ATMOS doesn't make sense, and it's not a clickbait

TLDR - Atmos experience is "something extra" artists won't pay more, won't get higher royalties, listeners don't really care aside from initial wow effects which quickly gets annoying at best, mixes don't really sound any better and by no means get loan to give money to greedy speaker manufacturers buying 12-14 speakers instead of 2, when you and artist are by no means getting paid 7x more, bunch of clown stuff altogether

 

Last edited: Jun 15, 2023

I don't think the money aspect hold the line just like owning any other niche gear but it's pretty much anything, sound wise, as we speak.
I heard some nice Classical and Movie recording in Atmos and some horrible rock and urban music mixes as well. It is true that the listener still aren't there yet but a niche of Hi-fi listeners just like the Surround thing never really catch up.
I'm with him in thinking that as we speak, there's no real reason to invest in a rig and I don't see that coming anytime soon.
Not once was I asked by any labels to deliver an Atmos mix. Those are sparse and I believe they are expected when the engineer is known to have a rig. If not, I never felt it was ever a constrain to get some contracts.

 

I wouldn't say ATMOS doesn't make sense. But I would agree that it doesn't make sense for popular music. Other media like film or video games may benefit more.

 

It's driven by Dolby. Not by creators nor the audience/public. It will most likely become the "3D glasses" sooner than later. IMO.

 

let's clarify something - Atmos is a proprietary licensed format with its dedicated proprietary licensed encoders and decoders, in a proprietary licensed environment (if you want Atmos certified mixing or listening room, either as an engineer or audiophile listener) to provide a platform for object based immersive audio,

if spatial audio itself is or isn't useless is a different topic, vast majority of games already utilize it, binaural and ambisonics too, even home 5.1/7.1 and cinemas all provide spatial audio for years already

 

I was not talking about spatial audio, but explicitly about Dolby ATMOS. Which makes sense especially for movies and games. But in my opinion not for music. At least here I prefer to mix the elements to the speaker positions and not vectors.

 

Welcome to the week end

 

I did my studio upgrade to 5.1 back in 2007. Since then the only time I have used 5.1 is for audio for video projects - i.e. mixing for video/film. It seems ever since the whole surround audio thing happened for home theater which really started around the turn of the millennium there was a somewhat silent parallel secondary market for pure audio albums mixed in surround - namely Dolby AC-3 (5.1, 7.1) surround and DTS when it came into vogue. I picked up a few of these "mixes" of older stereo releases - some of which sounded "ok" and some totally sucked. I picked up a few mixes of newer stereo releases as well and the result was just a large mixed bag... However good some of these mixes sounded they will never be much more than a novelty in comparison to the original stereo audio releases.

I am seeing dolby atmos in the EXACT same light already having been thru one of these waves of "the next new greatest audio experience"... I do not plan to upgrade anything in my studio for atmos as most of my clientele are either uninterested or completely happy with the current 5.1 mix service I provide. I do not believe atmos will be a "thing" until you have full blown AFFORDABLE true atmos systems becoming available for home theater. The specs for true certified 5.1 surround were strict enough. I find it difficult to believe that atmos will become malleable enough to apply to most folks' square and bare living rooms and still adhere to the performance specs expected by dolby for 3 times the amount of audio elements in an untreated and unmodified room layout. Unless atmos is "made to conform" in a similar way that 5.1 has been it will remain a tool for the rich and well to do only. It's just too many audio elements pushing out sound in an uncontrolled space and too expensive currently to be viable.

 

Last edited: Jun 15, 2023

i didnt need a video to make up my mind.
36 speakers in a room, in the times where people listen to music in mono with their tiny "connected speaker".

 

I don't operate in a world where Atmos is a thing. It's just a light on my receiver when I stream certain content.

 

It does for movie theaters (but its sensible, and solely depends on the movie), and commercial audio equipment manufactures who paste the 'Atmos' label on their cheap ass product and sell it to the people who doesn't have a slightest clue of what it is.

 

3d glasses is a bit of a stretch, because we can all probably concur that was an absolutely worthless fad. I think iMax would be a more accurate comparison. Prohibitively expensive tech for almost all regular consumers, and an overhyped niche.

 

Man, speak for yourself. I love 3D. Tron Legacy has no reason to exist except in 3D.

 

Benn Jordan is always making some absolute bullseye videos, love his channel, also love his music as The Flashbulb

 

oh yeah, how many years did it take people to realize that atmos, initially made for films, didn't make sense at all for music... like 10-15 years??

 

Don't get me started on this one.
6-channel didn't catch on 20 years ago, so they now try 11-channel.
While it would be nice to consume music in multichannel formats (I have some awesome depeche mode and yello stuff), not even enthusiasts have more than 2 decent speakers. Those who had 5.1 decades ago, had 6 bad speakers for DVD or gaming.
Today people buy soundbars for 2000 bucks with an atmos logo. Colorful commercials show how little beams of audio bounce from walls and cielings and as noone knows what the precedence effect is, people think now they have multichannel audio.
the pros know it's BS and do what? Save monney. By not producing multichannel content the proper way, but by upmixing their stereofiles in nugens halo upmix. Something a proper atmos reciever with proper multichannelsetup does with the press of a button.
Now for the worst part: While being made for theatrical mixes, the way atmos is mixed for theaters today totally sucks.
To show off, everything is coming from behind. Its like they could carry out left and right speakers. dialog comes from center (too low), sounddesign and music comes from back and above. Great! Seeing things explode in front of me and hearing it from behind. "Look, mum, I have a joystick in my desk, I can make things be heard from behind! Look!!1!"

 

There have been a bunch of critical videos for Dolby Atmos on YT recently. While they do have some good points, the true situation is likely somewhere between overly critical & overly opimistic.

Keep in mind, YT content creators have an incentive to make (critical) videos to get that sweet ad money, and the truth gets compromised,

 

agreed. but the truth is that atmos makes no sense for music, unless it is a live performance of it (and it is more of use to give ambient, rather than uplift the art)

 

In my experience, multi channel setups for movies or music need to be setup completely differently, and who's going to shell out for a high end 5.1 (or more) system in a dedicated music room? Only a studio.