Dolby Atmos Music on Blu-ray

[knifeman]

no

here is what the stream looks like off the disc to your receiver:

atmos (7.2.4) --> 7.1 --> 5.1

Its your receiver that decides what to play, ie what your receiver is capable of

if your receiver is capable of atmos it will play atmos

if your receiver is capable of 7.1 it will play 7.1

if your receiver is capable of 5.1 it will play 5.1

there is no mixing of channels

I think lol

If that's the case, in you example a disc would have to be encoded with three different surround formats. Or am I missing something??

 

[salsdali]

If that's the case, in you example a disc would have to be encoded with three different surround formats. Or am I missing something??

not really a different format (encode), more like a "core"

think Inception, a dream within a dream, within a dream, the "format" is still just a dream

 

[knifeman]

not really a different encode, more like a "core"

So playing atmos on a 5.1 system is going to be missing some data? I don't like the sound of that.

 

[salsdali]

So playing atmos on a 5.1 system is going to be missing some data? I don't like the sound of that.

it's going to be missing some speaker "data" because your receiver is missing some speakers

but it won't be missing frequency or bit rate "data" if that's what you mean

the only thing missing is the "data" that would be sent to the extra speakers

think of atmos like a 5.1 upgrade compared to stereo

the frequency was the same but the number of speakers increased giving a more dimensional sound field

that's all atmos does

 

[knifeman]

it's going to be missing some speaker "data" because your receiver is missing some speakers

but it won't be missing frequency or bit rate "data" if that's what you mean

the only thing missing is the "data" that would be sent to the extra speakers

think of atmos like a 5.1 upgrade compared to stereo

the frequency was the same but the number of speakers increased giving a more dimensional sound field

that's all atmos does

I would think there would have to be some backward compatibility built into these new titles being released in Atmos. I'm sure the majority of listeners don't even have Atmos gear. I still don't understand how a non-Atmos receiver will handle this format, if at all. I want some of these upcoming releases but I'm not about to upgrade just for a couple discs. And when do you hear music coming from the ceiling anyway? Atmos seems better suited for movie effects rather than music reproduction, which I think it was intended for in the first place.

 

[HomerJAU]

The Atmos mix shouldn't contain any more musical info than the 5.1 Dolby TrueHD version on same disc just different directional data. E.g. An instrument could appear to move between two additional speakers or from SR to RR or appear to be located in a new position etc

Much like listening to a stereo version compared to quad or 5,1 version.

 

[Frogmort]

I'm not set up for Atmos, but one thing I have noticed on my 7.2 setup is that pretty much every single Atmos mix summed down to TrueHD 7.1 on my system seems more 'surroundy' in a quite noticeable discrete way. I'm not sure how all that works out as far as summing down, but apparently all of the sounds are on every version, even down to the DD5.1, but the main object-based surround doesn't have a four channel height differential. It's just all mixed down to the best our setup has to offer, right?

In summation, all audible sounds contained in the Atmos mix is also retained in the summed-down codexes, right?

 

[Sembiance]

ArsTechnica just did a big article on the R.E.M. release that was done in Atmos: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/11/spatial-audio-is-the-most-exciting-thing-to-happen-to-pop-music-since-stereo/

 

[Perp]

Nice ARS article but as good as that pumped me to get the deluxe set, I’m still trying to justify spending $100 with tax on AFTP just to play the BD. :yikes

 

[salsdali]

https://www.lifewire.com/dolby-truehd-4110228

Also, on Blu-ray discs that have Dolby Atmos soundtracks, if you do not have a Dolby Atmos-compatible home theater receiver, either a Dolby TrueHD or Dolby Digital soundtrack can be accessed. If this is not automatically, those options can be offered as selections provided on the menu of the affected Blu-ray Disc. In fact, it is interesting to note that Dolby Atmos metadata is actually placed within a Dolby TrueHD signal so that backwards compatibility is is more easily accommodated.

 

[fac23]

Well, that's the reason Dolby Atmos is limited to 48kHz. The max data rate allowed for Dolby True HD streams on Blu-rays is 18.64 Mbit/s and that meta data takes up a lot of space/bandwidth.

 

[rtbluray]

Besides albums that have never been released in surround sound, I bet the Depeche Mode catalogue would sound amazing if remixed in Dolby Atmos.
Lots of instruments and textures that would work well in the spatial audio environment!

 

[alexander J]

Hello guys, I am a professional sound engineer with more than 15 years of experience. Can you explain me in your words the advantages of Dolby Atmos compare to DTS-HD? I would like to know that you are looking for and what you expect from it. Please share.

 

[himey]

Hello guys, I am a professional sound engineer with more than 15 years of experience. Can you explain me in your words the advantages of Dolby Atmos compare to DTS-HD? I would like to know that you are looking for and what you expect from it. Please share.

3D sound on some audio recordings could benefit. The format (Atmos), like 5.1/7.1 was originally designed for movies. Making music mixes originally intended for stereo into 7.2.4 takes imagination. Quad (4.0) was designed for music. In comparison, 4.0 is simple yet very effective. I expect nothing but I dream big. Movies and eventually live sporting events will be in 3D. Music, the jury is still out weather it will overcome the obvious obstacles.

 

[alexander J]

3D sound on some audio recordings could benefit. The format (Atmos), like 5.1/7.1 was originally designed for movies. Making music mixes originally intended for stereo into 7.2.4 takes imagination. Quad (4.0) was designed for music. In comparison, 4.0 is simple yet very effective. I expect nothing but I dream big. Movies and eventually live sporting events will be in 3D. Music, the jury is still out whether it will overcome the obvious obstacles.

Great, so my question will be what is 3D sound for you in music? how you describe it in your perception?

 

[salsdali]

Bands usually play on a stage and are separated but space between each other so bands always play in a 3-d space.

A band, even in a studio, never plays from the exact same place simultaneously.

In other words, music is always played in a 3-D space so the simplest atmos mix would literally be just to capture each band members position on the stage or studio. This is mostly (the majority) on a 2-D plane but the atmos 3-D would fill in the "atmosphere". When a band plays on stage the amp don't send out sound waves in a direct x,y line, the waves are like "cones" that have an x,y,z axis

Atmos would simply recreate this "cone" sound wave for each instrument, band member, etc

"stereo" captures a flat "slice" or flat "plane" thru the cone, atmos captures the whole top and bottom of that flat slice

 

[alexander J]

Bands usually play on a stage and are separated but space between each other so bands always play in a 3-d space.

A band, even in a studio, never plays from the exact same place simultaneously.

In other words, music is always played in a 3-D space so the simplest atmos mix would literally be just to capture each band members position on the stage or studio. This is mostly (the majority) on a 2-D plane but the atmos 3-D would fill in the "atmosphere". When a band plays on stage the amp don't send out sound waves in a direct x,y line, the waves are like "cones" that have an x,y, z-axis

Atmos would simply recreate this "cone" sound wave for each instrument, band member, etc

"stereo" captures a flat "slice" or flat "plane" thru the cone, atmos captures the whole top and bottom of that flat slice

Trust me, my friend, the 7 channels of discrete sound information will do this for you, you don't need anything else. But your con image is absolutely irrelevant when you blowing at cone all your soundwaves combines to mono. It is made for that, to amplify sound in one strong source and spread it all over. We want to hear a complete opposite in term of sound reproduction.

 

[salsdali]

Trust me, my friend, the 7 channels of discrete sound information will do this for you, you don't need anything else.

It doesn't do it in a movie so it would be no different for music because a movie is no different than music, it's all just sound.

A movie is all just sound that happens to correspond to a visual, with music the visual is still there, it's just not displayed when playing album.

atmos is no differnt than the evolution from stereo to 5.1

If you can agree that the leap from stereo to 5.1 was a game changer, then the leap from 7.1 to atmos is the same kind of game changer, you're simply adding more speakers to accomodate more discrete sounds

Atmos isn't complicated, it's just more speakers added to 7.1 just like 5.1 was just more speakers added to stereo

in the simplest sense atmos is just a new name for the format Dolby TrueHD 9.1

 

[ubertrout]

In theory, Atmos offers better opportunity to use things like height channels as part of the musical experience and go beyond just surround in musical presentation. A Number of classical labels already use height channels; for instance MDG records most everything they do in a 2+2+2 setup, which is essentially quad + 2 height channels, encoded using the 6 SACD channels (there are over 100 such releases from them). Others like 2L have released music in 9.1, using height channels as part of the presentation of the surround experience. Atmos is most commonly thought of as 7.1.4, but as I understand it the format is object based and not limited to one such format - the idea of Atmos is that it offers maximum flexibility to the surround author for whatever sort of esoteric speaker layout they prefer to engineer for.

I have 7.1, but I think for classical it offers diminishing returns compared to 5.1. Height channels do offer the possibility of a more immersive experience, but I haven't had a chance to try them out and frankly don't seriously intend to.

 

[salsdali]

I have 7.1, but I think for classical it offers diminishing returns compared to 5.1. Height channels do offer the possibility of a more immersive experience, but I haven't had a chance to try them out and frankly don't seriously intend to.

I saw The Moody Blues in Concert and they had the local Symphony as the "back up" orchestra.

I think there were a total of 30 performers on stage that night.

the only way to truly capture and recreate that experience would be to mic every performer and then use an atmos mix to discretely output every performer to a single speaker in a 30 speaker array (which could be done in a movie theater and will be available in the home in the future)

Anything less would be a downmix.