MQA doesn’t require remixing. I believe it requires little more than opening a digital stereo master into the MQA software, setting some parameters, and letting the program do its thing.So "remixing" for Atmos and MQA are about the same level of expertise/commitment to the final product? At least Atmos has a multich effect? Don't see buying into bullshit like mqa myself and wondering why I'd want to for "Atmos". If it's a good multich mix great, if it's a matrix applied with little thought...meh.
The “mono” cut they used was obviously just a folded-down version of the stereo cut. I don’t think that a true mono mix of What’s Going On is even available on Apple Music. However, the question is whether Apple took the stereo mix of What’s Going On and handicapped it by adding distortion, as one person claimed. That is highly doubtful, not to mention unethical and potentially illegal (if the demonstration track is construed as an advertisement for Apple Music spatial audio tracks).
I’ll listen again.If you listen carefully with headphones, there is a “stereo reverb” effect applied to the mono downmix. It isn’t a monaural file.
Apple trying to take charge like they invented Atmos/spacial and some folk ate it up,but denigrated Tidal for having Atmos/spacial and MQA,so the question to the many is why should Apple get a pass.Sony (SACD), Tidal/Dolby (Atmos) and others have started the trend for multichannel audio well before Apple -- not sure why you single Apple out? In the crowded music production and distribution business everyone is looking for a differentiator, in this case it is Atmos, and such music has been available on DVDs, Blu-rays and now 4K discs again for many years. Spatial Audio itself is the "cream on the cake", i.e. the ability to have the imaging locked into position even when you move your head and use headphones.
What hurts is that the job is rushed, then again this is no surprise, have you seen the quality of the DVDs to hit the market in the first few years of availability? Not a pretty sight, but they perfected the tools and technology over time, to a point that a DVD with good upscaling is watchable on a 75+ inch screen from typical watching position.
My take is, the dust will settle, and the producers will have polished the tools and the methodology to produce Atmos versions that are on par with the two channel versions of the same music. Until then, I may turn off Atmos in my Apple Music settings.
If you listen with the right setup (not headphones) some of the Atmos tracks sound pretty good on Tidal and Amazon, on Apple Music can only listen thru headphones via a Samsung tablet, but I don't do Atmos thru headphones.So, I’ve sampled most of the 100 or so Atmos demo tracks on Apple Music.
Some do not sound noticeably different than their stereo counterparts.
Many others sound like they have different balance between the instruments and different EQ, but they do not sound more enveloping.
A small minority of the tracks do, in fact, have sound effects that appear somewhat hazily to come from behind or above your head.
I would not describe the effect as “uncanny” in realism, as some have.
The only tracks that I have found to be engaging are ones that are primarily vocal, with sparse instrumentation. Norah Jones’ first album (which although she has a pretty voice, I find boring) is actually improved by the effect.
I do not think the problem is the Atmos remixing. Atmos sounds fine in multi speaker surround sound systems. The problem is the virtual surround algorithms used by Apple to simulate surround sound in headphones. They just don’t work as well as they are being touted.
To sum up: “spatial audio” does not sound like the revolution in audio that Apple marketing folks are making it out to be. Perhaps they can improve the technology. At this point, although the “spatial audio” tracks sound different than the stereo versions, they don’t create a convincing surround experience.
MQA doesn’t require remixing. I believe it requires little more than opening a digital stereo master into the MQA software, setting some parameters, and letting the program do its thing.
Atmos requires going back to the individual tracks or stems and remixing using Atmos object-based surround authoring tools. There could be an Atmos upconversion program for music files where only the stereo masters are available rather than stems or multitracks.
Indeed.Apple trying to take charge like they invented Atmos/spacial and some folk ate it up,but denigrated Tidal for having Atmos/spacial and MQA,so the question to the many is why should Apple get a pass.
Apple trying to take charge like they invented Atmos/spacial and some folk ate it up,but denigrated Tidal for having Atmos/spacial and MQA,so the question to the many is why should Apple get a pass.
Apple has such a close history working with Dolby that I think sometimes they get confused.Indeed.
It seems like Dolby had a stealth takeover plan they are executing in plain sight.
If anything, it’s a mastering technology. It doesn’t require remixing.I thought it was the mqa folk that call it remixing (or specially mixed).
If anything, it’s a mastering technology. It doesn’t require remixing.
I think this is a very small use case. Maybe on forums like this some folks spend a lot of serious listening time in an Atmos setup but actually I doubt that is really so often. And for the "general public" (whoever that may be) it's all about headphones (who mentioned Apple-owned Beats? ), where I'd hazard a vast majority of listening happens, followed by cars. Well actually a lot of listening is probably out of small Bluetooth speakers and even just out of the phone but never mind that. So if it sounds more "immersive" on headphones, that will probably sound "better" to a lot of people compared to how some recordings really don't sound so great. And who knows, maybe Spatial sounds "better" on little Bluetooth speakers too, like those old stereo-enhance buttons some boomboxes used to have.going to think of it as an improvement, because some of it is intentionally reflected off the ceiling.
I gotta compare the DVD-Audio version to this Spatial one. Hmmm, how would one do that exactly? Too late in this time zone, my brain is failing me. Not that the time really has anything to do with that ha hathe What’s Going On demo...Both the stereo and spatial audio versions are “meh.”
...think it SUCKS mostly, looking at YOU James Cameron. The only 3D I liked were U2 and Up. Others I've seen, everything looks weird. Like that animated one where the kid lives in the train station, everyone's head looked football shaped.In proper 3D your eye focuses at different distances for things closer or further away. With 3D "TV" it is a fixed plane and hence stereoscopic. It is also why some people
No, not really. Just really running a master through a codec.Yes my bad so much word salad to sort thru with mqa....I meant mastering....altho it's not really mastering either is it?
I’d like to hope that such efforts are at least remixing the audio from the individual stems rather than just playing around trying to extract surround channels from a stereo mix. But even in such a case it’s a wasted effort, as music for a surround rather than stage experience is a fundamentally different thing.The main question is what do the streaming companies (Amazon, Apple...) receive from the music industry.
Is it a stereo tape recorded following the Red Book standard?
In that case the remastering to Dolby Atmos is a non sense.