Dr Olive is not happy with how Dolby Atmos is mixed

[krabapple]

Now with the worse system having won, there are so many problems. For example that Atmos music mixes for streaming services are are demanded, but music is mixed in stereo and will never be mixed in surround or immersive, because a new mix from the ground up does not pay, and also the compatibility with stereo or mono systems could not be guaranteed, if it would be mixed in full reliance on an immersive layout.

And yet, many, many Atmos mixes that to many ears seem to be new mixes, have proliferated on , e.g. Apple Music and Tidal.
There's a thread discussing how this can be happening.

I listen to Atmos mixes on a 5.2 (2 subwoofer) system, the downmixing seems quite adequate. AIUI this is thanks to the required 7.1 'bed'

I'm still wondering which zebra killed Darwin, btw.

 

[krabapple]

After reading that AES paper that shows the center channel is barely used for Atmos music mixes I've decided you can save some money when choosing a center channel depending on if you watch Atmos films versus listen to Atmos music.
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Hey, that JBL is worth owning its own right, as a modern day portable boombox. I've recommended it to several friends looking for one. They're happy.

 

[krabapple]

Yeah. Too bad Dolby sells the the right speaker to customers claiming it was technically suffient as a full LR stand-in (even more outrageous are the Dolby certified height reflection speakers) and then it is criticized we cannot utilize the center channel...

I'm not aware that Dolby manufactures or sells any speakers.

Reflecting speakers* are a compromise, they won't work as well as direct-firing speakers for the same purpose, but it's nice to have choices, no? Peoples' living conditions vary a lot.


*which, is a class that goes back all the way to....Bose direct/reflecting speakers? And of course dipole/bipoles have been used in home theaters for decades.

 

[dannut]

But there isn’t much you can do if the recordings are not optimal to begin with. We don’t have control over that except not to listen to them.

We as consumers could loudly boycott bad recording practices. Name-and-shame style, like has happened with bad and expensive speakers/electronics thanks to ASR community. And promote good practices/recordings. I personally was quite impressed with 'MixCubed' results:

There are lots of recording and mixing engineers who understand the psychoacoustics of using the center channel correctly. Prestigious universities churn out properly trained sound recording engineers/Tonmeisters. Maybe with time all the bad apples will just... die out?

OTOH if you must listen to badly produced surround material, there is always possibility to render only 2 front channels and upmix that to 3 (or 5). At least you get a better mix that way in your listening space.