Greg Penny Interviewed about his work in Dolby Atmos

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Very exciting news, not just the Elton stuff but the entire scope of what he talks about working on. I took "unfolding" as simply a metaphor for how he thinks about translating a stereo mix into the 3D workspace that Atmos provides.

Also interesting how many mixers and studios he says are working basically non-stop on mixing Atmos material. Like I said in the other Atmos thread, I'm positive that Dolby isn't pushing this whole initiative simply for the Amazon echo speaker - someone is bankrolling all this mixing, and record companies (especially in this day and age) aren't in the habit of spending money on something unless they know they're going to make money off it. Maybe they've finally learned from some of the mistakes of surround launches past, and they realise that for a new format to succeed it has to a) have a large content library at launch and b) have a wider scope than simply the moldy oldies from the 60s and 70s - I for one, am OK with waiting 6 months for that.

I know there's a few thousand of us here that would buy anything released, but imagine pitching it to your friends who aren't surround savvy - it's a much easier sell if they can say "look, it's a $350 Echo Studio device and 10 bucks a month for a streaming subscription to a service that has hundreds (or thousands) of albums availabe in Atmos" than "well, you need a blu-ray player, and an Atmos-enabled home theater setup, and make sure you have HDMI 2.0 or better, and there's about 20 Atmos albums on Blu-Ray..." etc. Much like ***, i don't care what people do behind closed doors, as long as I can enjoy it the way I want to - if people buy Echo Studios and are happy with them (not everyone has the time, space, money or inclination for a full-blown surround system) and they make Atmos a profitable venture than all the better for us, we get more music available in surround on an ongoing basis. It's not like any Atmos mixes are done specifically for the Echo Studio device (ie no rear-channel information), they're all mixed in fully immersive studios that are at the very least 7.1.4 equipped. The Echo is just a delivery device - I see the difference between it and a home theater amplifier like the difference between headphones and speakers - and I'm sure it won't be long before Atmos is rolled out to every platform.

ETA: The "playing it back on consumer gear" is a tale as old as time for mixing engineers - in the olden days they'd cut acetates and play them on their home stereos, disco mixers would do the same and take an acetate to a club in New York, and even more recently Elliott Scheiner would audition his 5.1 mixes in his ELS system in his Acura. It's just about getting another perspective to make sure your mix "works" outside the controlled nature of a perfectly-calibrated studio environment.
 
Agreed, Adam. With Jeff Bezos' $$$$$ and Dolby Labs ingenuity, I'm sure Greg's efforts will hardly be in vain.

Besides, one day JEFF BEZOS will own the world and I'm sure he's always had grandiose ambitions to own Hollywood Studios and Record Companies and this will surely be a step in the right direction.

AND QUADRAPHONICQUADFORUM WILL HAVE TO CHANGE ITS NAME TO .......... drumroll🥁 ........ ATMOS AVENUE Dolby Atmos

i prefer

www.AtmosphericAtmos.com

😉
 
Amen to everything Dave said, but especially:

Like I said in the other Atmos thread, I'm positive that Dolby isn't pushing this whole initiative simply for the Amazon echo speaker
[...]
It's not like any Atmos mixes are done specifically for the Echo Studio device (ie no rear-channel information), they're all mixed in fully immersive studios that are at the very least 7.1.4 equipped. The Echo is just a delivery device - I see the difference between it and a home theater amplifier like the difference between headphones and speakers - and I'm sure it won't be long before Atmos is rolled out to every platform.

From your mouth to Jeff Bezos' ear.

As long as Amazon doesn't "Echo-block" everything else, then this will be one more reason to shelter in place and survive the pandemic!
 
Almost AA a nonny mouse!! :)

You're pretty spry for a Spectral Being, Mike

15842974531943184116820977569595.jpg
 
What I would really like to see, is how new technology can provide real 7.1.4 Atmos downloads, now that would make me sit up and ask...how mucho!! :)

it could be done losslessly if there were a concerted effort / leap of faith by the major labels but i suspect this stuff will still be predominantly streamed with select physical releases on BD.

something like an upcoming 10th anniv release of that Katy Perry album could go either way and be streaming or on disc depending on how best the suits feel they could monetize it, i guess.. or maybe both 🤔
 
Well blow me down..Atmos in mp4...that ain't cheap....humm :unsure:

there's been some downloadable Atmos stuff in lossy form too (Dolby Digital container) there's options, we just have to wait and see. so far the immersive offerings like Sony's Reality 360 thing have trickled out with barely a whimper, there needs to be a big push and as i said a real joint effort by all parties who need to have their **** together this time and not come up with another half-baked effort or create another daft format war etc
 
there's been some downloadable Atmos stuff in lossy form too (Dolby Digital container) there's options, we just have to wait and see. so far the immersive offerings like Sony's Reality 360 thing have trickled out with barely a whimper, there needs to be a big push and as i said a real joint effort by all parties who need to have their **** together this time and not come up with another half-baked effort or create another daft format war etc
Atmos can also be encoded, losslessly, inside mkv containers. Only issue is that many of the regular players cannot decode it properly, but you can always play them from a laptop or a Kodi box. And there is also a way (time consuming) to re-encode the mkv so that the Atmos bitstream can be played in our Oppos.
In any case, give me any Atmos download option and I'll find the way to have it played properly at home!
 
ETA: The "playing it back on consumer gear" is a tale as old as time for mixing engineers - in the olden days they'd cut acetates and play them on their home stereos, disco mixers would do the same and take an acetate to a club in New York, and even more recently Elliott Scheiner would audition his 5.1 mixes in his ELS system in his Acura. It's just about getting another perspective to make sure your mix "works" outside the controlled nature of a perfectly-calibrated studio environment.
Most studios I have been in had a set of small 'home' speakers (often only 6" cubes!) on top of the desk to test the mix for the home on, as well as the proper ones
 
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