A studio for immersive listening experience
The immersive experience of listening to the songs of local artists in different modes — from stereo mix to Waxiefied stereo master to Dolby Atmos — was recently exhibited to guests at the opening of Waxiefied Sound Production last weekend.
The first and only official Dolby Atmos home entertainment certified studio in the country, Waxiefied Sound Production opened its doors to service local clients. There are more than 500 studios worldwide that are able to do Dolby Atmos.
“There are three to four studios locally carrying Dolby Atmos,” said Waxie Joaquin, founder of Waxiefied Sound Production and executive mastering engineer. “They do it through headsets or through visual stock knowledge.
“So, when they are done mixing and mastering, they go to another country or send to another and have that certified. Then, they go through quality control. Why go to another country when we’re here already?”
Waxie and his business partners — Jigs Hermano, Vito Syquia and Peter Hager — went to great lengths to get the certification from Dolby Atmos.
“I downloaded the specifications and qualifications of the Dolby suite and handed it over to Jigs,” Waxie said. “We had to study the acoustics. So, we put our brains togethers, our skills, techniques, know-how, knowledge and wisdom. We achieved it.
“Not just the room, but the equipment. We had to find the right monitors, not just because they sound good but they will last long. They are a workhorse. We found the right speakers for that.”
Waxie got the list of equipment to use for the Dolby Atmos studio. “Types of cable, down to the plus of the cables were specified,” he granted. “They were really strict. It’s their name. But we got all the equipment. It took us a while. The equipment took five to six months to arrive.
“From a factory in Japan that burned, we had to shop from different places around the world. We couldn’t just get them directly from Dolby. We found stuff in Australia, Switzerland, in the UK — all within COVID restrictions.
“We found temporary equipment or something for loan. They were bringing everything here. They wanted us to be Dolby certified. They knew when Dolby was coming over to Manila to tune the room, certify us and commission it. All the equipment that arrived were Dolby certified.”
To construct Waxiefied Sound Production in Pasig turned out to be very tedious with all the measurements. “We discussed the plan, pushed numbers,” Waxie granted. “Nineteen days later, we were breaking walls. Forty-seven days later, we were done.
“It was very difficult to put all the equipment together. But because of our dream to become the first Dolby Atmos studio, many supported us just so we would get certified.”
“Atmos is like a comfortable sole that’s in your shoe. Your shoe doesn’t change, but the experience does. That’s exactly what we’re doing. We would like you to be able to experience music to its optimum and possible way. What changes is not the music, but the experience, without even having to invest in expensive equipment.”
Waxie took up music in college at the University of the Philippines. “I saw it as an avenue for marketing,” he said about his college course. “Along with sales and music, that’s the same thing for me to change behavior.”
At nine years old, Waxie made jingles already. “For my first jingle, I got P2,200 and I bought G.I. Joes. That was already big (money) at that time,” he insisted.
He used to have a band, too. Jack versus the Crab, an individual versus crab mentality, a 12-piece to 15-piece band.
His father, Sonny Joaquin, built the first production house in the country. The eldest brother of his mom was actor Jose Mari Gonzalez, who built Cinema Audio. Gonzalez was also an actor and was with a band, Electromaniacs.
“He was my mentor also,” Waxie said of his uncle. “Then, I got involved with audio engineering, recording, mixing and to make my sound better. I started learning from veteran engineers — Nonoy David, Dodie Lucas, Mike Pedero. That was my environment and they became my mentors, too.
“Those top engineers trained and taught me. That brought me to where we are today. I took several international classes for engineering, recording, mixing and mastering. We wanted to build the studio and be the first to elevate our music for the love of Filipino music.”
Five tracks in James Reid’s US album, Lovescene, were remastered by Waxiefied Sound Production. There are 10 tracks and the studio was asked to do five. Dolby Atmos Singapore did the other five.
At the recent opening of Waxiefied Sound Production were celebrities, music industry veterans and artists who graced the event — Alden Richards, director Perci Intalan, Iwi Laurel, Nicole Asencio, New Game Plus’ Jazz Dufourt, Kindred’s Dan Gil and Tala Gil, Flip Music’s Jellica Mateo, Marga Jayy, X1 Digital’s founder Cedrid Hornedo, Wila Baliw’s Ian Tayao and Mike Pedero.
Main highlight of the opening was the immersive experience of listening to the songs of James, New Game Plus, Nicole, Dan and Marga.
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