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

[mrcond]

It’s present on Apple Music too. Not so easy to find since there are two version of this title and only one is in Atmos.

Not available in the U.S., at least not yet. Not even in stereo.

 

[himey]

Not available in the U.S., at least not yet. Not even in stereo.

Still on Tidal in US...

 

[fredblue]

nice and upliftingly Surround-y

 

[fredblue]

also, as much as i initially disliked the cosmetic/front-end changes of Apple Music with the latest OS update on the Apple TV, they are growing on me.. maybe.. but more importantly it seems the issue of the beginning of tracks getting chopped off has at last been resolved!

 

[fredblue]

short but satisfyingly Surround-y

 

[fredblue]

also, as much as i initially disliked the cosmetic/front-end changes of Apple Music with the latest OS update on the Apple TV, they are growing on me.. maybe.. but more importantly it seems the issue of the beginning of tracks getting chopped off has at last been resolved!

i spoke too soon.. start of stuff still getting chopped off when randomly playing tracks from a Playlist

 

[rorysk1]

I have done comparisons to the SACD, DTS, and Dolby Digital vsn of many of these Police tracks. I like some of different choices made in these new Atmos mixes but there’s no comparison to the fidelity of the SACD vsn. With the SACD mixes, you can tell they took a lot of care with the mastering to make all the tracks sound as good as they could and consistent despite differences in the quality of the source material. I feel like these Atmos mixes haven’t gotten nearly the same mastering attention. Songs like Can’t Stand Losing You almost sound like the tape azimuth was not aligned (cymbals sound dull and “gurgly” while vocals are nice and bright.) I heard this before with some Atmos mixes. It’s like more attention is given to the mix and less to the mastering of the mix.

The Police “Every Breath You Take” original compilation mixes for 5.1 where done by DTS with David Tickle as the approved engineer. The mixes were done keeping the integrity of the emotion of the original stereo mixes. Somehow, Sony got the DTS master 5.1 mix from UMG and made their SACD version. I’ll stay out of that legal matter, but will say I liked both versions. Both DTS, and SACD were paying attention to detail, and having the original artist/engineer/producer involved whenever possible, and for final approvals. Dolby has missed the boat on the launch of Atmos for music. They had mixers who had no relationship to the original album project, and many interns and second engineers. I believe there are some great engineers now working at making Atmos acceptable, however, I’m baffled why Dolby has enforced a film format on the music industry. Auro 3D, DTS, are still great formats, and hope the industry figures it out soon. Engineers like Bob Clearmountain, Alan Parsons, George Massenburg, Chuck Ainlay, Elliot Scheiner, Jimmy Douglass, and many others are making great mixes, and hopefully the labels will figure out that Atmos has not done a great job representing the original content, and get qualified engineers to maintain the integrity of the artists creations !

 

[fredblue]

the original Police 5.1 mixes were commissioned and created by DTS and Universal for initial DTS CD and subsequent DVD-Video release.

Sony didn't have anything to do with the SACD release, bar maybe pressing the SACDs in their plant, the SACD may have had some differences from the DTS CD but the SACD was still Universal's product.

as for Atmos for Music, yes there's been some poor mixes and there are some lesser engineers working in the medium but there's been a lot of great Atmos mixes and there are great Atmos engineers, same as back in the 5.1 days.

unfortunately, the new Police Atmos mixes are to me a total waste of time, they sound flat and lifeless and from a Surround standpoint are virtually worthless, certainly far worse than the old 5.1 mixes, which i never thought were that great in the first place.

 

[olgitnorm]

 

[Oldschoolsoundengineer]

Norah Jones, Little Broken Hearts. Not listened yet...
https://tidal.com/album/267240664

 

[ted_b]

as for Atmos for Music, yes there's been some poor mixes and there are some lesser engineers working in the medium but there's been a lot of great Atmos mixes and there are great Atmos engineers, same as back in the 5.1 days.

Agree wholeheartedly. and the comments about using Auro-3D (a great immersive format btw) instead is blind to the fact that the vast majority of immersive AVRs have Atmos decoders, and typically not Auro-3D decoders. My Lyngdorf has both, but it leans high-end.

 

[sjcorne]

…and the comments about using Auro-3D (a great immersive format btw) instead is blind to the fact that the vast majority of immersive AVRs have Atmos decoders, and typically not Auro-3D decoders.

Auro-3D also does not (at least to my knowledge) support a binaural fold-down, which is key for selling Atmos to the masses.

 

[Mesozoic Mike]

I am so bummed out. Bought a Fire Stick just so I could listen to Atmos mixes from Tidal, but I don't have an Atmos AVR. I was hoping it would mix down to 5.1 as Atmos Blu Ray discs do, but it will only play in stereo. Well, at least I tried.

Does any body have a way to do this without spending more than $100? Thanks and Happy Holidays.

 

[Oldschoolsoundengineer]

Does any body have a way to do this without spending more than $100? Thanks and Happy Holidays.

A long shot: I don't know what TV you have, but I have been able to use Tidal's app for LG TVs (a TV that supports Atmos) to fold down to 5.1 on a non-atmos AVR. It's a simple app, but stable.

 

[Monkish]

unfortunately, the new Police Atmos mixes are to me a total waste of time, they sound flat and lifeless and from a Surround standpoint are virtually worthless, certainly far worse than the old 5.1 mixes, which i never thought were that great in the first place.

Fully agreed (with the caveat that I'm listening to a 5.1 downmix). To be quite honest, I'm not fully convinced that these are actual mixes from the multitracks -- these have more than a whiff of being upmixes/demixes. At the very least, the mixing decisions are baffling.

I'm using Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic as my example, because it's my favorite Police song by a pretty big margin. There are no vocals in the center channel, and none of the background vocals are separated to the surrounds -- as a result, all of the voices sound recessed/muffled to me. The only things in the surrounds (other than reverb) are a synth pad and some of the overdubbed piano -- however, the surround levels are *really* low. Raising them by 3db or so "helps", but then that throws the balance out of whack with the aforementioned recessed/muffled vocals.

But, here's the thing that really makes me wonder if this mix was done from the multitracks. The 5.1 version of Every Little Thing from the Every Breath You Take compilation is missing significant drum elements -- I don't know if they couldn't find the proper drum track or if they made a mistake, but it sounds like a guide drum track. Whatever the case, it's missing a number of those great Stewart Copeland fills in the last third or so of the song -- I don't know if those fills were originally overdubs or not.

In this new mix, the drums are complete. So, that *seems* like good news, but does that mean that they found the proper multitracks? Or, does this mean that they just did an upmix/demix from the stereo master? I know what my suspicions are.

 

[himey]

Used Apple TV 4K, first generation devices have dropped in price on ebay since the 3rd gen models have been released. They work with a 5.1 HDMI receiver. I picked up one yesterday for $25+$10 shipping, using the "make offer" option.

I just received this. It is in perfect condition! Connected it to my Harmony hub Companion remote. Listening to the rock Atmos playlist. I still have Tidal but some albums don't get added to both services, so this will come in handy. Well worth $35. Free four month subscription on Best Buy.

 

[himey]

Does any body have a way to do this without spending more than $100? Thanks and Happy Holidays.

Read my post above #4856.

 

[MrSmithers]

Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History

Wow one of my favourite albums of recent-ish times… It’s more of room filling mix but there are quite a lot of clever moments where the sound jumps out with isolated effects. Really happy with how it sounds fidelity wise too… Sounds way better than the original stereo version…

 

[sjcorne]

“What You Know” is a great tune, excited to hear in surround.

 

[Bob Romano]

Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History

Wow one of my favourite albums of recent-ish times… It’s more of room filling mix but there are quite a lot of clever moments where the sound jumps out with isolated effects. Really happy with how it sounds fidelity wise too… Sounds way better than the original stereo version…

This doesn’t seem to in ATMOS I the US