Listening to in Dolby Atmos Streaming, via Tidal/Apple/Amazon

[PurpleMoustache]

Aphex Twin and Joshua Tree Please!

God Aphex Twin in Atmos would rule. There was that fake-mix of Selected Ambient Works 85-92 that went up… and then down, but that’s all we’ve seen.

If it were to come (and Richard is… elusive, so likely to not) I’d assume it would only be things from I Care Because You Do onward. My understanding is Richard didn’t especially care about recording quality until about then, and so any usable material for a surround mixer wouldn’t exist.

I would have thought his new EP this year would have been a perfect release to tinker with Atmos, but alas… that being said; the marketing for that EP: posters around the world, QR code art installation pieces at festivals, an AR app that has different effects when pointed at different pieces of art for the EP etc all seems perhaps overkill for an EP shorter than 20 minutes, perhaps there’s more coming.

 

[fredblue]

One thing that really impressed me about this Atmos mix is how well it translates. It sounds phenomenal on my 7.1.4 mixing setup and on my AirPods Pro. I will tell you from experience, that's quite hard to achieve. Greg Penny is really, really, really good at this.

so far just about the only thing i've encountered i think is maybe (an admittedly very minor step backwards in Surround-y-ness because in other respects when it gets cooking the track is totally unbelievably Surround-y!!) is Ray's tambourine no longer whizzes round the room in "Alice" as it did in the old 5.1 but is now static up in the Centre Front

other than that.. absolutely bleedin' marvellous job by Mr. Penny!!

i hope someday all Sir Elton's albums can be released in Atmos to a similar standard with the same attention to detail.. pretty please with farfisa organs rotating clockwise in the top speakers?!

 

[tlake6659]

The Mars Volta - Deloused In the Comatorium
Mix by Collin Alpern
https://tidal.com/album/318528597

Shame that it is a lousy mix. Could have and should have been crazy good. Nice to hear the album with some dynamics though.

 

[Dan T]

I was glad to see it's not just me. The balance of the elements in the mix is completely fucked. Also everything sounds compressed ASF.

I'm enjoying listening to this but that's just because I know every note on this album and I'm hearing all kinds of new things. I'm just not sure what I'm listening to exactly.

Yeah. Me too. The mix literally rips the groove out of some of the tracks. Money don’t matter comes out unscathed but Cream especially loses a lot.

I’m all for Atmos (that’s why I’m here) but it has to be sympathetic to the artists original intentions and not just an excuse to isolate stuff and spread it all over the sound field, or you lose the cohesion of the original.

 

[HomerJAU]

? Tell us more. How are you streaming TrueHD? Where?

It was a just stupid comment referring to Elton's post about being able to listen to his biggest album 'High Definition Audio"

 

[scooob]

Super full and pleasing Atmos mix. The pre-release reviews on this had me worried it was going to be a snoozer of an album but it’s great.

Enjoying this very much, musically. The mix, on my 5.1 system with an old non-Atmos-capable receiver, sounds good overall but has a few quirks. Most of the songs have little to nothing going on in the center channel, and it's quite rear-heavy, so it kind of sounds like an old-school quad mix in that respect (except with a lot of volume in the sub). The rear-heavy aspect may be due to my setup -- some, though not all, Atmos mixes render that way on a non-Atmos receiver, I've found; my understanding is that it mostly has to do with how much content is assigned to the sides.

I also heard a weird, sudden volume drop in the track Cousin, around the 1:39 mark.

Again, at this early point of hearing it through only a couple times, I really like the album, more than most recent Wilco albums that I've heard. And the mix is still quite enjoyable, despite the limitations of my system. But I am wondering how the mix sounds to others, either in 5.1 or Atmos?

 

[humprof]

Enjoying this very much, musically. The mix, on my 5.1 system with an old non-Atmos-capable receiver, sounds good overall but has a few quirks. Most of the songs have little to nothing going on in the center channel, and it's quite rear-heavy, so it kind of sounds like an old-school quad mix in that respect (except with a lot of volume in the sub). The rear-heavy aspect may be due to my setup -- some, though not all, Atmos mixes render that way on a non-Atmos receiver, I've found; my understanding is that it mostly has to do with how much content is assigned to the sides.

I also heard a weird, sudden volume drop in the track Cousin, around the 1:39 mark.

Again, at this early point of hearing it through only a couple times, I really like the album, more than most recent Wilco albums that I've heard. And the mix is still quite enjoyable, despite the limitations of my system. But I am wondering how the mix sounds to others, either in 5.1 or Atmos?

I'd say your impressions aren't off-base. I'm listening on a 5.1.4 system and finding much the same: there's little--nothing?--in the center channel, so on the horizontal plane it does bear comparison to a quad mix, especially insofar as the rears contain lots of musical info. And since that info is on par, volume-wise, with the fronts, it may come off as "rear-heavy" by comparison with a lot of other modern mixes. I'm finding full use of the overheads: the front heights copy much of what's in the main fronts, while the rears feature more "discrete" accents and effects. Overall I don't find it imbalanced. I like it a lot.

 

[woody]

I was glad to see it's not just me. The balance of the elements in the mix is completely fucked. Also everything sounds compressed ASF.

I'm enjoying listening to this but that's just because I know every note on this album and I'm hearing all kinds of new things. I'm just not sure what I'm listening to exactly.

I may be the only person that really likes it.

Caveat however is that I have never listened to the album on a high-end stereo set-up.

I was scared it was going to be too bland, so I am happy with the level of channel separation.

 

[The Bright Side]

I may be the only person that really likes it.

Caveat however is that I have never listened to the album on a high-end stereo set-up.

I was scared it was going to be too bland, so I am happy with the level of channel separation.

I never heard anything from the Prince album ever before, so I have no point of reference. Enjoying the sh!t out of this!

 

[admsh]

Yeah. Me too. The mix literally rips the groove out of some of the tracks. Money don’t matter comes out unscathed but Cream especially loses a lot.

I’m all for Atmos (that’s why I’m here) but it has to be sympathetic to the artists original intentions and not just an excuse to isolate stuff and spread it all over the sound field, or you lose the cohesion of the original.

Cream is one of the worst offenders, but it's everything. All of the intricacies of the original mix are pushed to the background. It sounds like a mistake to me, to be honest. The best way I can describe it is as if I'm trying to listen on a plane without noise cancelling. I just tried again and switched to the original in the middle of cream I just can't listen to this. Such a huge shame.

I totally understand why someone who's hearing it for the first time likes it, and there's some really cool shit happening with sounds moving back and forth, but bear in mind this is not what this album is supposed to sound like and you're missing so much amazing stuff.

 

[fredblue]

 

[fredblue]

 

[fredblue]

 

[haikubass]

Chromeo - Adult Contemporary
4 tracks so far

 

[ted_b]

So, what's everyone think? Interesting......

 

[haikubass]

Leftroman - Black Hole Reverb
Highly aggressive mix! Hi-res Atmos download available at IAA
https://tidal.com/album/298264091

 

[timhoover]

Wilco - Evicted
1st single, album's out at the end of September.

This entire album is now available and I'm loving the mix. The first track, Infintie Surprise makes great use of the heights, surrounds and rears! So cool to hear one of my all-time favourite groups embracing Atmos!

 

[LennonCobain]

https://tidal.com/album/314299504

 

[Blackwood]

Leftroman - Black Hole Reverb
Highly aggressive mix! Hi-res Atmos download available at IAA
https://tidal.com/album/298264091

Me: “Leftroman"
Apple TV: Left romain

Me: (really fast) “Leftroman”
Apple TV: Left romain

Me: "Leftro (pause) man"
Apple TV: Left romain

Me: “Black Hole Reverb"
Apple TV: Left romain... nah, just messing with you... here’s the album you want...

Ok, the last one from Apple TV was a lie, but it did finally show up as the Top Result.

As for Leftroman... yeah... a fun one in Atmos so far.

(BTW, if you follow through and search on “left romain”, you don’t even get a valid song or album, but you do get the artist Romain who has nothing in Atmos.)

 

[Ephi82]

Has anyone heard anything about the possibility of improved resolution for streaming ATMOS?

Someone over on Hoffman posted about how crappy streaming sounds compared to BluRay. So, I did something really stupid cause I already knew the answer.

I pulled out my BluRay with Abbey Road in ATMOS and played it. I had the same recording going on Apple Music on my AppleTV and I switched back and forth, adjusting to make sure they were at the same volume.

I’m ruined. The difference was astounding. Easiest example is the ability to hear the sound of the room on the Blu-ray and lucious reverb tails.

Streaming, not so much.

I’m still going to stream, and I will enjoy, but yes, streaming ATMOS has a longggggggg way to go. I hope someone’s started the journey over at Dolbyville.