive solution while working on the Netflix documentary “Figo,” for which he mixed the score that was composed by Rival Consoles. “The dub mixer on that project, Tristan Powell, used Halo Upmix to upmix the stereo music stems, and it sounded great,” he says. “That was a big moment for me. I remember thinking ‘If it’s good for them, it’s good for me.’ ”
In terms of his own recent projects, Thapar used Halo Upmix extensively while mixing Rival Consoles’ latest album, “Landscape from Memory,” in Dolby Atmos. “I had mixed the stereo version already, and when I began working on the Atmos mix, I needed a reliable way to upmix stereo stems in a way that preserved the integrity of the original mix,” he explains. “That’s where Halo Upmix came in. It worked just the way I wanted it to.”
While he tried other solutions in the past, Thapar found NUGEN’s interface and flexibility to have major benefits. “With Halo Upmix, you can really see what’s going on sonically. It’s visually representative, unlike other options that just feel like a bunch of sliders,” he says. “It also has features such as the exact downmix function and the ability to tweak each speaker’s volume independently, which is really handy when threading certain elements more into the center of LFE channels.”
One of the key advantages of Halo Upmix, according to Thapar, is how well it conforms to technical standards, particularly for streaming platforms like Apple Music. “You don’t want your Atmos submission to get rejected. Halo Upmix gives me peace of mind that what I’m delivering is going to meet those specs.”
Thapar also highlights the aesthetic experience of using Halo Upmix. “It looks gorgeous. When you’re staring at a screen all day, that makes a difference,” he adds. “Plus, it’s scalable and lets me set up multiple configurations depending on the track.”
From boundary-pushing electronic albums to high-impact film work, Thapar continues to shape the sound of immersive media with NUGEN Audio at his side. “The customer service has been really solid; the representatives engage with their users, and they take what they do seriously,” he says. “These tools aren’t for hobbyists; they’re for professionals solving real audio problems. I first came across NUGEN Audio’s solutions about ten years ago while working alongside Sound Editor Micha Wabro. Even then, the brand’s loudness and metering tools impressed me, but it was when I moved into the Atmos space that Halo Upmix really became a game-changer for me.”