Dolby atmos music
I'm not saying you have to ping pong stuff back and forth and swirl around like Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. So far most of the stuff I heard on Tidal was playing it safe with atmospheric surround vs more intentional and bold choices. Unfortunate that those discs are hideously expensive and/or out of print. I started getting into surround music this year and I haven't heard anything yet that compares to the good mixes I have on disc like the 50th anniversary Beatles Blu-rays, Beck's Sea Change, John Legend's Get Lifted, Stankonia, etc. Bass seemed rolled off too.īillie Eilish's stuff was ok, not a bad place to start. Somewhere around a year ago when I first tried it at someone else's theater (via Apple TV) everything we heard was obviously brighter, to an unpleasant degree. As to tonal shifts, I didn't notice it so much on the new stuff. 15db down sounds about right and I get pretty nervous cranking the volume that much. My expectations were low and the thread so far sums it up pretty well.
#Dolby atmos music pro#
I just set up an Nvidia Shield Pro to replace my trusty Roku, mainly for access to Tidal Atmos on my 7.1 system. This is important when evaluating what to use for gaming, you may think you need something new but any high quality pair of headphones can use the Atmos plug-in (or games' built-in surround features which is often better).
#Dolby atmos music software#
One additional point, there is no such thing as Atmos-certified headphones, Atmos is entirely done in software and can work with any headphones (or speakers for that matter, assuming an Atmos-aware receiver (read: software)). On headphones of course this is simulated, but it is still more effective than just trying to add spatial qualities to music that was recorded and intended to be heard in normal stereo sound.
Atmos is actually object-based audio, as in, the audio signal includes data about what objects appear where in space at what times this allows your Atmos receiver to actually know where sounds are supposed to be coming from and is a very powerful effect that I don't find gimmicky.
Surround for games or movies is a different story. If anyone in Utah wants to try it on speakers instead of headphones you're welcome over!Īgreed, music done in spatial surround/Atmos is a gimmick, although I suspect it will be a successful one. Apple has the right idea being able to toggle between stereo and surround audio instead of them being listed as separate songs and albums. I wonder if most of these are checked on surround systems and not headphones? Downmixing to headphones is okay, more likely to sound a bit weird. A surround sound system with multiple speakers seems to work best, but the surround speakers seem to need to be higher than for movies. Like a tab or a setting where you can browse all atmos music by genre and popularity. Need a better way of discovering Atmos albums. Tidal's app is a mess on LG TVs and hardly better on mobile.
Maybe 8dB softer in Apple Music, and nearly 15dB softer in Tidal for surround audio. Half of what is available in surround/atmos sounds tonally different and there is a volume difference. Some over the older remasters of 80's music I don't. Some of Eilish's songs I like better in virtual surround over earphones. Listening to surround music on headphones isn't as good as binaural, especially not the Starkey Cetera treated stuff, but it works for the ones that were done well. Anyone trying Dolby Atmos music on a surround sound system or headphones? What did you think of the two?