Is Dolby Atmos the Future of Music or a Complicated Fad?

[Sancus]

It's not complex to setup Atmos. All you need are headphones, and the right hardware/software. So I dunno why bad articles keep citing that. The actual point of Atmos is not today's speaker setups, it's for future full spatial immersion on headphones.

Mixes stick around for decades.

 

[Blumlein 88]

It's not complex to setup Atmos. All you need are headphones, and the right hardware/software. So I dunno why bad articles keep citing that. The actual point of Atmos is not today's speaker setups, it's for future full spatial immersion on headphones.

Mixes stick around for decades.

So what are they doing with Atmos over phones as this are inherently stereo?

 

[Sancus]

So what are they doing with Atmos over phones as this are inherently stereo?

You can emulate any surround speaker experience binaurally on headphones with head tracking and the right processing. Smyth realiser and bacch among others have already proven that this works very convincingly.

Apple headphones do this as well it's just not nearly as good. But it's just a question of improving the components/software and bringing costs down. Eventually you'll have a Smyth Realiser level experience on airpods. That's where spatial audio work is headed.

 

[-Matt-]

...and without head tracking there are stereo headphones with virtual height and surround which take advantage of the (approximately known) head transfer function.

I'm not certain on the way Atmos implements this for stereo (as an "elitist" I've not explored stereo Atmos that much ).

 

[holdingpants01]

Binauralization for headphones, at least in apple music is horrible, there's a room reverb added to everything, it actually sound different than intended (you can only monitor it in Logic, but you can't turn it off) and way worse than on speakers. It's a shame as I'm sure it's the most popular way of consuming atmos music, but I guess most people don't even know they listen to it and assume it's just the way apple airpods max/pro sound

 

[Sancus]

...and without head tracking there are stereo headphones with virtual height and surround which take advantage of the (approximately known) head transfer function.

I'm not certain on the way Atmos implements this for stereo (as an "elitist" I've not explored stereo Atmos that much ).

Yes, but head tracking is required for it to be really convincing. There's a huge difference between the experiences there. And it isn't hard to build head tracking into active headphones.

Binauralization for headphones, at least in apple music is horrible, there's a room reverb added to everything, it actually sound different than intended (you can only monitor it in Logic, but you can't turn it off) and way worse than on speakers. It's a shame as I'm sure it's the most popular way of consuming atmos music, but I guess most people don't even know they listen to it and assume it's just the way apple airpods max/pro sound

Yep it's pretty bad right now. Doesn't mean it always will be. It would be strange to wait until there's a very good consumer setup to start building the content. You're going to need at least 10s, if not 100s of thousands of albums ready before you launch the ideal versions of the hardware anyhow.

 

[mhardy6647]

I vote fad.

 

[-Matt-]

One difficulty for this topic is that there is a huge amount of misunderstanding about what Atmos actually is.

I recently tried to explain my (possibly flawed) understanding of it here:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ds/how-is-this-dolby-atmos.47824/post-1993830

 

[Andysu]

I vote fad.

same total fad , yes dolby labs , atmos is 12 years of fad only just about okay with gravity 2013 but otherwise its fad ,
the only music disc i havve tried , pink floyd dark of moon bluray atmos music , fad
no discrete multi bellow surround with at least 50 channels as below surround listening is more complex than overhead ,
nope , atmos fad

 

[-Matt-]

Can't help but chuckle!

Atmos is simultaneously criticised for too much complexity and expense by stereo aficionados, and for not having 50 channels including speakers in the floor.

Since it is criticised from both directions it probably means they are getting it about right!

 

[jhwalker]

It is NOT an endpoint (i.e., like every other format, from mono > stereo > 2.1 > 5.1 > 7.1, etc.) it is on the path of progress to better sound reproduction.

I've recently limited my buying to multichannel recordings (and a VERY few, elite stereo recordings) because in my system (built for movies, but fully capable of multichannel and Atmos-encoded music), multichannel has so much more LIFE than mono or stereo.

 

[Andysu]

this movie was utter sound effects , re-recording mixer load of rubbish the disc ended up being cut up with a pair of scissors and thrown in the rubbish bin
it watched less than half of it , aspect ratio was boring , it was the most rubbish movie i have ever come across known in decades

dolby labs licence atmos fad , fad , fad and boring

 

[Andysu]

here is another rubbish atmos movie , only watched it once and it was utter boring atmos mix , overhead surrounds hardly had any use , avoid this movie atmos at all costs
i may cut it up into bits and throw it in the bin as i not re-watched it , ir certainly ain't original star wars if you know what i mean ?

 

[Andysu]

i can keep on roasting dolby labs and lousy mixers with this , fad format plus they are all , near field mixes , dynamic range to them , huh really
another rubbish dolby labs , mixers atnos trash load of fad use of overhead surrounds that are hardly used , boring movie atmos don't expect a lot , it doesn't use all of the height or top overheads it is utterly boring its like listening to paint drying on the ceiling while its dripping down onto you , avoid it

 

[-Matt-]

Bad mixes and bad movies exist in a wide variety of audio formats. This is not the fault of Atmos.

 

[Andysu]

Bad mixes and bad movies exist in a wide variety of audio formats. This is not the fault of Atmos.

yes it is , its technically flawed since day one of dolby labs , gathered around a table and this is the best of their thinking they can come up with
no below surround = waste of my listening time

maybe most here haven't heard speakers flush mounted for surround or mounted on the ceiling before , i have and when listening to atmos at , Empire licester square , star trek into dreadful darkness , the ,moment i hear , captaim kirk voice overhead i'm instantly reminded of , CIC/UCI tower park , experimental overhead surround , 1989

CIC/UCI tower park , poole uk
,i worked here 1989/90 two of larger screens 5 and 6 EV speakers Dolby CP55 with SRA5 in all ten screens

eight of the smaller screens , used x7 overhead surrounds used x8 overhead surrounds EV speakers , Dolby CP55 SRA5 in all ten screens

note the spacing of the EV same as to day ,
i have same in my THX cinema i have designed wiring and use simple data-switching box DB25 , i can switch to the atmos decoder or switch to , experimental overhead surround , try doing that on a trinnov , and its not to be confused with dolby DSU , signal comes from the surrounds and just duplicated for overhead , DSU on 5..1/7.1 signal comes from front L R what a rubbish DSU the cross-talk is distracting so i took it upon myself to sorting it out

 

[617]

Music is not about realism. Caravaggio would not be better in 3d.

 

[-Matt-]

Music is not about realism. Caravaggio would not be better in 3d.

Who knows what he might have created if he had access to tools that allowed him to work in 3d as easily as using a paint brush.

 

[Anton D]

Neither future nor fad....it's a niche in our great hobby.

For people with the desire to follow this path, good for them!

Headphone,s, LP, reel to reel, streaming, ATMOS...whatever, great!

Big tent.

 

[Blumlein 88]

So I remembered my laptop has Dolby Access to experience Dolby Atmos over phones. Binaural recordings never worked much for me. I guess my HRTF is too different from the norm. This demo was about like binaural, a hint of more, but that is about it. All their positioning object based stuff was going left to right straight thru the middle of my head the way I hear it. Ditto for overhead effects. Middle of the head with some reverb it is wallowing within.

I'll investigate some more, but seems like headphone Atmos is object based down-mixing into something like binaural. Anyone with some suggested sources especially music please suggest them.