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

[riskylogic]

Actually, on my Amazon interface Low Spark doesn’t show up as an album. But under Tracks they are all there

 

[Oldschoolsoundengineer]

I haven’t listened to this yet, I hope it’s good!

I've always loved Harvest. Such great songs and performers! I know the record pretty well after having fiddled with the 30th anniversary DVD-A. I found that 5.1 mix to be rather dissappointing. Possibly due to the multitrack arrangement it left a "black hole" in the right surround channel in many tracks. It also had some issues with levels front/back or possibly also an issue with front/back channels having been swapped in the final mix for a few songs. Anyways I heard some major improvments had been done when restoring the original multitrack. Noise reduction and some eq had made an improvment, but sadly they hadn't bothered to make a new stereo mix and the remaster didn't make that much of an impression either. In the boring days of corona I figured out making a downmix could be an interesting project to kill some time. I tried a simple downmix first, but it still sounded weird. Then I imported the 5.1 mix into ProTools. I ended up using probably a 2-3 work weeks to make a stereo mix from the 5.1 and discovered to my surprise that it was quite easy to improve the sound a lot more. It is possble to get the instruments to sound so much fuller/natural while still keeping the original mood of the record. I also did a lot of fix up on Neil's vocals which varies a lot through the album. I am quite happy with the end result. If you like to play around with digital mixing software to make improvements the Harvest DVD-A can certainly be a fun place to start. If you preserve the left/right paning you'll end up with a mix where Neil and his guitar and harmonica is placed in the center while snare and bass drums (mostly) is placed together in the left channel.

In the Atmos mix Neil sings from center, his harmonica is in the right channel and the guitar is in the rear right. A little unlogical, but of course necessary to get a spread with the instruments available. All in all I am able to enjoy the Atmos mix. I even find the vocals/instruments to be more correctly levelled than in the 5.1 mix where some instruments/background singers in my opinion had been left too low in the mix. I only wish they had spend a little more time improving the sound of the vocals and instruments since I know is possible.

 

[himey]

I am on the second Low Spark listen and I believe we have a winner folks. I did boost a few levels which is rare for me, but my smile is large! What a great band. Flute in the atmosphere is just icing on the cake!

 

[Mistermono]

Is there a link for the Traffic album on Apple? I can’t find it in Canada.

 

[Oldschoolsoundengineer]

Is there a link for the Traffic album on Apple? I can’t find it in Canada.

Still only stereo on Apple. Tidal has it in Atmos. Hopefully just a matter of time before it appears on Apple. Sounds good!

 

[sjcorne]

Added "Astral Jacket" to my demos playlist, love the vocals from the heights.

 

[EricKalet]

Is there a link for the Traffic album on Apple? I can’t find it in Canada.

Should be this:

 

[marpow]

I just went a full search for Low Spark and nothing in California, Atmos that is.
It is available in UK and Canada?
Tried Tidal also, no Atmos there either.

 

[Oldschoolsoundengineer]

I just went a full search for Low Spark and nothing in California, Atmos that is.
It is available in UK and Canada?
Tried Tidal also, no Atmos there either.

Weird. Some legal issues? This is a link to the atmos mix available in Norway:

https://tidal.com/album/261324170

 

[riskylogic]

I just went a full search for Low Spark and nothing in California, Atmos that is.
It is available in UK and Canada?
Tried Tidal also, no Atmos there either.

With my Firecube on Tidal, even though there is no album listing, I found the individual tracks listed under Tracks by scrolling to the end

 

[chas9496]

Where is the Quad Version of Grazin' on A.M. ? I don't see anything but the Stereo Mix from the original LP. Anyway it's about impossible to get logged in to Apple, i't's pretty much a joke. No wonder Apple has such a low rating and Tons of Complaints.

 

[sjcorne]

Where is the Quad Version of Grazin' on A.M. ? I don't see anything but the Stereo Mix from the original LP.

Tracks 1-11 still play in quad for me

 

[chas9496]

Tracks 1-11 still play in quad for me

I must be missing something. I don't even See a Quad Mix on there on the search. I can't log in, so maybe that's the issue. I Do have an Apple Account. You've got me ?!

 

[chas9496]

I must be missing something. I don't even See a Quad Mix on there on the search. I can't log in, so maybe that's the issue. I Do have an Apple Account. You've got me ?!

I'm computer illiterate ! lol.

 

[benfolds5]

I've always loved Harvest. Such great songs and performers! I know the record pretty well after having fiddled with the 30th anniversary DVD-A. I found that 5.1 mix to be rather dissappointing. Possibly due to the multitrack arrangement it left a "black hole" in the right surround channel in many tracks. It also had some issues with levels front/back or possibly also an issue with front/back channels having been swapped in the final mix for a few songs. Anyways I heard some major improvments had been done when restoring the original multitrack. Noise reduction and some eq had made an improvment, but sadly they hadn't bothered to make a new stereo mix and the remaster didn't make that much of an impression either. In the boring days of corona I figured out making a downmix could be an interesting project to kill some time. I tried a simple downmix first, but it still sounded weird. Then I imported the 5.1 mix into ProTools. I ended up using probably a 2-3 work weeks to make a stereo mix from the 5.1 and discovered to my surprise that it was quite easy to improve the sound a lot more. It is possble to get the instruments to sound so much fuller/natural while still keeping the original mood of the record. I also did a lot of fix up on Neil's vocals which varies a lot through the album. I am quite happy with the end result. If you like to play around with digital mixing software to make improvements the Harvest DVD-A can certainly be a fun place to start. If you preserve the left/right paning you'll end up with a mix where Neil and his guitar and harmonica is placed in the center while snare and bass drums (mostly) is placed together in the left channel.

In the Atmos mix Neil sings from center, his harmonica is in the right channel and the guitar is in the rear right. A little unlogical, but of course necessary to get a spread with the instruments available. All in all I am able to enjoy the Atmos mix. I even find the vocals/instruments to be more correctly levelled than in the 5.1 mix where some instruments/background singers in my opinion had been left too low in the mix. I only wish they had spend a little more time improving the sound of the vocals and instruments since I know is possible.

I personally can't even call this an Atmos mix. There's almost nothing there.
Putting aside the comparisons to the DVD-A, For me, It's an uneven/uninspired mix.
This great Album should have got a better Atmos/surround treatment.

 

[PK]

Did you ever get this resolved? I'm having the same issue. Thanks.

Help request! For recent Apple Music references, the embedded links into Apple Music no longer work for me. In the past the “view in Apple Music” link worked as expected. Not any more.

Configuration: iPad, iOS 15.6.1, U.S. Based. Any thoughts?

 

[ted_b]

I personally can't even call this an Atmos mix. There's almost nothing there.
Putting aside the comparisons to the DVD-A, For me, It's an uneven/uninspired mix.
This great Album should have got a better Atmos/surround treatment.

Agreed. Uneven and uninspiring. And I’m a huge Neil fan; named our now 32 yr old middle son after him.

 

[benfolds5]

Agreed. Uneven and uninspiring. And I’m a huge Neil fan; named our now 32 yr old middle son after him.

I wonder if this was approved by Neil. We know his thoughts about Hi-Res music, but I'm not sure what he thinks about his music in surround.

 

[Oldschoolsoundengineer]

I personally can't even call this an Atmos mix. There's almost nothing there.
Putting aside the comparisons to the DVD-A, For me, It's an uneven/uninspired mix.
This great Album should have got a better Atmos/surround treatment.

Would have loved that. Maybe a good candidate for demix to enable a better spread of instruments?

 

[Bretho72]

All the classic Dream Theater releases are not in Atmos anymore. Does this mean Apple is doing quality control and has taken them down until they get it right.