On the 24th of April, we joined Immersive Sound Day at PXL in Hasselt, Belgium, an initiative curated by Steven Maes of PXL that brought together artists, educators, and technologists working at the edge of spatial audio. The day opened up space for honest conversations around the state of immersive sound, the tools we use, and where things might go from here. It felt like a grounded exchange between people who genuinely care about how sound is made and experienced. The takeaways:
Beyond Stereo
One of the more resonant takeaways was how immersive sound isn’t some futuristic leap, it’s actually a return to how we normally hear. As we like to call it: the natural way to listen. We listen in 360° all the time. In contrast, stereo (our default mode) can be tiring. It asks our brain to fill in spatial blanks, especially when what we hear doesn’t match what we see. Immersive formats remove that friction. They feel softer, more directional, and fluid. One thing is clear: when you go immersive, you don’t want to go back to stereo.
Production
In the studio, immersive mixing has its own logic. You’re no longer forcing elements to sit side-by-side in a flat plane. There’s space (literal and creative) for sounds to breathe. That said, there’s a different challenge: playback environments. You don’t know if the listener’s on earbuds, a soundbar, a VR headset, or a full Atmos setup. Your mix has to hold up across all of them. This makes testing and restraint essential. And for listeners, this is diffecult to understand compared to a normal stereo mix because that can be played on any kind of system without issue.
Listeners
One thing that came up often was the general disconnect between listeners and the tech they already own. Most people have devices that support spatial playback, but they don’t know how to activate it / or what to expect. Also, they don’t understand the different audio formats involved and the difference with a stereo mix. Raising awareness doesn’t mean overhyping. It means helping people discover what they can already access, and being honest about what immersive really feels, or better say, hears like.
Think in 3D
For producers, and artists alike the mindset shift needs to happen at the start and not at the end of a track. Immersive isn’t an afterthought. It can be a canvas that opens up once you begin imagining sound as something that lives in space, not just time. Exactly this is why we natively compose in spatial audio.
Immersive ≠ Everything
The term “immersive” gets thrown around a lot. But it’s not a catch-all. And it doesn’t always mean spatial. Sometimes it means absorbing, emotional, physical. At PXL, the conversations were nuanced and acknowledged that immersive can be high-tech or deeply human, or both. Setting the right expectations and especially with audiences unfamiliar with the term is key.
For us, it’s clear. We need more days like this.
Big thanks to everyone, especially the Squadra Imersiva, who made this day what it was.
hashtagImmersiveAudio hashtagSpatialSound hashtagPXL hashtagSoundDesign hashtagAudioInnovation hashtagListeningDifferently hashtag3DAudio hashtagDolbyAtmos hashtagCreativeTechnology hashtagMusicProduction
In the image, the closing panel that brought many of these takeaways together:
Ralf Zuleeg Jan Pauly Lars Tirsbæk Paul Geluso Gioia Brems
