A new Canvas
“Dolby Atmos Music is an immersive music experience that adds more space, clarity, and depth to your music. Instead of just hearing your music — with Dolby, it feels like you’re inside the song.”
This quote is taken from Dolby’s own website.
The famous Dolby Atmos mixing studio at STMPD Amsterdam. Photo courtesy of Pinna Acoustics
For all of you who are not familiar with Dolby Atmos, do not be worried… I don’t blame you. As a music engineer, I have no idea how well known it is outside of my bubble. I’ll give a short introduction. Since 1958 the audio of the music we listen to is in stereo. Stereophonic sound is achieved by playing back two different channels of audio on two loudspeakers (or a pair of headphones). This creates a sense of depth and width to the sound. The limitation of stereo is that the sound can only come from the space between the two speakers.
In Dolby Atmos, using a lot more than two audio channels, combined with a smart way of “encoding” them, the sound can come from anywhere around the listener - immersing them in it. The format works on any kind of setup and adapts to the system it is played on - every modern smartphone is equipped with the capability of playing Dolby Atmos. The minimum you need is a decent pair of headphones or earbuds. The first Dolby Atmos mix was made for the film Brave, back in 2012. Since then, a huge amount of legacy albums, but also new productions, have been mixed to Atmos. Despite the usual controversy about something new, and a dose of hesitation from both engineers and musicians, there are some incredible Atmos mixes out there, and some mixes that sound shit (but hey…. the same goes for stereo doesn’t it?).
I have watched this “Spatial Audio” development from the sidelines for a couple of years. I’ve attended a demo from one of the guys from Dolby in Wisseloord Studios some years back. I’ve talked to other engineers in the industry, but never really made up my mind whether it’s worth working with in my corner of the business. Of course my nerd-side was intrigued… more speakers?! Yes please! Honestly, it can sound absolutely fantastic! And the technology behind it is equally mind-bending.
The last few days I have given it some more thought… and at the end of this little article I will explain why. My take on it is the following: the “stereophonic canvas” has been the only option for artists for a very long time. Save some obscure experiments. Dolby Atmos provides the artist with another way of presenting their music. A different type of canvas, that can inspire way different ways of approaching the artefact of recorded music. The canvas is not merely in front of the audience (like with stereophonic), it is a three dimensional room surrounding them. Spatial Audio is a movement away from the fast-food type consumption of music and audio, giving the listener a deeper experience. It can be successful - if artists collectively embrace it and unite in the pursuit of teaching their listeners it’s worth striving for higher fidelity audio!
I’m not so much interested in legacy recordings of classic records that are now “translated” to Atmos. Those productions were made with stereo in mind. I await eagerly to see what the artists of today do with it. What creative choices and ideas come up outside of the tech-nerd sphere. I hope it inspires creativity. I also hope it marks a new and fruitful option in the movement away from how mp3’s degenerated the value of recorded music and moved artists to record in their living room on tiny budgets…
The lovely team at STMPD Studios in Amsterdam has asked me to join a big mixing project - all in Dolby Atmos. Their Dolby Atmos Mix Stage (yes the one in that space-ship image above!!!) is among the very best in the world, being one out of only 9 awarded with the prestigious Atmos Premier Studio certification worldwide. I’ll share more about this specific project once the work has actually started, but for now it has led me to dive into the technicalities and challenges of this new format. I revel in the nerdy enthusiasm it has sparked within me… My imagination is trying to wrap itself around all the things I could do with this new skill and new format… and what it could mean to my ongoing research on music and the magical world. I equally look forward to exploring the possibilities of Spatial Audio in the production projects that I work on.
If you are interested or have more questions about the things I’m saying here, do write me an e-mail! I’d be happy to be in conversation about it all - from any point of view.
