Dolby Atmos Music on Blu-ray

[MagnumX]

I just listened to Yello's Point album in Dolby Atmos yet again tonight. It gets better every listen. It gets my vote for best Atmos music album I've heard yet and even the best disc to demo Atmos for that matter (better than any Atmos movie and better than either of Booka Shade's two Atmos albums). It's just a crazy surround extravaganza! I had it cranked to almost Atmos reference level (-2db) with bass boosted +4dB across 17.1 speakers. It's SIMPLY AWESOME and well worth the price to import (really wasn't bad through JPC.de since they remove the VAT and that more or less covered most of the shipping. I think it was $32 shipped total.

I've got Yello's "Essentials" CD coming tomorrow (seems most of their 90s and earlier albums are out of print or selling at insane prices and I hate to get music on iTunes when they're typically remastered for "loud". I think I have one of Yello's albums on LP somewhere hiding in the house too from way back when....

I've also got the two most recent Delerium albums coming (lost track of them for awhile now, but have most of their prior albums as Karma is still one of my all time favorites) plus the soundtrack to Das Boot in addition to Hanz Zimmer in Atmos.

 

[marpow]

I watched/listened to Hans Zimmer-Live In Prague, super good.
The video portion is highly entertaining, the musicians are all extremely talented, I recognized one of the lead guitar players from the band called The Aristocats. Hans Zimmer himself highly talented.
I knew of all the song selections but at same time new none of them as musical scores are not something that I ever listen to.
The audio portion was superb in Dolby Atmos. The 5.1 foundation mostly what you listen to and when Atmos kicks in they primaly used, in my case the two rear ceiling heights (I have 4 ceiling heights).
My first Hans Zimmer recording and highly recommend for sound and vision.

 

[mrcond]

I watched/listened to Hans Zimmer-Live In Prague, super good.
The video portion is highly entertaining, the musicians are all extremely talented, I recognized one of the lead guitar players from the band called The Aristocats. Hans Zimmer himself highly talented.
I knew of all the song selections but at same time new none of them as musical scores are not something that I ever listen to.
The audio portion was superb in Dolby Atmos. The 5.1 foundation mostly what you listen to and when Atmos kicks in they primaly used, in my case the two rear ceiling heights (I have 4 ceiling heights).
My first Hans Zimmer recording and highly recommend for sound and vision.
View attachment 61434

That guitarist you reference is Guthrie Govan, who also was a member of Steven Wilson’s band for the Hand.Cannot.Erase album and tour.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

I watched/listened to Hans Zimmer-Live In Prague, super good.
The video portion is highly entertaining, the musicians are all extremely talented, I recognized one of the lead guitar players from the band called The Aristocats. Hans Zimmer himself highly talented.
I knew of all the song selections but at same time new none of them as musical scores are not something that I ever listen to.
The audio portion was superb in Dolby Atmos. The 5.1 foundation mostly what you listen to and when Atmos kicks in they primaly used, in my case the two rear ceiling heights (I have 4 ceiling heights).
My first Hans Zimmer recording and highly recommend for sound and vision.
View attachment 61434

Watched this one also last night Markie, and loved it! I thought some of Govan's soloing was a little too far back in the mix; but what really got to me, was the gorgeous singing of Czarina Russell on the Gladiator music. She also plays some Tubular Bells and Guitar during the show, not to be missed folks.

 

[MagnumX]

I started to listen to Hans Zimmer, but quickly realized I don't recognize many of the tracks since I'm not a big fan of say Rain Man or Driving Miss Daisy and I've only seen the Nolan Batman films a couple of times for that matter either, so I wanted a guide to the tracks (I normally dump BDs to play off the network with Kodi, but I like to label the tracks on music discs). Here, the disc shows 41 tracks, but there are not 41 songs listed on the jacket or booklet (30-something range). Does the disc list the names in the regular search/contents listing? Or is there somewhere I can get the full 41 list in the correct order? I think the booklet was even in a different order than the back of the disc case.

I was surprised from what I've heard so far that they do seem to put instruments in the surround channels. That used to be a big no no with live concerts (outside of perhaps Pink Floyd who actually placed surround speakers in the stadiums as I saw the speakers in Cleveland. But I am finding with newer albums like Yello and Booka Shade that fully using the surround channels is a lot more exciting than some mere hall reverb effects. On fact, that are so good, I have to redefine my expectations for surround albums. Many of my 5.1 DTS surround albums (e.g. The Police or Sting or even Queensryche's Empire album on DVD Audio try mostly for more space with a few things here and there (Sheryl Crow's 6.1 DTS-ES Globe Sessions were considerably more impressive sounding, IMO), but even Dark Side of the Moon in Quad falls short of the the fantastical surround of Yello's Point or Booka Shade's Dear Future Self.

Maybe it's time surround becomes just as important as the front sound stage instead of those "smaller less important" speakers that movies treated them for years. Dolby says of Atmos that all channels should be full range and loudness/volume capable, but even so many still treat them as second class citizens and tell people they don't matter as much and things like timbre matching are less important than the front three speakers, but even there we have a tendency to use a different (and usually inferior) center channel speaker even in the age of flatscreen TVs that can hang on walks and don't Block putting three identical speakers underneath, let alone how much cheaper projection with kr without audio transparent screens have become (i.e. I put three identical towers under the screen and use an active mixer to send some audio to the height speakers to "lift" the apparent location of the front sound stage towards the middle of the screen). This has lead some of the surround mixes to ignore the center speaker entirely (e.g. Alan Parsons' On Air that only uses the center speaker for JFK's moon speech and uses a phantom center for lyrics).

Unless and certainly until we start taking surround music seriously, it'll probably remain a tiny niche market, relatively speaking. I can only hope that Atmos at least increases the likelihood we continue to get more better quality surround albums in the future.

A good question to ask is why the most natural environment to include surround support already baked in (i.e. The car/motor vehicle) rarely has any such support outside a few exceptions. Tidal + Atmos would seem a natural for a car environment, for example. They could support movie blurays while parked and music ones while in motion (flag).

 

[svengaleekie]

I just can't get my head around the price of this! it's just a bit unreasonable. £40 for one Blu-ray is a lot, I'll pay £20ish for a 4K movie but all those I've got have 2 Blu-rays, some of them 3, for that price.

 

[MagnumX]

I just can't get my head around the price of this! it's just a bit unreasonable. £40 for one Blu-ray is a lot, I'll pay £20ish for a 4K movie but all those I've got have 2 Blu-rays, some of them 3, for that price.

What Blu-Ray is £40? Yello's Point is £26.67 at jpc.de (€29.99) and Hans Zimmer is like $22 US. I had Point shipped from Germany to the US for $32 shipped. Unfortunately, it seems like all "Pure Audio Blu-Rays" are around $30 give or take a buck or two. I personally think they should be half that price (closer to CDs as a disc is a disc these days and BDs aren't expensive to manufacture), but in Yello's case, it's worth it, IMO. It is the best new album I've heard in some time and the best Atmos music album I've heard bar none. I don't regret buying it in the slightest. It's on Tidal if you have that, but some have told me the sound quality isn't the same (can't verify since I don't use Tidal currently).

 

[svengaleekie]

What Blu-Ray is £40? Yello's Point is £26.67 at jpc.de (€29.99) and Hans Zimmer is like $22 US. I had Point shipped from Germany to the US for $32 shipped. Unfortunately, it seems like all "Pure Audio Blu-Rays" are around $30 give or take a buck or two. I personally think they should be half that price (closer to CDs as a disc is a disc these days and BDs aren't expensive to manufacture), but in Yello's case, it's worth it, IMO. It is the best new album I've heard in some time and the best Atmos music album I've heard bar none. I don't regret buying it in the slightest. It's on Tidal if you have that, but some have told me the sound quality isn't the same (can't verify since I don't use Tidal currently).

Well it's just under £40 through Yello's site and just under £40 from Amazon. Yes jpc.de seems to be cheaper but I've tried there and I can't get beyond filling my address, seems to be a problem with Mr, Mrs or Company, whichever I put in it doesn't like it. I'll try again on a different computer

 

[svengaleekie]

Well it's just under £40 through Yello's site and just under £40 from Amazon. Yes jpc.de seems to be cheaper but I've tried there and I can't get beyond filling my address, seems to be a problem with Mr, Mrs or Company, whichever I put in it doesn't like it. I'll try again on a different computer

Success! using a different computer I have been able to order from jpc.de for a much more acceptable £26.

 

[MagnumX]

Yeah, Yello's site and Amazon are the worst for price.

 

[Markyb45]

Success! using a different computer I have been able to order from jpc.de for a much more acceptable £26.

Once you have paid the UK VAT (£5.20) and the UK Post Office £8 handling fee won't that make it the same price as Amazon UK?

 

[svengaleekie]

Once you have paid the UK VAT (£5.20) and the UK Post Office £8 handling fee won't that make it the same price as Amazon UK?

Yea, probably

 

[marpow]

I just listened to Yello's Point album in Dolby Atmos yet again tonight. It gets better every listen. It gets my vote for best Atmos music album I've heard yet and even the best disc to demo Atmos for that matter (better than any Atmos movie and better than either of Booka Shade's two Atmos albums). It's just a crazy surround extravaganza! I had it cranked to almost Atmos reference level (-2db) with bass boosted +4dB across 17.1 speakers. It's SIMPLY AWESOME and well worth the price to import (really wasn't bad through JPC.de since they remove the VAT and that more or less covered most of the shipping. I think it was $32 shipped total.

I've got Yello's "Essentials" CD coming tomorrow (seems most of their 90s and earlier albums are out of print or selling at insane prices and I hate to get music on iTunes when they're typically remastered for "loud". I think I have one of Yello's albums on LP somewhere hiding in the house too from way back when....

I've also got the two most recent Delerium albums coming (lost track of them for awhile now, but have most of their prior albums as Karma is still one of my all time favorites) plus the soundtrack to Das Boot in addition to Hanz Zimmer in Atmos.

Hi MagnumX, I was wondering about your experience with the volume of the ATMOS dedictaed speakers.
I have been experimenting with mostly raising the volume of my 4 height speakers.
I know specifically when they are fireing and when then are not as my dedicated amp has the VU meters to show me. I find the sound of ATMOS mostly very immersive, but sometimes hard to tell the discrete moments from the heights.
I agree with you the Booka Shades and the Point Yello can really show off a system, but what about other ATMOS recordings?
I figured if I really raised the volume in the heights it would be better, but at the same time I don't want to overpower the listening experience with heights that are really supposed to be little so called artifacts for listening enhancement.
I am just a little confused and learning.
Of course if others have experience that would be helpful also.

 

[MagnumX]

Hi MagnumX, I was wondering about your experience with the volume of the ATMOS dedictaed speakers.
I have been experimenting with mostly raising the volume of my 4 height speakers.
I know specifically when they are fireing and when then are not as my dedicated amp has the VU meters to show me. I find the sound of ATMOS mostly very immersive, but sometimes hard to tell the discrete moments from the heights.
I agree with you the Booka Shades and the Point Yello can really show off a system, but what about other ATMOS recordings?
I figured if I really raised the volume in the heights it would be better, but at the same time I don't want to overpower the listening experience with heights that are really supposed to be little so called artifacts for listening enhancement.
I am just a little confused and learning.
Of course if others have experience that would be helpful also.

I normally keep them the same volume or possibly 1dB higher at times than the ear level speakers or it ends up doing things like pulling the soundstage upward for objects in-between. Still, others have told me they much prefer the overhead speakers at up to 4dB higher than the ear level ones to hear quieter effects better. I think the real problem is too many mixes simply suck (that's a technical term ). I have no trouble hearing overhead effects in proper mixes.

The problem is that with newer movies like Knives Out (2019), there's barely any surround effects used period (at ear level even), let alone overhead effects. That movie had one really good overhead effect (board is dropped on floor above and you hear on your ceiling loudly), but even in scenes with a party going on, there's no surround use hardly at all (people aren't talking and glasses clinking, etc. in rooms all around when they show there's people in them? It makes no sense and that's because the sound engineer is a clueless turd. There's some old school types that apparently think surround sound is "distracting" still (leftover from the 1970s/80s as early 1990s Dolby Digital movies were often the same way) so they only use it in key action scenes. But I watched an older movie (The Skeleton Key) and with Neural X, you'd swear it was an Atmos/X movie there was so much going on. It seemed just like when some movies were finally getting highly immersive 5.1 soundtracks, out comes Atmos and the sound engineers all go gun shy for some reason (It's just too much!). Why don't all movies sound more like the Dolby Atmos demos? Who knows. They should and sucks they don't. They should have a 2nd "boring" soundtrack for traditionalists or something and let Atmos rip on the primary one, IMO.

Try watching the Atmos/4K version of Groundhog Day. I won't speak to overhead effects (I don't recall any specifically offhand), but comparing that movie to the previous version is night and day. Surround is used everywhere constantly in the new version, showing what "immersive" can really mean. I really felt like I was outside with Bill Murray. It's a comedy. It probably was distracting in that I was marveling at all the outside sounds you'd hear in real life if you were standing on the corner there, but almost never hear in movies outside a horn honking and the nearest car engine running or someone yelling, etc. It seemed relentless by comparison (maybe I'm over-remembering; I haven't seen it in awhile), but I was impressed at how much effort was put into making Groundhog Day sound "immersive" instead of just front/dialog orientated as many comedies seem to be.

 

[Mcallister]

I just listened to Yello's Point album in Dolby Atmos yet again tonight. It gets better every listen. It gets my vote for best Atmos music album I've heard yet and even the best disc to demo Atmos for that matter (better than any Atmos movie and better than either of Booka Shade's two Atmos albums). It's just a crazy surround extravaganza! I had it cranked to almost Atmos reference level (-2db) with bass boosted +4dB across 17.1 speakers. It's SIMPLY AWESOME and well worth the price to import (really wasn't bad through JPC.de since they remove the VAT and that more or less covered most of the shipping. I think it was $32 shipped total.

I've got Yello's "Essentials" CD coming tomorrow (seems most of their 90s and earlier albums are out of print or selling at insane prices and I hate to get music on iTunes when they're typically remastered for "loud". I think I have one of Yello's albums on LP somewhere hiding in the house too from way back when....

I've also got the two most recent Delerium albums coming (lost track of them for awhile now, but have most of their prior albums as Karma is still one of my all time favorites) plus the soundtrack to Das Boot in addition to Hanz Zimmer in Atmos.

Thanks for info...ordered!

 

[marpow]

I normally keep them the same volume or possibly 1dB higher at times than the ear level speakers or it ends up doing things like pulling the soundstage upward for objects in-between. Still, others have told me they much prefer the overhead speakers at up to 4dB higher than the ear level ones to hear quieter effects better. I think the real problem is too many mixes simply suck (that's a technical term ). I have no trouble hearing overhead effects in proper mixes.

The problem is that with newer movies like Knives Out (2019), there's barely any surround effects used period (at ear level even), let alone overhead effects. That movie had one really good overhead effect (board is dropped on floor above and you hear on your ceiling loudly), but even in scenes with a party going on, there's no surround use hardly at all (people aren't talking and glasses clinking, etc. in rooms all around when they show there's people in them? It makes no sense and that's because the sound engineer is a clueless turd. There's some old school types that apparently think surround sound is "distracting" still (leftover from the 1970s/80s as early 1990s Dolby Digital movies were often the same way) so they only use it in key action scenes. But I watched an older movie (The Skeleton Key) and with Neural X, you'd swear it was an Atmos/X movie there was so much going on. It seemed just like when some movies were finally getting highly immersive 5.1 soundtracks, out comes Atmos and the sound engineers all go gun shy for some reason (It's just too much!). Why don't all movies sound more like the Dolby Atmos demos? Who knows. They should and sucks they don't. They should have a 2nd "boring" soundtrack for traditionalists or something and let Atmos rip on the primary one, IMO.

Try watching the Atmos/4K version of Groundhog Day. I won't speak to overhead effects (I don't recall any specifically offhand), but comparing that movie to the previous version is night and day. Surround is used everywhere constantly in the new version, showing what "immersive" can really mean. I really felt like I was outside with Bill Murray. It's a comedy. It probably was distracting in that I was marveling at all the outside sounds you'd hear in real life if you were standing on the corner there, but almost never hear in movies outside a horn honking and the nearest car engine running or someone yelling, etc. It seemed relentless by comparison (maybe I'm over-remembering; I haven't seen it in awhile), but I was impressed at how much effort was put into making Groundhog Day sound "immersive" instead of just front/dialog orientated as many comedies seem to be.

I hear you MagnumX, My experience with Atmos is nothing compared to going from stereo to surround, which for me in 1991 was mind blowing. Going from Surround to ATMOS is been touch and go. Movies seem to have the edge over pure audio, but even the best has been somewhat lackluster except maybe 4 or 5 discs. Tidal in Atmos is fairly weak.
Well, I won't give up, right now I'm boosting the 4 heights about 3.5db, mainly trying to train my ears.
Yes I have noticed some movies via Netflix/Amazon, etc with NeuralX can be quite imersive, but I think that is faux Atmos? Unlike Dolby Atmos the artifacts are meant to be discrete.

 

[MagnumX]

I hear you MagnumX, My experience with Atmos is nothing compared to going from stereo to surround, which for me in 1991 was mind blowing. Going from Surround to ATMOS is been touch and go. Movies seem to have the edge over pure audio, but even the best has been somewhat lackluster except maybe 4 or 5 discs. Tidal in Atmos is fairly weak.
Well, I won't give up, right now I'm boosting the 4 heights about 3.5db, mainly trying to train my ears.
Yes I have noticed some movies via Netflix/Amazon, etc with NeuralX can be quite imersive, but I think that is faux Atmos? Unlike Dolby Atmos the artifacts are meant to be discrete.

I wouldn't go quite that far. Just because many (far from all) Atmos movies are lackluster, that doesn't mean there haven't been other improvements along the way. In other words, even 5.1 movies now sound like 3x better sounding than before, IMO, probably because I have so many (17.1) speakers to make the "bubble" in a 24' room that phantom imaging works much better than before with only 6.1. I have 6.1 in the first 5 feet of the room alone now. Movies like the Skeleton Key in only 5.1 now have thunder overhead with Neural X so it sounds more Atmos than many actual Atmos movies. Even stereo is improved using matrixed 6.1 sound in the front (the DTS 7.1 speaker test calls "out of phase" for the front two speakers and I hear sound all around me with no speakers operating behind me. It's almost freakish (matrixed 6.1 effect using front wides and front heights plus mains make stereo unbelievably immersive for some reason, kind of like Carver's so-called Sonic Holography mode did for my Carver ribbons (well not quite that far into the room, but definitely a good 65 on each side out into the room or thereabouts). That's why I'm curious to try out Involve Audio's processor next (plus it decodes old Quad LPs so I can give them a go as well).

But if you want to try some Atmos and DTS:X titles that don't disappoint, I'd recommend these offhand that come to mind:

Dolby Atmos
Fury (Brad Pitt tank movie with artillery flying overhead all over the place and banging on the top of the tank from inside, etc.)
Overlord (Planes, shells, guns and monsters all over the place and a baseball rolling across the ceiling was quite memorable)
Jumanji (original one in Atmos upgrade sounds better than either of the new ones)
The Meg (total bubble around ceiling and sides in underwater scenes)
Star Trek Beyond (quite good starship and other effects)
Gravity (lots of around the room panning in every direction)
Mission Impossible Fallout has a spectacular helicopter overhead bit in it along with good effects in general
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (surprisingly good Atmos)
Doctor Sleep (excellent use of surround in all directions)
IT Parts I & II both have truly excellent Atmos surround including a bit where the clown runs up a wall onto the ceiling at one point in the first one.
Blade Runner 2049 (crazy deep sub bass on top of plenty of surround and overhead effects). Original upgraded to Atmos is also quite good. Auro-3D version is also excellent.

DTS:X
Entire Harry Potter Series (fantastic upgrade with new surround effects in addition to lots of overhead ones with the flying car, brooms, etc.)
Crimson Peak (creepy haunted house type sounds all over the room and ceiling)

 

[AYanguas]

Today I have received the AMBRA "Prism of life" Bluray Atmos/Auro-3D from Grobi.tv

I had before the DVD, and I was initially disappointed because this new Blu-ray is only Pure Audio without any visuals. Either way, the new music mix is great, and the visuals from the DVD were only landscape sequences that reminds me the YouTube music compositions that some people do. It was nothing comparable to the Lichtmond series good visuals.

The music itself in this mix is amazing. I have only listened yet the Auro-3D track and it is really discrete 7.1.4. It is not just 5.1 with the 4 heights replicating the floor channels, but really discrete in all channels and good differentiating the surround and surround backs that gives a good progressive sound stage at the rear.

The sounds do not only come from different points in the room, but there are lot of instruments and voices panning through different speakers. It is done in a smooth enough way, for may taste, so to not be too much overwhelming. Some voices in a whisper style seem to be panning inside your head, in a binaural kind of mix using the side surrounds. I like it.

In summary, I think this is another “Demo” of the possibilities of the 3D surround sound. I only have listened the Auro-3D, I will listen tomorrow the Dolby Atmos track to see the differences.

Again, this kind of Music mixes makes full continuous use of the possibilities of the Immersive Surround sound, much more than many of the films that only make use in a few seconds during the whole film.

 

[MagnumX]

Kraftwerk 3D in Dolby Atmos has finally arrived (after getting the CD by accident and over a 3 week delay compared to Yello's Point despite ordering it only one day later.... I hope to listen to it tonight in Atmos. It's the German version, so Ich muss mein Deutsch auffrischen.

 

[MagnumX]

Today I have received the AMBRA "Prism of life" Bluray Atmos/Auro-3D from Grobi.tv

I'd like to check this album out, but Grobi.tv will not ship to the USA. Anyone know of a supplier who will that isn't crazy high?