Today is a day we have been eagerly anticipating for over a year - the announcement of WaveLab 13! Countless development hours have gone into a unique product version that makes it possible for the first time ever to create a Dolby Atmos Mastering workflow. WaveLab 13 brings unique and never-before-seen tools to make mastering ADMs as easy and efficient as possible.
To introduce WaveLab 13 Dolby Atmos workflows, 5-time Grammy winner and Immersive Sound specialist Michael Romanowski will give a live presentation of his workflow on all 3 days of the 2026 NAMM Show in the immersive sound room of our launch-partner GENELEC.
The presentations will happen:
NAMM SHOW
Thursday 22nd - Saturday 24th
2.00pm PST (local time Los Angeles)
GENELEC booth#15500| ACC North
Make sure to stop by when you plan to come to the show!
In addition to the comprehensive Dolby Atmos implementation, WaveLab 13 features more than 30 new features and workflow accelerators, among them a MAJOR update for the popular MasterRig mastering suite.
The official release date for WaveLab 13 will be announced soon.
Could somebody please write a short paragraph for a person who is baffled by the Atmos thing, describing why I should be interested in that? Or will it always be a really niche thing?
I’m just trying to decide if I need to be investing time in learning about this.
If your clients are asking you for ATMOS, it might be time to learn about it.
If you’re busy enough working in stereo, I wouldn’t stress out over learning it.
If you want to be busier and have more work, offering ATMOS can be a way to generate more work but there are no guarantees. Plus, there is a lot to learn, and things to invest in beyond the software to be able to work in ATMOS accurately.
Thank you. This helps me prioritize. There is 10X more to learn than my brain can handle, so I have to choose my battles.
But just so I am clear, Dolby Atmos is used to create more immersive (360 degree) sound, using more than the traditional left and right stereo speakers, correct? Is it fair to say that if one expects to be working entirely in the stereo realm, there is nothing in the Atmos technology that applies to stereo? That is to say, there is nothing in Dolby Atmos that will make my stereo products sound better?
Just as an idea: if you also use Cubase Pro (I think from version 13 onward), you can already use Dolby Atmos there, as it’s integrated. I’m not an expert in this area, but I’ve used it once, and if I remember correctly, you can also use it for stereo. I tested it with headphones and found it fantastic. It really adds more space—you feel like you’re right in the middle of it. I should definitely spend more time with it again when I have the chance. Maybe someone who’s an expert in this area can add more details.
It is generally accepted that the minimum speaker layout for a Dolby Atmos music studio is 7.1.4, i.e. 7 ear-level speakers, 1 LFE channel and 4 overhead speakers. It goes up from there to 9.1.4 or 9.1.6 configurations.
There are a couple of guys that apparently somehow do that in headphones.
360 may refer to the Sony 360 format which is different to ATMOS. I think from memory it requires two additional speakers on top of the 7.1.4 setup. But that’s on;y from memeory.
What I am hoping for in WL 13 is something like the Dobly ATMOS Assembler but with enhancements.
The cost of setting up a “real” Atmos studio is very expensive in terms of hardware. I have seen estimates as high as $50,000 +. Not something to start on unless you have clients that are demanding it and are willing to pay for it. FWIW
So curious about the Atmos-possibilities of WL13, and I hope it’s handling more immersive formats than just Atmos.
I’m writing a book about Immersive Music Production right now (to be published in March). The book start with the creation of immersive music. The future of it is only bright when artists and producers start thinking in 360° (just like it went with stereo long time ago). And even present it live this way too.
Although I’m a (stereo) mastering engineer myself, I focus on a home studio environment and independent artists. Setting up an immersive project studio cost money of course, but it’s possible with around 7000 euro. Not mastering grade, but decent enough for creation and production.
For mastering Dolby Atmos, for the moment there is only the recent update of Fiedler Audio Mastering Console (Dolby’s own Assembler was a nice try but too limited). Curious how WL13 will handle this!
Well, I’m pretty happy with a home studio environment, and use WL for around 25 years. Long time fan!
For Immersive music good binaural audio (with good headphones, binaural renderer and headtracker) is also part of the story. And having a decent (but not that expensive) speaker system can do the job for me. My last two albums are made this way (fully produced, mixed and mastering in Atmos in my home studio), as an example.
Anyway, this is why I’m writing this book: opening the possibilities for immersive music.
And WL can be a huge help in this! Just can’t wait…
we’re going to release a Michael Romanowski Masterclass workflow video around NAMM or shortly after. (Live broadcasts of such events usually don’t work so well.)
@michael-Coast’s ATMOS presentation was great, and there will be two more this week at 2pm Friday and Saturday if you’re attending NAMM.
While I am not currently working in ATMOS and know very little about the technology behind it when it comes to working with it in a DAW, I was impressed with what I saw and I think those who are currently mastering in ATMOS using a number of software tools to get the job done will be pleased to have much of the process migrated to WaveLab which will save a lot of time and steps. It seems to be elegantly done and this is only the initial version. I’m sure there is room to grow and adapt.
And while I have no immediate plans to start working in ATMOS, the WaveLab integration makes it more enticing to potentially start experimenting in headphones if/when time permits which so far in 5+ years of ATMOS for music hasn’t happened for me.
