The Mixing Residency
October 12–17, 2026
A week with Sam Okell on the craft of finishing music
Dyski x Zennor Sounds
The Highlights
- Work directly with Grammy and Emmy winning engineer Sam Okell on your own tracks.
- Record and mix inside Zennor Sounds, a purpose-built Dolby Atmos studio in West Penwith.
- Small group of around ten participants, with space for detailed feedback and real conversation.
The Basics
- Five nights accommodation in Zennor, full board.
- Four full days of studio sessions, listening, and discussion.
- All meals, snacks and drinks included, with all dietary requirements catered for.
- Optional walks along the West Penwith coastline.
The cost of this residency is:
£900 non residential (4 left)
£1250 mezzanine single bed, shared room (1)
£1500 double bed, shared room (1)
£1500 private single, shared bathroom (1 left)
£1700 private double with en suite (1 left)
Most unfinished music isn't missing more production. It's missing clarity about what it is, what it needs, and how to get it there.
The centre of this residency is Sam working live on participant tracks inside his purpose-built Dolby Atmos studio in Zennor, Cornwall, making decisions in real time, explaining the thinking behind each move, with the group listening and learning as it happens. Your music, or someone else's, is on the monitors, being worked on by an experienced mixing engineer with credits spanning major contemporary music and film projects.
Participants are invited to bring works in progress, unfinished tracks, demos, sketches or stalled projects and use the week as a focused space to better understand what their music needs, emotionally, technically, and sonically.
Through listening sessions, live demonstration, and open group discussion, the week explores EQ, compression, dynamics, spatial mixing, depth, balance and arrangement, and how these choices shape the emotional impact and real world translation of a track, from studio monitors to headphones and everyday listening environments.
Equal weight is placed on technical process and creative perception. Alongside studio sessions, participants explore how to listen more critically, identify what a track is missing, and make decisions without losing the original intent of the music. Conversation throughout the week also addresses workflow, creative block, overworking mixes, momentum, and developing trust in your own listening. This often reveals new directions in the work that are not visible when working alone.
With a small group of around ten participants, the residency is designed to feel intimate, open, and responsive, with space for questions, experimentation, and detailed feedback. Not every track will be mixed in full, but multiple works in progress will be explored live, giving everyone the opportunity to learn through observation and shared critical listening.
Who this is for
This residency is for producers, musicians, and composers who have music sitting unfinished: tracks that feel close but not quite there, or projects where the mix is getting in the way of the music. You don't need to be working professionally. You need to have something worth finishing and a genuine interest in understanding why it isn't done yet.
What the week involves
Sam works directly on selected participant tracks in real time, demonstrating approaches to EQ, compression, dynamics, balance, spatial processing and mix development, while explaining the decisions behind each move, so you understand not just what is happening but why it works.
Participants share works in progress and receive focused feedback on tone, arrangement, translation, emotional impact and clarity in the mix, including how the music behaves outside the studio environment. This often surfaces directions in the work that are genuinely new.
The group explores practical approaches to vocal treatment, low end management, automation, stereo imaging, depth, movement, and strategies for finishing a record without losing what made it interesting in the first place.
Participants work inside Zennor Sounds' custom designed Dolby Atmos environment, exploring spatial mixing and considering how space and placement change emotional perception in ways that stereo cannot.
Open discussion continues throughout the week around workflow, creative block, decision making, and the realities of finishing and releasing music.
Set against the landscape of West Penwith, the residency offers time away from routine, supporting deeper listening, reflection, and creative focus.
The centre of this residency is Sam working live on participant tracks inside his purpose-built Dolby Atmos studio in Zennor, Cornwall, making decisions in real time, explaining the thinking behind each move, with the group listening and learning as it happens. Your music, or someone else's, is on the monitors, being worked on by an experienced mixing engineer with credits spanning major contemporary music and film projects.
Participants are invited to bring works in progress, unfinished tracks, demos, sketches or stalled projects and use the week as a focused space to better understand what their music needs, emotionally, technically, and sonically.
Through listening sessions, live demonstration, and open group discussion, the week explores EQ, compression, dynamics, spatial mixing, depth, balance and arrangement, and how these choices shape the emotional impact and real world translation of a track, from studio monitors to headphones and everyday listening environments.
Equal weight is placed on technical process and creative perception. Alongside studio sessions, participants explore how to listen more critically, identify what a track is missing, and make decisions without losing the original intent of the music. Conversation throughout the week also addresses workflow, creative block, overworking mixes, momentum, and developing trust in your own listening. This often reveals new directions in the work that are not visible when working alone.
With a small group of around ten participants, the residency is designed to feel intimate, open, and responsive, with space for questions, experimentation, and detailed feedback. Not every track will be mixed in full, but multiple works in progress will be explored live, giving everyone the opportunity to learn through observation and shared critical listening.
Who this is for
This residency is for producers, musicians, and composers who have music sitting unfinished: tracks that feel close but not quite there, or projects where the mix is getting in the way of the music. You don't need to be working professionally. You need to have something worth finishing and a genuine interest in understanding why it isn't done yet.
What the week involves
Sam works directly on selected participant tracks in real time, demonstrating approaches to EQ, compression, dynamics, balance, spatial processing and mix development, while explaining the decisions behind each move, so you understand not just what is happening but why it works.
Participants share works in progress and receive focused feedback on tone, arrangement, translation, emotional impact and clarity in the mix, including how the music behaves outside the studio environment. This often surfaces directions in the work that are genuinely new.
The group explores practical approaches to vocal treatment, low end management, automation, stereo imaging, depth, movement, and strategies for finishing a record without losing what made it interesting in the first place.
Participants work inside Zennor Sounds' custom designed Dolby Atmos environment, exploring spatial mixing and considering how space and placement change emotional perception in ways that stereo cannot.
Open discussion continues throughout the week around workflow, creative block, decision making, and the realities of finishing and releasing music.
Set against the landscape of West Penwith, the residency offers time away from routine, supporting deeper listening, reflection, and creative focus.
Zennor Sounds
Zennor Sounds is the studio of Sam Okell, a multiple Grammy and Emmy winning engineer whose career began at Abbey Road Studios. Sam has spent years at the centre of some of the most significant mixing and remastering projects of recent decades, including the Beatles back catalogue, the White Album remix with Giles Martin, Sgt. Pepper's 50th anniversary edition, and long running collaborations with composer Daniel Pemberton across Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Project Hail Mary, and Masters of the Universe. His work spans Nick Cave, The Beach Boys, John Williams, PJ Harvey, and an extensive body of orchestral and film recording including Rocketman, The Hobbit, Enola Holmes, Harry Potter and The Theory of Everything.
The studio is purpose built for critical listening and immersive audio, featuring a custom designed Dolby Atmos mix room with 7.2.4 ATC monitoring, natural light, handcrafted iroko details and a characterful recording booth.
︎︎︎ ︎︎︎ zennorsounds.com
︎ ︎ zennorsounds
Residency SupportDyski founder Dion Star is a writer and musician working across experimental sound and collaborative practice, and supports the delivery of the residency throughout the week.
Funded places and access
There is a fully funded place available for this residency, intended to support those who may need financial assistance to attend.Funded places cover the residency fee, accommodation, and all meals for the week. Travel costs are not included.
Access is important to us. If there is anything that might make attending difficult, including access to equipment, please let us know when applying. We will do what we can to support access.
How to apply
To apply for a funded place, please submit a short statement of no more than 300 words explaining why you would like to take part, what you hope to gain from the experience, and how it would support your practice.
Grant deadline: August 20th, 2026.
Apply for a funded place
Immersive, place-based workshops and residencies.
Focused on process, experimentation, and learning through practice.
Pronounced ['dɪski], a Cornish verb meaning to learn, or to teach.
Focused on process, experimentation, and learning through practice.
Pronounced ['dɪski], a Cornish verb meaning to learn, or to teach.
Dyski runs residencies and workshops for musicians, composers, writers, sound artists and anyone working at the edges of their practice.
We work primarily in Cornwall, UK and occasionally further afield, led by practitioners across experimental music, sound art, modular synthesis, audiovisual performance, field recording, electroacoustic composition, writing and expanded creative practice.
Our residencies emphasise process, experimentation and close engagement with place, with funded places available to support access.
We work primarily in Cornwall, UK and occasionally further afield, led by practitioners across experimental music, sound art, modular synthesis, audiovisual performance, field recording, electroacoustic composition, writing and expanded creative practice.
Our residencies emphasise process, experimentation and close engagement with place, with funded places available to support access.