Universal Music to Remix Thousands of Songs Into Dolby Atmos

[Jeffrey Michael]

Huh?

There are six ceiling speakers in that pic.

Height speakers (upward-firing) don’t work.
I have them.

I didn’t say Dolby Atmos enabled speakers. Atmos calls for Dolby Atmos enabled (add-on modules) or ceiling speakers to work. Ceiling speakers can be part of the ceiling or mounted on it. From my experience, in three different small rooms, height speakers (speakers that are placed up high near the ceiling) can work quite well. In medium to large rooms, it may be a challenge.

 

[Eggplant]

I’m a little confused. “Atmos enabled” by Dolby’s own definition, simply means up-firing, and comtaining standard mounting brackets to easily allow that. Since we both agree that such speakers don’t seem to work as claimed, we’re talking about conventional speakers mounted in or near the ceiling,

 

[Jeffrey Michael]

I’m a little confused. “Atmos empnabled” by Dolby’s own definition, simply means up-firing, and comtaining standard mounting brackets to easily allow that. Since we both agree that such speakers don’t seem to work as claimed, we’re talking about conventional speakers mounted in or near the ceiling,

Not sure if you’re talking to me (no quote) but I was trying to explain that the photo shows height speakers up near the ceiling, angled downwards, towards the listening area. It looks great and I’m sure sound fantastic.

End of discussion for me since some people seem to be in a bitchy mood today...LOL

 

[ar surround]

Anyone hear of any progress towards issuing the thousands of songs in ATMOS?

 

[ubertrout]

So, it didn't occur to me at the time, but this and the fire are part and parcel of eachother, and it's not just PR. By all accounts the fire was mostly album masters, not multitracks, which had previously been moved to Iron Mountain. So they have a lot of albums which need to new masters. If you're rebuilding a stereo mix from the original multitracks anyway, the cost of making a MCH mix as well isn't that great - and you can license the result for use in movies, which is probably the main reason for the Atmos mixing - home multichannel listening without sync to video is likely an afterthought at most.

 

[Eggplant]

[QUOTE="ubertrout, post: 440687, member: 6430" By all accounts the fire was mostly album masters, not multitracks, which had previously been moved to Iron Mountain.[/QUOTE]

Where did you hear that?
Would be great news, but I haven’t read that anywhere.

 

[ubertrout]

Where did you hear that?
Would be great news, but I haven’t read that anywhere.

From the NY Times article - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html

Most of the session reels and multitracks stored on the backlot, about 250,000 tapes, were moved to the archive in Pennsylvania. This left approximately 120,000 masters — 175,000, if you accept Aronson’s estimate — in Building 6197.

 

[ubertrout]

In other words, many stereo and quad masters burned, but the multitracks may still survive. But that means the mixes need to be rebuilt.

 

[Eggplant]

In other words, many stereo and quad masters burned, but the multitracks may still survive. But that means the mixes need to be rebuilt.

Not only great news for us surround fans, but it will give vinyl nuts a new reason to crow about having “original mixes.” A little sumpn for everyone.

I hope artists’ suits over lost masters bankrupts Universal. Their careless storage of invaluable assets (original tapes) is the very definition of negligence.

 

[quicksrt]

Anyone hear of any progress towards issuing the thousands of songs in ATMOS?

Aaaauummmm, no.

 

[HomerJAU]

More info about the Miles Davis albums in Atmos, interesting read:
https://www.audiomediainternational...classic-pmcs-work-with-dolby-atmos-for-music/

 

[edisonbaggins]

More info about the Miles Davis albums in Atmos, interesting read:
https://www.audiomediainternational...classic-pmcs-work-with-dolby-atmos-for-music/

I hate to say I called it in the KoB/SoP Atmos thread. Microphone array in a live room...

 

[quicksrt]

Microphones, reverbs, room re-recording.... in other words “smoke and mirrors” for those not current on true surround mixing in 2019.

I’d rather just have three tracks in front of me playing like a master tape really plays.

 

[4-earredwonder]

I hate to say I called it in the KoB/SoP Atmos thread. Microphone array in a live room...

If you ask me, Mikey ........KoBullshit and Sketches of Pain! I agree with quicksrt on KoB but will still cherish my Monster Music 5.1 version of Sketches!

 

[salsdali]

How did you actually go about creating the Dolby Atmos mix?

Maurice: I took the three-tracks into Capitol, because for us and for Dolby, that is the absolute benchmark of quality recording studio. Me, Steve and Dave then started experimenting with the mix. I was confident that we would be able to show this off at the High End show due to it being such an iconic, prestigious album, with the Dolby Atmos mix being the show stopper. I wanted to be conservative and show audiences that you can utilise this technology to make old recordings come to life.

We had the original mono vinyls, stereo vinyl, the 1997 legacy stereo mixes, and went back to all of those. When we pulled the masters up in mono however, they were amazing, so we knew we couldn’t possibly screw this up. There was some hard panning going on with the stereo mix, so what we did with the mono was just open it up slightly, pan it a tiny bit and create the space with how we would imagine the setup to be in the studio.

Then we had to think about what Columbia Studios would’ve sounded like, because of course it doesn’t exist anymore. We didn’t have Columbia, but we did have Capitol. After we panned the masters in a way that we felt achieved proper imaging, we ended up taking two speakers, put them into Studio A – the large live room at Capitol – aimed them at the wall, and then together with Steve and Dave built a microphone arrangement that mimics where the speakers are in a Dolby Atmos environment. So we basically built a live chamber in an Atmos setup.

While we were listening back to it, we tried to create a sense of space, and by determining the distances between the microphones and the height we created a space around the original tracks. When we added that space into the speakers, it came together beautifully. We spent a lot of time balancing the reverbs so that it really felt like you were in the room, looking at the players with a huge sense of space, but in a very subtle kind of way. More importantly, we ended up making the mixes without EQ or compression so we feel like we stayed true to the original recordings, which were sensational!

 

[HomerJAU]

Maurice: A lot of people came in assuming that they weren’t going to like the mix because it wasn’t stereo. When we played it for them, they were shocked as we blew stereo out of the water. Everybody who heard it was very impressed and some of the reactions were incredible. We had nothing but amazingly positive reviews, but people weren’t so happy when we told them it wasn’t yet available!

 

[quicksrt]

The recording already has the distance from a player to the microphone imagining built right into it because that is what a proper recording does and is.

 

[quicksrt]

The recording already has the distance from a player to the microphone imagining built right into it because that is what a proper recording does and is.

But hey, maybe if they issue a MQA version of it, we will really hear the real deal!!!!!



I think I’m all done speaking about ATMOS (and MQA as well) until a Roger Waters, Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger, or a one of the other classic heavy weights announces their band’s participation in some serious remixing going on in the format. If The Final Cut or Animals gets the green light, or Physical Graffiti is up next then I’ll take notice and praise the efforts. Or if Steven Wilson gets the Zeppelin or Genesis (redo) gigs (in ATMOS) then we’ll know it’s for real.

But this “up-mixing, and MQA junk is really turning me off about now.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to my Dutton-Vocalian newest arrivals, all true and real surround mixes from real multitrack masters

 

[Jeffrey Michael]

I know this isn’t the MQA Thread (do we even have one?) but I have some splaining to do. When MQA was first announced, I was very interested. As time went by, I started seeing the MQA debunking start to happen. For the past couple of years, I’ve been skeptical. Recently, I started to watch some YouTube videos regarding MQA. In particular, the Hans Beekhuyzen channel. This guy seems intelligent, makes sense of the technical side of things and relays that into real-world understanding. As of now, I’m keeping an open mind. I’ve been following Bob Stuart for years and never saw him as a charlatan.

Anyway, I’m still waiting for these Universal remixed songs in Dolby Atmos, with baited breath.

 

[edisonbaggins]

I hate to throw a wet-blanket on anything surround, or Atmos, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that at least some of the Atmos effect for Abbey Road was done with a mic array in a live room, much like for KoB and SoS.
After all, Giles is familiar with the technique, as that's how the "surround" content was created for 1+...
As for me, if it's cool, it's cool. Don't care how it was done. I prefer bonkers Atmos, to ambient Atmos, but I'm keeping an open mind, mostly, as of yet.