3 ms·

This is such a scam. Atmos content sounds dreadful, and its just a last ditch to keep dolby relevant in the consumer space. Find a single audio engineer who sup

This is such a scam. Atmos content sounds dreadful, and its just a last ditch to keep dolby relevant in the consumer space. Find a single audio engineer who supports it, they are hens teeth and this is an advert.

MDGeist 3y ago
If anyone seems excited about Atmos its a handful of audio engineers. Most people aren't set up for Atmos mixing and so some see it as a way to differentiate their studios, but the reality is its very scammy and an Atmos set up is expensive.
bux93 3y ago
The basic idea of Atmos is having audio streams with spatial coordinates and then downmixing them to however many speakers you actually have and where ever they happen to be placed. That's a great idea (and basically how games have worked for donkeys years). But even if you do get the object-based streams, it still contains a "bed" of 7.1(.2) audio channels that still require precise placement of your speakers. Besides which, even 5.1 content is mixed horribly by content providers (use the center channel for dialogue, people! And lay off the explosions for a bit..) What makes it ultra disappointing, is that the atmos brand is just slapped on any old thing. If it's not in a cinema, it's not 128 objects, but maybe 20. If it's atmos music, it's something else. And how does a tiny soundbar deliver on immersive sound from all of those channels and objects? Well-mixed 5.1 is still a joy to hear.
RetpolineDrama 3y ago
> This is such a scam. Atmos content sounds dreadful Complete nonsense. Maybe on _your_ setup this is true, but that has nothing to do with ATMOS. It's funny because the absolute highest commercially-available quality out there at the moment is Apple Music's ATMOS tracks/high-resolution lossless. On a proper high-end system the difference is night and day. >Find a single audio engineer who supports it, they are hens teeth and this is an advert. I don't take people seriously who call themselves "engineers" who are not actually Engineers.
kuschku 3y ago
Atmos or DTS:X or Aura3D content sounds absolutely incredible, with a proper setup. And yet, most atmos mixes aren't very good. Even movies with good atmos mixes for cinema often have a shitty mix on streaming or BR with only the surround soundscape expanded into the overhead channels. And that's not a surprise — if you know the overhead and surround speakers are dedicated speakers of high quality, e.g. in cinemas, you can put dialogue and important audio onto these channels. But if the atmos and surround speakers might just be reflected from the ceiling or tiny satellites you obviously can't use them for audio that's essential for understanding the plot. And for music it's even worse, while some music was originally mixed for quadrophonic or 5.1 listening — kraftwerk 3D, pink floyd's dark side of the moon — most atmos mixes are just upmixed from the stereo mix and provide no benefit whatsoever. And so the way most people interact with atmos — cheap soundbars reflecting channels off the walls and lazy upmixes of pop music — provide no benefit whatsoever and just result in disillusionment. The same has already happened with 3D films (Avatar looked spectacular in 3D, but obviously if you watched 3D-converted films on a cheap TV it sucked) and is happening again with HDR content (properly mastered content on a mastering monitor or even a good 1000nits Rec.2020 OLED looks absolutely spectacular, but converted content on a 400nits IPS sRGB panel obviously sucks).
- RetpolineDrama 3y ago
  >most atmos mixes are just upmixed from the stereo mix and provide no benefit whatsoever. There is a large library of _freakin incredible_ made-for-spatial-audio tracks on Apple Music. It makes for a great demo when people come over, they're always blown away.
  - kuschku 3y ago
    Tbh, all the Apple Music tracks I've heard so far were absolutely underwhelming. If you can recommend some great tracks, please do tell!

MDGeist 3y ago

If anyone seems excited about Atmos its a handful of audio engineers. Most people aren't set up for Atmos mixing and so some see it as a way to differentiate their studios, but the reality is its very scammy and an Atmos set up is expensive.

bux93 3y ago

The basic idea of Atmos is having audio streams with spatial coordinates and then downmixing them to however many speakers you actually have and where ever they happen to be placed. That's a great idea (and basically how games have worked for donkeys years). But even if you do get the object-based streams, it still contains a "bed" of 7.1(.2) audio channels that still require precise placement of your speakers. Besides which, even 5.1 content is mixed horribly by content providers (use the center channel for dialogue, people! And lay off the explosions for a bit..) What makes it ultra disappointing, is that the atmos brand is just slapped on any old thing. If it's not in a cinema, it's not 128 objects, but maybe 20. If it's atmos music, it's something else. And how does a tiny soundbar deliver on immersive sound from all of those channels and objects? Well-mixed 5.1 is still a joy to hear.

RetpolineDrama 3y ago

> This is such a scam. Atmos content sounds dreadful Complete nonsense. Maybe on _your_ setup this is true, but that has nothing to do with ATMOS. It's funny because the absolute highest commercially-available quality out there at the moment is Apple Music's ATMOS tracks/high-resolution lossless. On a proper high-end system the difference is night and day. >Find a single audio engineer who supports it, they are hens teeth and this is an advert. I don't take people seriously who call themselves "engineers" who are not actually Engineers.

kuschku 3y ago

Atmos or DTS:X or Aura3D content sounds absolutely incredible, with a proper setup. And yet, most atmos mixes aren't very good. Even movies with good atmos mixes for cinema often have a shitty mix on streaming or BR with only the surround soundscape expanded into the overhead channels. And that's not a surprise — if you know the overhead and surround speakers are dedicated speakers of high quality, e.g. in cinemas, you can put dialogue and important audio onto these channels. But if the atmos and surround speakers might just be reflected from the ceiling or tiny satellites you obviously can't use them for audio that's essential for understanding the plot. And for music it's even worse, while some music was originally mixed for quadrophonic or 5.1 listening — kraftwerk 3D, pink floyd's dark side of the moon — most atmos mixes are just upmixed from the stereo mix and provide no benefit whatsoever. And so the way most people interact with atmos — cheap soundbars reflecting channels off the walls and lazy upmixes of pop music — provide no benefit whatsoever and just result in disillusionment. The same has already happened with 3D films (Avatar looked spectacular in 3D, but obviously if you watched 3D-converted films on a cheap TV it sucked) and is happening again with HDR content (properly mastered content on a mastering monitor or even a good 1000nits Rec.2020 OLED looks absolutely spectacular, but converted content on a 400nits IPS sRGB panel obviously sucks).

RetpolineDrama 3y ago
>most atmos mixes are just upmixed from the stereo mix and provide no benefit whatsoever. There is a large library of _freakin incredible_ made-for-spatial-audio tracks on Apple Music. It makes for a great demo when people come over, they're always blown away.
- kuschku 3y ago
  Tbh, all the Apple Music tracks I've heard so far were absolutely underwhelming. If you can recommend some great tracks, please do tell!