PRESS RELEASE
1/6Lounge Studios Brings Immersive Recording Capabilities to Artists of all
Levels with Brand New Neumann Monitor Setups Across Six Studios
New York City’s Lounge Studios has recorded everyone from Solange to Jay Balvin, but still honors
its founder’s humble beginnings by enabling indie artists with top recording facilities, including abrand new 7.1.4 Atmos recording studio powered by Neumann KH series monitors.

New York, April 2024 – Lounge Recording Studios is a hidden artist’s sanctuary in the heart of Times
Square. Made up of 11 professional multimedia and recording studios, Lounge’s CEO and FounderWalt Randall is focused on empowering artists at all levels to create to their potential with cuttingedge audio, photo and video equipment. In close collaboration with Head Engineer Mikaelin ‘Blue’BlueSpruce, Walt has recently outfitted several of Lounge’s bespoke recording studios with over 30
Neumann KH series monitors, including a newly built 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos immersive audio recording
space dubbed the Solaris Room.
Lounge Studios is known for its multi-genre approach, founded with the aim of creating a comfortable,lounge-like environment that enhances creative output. Walt Randall shared, “it was important to me tomake these places comfortable. When artists come in, I want them to feel like they can feel at home with theengineer and connect with them immediately. I handpick the furniture and aesthetic to convey a relaxedatmosphere.”PRESS RELEASE
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Recording established and independent artists across R&B, Rock, Latin, Pop, Gospel, and Hip Hop, Lounge
served as the East Coast recording studio headquarters for Atlantic Records and Warner Chappelle from2013-2016. Today, the studio records indie musicians and their major label counterparts, with the goal ofmaking the finest recording equipment and facilities accessible to artists at all levels.

Hand Built from Scratch
Walt founded Lounge Studios in 2003, not long after arriving in New York City with only $50 in his pocket.
However, Walt’s journey really began years earlier, when his promising college football career ended after aseries of devastating knee injuries, leading the athlete to embrace his creative side and reignite his long-held
passion for music, “I grew up hearing my grandmother sing in our church choir, and everything changed
when my mom bought me my first keyboard when I was 12. So, when football was no longer an option, I
decided to try music out. I turned our dorm room into a makeshift studio where I recorded local artists andfell into a good groove.”
After returning to his hometown of Cleveland following graduation, Walt built a studio in the attic of hischildhood home where he honed his skills, while meticulously planning for the next phase of his career. At23, he moved to New York City, where he spent his first year working at the Department of Juvenile Justicehelping at-risk youth, while saving every penny he made, “That first year, I didn't go partying. I didn't go tothe movies. I was eating whatever the cheapest thing was. It wasn't the healthiest, but it was the sacrificethat I was making to achieve my dream. While I worked, I saved up all my money and started looking forspaces to build a studio.”
After months of searching, Walt was able to find the perfect space for Lounge Studios in the heart ofMidtown Manhattan. The raw space needed to be built from scratch to accommodate the recording facility
that Walt was envisioning, but it was not that simple, “I realized that I couldn't have an apartment and pay
rent on a studio I would be building. For my first 12 years in New York, I was homeless. I lived in my truck
while I did the initial construction on the studio space, and then I moved to a 5 feet by 8 feet closet in thestudio.” Over the years, Walt hand-built all the studios, with tenacity and ingenuity, “I didn't have a lot ofmoney to start with, so I would go to Barnes and Noble and read books on acoustics, construction, electricwork. I couldn't afford to buy the books, so I would sit there and read all day, and then I would go back to thestudio and start putting it together.”PRESS RELEASE
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Built to evoke a lounge-like environment, Walt Randall hand built his first studio, Brown Sugar,
in the early 2000s while living in the room’s closet to make ends meet.

The hard work and sacrifice paid off. Walt opened Brown Sugar Recording Studio in May 2004, the first of
many hand-built studio spaces that make up Lounge Studios. Relying on a trusty Neumann U 87, the facility
opened for business. Not long after, he recruited Mikaelin ‘Blue’ BlueSpruce straight out of New York
University to join him as Lounge Studios’ head engineer. Blue shared, “most engineers start their careers bysitting under a big engineer and doing all the assistant work for years and then, when it becomes their turn,they get to step into the engineer chair. My story was a little different. I was able to sit in the head engineer
chair from day one, at 22 years old. As I grew, the studio grew. It became this symbiotic relationship. Therewas this great synergy between me and Lounge Studios, and we grew together."
Future Proofed Facilities
From day one, Walt prided himself on making the highest quality equipment available to artists who chose towork with him, “When I opened my first studio, having a Neumann U 87 was essential for credibility. We've
been loyal to the U 87 for a long time, emphasizing consistency in our gear.” Since then, Lounge Studios
has multiplied with new rooms being built to accommodate the growing client base while maintaining Walt’s“best in class” philosophy.

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The U 87 was “essential for credibility” for Lounge Studios in the early days and remains a main character in the studios today.

Recently, Blue and Walt realized it was time to upgrade their monitor setup to ensure they are delivering top
sound quality. After some research and healthy scepticism, Neumann was one of the contenders, “I had aset of monitors that I was using for a long time. They were classic studio monitors that were no longer inproduction, so sourcing parts was not feasible,” Blue continued, “a few years ago, I started looking for an
upgrade to future proof the studio and I kept seeing posts about Neumann monitors. Initially, I was a little
sceptical because I only knew the brand for their microphones, but I should have known that given thehistory and the craftsmanship that goes into Neumann products, they were going to be good. We decided tooutfit all our rooms slowly with the Neumann monitors.”
Walt added, “we met Jose Gonzalez, our Neumann sales rep,
who recommended the KH series. His positive experience using
them in his personal studio, and the consistent praise for
Neumann monitors convinced us to try them.” Once they tested
out the monitors, the choice was clear for Walt, “I had never heard
this much clarity in the details. I was hearing new details in ourGrammy winning mixes that I've listened to a million times. We
were so blown away that we decided to switch all the rooms atLounge Studios over to Neumann. Currently, we have 11 rooms
in total, but six of them have a monitor section. Our largest studio,Ivory, has already switched from a different brand to the KH 150s,
Mikaelin ‘Blue’ BlueSpruce mixes on his KH 310
monitors in Brown Sugar studio, with his trusted
NDH 30 headphones at his side.

and we've had amazing success there. Our smaller room has
moved to the 120s, and it's received rave reviews so far.”PRESS RELEASE
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Bringing Immersive to the Masses
In keeping with Lounge Studios’ ethos of accessible best-in-class audio, Walt and Blue are also making surethat their artists can take advantage of the latest and greatest audio production formats, including Dolby
Atmos. Walt has recently built and opened the Solaris Room, a Dolby-certified studio outfitted with 12Neumann KH series speakers. According to Walt, “the feedback from everyone who has listened to Atmos
through Neumann has been mind-blowing.”

Walt mixes in the Solaris Room – the latest addition to Lounge Studios is certified for Dolby Atmosand features 12 Neumann KH series monitors to achieve “mind-blowing” immersive audio playback.

Blue offered his own personal anecdote about the Neumann KH 310 monitors playing back immersive
formats: “I remember my first experience with the 310s. I had just finished doing a mix for an amazing indie
rapper called Kota the Friend. I was in my studio with my old monitors, and I was so happy with the way themix turned out. I had already sent them to Kota when Walt called me to check out the new 310s in theSolaris Room. I decided to play my favorite song on the album, and it sounded incredible. The stereo image
was wide, the detail was there, the high end was bright, and the bass sounded great. This was the best
representation of my mix that I could imagine. But that wasn't the thing that convinced me to make theswitch,” Blue continued, “Once I heard that song, I had to listen to the whole album on the monitors. When I
got to track three, I noticed something was weird with the bass, and started to worry. As I kept going throughthe album, there were three songs where the sub bass wasn't right, and I had missed it on my old monitors.
As mixers, you must be able to hear the real mix. You can’t have monitors that gloss over mistakes.”
As Lounge Recording Studios continues to grow with diverse studio setups including a secondary Dolby
Atmos room currently in construction, Walt continues to build on his dreams and honor his humble roots bydemocratizing best in class audio for all artists. The secondary Dolby Atmos certified studio called thePRESS RELEASE
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Eclipse Room will be outfitted in Neumann KH 150 and KH 80 monitors and is set to open later this year.
Eclipse will further enable Lounge Studios to bring opportunities for established and indie artists looking torelease immersive music. In Walt’s words, “looking at the future of Dolby Atmos, I personally want to play arole in introducing it to more indie artists. Many aren't familiar with immersive, and when they learn about it,
the cost can be a deterrent. My goal is to make Atmos accessible, and we are doing that with a service
called ‘Atmos My Mix’, which combines technology and processes to make Dolby Atmos affordable for indie
artists.”
Link to video: Neumann on YouTubeTo learn more about Lounge Studios, visit: www.loungestudiosnyc.com

About NeumannGeorg Neumann GmbH, known as “Neumann.Berlin”, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of studio-grade audio
equipment and the creator of recording microphone legends such as the U 47, M 49, U 67, and U 87. Founded in 1928, thecompany has been recognized with numerous international awards for its technological innovations. Since 2010,
Neumann.Berlin has expanded its expertise in electro-acoustic transducer design to also include the studio monitor market,
building upon the legacy of the legendary loudspeaker innovator Klein + Hummel. The first Neumann studio headphones wereintroduced in 2019, and since 2022, the company has increased its focus on reference solutions for live audio. With theintroduction of the first audio interface MT 48, and its revolutionary converter technology, Neumann now offers all thenecessary technologies needed to capture and deliver sound at the highest level. Georg Neumann GmbH has been part of
the Sennheiser Group since 1991 and is represented worldwide by the Sennheiser network of subsidiaries and long-standing
trading partners. www.neumann.com
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