splinter7
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
Somewhat of a different take for me.I don't want to be a Debbie downer here, but the Atmos version of Small Town is on Apple Music and it sounds like badly upmixed stereo. Have a listen before you pay a lot for the deluxe version.
While the mix takes little advantage of the rears from a discrete perspective, there seems to be an expanded front soundstage.
All the instruments seem to have more room to just be. Vocals and the thin sounding snare have been a bit devalued in the mix.
Left heights contain the tambourine, the backing vocal take from JM and the harmonica near the end of the song.
The right heights and the have the organ which bleeds back into the right rear.
The bass guitar & drum kick have more presence. Really like how I can hear the bass guitar riff now. The acoustic guitar strumming seems more defined as well.
Improvement on the original stereo mix - Thumbs up.
A good surround mix - not so much.
There is also an Atmos acoustic mix of the song available on Apple. A much starker, discrete version of the song.
As for the “American Fool” album,
The whole album is available with an Atmos version under the artist “John Cougar” moniker. Maybe a little more rear speaker use but again not so discrete. “Thundering Hearts” seems to be the most adventurous with the backing vocals, acoustic and second guitar partially balanced to the rears.