The New Frontier in Music

It’s like going from black and white to colour.

Can I move into your studio?

How am I supposed to listen to regular music now?

These are just some of the comments that artists and musicians make when they come in to listen to music in Dolby Atmos in our new Atmos mix room at The Record House. Clearly the experience is a special one.

Even though Dolby Atmos has been around for eight years, I found out that there were people who didn’t really know what it was. They probably heard movies in Atmos in the theatres but they weren’t necessarily aware of it.

Bringing this technology and medium to music opens up a whole new world of possibilities, both in terms of creation and experience.

From a very young age, I loved putting on my headphones and disappearing into the music. Very often I would listen with my eyes closed. Getting rid of the visual senses allowed for a deeper immersion and I would get lost in the record. Now with Dolby Atmos, music engulfs and washes over you like never before. The immersion is no longer something you have to imagine. It’s physically happening in the room.

That’s probably why everyone who hears music in Atmos for the first time is overcome by child-like excitement. It could be an A&R, manager, artist, or a civilian, they all get these big eyes and smiles, there is a lot of laughter and 'Whoas!'.

I decided to do Atmos remixes for a number of the artists I produced for the launch of AvidPlay’s Dolby Atmos support. During the playback sessions I was sitting back on the couch and they were sitting at console. I got the same exact reaction from two artists on the same day. Just as the first chorus hit, they turned around with amazement pointing to the goose bumps on their forearm!

Beto Vargas

Buel

I mixed four singles by four different artists and a score album. The artists are Beto Vargas, Jessica Mar, Camie Llano and Buel. The score album is by Juan Cortes, a composer in our collective. I highly recommend getting an Amazon Music HD or Tidal Hi-Fi membership to listen to Atmos songs that already exist on their service. Universal has been doing catalog work for a couple of years now so you’ll find more songs in Atmos then you’d expect. Tidal is a bit more friendly in terms of playback choices, if you have an existing home theatre sound setup, it might be the way to go.

Camie Llano

Jessica Mar

For the skeptics that are not sure if music in Atmos is worth in consumer products or headphones, I’ll say a couple of things.

First of all, we got our dynamics back, which is amazing! Dolby set a new loudness standard for Atmos mixes and we no longer have to squash our mixes to get them 'radio ready'. I was happy with the stereo mixes I did for these artists but comparing them with the Atmos version on headphones, I like the Atmos versions more! Since we are not squashing the mix, the choruses pop more and it has more impact. Plus you have an LFE channel, fun!

Juan Cortes

Secondly, the consumer electronics are getting very smart. These speakers will figure out if it’s sitting in the corner of the room or in the middle of it, and will adjust it’s playback accordingly. In a conversation, Steve Genewick, an engineer at Capitol Studios, mentioned how the designers for Amazon's Echo Studio made adjustments to their speaker after listening to it at Capitol.

Of course nothing beats having good quality speakers around you. So if you have a decent home theatre setup, look into adding some upfiring speakers. Alternatively you can befriend a music studio with Atmos capability for some after hours music hang!