Dolby Atmos is a phrase you’ll stumble upon if you happen to’re purchasing for a brand contemporary TV, soundbar or house theater speakers. An extension of the more former 5.1-channel surround sound, Dolby Atmos goals to own a more immersive journey by alongside with top channels to mixes, rising a ‘dome’ construct that envelops you.
Dolby Atmos has now turn out to be a staple characteristic of house theater tech by inspiring virtual processing by one of the most most effective soundbars, such as the Sonos Beam Gen 2, and in bodily own by one of the most most effective Dolby Atmos soundbars, such as the fine Samsung HW-Q990D, which uses up-firing drivers on the soundbar itself and the system’s wi-fi surround speakers.
When I’m reviewing a soundbar, related to one in every of the most effective TVs that enhance Dolby Atmos, the Dolby Atmos sound provides a brand contemporary layer to the viewing journey, with the added top outcomes in scenes such as the Batmobile streak in The Batman and the closing Loss of life Smartly-known particular person attack inSmartly-known particular person Wars: A Unusual Hope getting an even more immersive quality.
It’s no shock then that Dolby Atmos has prolonged past movies into music and likewise podcasts and audiobooks. Fundamental tracks are even now being given the Atmos therapy on streaming web sites such as Tidal and Apple Song (you possibly can simply check it assuredly known as Spatial Audio in some instances).
As frequent as it’s turn out to be, Atmos music has no longer in any appreciate convinced me. It’s magnificent to claim I’ve always been more of a traditionalist, preferring taking note of a place of the most effective stereo speakers crooked up to an amp whereas I crank out Born to Hurry by Bruce Springsteen for the hundredth time. For me, Dolby Atmos no longer in any appreciate added remarkable to that journey, and really, I’ve understanding it’s over tough things every now and then. Call me primitive-usual!
But then, I had a possibility to thought what goes into the Dolby Atmos production process for music, podcasts and audiobooks at Dolby Europe’s HQ in Soho, London, and the total lot modified.
The place the magic happens
Dolby’s 9.1.4-channel Atmos production room is compact, comfortable and completely place up for audio mixing. One thing unsurprising when I seen how remarkable work went into its 34-speaker reference theater.
My journey started, of all things, with a Dolby Atmos audiobook clip of a personality time-touring. Because the time machine activated, a swirl of sound encapsulated the room, with pulsing noises and the restful inform of the time traveler rising a Physician Who-esque atmosphere. But one more personality’s inform chimed in from within the abet of, giving a real sense of house and appealing me within the movement. It in actuality felt care for a movie.
Quickly after, I heard a clip from one other podcast/audiobook, this one a militia drama the place the tips interior a personality’s head roamed across the room. I heard footsteps in actuality spicy the dimensions of the room as whispering, buzzing voices dotted at some level of.
It used to be fantastic to hear these audiobooks tackle a existence of their own, giving me that similar sense of immersion I’d felt watching movies with Dolby Atmos soundtracks.
Hit the music
Next came music. The first video display that used to be played used to be Believer by Imagine Dragons. It’s a video display with remarkable production and a stadium-sized atmosphere and each element sounded balanced. The drums thumped the bottom, hand claps have been accurately placed alongside with the room and the layered vocals came at me from at some level of, engulfing the room and sounding extremely neat.
It didn’t shock me that a contemporary video display care for Believer sounded huge in Atmos, however when the following video display, Elton John’s Rocket Man, used to be queued up, I was unfamiliar to hear how an older video display remixed for Atmos would fare. This used to be the place my thought of Dolby Atmos music in actuality modified.
Rocket Man in Atmos conveyed the atmosphere of house and expanded it on a immense scale. The poke guitars inclined to own the sound of stars and ships panned from the abet to the entrance of the room, passing overhead by the highest channels. The bass and pianos sounded effectively-balanced and when a choir of voices subtly appeared within the combo, it used to be one thing I had no longer in any appreciate seen sooner than when taking note of the video display.
The house opera feel of Rocket Man being given the sense of scale that Elton John had supposed when he first wrote it used to be, for me, the ideal demonstration of what Dolby Atmos can form for music. Crucially, the buttery restful, warmth quality of the distinctive recording used to be easy current – as if the distinctive vinyl used to be taking part in on a Linn turntable by some Wharfedale speakers in a Seventies UK lounge.
As this all came about, a visible conceal above the production room’s mixing board adopted the movement of the sound substances across the speakers, showing factual how remarkable detail went into a Dolby Atmos mix.
Final tips
My time in Dolby’s Atmos production room at final opened my tips to Dolby Atmos music. To obtain its factual advantages, on the opposite hand, it is advisable a system that can perhaps perhaps adequately play it to its fleshy capabilities, with fleshy surround sound and overhead top speakers, and that admittedly won’t be low-trace.
Does this suggest I’m done with stereo? No, no longer by a lengthy shot. But it does suggest I must be all ears to more Dolby Atmos music – somebody obtain me some Bowie. In phrases of Atmos music, as the Monkees once sang, “now I’m a believer”.
