Listening to in Dolby Atmos Streaming, via Tidal/Apple/Amazon

[fredblue]

right, that's it, i'm not adding anymore Atmos stuff from Warner to the Library until someone here says its not an upmix, i've had it.

 

[popshop]

@Oldschoolsoundengineer who is credited with mixing Enya?

 

[fredblue]

Try the bonus track version. Should have the whole album in 'Atmos'. Agree, not even sure if these are discrete mixes? It's Warner again... What the heck has happened? Have they been taken over by Silverline?!

Dark Sky Island is also in Atmos and a few tracks from Watermark - including Orinoco Flow. But nowhere near what I was hoping for them to be in surround.

its atrocious, flooding the streaming services with garbage upmixes could fairly soon give Atmos a bad name and what's more they're actually producing worse upmixes than Silverline (some folks here maybe thought that wasn't even possible..!!) the "silver lining" (HA!) if there is one, is these "mixes" could be pulled from Apple etc and replaced with proper mixes down the line
so in that regard it is better than we're stuck with a load of discs with crappy upmixes on them (i'm looking at you Silverline! )

 

[fredblue]

@Oldschoolsoundengineer who is credited with mixing Enya?

Mr. Ulysses P. Mixer?

 

[fredblue]

the Atmos upmix nonsense of "You're So Vain" is a total bloody insult to both the Quad and Frank Filipetti's 5.1 mix!!!!

 

[fredblue]

Graham Central Station

The Jam

Tidal - https://tidal.com/browse/track/245920879

Earthquake

Tidal - https://tidal.com/browse/track/245920797

the original Quad of "The Jam" is an absolute Surround Sound showstopper, with spectacular placement and pans throughout, its almost dizzying in its 360-degree use of the soundfield, its a must-hear if you haven't already.

now i have no idea WTF they did to achieve this BS Atmos rendition but it is a total kick in the balls to bear witness to the resulting abomination

please, please, Warner STOP NOW.

 

[riskylogic]

Mr. Ulysses P. Mixer?

Several of the Silverline discs I have that are especially bad were mixed by "Rich Fowler", which I translated to Rich Fouler.

 

[fredblue]

Miles Davis - Tutu

https://tidal.com/browse/track/246050837Cool mix on this!

hang onto your DVD-Audio!! this steaming turd's not fit for purpose.

 

[Ick]

Here is my tweet to Warner Music. Hopefully those of you who do the Twitter thing can also bombard them with your displeasure and they’ll change their mind about just throwing crap out there.

 

[popshop]

The Enya stuff is legit. Might be the first content I've heard that separates notes from front to back and diagonally, as often as instruments. Really nice reverb use in the back and up.
Full Dark Sky and Shepherd moons albums and two songs from Memory of Trees, but I'd assume that be all up soon. Also the single may it be, with Howard Shore.

 

[humprof]

Here is my tweet to Warner Music. Hopefully those of you who do the Twitter thing can also bombard them with your displeasure and they’ll change their mind about just throwing crap out there. View attachment 83119

Nice sentiment (needs proofreading, though!), and it can't hurt, but it's likely that only your followers will see it--and maybe a flunky who's paid to wade through @warnermusic's Notifications tabs.

No way to tell who, or if, anyone is actually listening when we offer such feedback, but one other possibility is Warner's contact page:
https://www.wmg.com/culture#contact
And then of course there's Apple Music feedback:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/apple-music.html
It might just go into a black hole, but if no one complains, it's a sure thing nothing will change.

 

[key_wiz]

Glad they figured out how to play 'I want You To Want Me' live, with some energy; 'cause the studio version has one foot nailed down.

I always thought the studio version sounded like they were trying to do a McCartney knock-off.

 

[humprof]

its atrocious, flooding the streaming services with garbage upmixes could fairly soon give Atmos a bad name and what's more they're actually producing worse upmixes than Silverline (some folks here maybe thought that wasn't even possible..!!) the "silver lining" (HA!) if there is one, is these "mixes" could be pulled from Apple etc and replaced with proper mixes down the line
so in that regard it is better than we're stuck with a load of discs with crappy upmixes on them (i'm looking at you Silverline! )

So true. I wish there were a way to actually reach the misguided souls responsible for some of these travesties.

On the upside: I don't mind what they've done with some (not all) of the classic Atlantic R&B tracks. At the very least it's nice to have an excuse to listen to them again. And I just read a cool piece by guitarist Jimmy James on the back page of the July/August issue of Jazz Times about the session musicians on some of those tracks. If I once knew that it was Donny Hathaway at the organ on "Rock Steady," I'd forgotten. Same goes for "Tighten Up," where it's not the Drells, but the T.S.U. Toronadoes getting tight.
https://jazztimes.com/features/lists/artists-choice-jimmy-james-on-session-cats/

 

[Oldschoolsoundengineer]

@Oldschoolsoundengineer who is credited with mixing Enya?

Checked Tidal last night but couldn't find any mentioning of immersive mix engineer. Looks like original credits from stereo versions.

 

[fredblue]

The Enya stuff is legit. Might be the first content I've heard that separates notes from front to back and diagonally, as often as instruments. Really nice reverb use in the back and up.
Full Dark Sky and Shepherd moons albums and two songs from Memory of Trees, but I'd assume that be all up soon. Also the single may it be, with Howard Shore.

i'll have to give it another listen, smacked of upmix!

 

[woody]

Nice sentiment (needs proofreading, though!), and it can't hurt, but it's likely that only your followers will see it--and maybe a flunky who's paid to wade through @warnermusic's Notifications tabs.

No way to tell who, or if, anyone is actually listening when we offer such feedback, but one other possibility is Warner's contact page:
https://www.wmg.com/culture#contact
And then of course there's Apple Music feedback:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/apple-music.html
It might just go into a black hole, but if no one complains, it's a sure thing nothing will change.

I reckon feedback to Apple is the best bet as they explicitly state that they don’t seek to have upmix tracks uploaded. As a expert ear in the surround community we can call this stuff out, that otherwise may go unnoticed. (Particularly the analysis part by Fredblue can show that they are non- compliant.)

 

[alek2702]

Bjork's new single is up!
https://tidal.com/browse/album/243563727

Only listened to the 5.1 bed but sounds very discrete at times with her vocals layered in the surrounds nicely.
Love the song too, though I can't see the single bringing her much mainstream attention

FWIW, it's extremely quiet on Tidal and the beats seem to get lost a bit compared to the stereo mix. This might be the dialnorm thing though.

Looking forward to the whole album and very happy to see her back to surround sound. Now if only she re-mixed Vulnicura and Utopia..

 

[LuvMyQuad]

A prime example of Apple's F'ing stupidity with layering different mixes on top of each other based on player capabilities.

If you add this to your library it will show it is 3:31.

If you play it on a Dolby Atmos capable device you will get the full 5:50 version and the lyrics on your screen will not synch at all.

I used to get scrolling lyrics on Apple when I first got it. Then they seemed to go away and all I can get now is full page lyrics from the context menu. Is there a way to turn scrolling lyrics back on?

 

[fredblue]

2<40

 

[fredblue]

I reckon feedback to Apple is the best bet as they explicitly state that they don’t seek to have upmix tracks uploaded. As a expert ear in the surround community we can call this stuff out, that otherwise may go unnoticed. (Particularly the analysis part by Fredblue can show that they are non- compliant.)

hmm.. they might not like the method used to acquire the Atmos 5.1 bed but it is a sure-fire way to expose these mixes warts and all.. still they can hire me as a consultant, if they can afford me! my fee is a dozen glazed Krispy Kreme's a day, that seems fair enough!

tbh i would first insist that they come up with a way to actually enforce the "no upmixes" edict for albums where there are sufficient multitracks to remix into genuine Surround (which i'm totally on board with) and go from there.

that's how strongly i feel about it, its fundamental to Spatial Audio afaic, i am absolutely not interested in upmixes, i can do adequate enough upmixes myself for material that's not available in Surround, i do not wish to pay for half-baked upmixes, even if they are officially released on disc or streaming