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In the fall of 2021 Film i Dalarna reached out to Dalarna University with a request of a collaboration between themselves, Dalarna University and Älvdalens Kommun. Älvdalens is a part of Dalarna where a very particular dialect is spoken. Many of the people that speaks the dialect argue that is should be considered a language of its own. These days, Älvdalska is mainly spoken by older generations living in the area and not as much by young adults or children so therefore various projects have been launched to preserve the dialect of Älvdalska for future generations. Part of one such project would be to translate and dub the animated movie “Pelle Svanslös (2020)” from Swedish to Älvdalska. The project was a collaboration with several agents, such as SF Studios, Älvdalens Kommun, Älvdalens kommunala musikskola, Wilum og Bellum, Film i Dalarna and Dalarna University.

The bachelor programme Sound- and Musicproduction at Dalarna University includes a ten weeklong project course by the end of year two. In this course the students are placed in various project groups, based on their diverse fields of interest, where they work on a project for a client. Sometimes the client is an external partner, sometimes it’s a teacher. In the course the students study various methods of project management. They then apply that knowledge onto their practical projects, such as project planning, a budget, and a written report.

For this project to be accepted by Dalarna University many things needed to be sorted out; 31 voice actors, a voice director, approval from SF Studios and to figure out a manageable time frame suitable for the project course. The project manager Ing-Marie Bergman at Älvdalens Kommun had the main responsibility to translate the manuscript and song lyrics from Swedish to Älvdalska, finding voice actors who could also sing, creating a schedule and managing the logistics of daily transports of voice actors from Älvdalen to Falun (124 km) during a period of two weeks. Another requirement was to find an experienced voice director.

Once SF Studio had given the approval and we had an agreement on technical solutions for delivering stems (music, sound FX and ambience), Dalarna University agreed on the project. This agreement included recording voices for dubbing, lead vocals, background vocals, mixing and delivering a final 5.1 mix in stems. The pre-production process took a few months and by the spring of 2022, three students on the programme of Sound- and Music production agreed to work on the project, supervised by lecturers Erika Iljero-Winnberg and Henrik Karlsson, both with experience of working in the field of music production, sound design, ADR, dubbing, Pro Tools and surround mixing for film and television. 2 (3)

As preparation the students got to do workshops in dubbing. They also took part in setting up the recording studio. For the initial couple of weeks, the flow of information to the students went via the supervisors. Once the details had fallen into place the students themselves handled the contact with the project manager and voice director. This was an important part of the students learning, to manage the flow of information by making decisions and setting up a working schedule of routines and information. The students were also informed of the psychological aspects behind working with nonor semi-professionals in a studio. The need for taking breaks, offer something to drink or eat and be responsive to the emotional state of the actor dubbing, maybe even ask other people to leave the control room if needed.

Once the voice actors arrived the students had prepared a Pro Tools project which included the original audio of the film minus the original Swedish voices. They also had good knowledge of the signal flows, manuscript and the voice recordings began. The recording sessions went quite long and at first all three students insisted on being always present, regardless of if they were the active recording engineer or not. The supervisors tried to convince them of the importance of taking brakes. After a while the students realized this and started dividing their time better.

The students did great work during the recording process. They were attentive on the various types of actors with different types of needs, especially when it came to singing. Some of the actors needed to be alone in the studio, with only one pair of ears listening.

Post-production took place in the in-house cinema at Dalarna University. The cinema has a custom designed 5.1 surround sound system and a Barco DCI projector. The sound system is built to enable a simple workflow for mixing, where a project that’s been worked on in the universities other studios can be opened and finalized in the cinema. Care was taken to set appropriate loudness levels of both the dialogue and the music and effects, both with the help of R-128 compatible loudness meters and by referencing the original Swedish sound mix.

With only a few days to deadline, a sound mixer from Sveriges Television gave the students a visit and gave some constructive feedback on the sound mix (5.1). This seemed to give the students extra motivation to finalize the mix.

The project got some credible attention in media, such as Kulturnytt i P1, P4 Dalarna, SVT nyheter och Landet Runt and in the local newspapers Dalarnas Tidningar and Siljan News (see Appendix). A new, similar project and cooperation will hopefully take place in 2025/2026.

 The recent Dolby Atmos releases of older recordings originally released in stereo launch new staging possibilities that were absent in the original recordings. As Zagorski-Thomas formulates, staging is “external to the performances” that we hear “yet contribute to the meaning that we perceive” (2014: 73). Thus, these staging properties have become integrated features of the works now re-released thanks to the developments in immersive audio.

Staging in the realm of stereo recordings can be analyzed with analytical tools such as Moore’s (2012) “soundbox” or Moylan’s (2014) “perceived performance environment”. These tools place the sound stage in front of the listener. However, this is not necessarily the case in the Dolby Atmos mixes. In our work, we have analyzed several Dolby Atmos releases of older works, in different genres and eras, that put the listener in various locations in relation to the sound stage. In some mixes, the listener is placed among the sound sources on stage, hence “the performance” surrounds the listener. In some other mixes, the listener is placed in front of the stage but the room where the audience is situated is portrayed with the help of immersive audio. In some other mixes, some sound sources are on a stage in front of the listener and others surround the listener. Furthermore, some mixes do not fit any of these models, and the position of the sound stage varies throughout the performance.

Our study has raised a few questions concerning the immersive audio phenomena itself, how we can study it, and how this knowledge can be useful for staging and mixing in immersive music production: (1) Where does this leave us when it comes to staging and what Clarke (2005) calls “subject-position” in Dolby Atmos mixes? (2) Are we approaching a convention with regards to staging in Dolby Atmos mixes as a convention in stereo mixes appeared in the 1970’s? And, (3) do these mixes change the original work to such a grade that we can call the Dolby Atmos mixes as new works?

Every first Wednesday in July since 1969, Bingsjöstämman (Bingsjö Folk Music Festival) beckons leading folk musicians and folk music enthusiasts from all over Scandinavia to the picturesque village of Bingsjö in Sweden. Over the course of 24 hours, thousands of people gather in fields, barns, campgrounds and historic houses to enjoy scheduled concerts, impromptu musical performances and to participate in traditional dances.

Captured at Bingsjöstämman in 2018, Bingsjö360 presents 18 separate video clips which combine 8K resolution VR360 video and ambisonic music recordings to represent the broad range of musical performances on display at the festival. Through this immersive music documentary experience, viewers around the world can experience the sounds, rhythms and unique visual beauty of the festival for themselves.

Bingsjö360 presents new creative pathways for representing and sharing folk music tradition through cutting-edge artistic research, immersive audiovisual technology and new modes of audience interaction. By making Bingsjö360 easily accessible through an online video sharing platform, this project also aims to elevate knowledge and perception about immersive audiovisual experiences in wider society.

This international artistic research project was instigated at Dalarna Audiovisual Academy at Dalarna University (Falun, Sweden) and produced in collaboration with Folkmusikens Hus, Faraway Productions (Australia), Honeypot Film Productions, Cutting Edge (Australia), Dalarnas Museum, Film i Dalarna and Benny Andersson’s record label Mono Music.