An audio engineer explains why Dolby Atmos Music is “definitely going to supersede stereo”

[JoachimStrobel]

Hmmm. Anyone else here old enough to remember the failed Quadraphonic systems?

Failed like. .... we had huge difficulties reproducing audio through ever complex MC system’s needles, loudspeakers were just so becoming useful, Dolby finally allowed noise free tape mastering, color tv with over 400 lines worked and showed the moon buggy - and yet, to achieve even higher fidelity, a system was created that extracted 4 channels from vinyl and asked people who just invested 2 months salary into two speakers to buy 2 more. Yes, that failed. Surprise. Now audio quality is dead cheap, streams are plentiful and - we are stuck with 2 channels.

 

[MattHooper]

Predictions like "Dolby Atmos Music is “definitely going to supersede stereo” remind me of other technology predictions that someone once thought just as likely:


https://www.theonion.com/in-the-know-do-you-remember-life-before-the-segway-1819594614

 

[mhardy6647]

Failed like. .... we had huge difficulties reproducing audio through ever complex MC system’s needles, loudspeakers were just so becoming useful, Dolby finally allowed noise free tape mastering, color tv with over 400 lines worked and showed the moon buggy - and yet, to achieve even higher fidelity, a system was created that extracted 4 channels from vinyl and asked people who just invested 2 months salary into two speakers to buy 2 more. Yes, that failed. Surprise. Now audio quality is dead cheap, streams are plentiful and - we are stuck with 2 channels.

The economy of those "quad" times (at least in the US) wasn't helping one bit, either.

 

[Darwin]

Hmmm. Anyone else here old enough to remember the failed Quadraphonic systems?

Yes lets name all the things that failed in the past because nothing new could ever be good because get off my lawn.

 

[Soniclife]

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/

I still think DA will fail, but this changes things a lot.

 

[Soundmixer]

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/

I still think DA will fail, but this changes things a lot.

If you look at the sales data for immersive soundbars, Dolby Atmos has already succeeded. What is failing is the best media to present it, and that goes for 4k as well. That would be a UHD disc. Right now the major studios are concentrated on their streaming platforms, and Dolby Atmos on the streaming platform leaves much to be desired. Yes, it sounds spatially immersive, but the sound quality compared to UHD isn't close to the same level. With 4K video, streaming can compete with UHD disc (at least perceptually) until the action gets moving. That is when streaming breaks down for lack of available bandwidth.

 

[dasdoing]

there is allready true 3d sound: https://www.theoretica.us/faq.html

 

[sarumbear]

Just saw a Dolby ad on Sound on Sound magazine. An authoritative publishing on audio recording. Dolby boasts that there are “100s of tracks” on Apple Music. According to Apple there are more than 50 Million tracks on their system. 100s of Atmos tracks since May looks like Atmos for music is a failure. Yet another surround failure?

 

[Sal1950]

Yet another surround failure?

Nope, that's a silly conclusion.
Time will tell but all signs look positive for a successful format launch

 

[julian_hughes]

Just as soon as we evolve to have 16 ears distributed on all sides of our heads I will be discarding my stereo playback devices and switching up to Atmos.

 

[Dimifoot]

 

[fun]

Nope, that's a silly conclusion.
Time will tell but all signs look positive for a successful format launch

Agree. Looking at the albums and songs in Apple Music that support DA (with new ones added constantly), which includes popular artists and genres like pop, hip hop, rocks, in addition to classical and jazz, the launch looks more promising than SACD, DVD-Audio in the early 2000s.

 

[sarumbear]

Nope, that's a silly conclusion.
Time will tell but all signs look positive for a successful format launch

Success is measured only on uptake. So far it is pretty low.

 

[abdo123]

Success is measured only on uptake. So far it is pretty low.

Taylor Swift's newest album was released in Dolby Atmos, clearly you're not researching enough

 

[sarumbear]

Taylor Swift's newest album was released in Dolby Atmos, clearly you're not researching enough

Please read what I said. I said Dolby's own ad said 100s of tracks are encoded with Atmos. Whereas Apple Music has 50 million tracks. In other words so far just 0.001% of music is available in Atmos.

It is not my research, it is Dolby's own admission. Don't shoot the messenger...

 

[sarumbear]

Meanwhile, I am not sure if anyone really understand the type of Dolby Atmos Apple Music use. They do not use immersive version of Dolby Atmos. From the Dolby website. Emphasis is mine.

Dolby AC-4 IMS (Immersive Stereo) is a next generation audio Codec. Dolby AC-4 IMS is used to carry Dolby Atmos at extremely low bit rates. Dolby AC-4 IMS uses Binaural metadata created during the Dolby Atmos mastering process to create a bitstream that is compatible with standard stereo playback devices as well as a virtualized immersive Dolby Atmos experience on mobile devices using headphones or speakers.

Spatial coding is not used in the AC-4 IMS encoding process.

As the AC-4 IMS adoption rate increases, it is important for the mixer to also monitor with headphones using the onboard binaural render in the Dolby Atmos Renderer.

In other words Dolby Atmos tracks on Apple Music are lossy and does not have an immersive experience. It is a gimmick for headphone listening only.

 

[abdo123]

Please read what I said. I said Dolby's own ad said 100s of tracks are encoded with Atmos. Whereas Apple Music has 50 million tracks. In other words so far just 0.001% of music is available in Atmos.

It is not my research, it is Dolby's own admission. Don't shoot the messenger...

you can't seriously expect them to re-mix their entire library in Atmos.

However Pop stars mixing their albums in Atmos is a huge sign of success, Taylor's music was off streaming services for almost a decade to protest the abysmal amount of royalties musicians receive via streaming. if they could nail her then the format shows great promise.

 

[abdo123]

In other words Dolby Atmos tracks on Apple Music are lossy and does not have an immersive experience. It is a gimmick for headphone listening only.

Both the Binaural downmix that you mentioned and the full object-based audio mix are available. If you have an Apple TV 4K with an HDMI connection to an Atmos capable reciever you will get immersive multi-channel audio.

 

[sarumbear]

you can't seriously expect them to re-mix their entire library in Atmos.

but I can expect a better availability than 0.001%...

 

[sarumbear]

Both the Binaural downmix that you mentioned and the full object-based audio mix are available. If you have an Apple TV 4K with an HDMI connection to an Atmos capable reciever you will get immersive multi-channel audio.

I didn't know that. Thank you. However, that is a very niche case.