LOS ANGELES ― Veteran Producer, Recording Engineer and Immersive/Stereo Mixer Will Kennedy has spent more than three decades shaping records for legendary artists across genres. As immersive audio continues to influence modern music production, Kennedy is now a committed adopter of Dolby Atmos, thanks in part to NUGEN Audio’s Halo Upmix plug-in, which has become an essential tool in his workflow.
Kennedy first fell in love with recording as a student at Berklee College of Music, later building his career at Ocean Way Nashville Studios and New York City’s Right Track Recording. After a brief hiatus, he restarted his path in Los Angeles in 2005, eventually partnering with renowned producer/mixer Matt Wallace. Together they operate Studio Delux, an immersive mixing facility located at the iconic Sound City complex.
Over the past several years, Kennedy and Wallace have handled more than 400 immersive mixes, including catalog and new-release Dolby Atmos projects for artists such as the B-52s, Black Sabbath, Dio, Sarah McLachlan, Grouplove, Jade Bird and the Jacob Mann Big Band.
Despite their expertise, Kennedy notes one persistent challenge in the early days of Atmos mixing: translating the spacious effects of stereo recordings into a fully immersive environment. “Especially early on, we were given projects to mix where the Atmos versions were derived from stems,” says Kennedy. “In a lot of cases, reverbs, delays and other effects that feel expansive in stereo became two-dimensional when you played them back in immersive.”
Since many of these mixes (particularly the catalog recordings) contained iconic effects that were integral to the song’s emotional impact, recreating them from scratch wasn’t always an option. Kennedy and Wallace needed a way to keep the character and authenticity of the original material intact, while still adapting it meaningfully to the Atmos format. That’s where NUGEN’s Halo Upmix entered the workflow.
“Halo Upmix became our go-to tool for all our upmixing projects,” Kennedy explains. “Our ethos is ‘first do no harm.’ Meaning, even if we can’t replicate the stereo mix exactly, because it’s a different format, we want to preserve the sonic cues people recognize. NUGEN Audio’s Halo Upmix lets us take those effects and spread them around the room without losing what makes them special.”
Kennedy says his goal with Halo Upmix is simple: maintain the intent and expand the space. “Honestly, the only thing I want it to do is take it exactly as it sounds and spread it around the room,” he says. “I load it up, use the preset I created and try not to veer too far from that. The moment you start straying, the technical stuff gets complicated, especially when translating between speakers and headphones.”
Halo Upmix now plays a role in many of Kennedy’s high-profile immersive projects, including Sarah McLachlan’s latest album, “Better Broken,” which was released in September. “Tony Berg and Will McClellan mixed the stereo versions right across the parking lot from us,” Kennedy notes. “They were great about printing individual effects for us, sometimes splitting out multiple delays and reverbs. If they had an effect that was very intrinsic to the song, we didn’t want to recreate it from scratch. We’d use Halo Upmix to spread the reverbs into the immersive field while keeping certain delays as point sources. It let us take the environment they built for stereo and translate it into immersive.”
Beyond the plug-in itself, Kennedy emphasizes that NUGEN’s responsiveness makes the company stand out. “In the immersive space, it can be difficult to find companies that are responsive to the specific needs of music mixing,” he says. “Music is still more of a niche compared to post-production, but NUGEN has always been willing to have conversations about features that could fill a specific need for us. Everyone is always incredibly responsive.”
Kennedy credits his colleague, Mastering Engineer Jett Galindo, with first introducing him to NUGEN Audio and notes that his ongoing dialogue with Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe from NUGEN has proven especially beneficial. “Freddy and I have spoken a lot about Halo Upmix—what could be improved, what could be added,” Kennedy adds. “He’s always been open to feedback, and he’s introduced me to others at the company whenever I’ve had specific questions.”
Today, Kennedy continues to work across genres and generations, crafting immersive mixes that preserve the essence of the original project while leveraging the creative opportunities of Dolby Atmos. While he and Wallace still mix in stereo, immersive audio remains the core of their workload and NUGEN Audio Halo Upmix remains a trusted part of their toolkit.