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

QuadraphonicQuad

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On Apple Music, first 8 tracks only (original album):
https://tidal.com/album/312805528
you're given the keys to the Kingdom and this is what you come up with!? πŸ€·πŸ»β€β™€οΈπŸ€¦β€β™€οΈ

discrete elements pop up here and there so i guess it's from multitracks but mostly i find it an underwhelming Atmos experience.

bafflingly, there's a lovely old Quad (that i hope is 🀞) sat in the vaults.. though i'll bet the proverbial nobody at the label knows or even cares about its existence πŸ˜–
 
Not much in the way of a surround mix. But I like the album nonetheless

image.jpg
 
As would any of the PMG ECM titles. Which I personally prefer to the Geffen period.

β€œAs Falls Wichita…” is one of my fantasy surround releases.

But it seems Pat is on board with Atmos so hopefully we’ll get more soon.

FWIW, β€œImaginary Day” is one of my favorite (and I think best sounding) DVD-A titles
 
This has been already commented here. There is no platform culprit, neither NVIDIA, Android or TIDAL.

The reason for this is the Dolby implementation of the parameter β€œDialNorm” in Dolby Atmos that was supposed to be to automatic adjustment of the Master Volume Level reproduction for content dealing with β€œDialogs”, i.e., TV, films and commercials.

This parameter is β€˜used’ or β€˜misussed’ by the audio engineer mixing or mastering the final Dolby Atmos track. This parameter can be found in the Dolby Atmos Tidal tracks with some random and not coherent values, among different tracks.

Many claim that this parameter should not be used for MUSIC.

Once the final Master Dolby Atmos track goes to the Platform (TIDAL in this case) nothing can be done.

The players just β€˜obey’ that Dolby Atmos parameter β€˜DialNorm’ as they should.

Some say that it can be overridden by some settings in the AVR (Denon disabling dynamic volume) but it does not work for me.

The Conclusion and Recommendation IS....…. Be prepared when the Atmos track reaches the end, to have the remote in hand with the finger over the β€˜reduce volume’ button.

For more information about the β€˜DialNorm’ disaster, read through this article:
https://connectedmag.com.au/dialling-down-dialnorm/
well said!! πŸ₯³πŸ€©
it's a moronic malpractice for multichannel music that should've ended long ago, yet we've been discussing it here for 10 years or more and nothing's changed! πŸ˜«πŸ€¦β€β™€οΈπŸ€·πŸ»β€β™€οΈ
 

checking this out in 7.1.4 on the Computer at last and finding it so superior to the AirPod Atmos rendition (reduction!) and much nicer than in 5.1 on my Apple TV.

lack of LFE throughout isn't a problem in and of itself, though i'm still a tad befuddled by some of the mixing decisions or maybe something's up with the mix, i'm not sure and need to dig deeper.

on track 2 = channel 7 (Left Surround Back), 11 (Left Rear Height) & 12 (Right Rear Height) aren't used at all - but Ch. 8 is used πŸ€·πŸ»β€β™€οΈ

track 3 = Ch. 7 (Left Surround Back) is way lower level than all the others, odd..

track 5 = the bed channels are all ok, however only one Height (Right Front Height) is used and that's for Harmony vocals making them feel more detached than if they were plonked across the Back, which gives an oddly jarring effect! πŸ‘€

track 7 = beautiful Marvin vocal refrain "..in love, just give all your love to me.. we'll always be.. in love" in the Right Rear Height only, nothing in the other Height channels that i could discern!? weird effect.. 🀯

track 8 = the bed's literally 4.0/Quad, nothing in Centre, or the Surround Backs. Front Heights used really nicely for BVs, Rear Heights not used.

the title track and Distant Lover are the best mixed tracks by a mile imho.. either there were limited multitracks for everything else, or somebody else mixed the rest of the album in Atmos and took an unorthodox approach that i just don't entirely appreciate, idk!? πŸ€·πŸ»β€β™€οΈπŸ‘€πŸ€―πŸ€©

anyway.. more listening required and initial panic/meltdown over, it's not as bad as i first feared at all! apologies for being a drama queen! πŸ˜…πŸ˜‹
 
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Kylie Also has a new single out today
unlike "Padam Padam", which had a rather neat Atmos mix with wooshes and swooshes from above, there's no Height channel activity on this latest Kylie track but it's Surround-y enough that i've played it a couple of times and enjoying it so far βœŒοΈπŸ˜‹ with that kinda plinky plonky house music type of vibe going on, in a way its a bit Madonna-ish, also maybe a bit Gaga? anyway now she looks a bit like Cher, so that's all the boxes ticked! βœ…πŸŒˆπŸ’˜πŸ€£
 
unlike "Padam Padam", which had a rather neat Atmos mix with wooshes and swooshes from above, there's no Height channel activity on this latest Kylie track but it's Surround-y enough that i've played it a couple of times and enjoying it so far βœŒοΈπŸ˜‹ with that kinda plinky plonky house music type of vibe going on, in a way its a bit Madonna-ish, also maybe a bit Gaga? anyway now she looks a bit like Cher, so that's all the boxes ticked! βœ…πŸŒˆπŸ’˜πŸ€£
I have to say that I've not followed her that closely these last several years, but I would love to hear some Atmos tracks from the SA&W good old days.
 
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