KVR Audio

Ploki · Post by **Ploki** » Sun Nov 21, 2021 7:52 pm

I'm thinknig maybe AirPods Max instead of the usual suspect headphones.

I have made a handful of 5.1 cinema mixes, but my studio is only Stereo (i did those on cinema stages and larger studios), so i know my way around surround.

But because I still think it's a gimmick that will die out i'm not ready to tear down my studio to install a 5.1.2 system

sircuit · Post by **sircuit** » Tue Nov 23, 2021 12:07 pm

No way you will ever get a good atmos mix in headphones. We don’t currently have a proper tech to do perfect hrtf curves. Build the smallest 7.1.2 possible, will worth the effort, atmos is not a gimmick imho

Ploki · Post by **Ploki** » Tue Nov 23, 2021 12:37 pm

sircuit wrote: Tue Nov 23, 2021 12:07 pm No way you will ever get a good atmos mix in headphones. We don’t currently have a proper tech to do perfect hrtf curves. Build the smallest 7.1.2 possible, will worth the effort, atmos is not a gimmick imho

Atmos isnt, but spatial audio in context of tidal/apple music?

Smallest possible to utilize my trio11 main pair would be 7 focal solos (7000€ ouch), but trios are soffited and to get a decent distance in my room i’d need to soffit all of them - esp top speakers.

I’m not sure if this is a good investment or if the atmos for music will REALLY catch on

sircuit · Post by **sircuit** » Tue Nov 23, 2021 2:35 pm

Spatial audio is made using Dolby ATMOS. Exactly the same tech. No other tech actually exists for it. And for you to properly place objects, you’ll need true spatial monitoring. You also need to eq and compress - headphhones simply won’t cut it

Ploki · Post by **Ploki** » Tue Nov 23, 2021 3:36 pm

sircuit wrote: Tue Nov 23, 2021 2:35 pm Spatial audio is made using Dolby ATMOS. Exactly the same tech. No other tech actually exists for it. And for you to properly place objects, you’ll need true spatial monitoring. You also need to eq and compress - headphhones simply won’t cut it

Yeah you’re right on all counts.

Do you think spatial audio/atmos for music will stick?

sircuit · Post by **sircuit** » Tue Nov 23, 2021 3:56 pm

Apple promotes new albums on their newsletters/welcome screens in music app etc only if they have atmos (spatial as they call it) mix. So yes, will stick.

Also atmos mix is not speaker dependent. If you have headphones is folds down for headphones. If you have stereo, 2.1, 5.1, 7.1 you will have the coresponding mixdown. And for 7.1.2, 7.1.4, etc, the objects just scale according to the setup. All these from a single file. And that file must be done right, in order to scale properly.

Is quite a big achievement from Dolby. 5.1 is very rigid, highly speaker dependent so of course it didnt catch up. Atmos is like stereo was for mono back in the day.

Ploki · Post by **Ploki** » Tue Nov 23, 2021 6:00 pm

sircuit wrote: Tue Nov 23, 2021 3:56 pm Apple promotes new albums on their newsletters/welcome screens in music app etc only if they have atmos (spatial as they call it) mix. So yes, will stick.

Also atmos mix is not speaker dependent. If you have headphones is folds down for headphones. If you have stereo, 2.1, 5.1, 7.1 you will have the coresponding mixdown. And for 7.1.2, 7.1.4, etc, the objects just scale according to the setup. All these from a single file. And that file must be done right, in order to scale properly.

Is quite a big achievement from Dolby. 5.1 is very rigid, highly speaker dependent so of course it didnt catch up. Atmos is like stereo was for mono back in the day.

I'm aware of the object oriented nature of Atmos yes, and I agree - it's most likely the next step of audio delivery (if anything will ever be)

The thought of "hey what if i mix this on headphones using logic's renderer" crossed my mind because apple also more or less advertises spatial for AirPods right now.
Most releases however to me sound shit and the renderer is weird AF, it has some weird short room delay over everything to give you "spatial" experience but it also kills anything that you want dry and upfront. It doesn't work well with punchy electronic pop.

sircuit · Post by **sircuit** » Tue Nov 23, 2021 6:46 pm

It works when mixed properly, just check The Weeknd atmos mixes done by John Hanes (partner of Serban Ghenea). Problem is that Apple doesnt use the binaural mix from atmos fold down, they have some own way of folding down and they mess the headphone mixes. However, the speaker deliveries are properly atmos so you can really hear how good a mix is. It would be no problem in the future for apple to switch to dolby folddown all the way, so i don’t see it an issue

Headphones for Atmos mixing