Kent, UK (July 28, 2026)—Over the years, Kurt Martinez has made a name for himself as a go-to immersive mixer, having spent three years as Head Dolby Atmos Mix Engineer at the historic Dean St. Studios; tackled hits for Kylie Minogue and Central Cee; and worked on live-concert theatrical releases for Def Leppard, Duran Duran, Kaleo and Billy Idol. Now he’s moved away from commercial studios, having built his own Dolby Atmos mix room in his backyard.

Seeing the room as the center point of a short-term, two-to-five-year plan rather than a permanent change, Martinez took a DIY approach to his mix room, seeing it as a way to get back into freelance life, a choice made in light of the industry’s long, unpredictable hours and a grueling, two-hour door-to-door commute into London that became only more difficult to deal with after the birth of his daughter.

Martinez built the 2.5m x 3.5m facility in his backyard himself, though he opted to outsource electrical and internet installation. Traditional heavy soundproofing was less of a concern than internal acoustic treatment—an aspect for which he approached using a combination of naturally porous timber walls to absorb low frequencies, acoustic panels on the sides and ceiling, front-wall acoustic slat paneling and a large rear bookshelf for dispersion.

Additionally, he installed wood laminate flooring paired with thick acoustic underlay to reduce vibrations, and a pair of armchairs, a rug, and bookshelves laden with graphic novels help with absorption and dispersion as well.

Monitoring is key for Atmos mixing, and that’s where Martinez went all in, shelling out for a PMC system based around PMC6-2 left and right monitors, a PMC6 center speaker, an 8 Sub LFE and Ci30 heights and surrounds.

At the heart of his monitoring control sits the Audient ORIA, handling all room correction and routing out to his speaker array and headphones. Working in Avid Pro Tools alongside the external Dolby Atmos Renderer, Martinez sends audio to Ginger Audio‘s Ground Control SPHERE, controlled via an Elgato Stream Deck+ on his desktop. The arrangement allows him to switch between physical outputs, binaural re-renders, Apple Spatial re-renders and stereo references as needed.

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With ORIA, the physical speaker outputs and AES connectivity offered a direct, uncomplicated setup, as he runs balanced quarter-inch jacks straight out of the rear panel to the XLR inputs on his main monitors, and quarter-inch to bare wire straight to his amplifier for the heights and surrounds.

The ORIA allows Martinez to switch between speaker profiles labeled on his Stream Deck+ or directly from the front panel interface; the profiles include a flat profile running native speaker DSP, a fully calibrated Sonarworks profile, a Dolby curve profile and a dedicated stereo profile that changes how the left and right speakers behave when not interacting with the rest of the room. Also integrated into the system is an Audient iD48, used for managing the mix room’s analog outboard gear; using a DB25 cable, the iD48 connects the interface’s analog sends and returns directly into his main patchbay where his hardware lives.

“The benefit of having a proper Atmos system here means I’m able to accurately gauge object placement in a 3D space, and know exactly how those movements will fold down for consumer systems,” says Martinez. To ensure his mixes translate, he checks his work against Apple AirPods Max and a Sonos Home Theatre system.

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While he may be working in his backyard, the industry at large has taken note of his efforts, as Martinez was nominated for a 2026 Music Producers Guild Award in the Atmos Mixer of the Year category. “I was in complete shock when I saw the email land in my inbox to tell me I’d made the shortlist,” he recalls. As it turns out, the awards night became an opportunity to share the milestone with his wife, who had been slightly worried that working from his mix room would turn him into a recluse. “The highlight of the night for me was taking her along and getting to introduce her to people,” he smiles. “It was just nice for her to see that I do actually have friends!”