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

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Anyone else finding the Atmos mixes of these various WEA/Rhino singles half-baked? I've checked out Harry Chapin, KC & The Sunshine Band, Bread, Seals & Crofts, Dusty Springfield, etc and they sound like the original stereo mix in the front & height channels, plus some ambience in the rears. On the other hand, (half of) the Grateful Dead's American Beauty is a fully-realized Atmos mix with discrete content appearing in the rears and tops.
 
Anyone else finding the Atmos mixes of these various WEA/Rhino singles half-baked? I've checked out Harry Chapin. KC & The Sunshine Band, Bread, Seals & Crofts, Dusty Springfield, etc and they sound like the original stereo mix in the front & height channels, plus some ambience in the rears. On the other hand, (half of) the Grateful Dead's American Beauty is a fully-realized Atmos mix with discrete content appearing in the rears and tops.
Agree 100%. Many of the recently released tracks seem to have gotten the “Silverline” treatment. KC And The Sunshine Band should have been incredible. As for the older 60s tracks, we’ve heard how good the Motown ones have been, so that is my expectation.
 
Anyone else finding the Atmos mixes of these various WEA/Rhino singles half-baked? I've checked out Harry Chapin. KC & The Sunshine Band, Bread, Seals & Crofts, Dusty Springfield, etc and they sound like the original stereo mix in the front & height channels, plus some ambience in the rears. On the other hand, (half of) the Grateful Dead's American Beauty is a fully-realized Atmos mix with discrete content appearing in the rears and tops.
My setup is just 5.1 but I see tracks listed here and get excited and then go play them and I'm finding far more disappointments than surprises. I saw somebody raving about the McCartney ones and I find the first one to be a poor surround mix. Green Onions should have been awesome but I had to put my ear to one of the rear speakers to even be sure it wasn't playing in stereo. Very disappointing. I keep thinking maybe my setup got messed up but then will put on a known good mix and it all sounds fine. And to be fair, I have found some good mixes as well, but far too many useless ones.

K
 
Anyone else finding the Atmos mixes of these various WEA/Rhino singles half-baked? I've checked out Harry Chapin. KC & The Sunshine Band, Bread, Seals & Crofts, Dusty Springfield, etc and they sound like the original stereo mix in the front & height channels, plus some ambience in the rears. On the other hand, (half of) the Grateful Dead's American Beauty is a fully-realized Atmos mix with discrete content appearing in the rears and tops.
If I remember correctly, on the DVD of American Beauty, there is a small video interview with drummer Mickey Hart, him saying that he wanted the mix to sound the way he hears it on stage, with monitors behind him? So it is supposed to be rear heavy? Maybe I am wrong but I do remember something like that.
 
My setup is just 5.1 but I see tracks listed here and get excited and then go play them and I'm finding far more disappointments than surprises. I saw somebody raving about the McCartney ones and I find the first one to be a poor surround mix. Green Onions should have been awesome but I had to put my ear to one of the rear speakers to even be sure it wasn't playing in stereo. Very disappointing. I keep thinking maybe my setup got messed up but then will put on a known good mix and it all sounds fine. And to be fair, I have found some good mixes as well, but far too many useless ones.
Can't disagree but it's really not that different than the early days of SACD/DVD-A, when there were a lot of disappointing 5.1 mixes and and a handful of good ones. The major labels seemed to make more interesting use of the technology during the quad launch in the early '70s, though some of those early titles sound more like raw multitrack recordings than a fully-realized mix.

As for the two disappointing Atmos releases you cited (the 1970 McCartney album and Booker T's "Green Onions"), source limitations are probably more to blame than conservative mixing. That McCartney album was recorded on a 4-track machine at Paul's house, and I'm not even sure a true stereo mix of "Green Onions" exists (didn't they have to use DES or some other spectral extraction technology to create a stereo version?).
 
If I remember correctly, on the DVD of American Beauty, there is a small video interview with drummer Mickey Hart, him saying that he wanted the mix to sound the way he hears it on stage, with monitors behind him? So it is supposed to be rear heavy? Maybe I am wrong but I do remember something like that.
Not sure about the interview part, but the rears are definitely loaded on that one. Most of the vocals come from the rears. That’s one title where I think the rears are (almost) too overpowering.
 
If I remember correctly, on the DVD of American Beauty, there is a small video interview with drummer Mickey Hart, him saying that he wanted the mix to sound the way he hears it on stage, with monitors behind him? So it is supposed to be rear heavy? Maybe I am wrong but I do remember something like that.

Very happy to have physical disc of American Beauty. Holds it closely. Im 5.1 only also.

The Fleetwood Mac s/t is definitely a different listen/mix vs the 5.1 disc version also. Just first listen
 
Not sure about the interview part, but the rears are definitely loaded on that one. Most of the vocals come from the rears. That’s one title where I think the rears are (almost) too overpowering.
Both Dead 5.1's are definitely an interesting listen, they remind me a bit of the way Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland was mixed for 5.1 in that most of the instruments are imaged between the speakers. Guitars sort of hang out on the sides between front & rear, with the lead vocal appearing just behind or even inside your head. The whole soundstage kinda falls apart if you're too far outside the sweet spot. The center speaker does feature eerie isolated stuff though, like the mandolin in "Friend Of The Devil" or lead acoustic guitar in "Uncle John's Band".

I think I prefer the American Beauty Atmos tracks to the 5.1, lead vocals are mixed more traditionally to center front and it's too cool hearing the harmonies come from above.
 
Aint anything but lossless on this link in Australia.
I found the same thing then scrolled down and tried another version and found this deluxe edition was in atmos but missing the atmos tag

It seems if the album has non atmos tracks it doesn’t tag it at all
 
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