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I enjoy actual 5.1 music which was briefly a thing in the 200s. There are a few albums recorded this way -- Tipper's Surrounded, Opeth, one or two Mastodon, a M

I enjoy actual 5.1 music which was briefly a thing in the 200s. There are a few albums recorded this way -- Tipper's Surrounded, Opeth, one or two Mastodon, a Muse album or two. I've seen a lot of BS marketing stuff with stereo + some effects being labelled as 5.1 or 7.1. What is Dolby Atmos? I went to https://www.dolby.com/technologies/dolby-atmos/ https://www.dolby.com/technologies/dolby-atmos/ but it doesn't really tell you. In my dreams it is music recorded with surround channels and then an technology that plays it back through two speakers using an IMU so you can turn your head and hear different stuff. In reality, it's probably a BS effect... somebody, please reply if you actually know. (Not guess, actually know. Futile, I know -- I'm going to get lots of guesses as replies because that's what always happens on HN.)

kleinsch 5y ago
Here’s how I understand Atmos. A long time ago, surround was based on how the wires were hooked up, so first we had 2 channels, then 2.1, 5.1, etc. So your recording might have a left, right, rear channel, but the channels had to be globally defined and premixed. Your audio file would say “play A out of the speaker, B out the right speaker.” Atmos is redoing that for digital, so you can say that a channel or sound is positioned at a point in space, and your receiver or device figures out which speakers to use to present it. Your audio file says “play A 10’ left of the listener, play B 10’ right of the user.”
- foobarbecue 5y ago
  So it's a format that contains as many audio streams as you want, and each stream has an associated 3d position vector?
foobarbecue 5y ago
I'm not sure why I didn't think to go to wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Atmos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Atmos says it's a format that stores up to 128 audio channels with 3d spatial information for each. Pretty cool!

kleinsch 5y ago

Here’s how I understand Atmos. A long time ago, surround was based on how the wires were hooked up, so first we had 2 channels, then 2.1, 5.1, etc. So your recording might have a left, right, rear channel, but the channels had to be globally defined and premixed. Your audio file would say “play A out of the speaker, B out the right speaker.” Atmos is redoing that for digital, so you can say that a channel or sound is positioned at a point in space, and your receiver or device figures out which speakers to use to present it. Your audio file says “play A 10’ left of the listener, play B 10’ right of the user.”

foobarbecue 5y ago
So it's a format that contains as many audio streams as you want, and each stream has an associated 3d position vector?

foobarbecue 5y ago

I'm not sure why I didn't think to go to wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Atmos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Atmos says it's a format that stores up to 128 audio channels with 3d spatial information for each. Pretty cool!