Mix Nashville Brings Pro Audio Talent and Tech Back to The Row

The founding Host Partner of Mix Nashville, Curb 43 Studios, has been a fixture at the top of Music Row for more than 30 years. Photo: Future/Kevin Craig Nashville, TN (May 21, 2026)—More than 250 engineers, producers, musicians and audio professionals made their way to the top of Music Row on Saturday, May 16, for the fourth annual Mix Nashville music production event. The day kicked off at BMG’s Nashville headquarters with a special Keynote Conversation titled “Bringing the Music Back to Music Row,” followed by a full day of expert panels and leading-edge technology demonstrations in multiple world-class studios, and then ended 12 hours later with the ever-popular Studio Crawl in nearby Berry Hill.

The Keynote and the Mix Panel Series took place on the fourth floor of BMG’s Nashville headquarters. Photo: Future/Kevin Craig Here’s a Mix Nashville overview overview and a look at our sponsors, who not only make the event possible, but enhance the experience by offering up their own daylong programs featuring the best in talent and technology. Look for more coverage of the event next week!

BACKSTAGE STUDIO (Black River Entertainment): SSL, Genelec, Audio-Technica SSL is a founding sponsor and longtime supporter of the Mix Music Production events, and for the past three years they set up in Starstruck Studios’ immersive mix room and showed the System T. This year, they decided to switch things up—in a big way!—and move to the big live room at Backstage Studio.

On Saturday, they brought in an Origin evo, an Oracle and a Harrison 32Classic, and in collaboration with Genelec and Audio-Technica set up three separate stations, with a three-way split from the A-T 40 and 50 Series mics at the source, all tracking simultaneously, all listening through Genelec Ones, offering the audience real-time demonstrations and comparisons. Members of the audience surround the SSL Origin evo-Genelec Ones setup during a live tracking session. Separate SSL Oracle-Genelec Ones and Harrison 32Classic-Genelec Ones stations allowed attendees to walk around, sit in the sweet spot and compare the three in real time.

Photo: Future/Kevin Craig SSL’s Rick Naqvi addresses the audience prior to a live, simultaneous, three-console tracking session—SSL Origin evo, SSL Oracle and Harrison 32Classic—using Audio-Technica 40 and 50 Series mics at the source and Genelec Ones smart active monitors at each of the three setups. Photo: Future/Kevin Craig Gary Thielman, Harrison Audio, runs an attendee through the features of the Harrison 32Classic console during a break from the live tracking sessions. Photo: Future/Kevin Craig CURB STUDIOS 43: Sony, API Both Sony and API are original and annual sponsors of Mix Nashville, and for the past four years API has staked its claim to the Curb Studios 43 Control Room.

And why not? The centerpiece is one of the finest consoles on Music Row, a 48-channel API AXS. This year, they brought in a hit man, producer, engineer and owner of Gold Pacific Studios, for a series of recording and mixing demos.

Meanwhile, for the past three years, Sony had focused primarily on individual 360VME testing and measurement for attendees, based out of either the immersive mix room at Black River or at Jeff Huskins 7.1.4 studio at BMG.

This year, they continued with VME measurement, added more demo sessions on the 360RA creative toolsets sessions, and they also expanded in a big way by moving to the coveted Live Room at Curb 43 and setting up headphone listening stations, immersive and stereo, featuring the popular MDR-MV1 Open-Back Reference Monitor Headphones. In the live room at Curb Studios 43, Andy Munitz of Sony hosted both stereo and immersive music listening sessions on the company’s instant-classic MDR-MV1 Open-Back Reference Monitor Headphones. Photo: Future/Kevin Craig API brought in Dan Ballard, Owner/Producer/Engineer of Gold Pacific Studio in the nearby Berry Hill neighborhood (center, in ball cap), to host a series of demo sessions throughout the day on the features, workflow and recording/mixing techniques of the API AXS console.

Photo: Future/Kevin Craig Doug Battle, Sony, addresses the audience before the opening Keynote Conversation. Photo: Future/Kevin Craig RCA STUDIO A: Sweetwater, Avid, Neumann, RBDG Sweetwater and Avid seem to have found a comfortable Mix Nashville home at the legendary RCA Studio A. Their series of producer-engineer panels always play to a packed house, as do their advanced product demos.

And this year they added even more, bringing in Neumann on the technology side, with a special session titled “Behind the Glass at RCA Studio A With Phillip Smith,” and the Russ Berger Design Group on the studio design side, where the Sweetwater-RBDG collaboration was on display in the parking lot in the form of the recently debuted Sweetwater Airstream, the first 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos mobile production facility custom-designed for the iconic brand.

Sweetwater, Avid and Neumann presented advanced product demos mixed with expert panels throughout the day in the legendary RCA Studio A. Photo: Future/Kevin Craig In between the panels and demos, Avid’s Jeff Komar offered attendees one-on-one attention and insider insights across a range of workflows. Photo: Future/Kevin Craig The exterior and interior of the new Sweetwater Airstream mobile Dolby Atmos production/mix studio, with acoustics and design by the team at Russ Berger Design Group.

Photo: Future/Kevin Craig RONNIE’S PLACE (Black River Entertainment): KRK Systems Last year, KRK Systems dipped its toe into Mix Nashville by setting up stereo speaker systems in Curb Studios 28 Studio Six. This year, with the Spring 2026 launch of the new V-Series Five family of studio monitors, they really upped the game by moving into Ronnie’s Place, a classic Nashville studio tucked inside the Black River Entertainment complex. Inside the two-story live room, they set up and tuned a 7.

1.4 playback system based on the V-Series Five family, and hosted drop-in and private listening sessions throughout the day. Meanwhile, in two scheduled sessions, Senior Software Engineer Emily Cheng took advantage of the setup to introduce KRK Mesh, a new wireless app control of immersive systems.

Deston Bennet of KRK takes producer/engineer Ben Fowler through the 7.1.4 monitoring setup, featuring the company’s recently introduced V-Series Five speakers, at Ronnie’s Place (Black River Entertainment).

Photo: Future/Kevin Craig A couple of Nashville heavy-hitters—producer and engineer Ben Fowler, left, and songwriter, producer, engineer Nick Autry—sit down for a private listening session of the KRK 7.1.4 monitoring system, featuring the new V-Series Five line of speakers.

Photo: Future/Kevin Craig CURB STUDIOS 28, STUDIO SIX: Wolff Audio Last year, Wolff Audio became a first-time supporter of Mix Nashville by partnering with producer and engineer David Kalmusky at Addiction Sound and featuring real-time demos of MeMore cue system. This year, they continued with Addiction Sound, while also expanding down the hall to Curb Studios Studio Six, where they offered attendees a rare hands-on, inside look at an 8-channel bucket, a “Mini-Me” of the custom Wolff Audio Console. Outside Studio Six, flanking the entrance, Wolff Audio CEO Jay Porter proudly stood by a six-foot-tall outboard rack filled with Pultecs, a result of the company’s September 2025 acquisition of Pulse Technologies.

Attendees get a rare up-close, hands-on look at an 8-channel bucket of a custom Wolff Audio Console, set up for the day in Studio Six at Curb 28 Studios. Photo: Future/Kevin Craig Wolff Audio CEO Jay Porter, showcasing the company’s recent acquisition of Pultec outside Studio Six at Curb 28 Studios. Photo: Future/Kevin Craig ADDICTION SOUND: David Kalmusky and Wolff Audio Wolff Audio again held demos of MeMore at Addiction Sound, but Addiction Sound is really all about the talent and passion of studio owner David Kalmusky, a songwriter, producer, engineer, musician and one of the best-kept secrets in music and recording.

Although not pictured here, as part of Mix Nashville David also opened up his Dolby Atmos mix room, where he played back commercially released, classic albums on reels of ¼-inch tape from the late-’70s, early ‘80s—in quad! Morrison Hotel, The Traffic Sessions, Dark Side of the Moon… Alan Parsons is smiling somewhere. David Kalmusky, a multi-talented musician, songwriter, producer, engineer and owner of the one-of-a-kind recording playpen Addiction Sound, sits at his Trident TSM console with engineer/producer Richard Chycki as they catch up with a few friends.

Photo: Future/Kevin Craig BMG and BMG Studio: Host Partner Following Mix Nashville 2025, Mike Porter informed us that Belmont University was about to start a massive two-year construction project in the parking lot behind Columbia Studio A and that they would be unable to serve as the hub of Mix Nashville for a while. After a few calls, looking for alternatives and for contact names, Jeff Huskins, the talented in-house BMG engineer with an affinity for immersive music and many years of experience, stepped up and said, “We can do it, Tom. It’s only a half-block away.

” Jeff brought in the marvelous BMG facilities team, and within two months we were flying into BNA and setting up signage. Our many, many thanks to all at BMG. We’re coming back in May 2027!

The Keynote and the Mix Panel Series took place on the fourth floor of BMG’s Nashville headquarters, 1 Music Circle S, at the top of Music Row, with a view of downtown. Photo: Future/Kevin Craig Photo: Future/Kevin Craig BMG LOBBY: ASG Advanced Systems Group set up in the BMG Lobby, sponsoring the breakfast and lanyards, and hosting networking central. But much of that seemed incidental following the recent death of one of their team, a longtime fixture of the professional audio industry, Tom Menrath.