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

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Apparently songs that start with "Papa..." do not get the Atmos treatment.
Also, for me at least, It's A Man's Man's Man's World is not in Atmos.

Overall for this fantastic, classic collection of songs, the surround mix isn't too bad, from my quick run-through... given the age of some of the tracks, I wonder if they used stem-separation software on some or all of them?
 
Mikko Gordon is an engineer that works with Nigel Godrich often. He did the Idles Tangk atmos mix.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20240224-074641_Instagram.jpg
    Screenshot_20240224-074641_Instagram.jpg
    1.2 MB
Thanks! Do you know how to access his db beyond the "recently updated"? I could use the Finder but that's a specific artist request, not perusing the entire db. Thx
Under the “Exports” page there’s an RSS feed and daily generated spreadsheets of updated tracks, but beyond that… I sadly don’t.
http://spatialaudiodb.com/exports/
 
Also, for me at least, It's A Man's Man's Man's World is not in Atmos.

Overall for this fantastic, classic collection of songs, the surround mix isn't too bad, from my quick run-through... given the age of some of the tracks, I wonder if they used stem-separation software on some or all of them?

Yeah a few are playing in stereo for me despite having the Dolby Atmos attribute set (Get Info in the Mac Music App). Think, for example.
 
https://tidal.com/album/306285255
Sorry, this is a long one. Just can't help it since I've listened a lot to this lately!

I've always enjoyed Harvest Moon. Not for it's sonic quality, but for the great songs and the lovely musicians. I was very happy when it appeared in Atmos last year. I had some hopes of the fidelity being improved, but found the mix disappointing. I made several attemps of listening to it, but I always ended up listening to something else. Not a good sign... In the end I had to figure out why and opened the 5.1 bed in an editor to examine it a bit closer and see if I could make a better sounding 5.1 version. Some notes on my findings:

It starts off with a very thin sounding track 1. Very little under 100 Hz even if bass guitar and kick drum are present. Most tracks sound thinny, track 1 being the worst.

Overall the instruments lack a little in the lower mid-range and upper bass area. Removing too much in this range will make them sound cleaner, but less warm. Some of the songs still sound muddy/wooly, meaning there are unwanted resonances in the same area that haven't been dealt with.

On the first tracks Neil's vocal doesn't sound good. It's not very well recorded, and little's done in the mix to improve it even though it would have been real easy. High frequency sounds like “ess” and “shh” are much too strong. You don't have to listen to more than the first verse of track 1 to tell how ugly this sounds. Also a lot of pops in his vocal. It sounds very much like he was singing into a Neuman U87 or U89 mic without a pop stopper. Not a good idea. Singing close to these (great) mics without one, will produce pops. I counted 22(!) pops in track 1 alone.

For all tracks: There's minimal use of the center channel, just faint elements from L+R with some reverb at a low level. The sub channel has a low level or on some tracks contains nothing at all.

Some of the instruments sounds clearer than on the original, at least in the mid and treble ranges. Some elements e.g. the harmonica, are too bright IMO.
This album is certainly one that should sound warm. It doesn't help the warmth that some elements are left very dry, e.g. backing vocals and guitars on top of the thin sound.

Most of the mixes sounds unfinished to me, more like sketches than a finalized product. When doing a remix you should always try to improve the original recording. In this case a lot of even the most basic improvements were sadly skipped. That is why the result is mediocre.

Was I able to improve it? Yes, a lot in fact. I now have 5.1 mix I can truly enjoy. Allthough it took a lot more time than I was hoping! The corrections I made would have been much easier having access to the full multitrack or even submixes. I am fully convinced that this Atmos mix could have had a very high rating if some more time and effort had been put into the mixing process. I'm hoping someone will return to this album at one point in time and do an atmos mix it deserves.

I've attached some more details for those of you who are interested.
 

Attachments

  • harvest_moon_fixes.txt
    4.5 KB
Question: given that apple 🍎 has the biggest Atmos catalogue are there titles instead exclusive only of Amazon or Tidal for example? Like, to be a completist do I need to make multiple subscriptions to all Atmos streaming services or apple music covers everything? Thanks
 
Yes thanks I read. The thread is very short and not up to date... So basically that's it? A few McLean and Ramones songs? If tidal exclusives already existed in 2021 I assume nowadays they must be much more... or?
Someone mentioned a couple Tidal 360 mixes of Dua Lipa that are different mixes than the Atmos mixes on AM, and the 360's are better.
 
Yeah a few are playing in stereo for me despite having the Dolby Atmos attribute set (Get Info in the Mac Music App). Think, for example.
Unless I was sober-hallucinating, which I suppose can't be totally ruled out, when I first played 20 All-Time Greatest Hits! and added it to my library, only three songs were not in Atmos (tracks 7, 9 & 14). I just played it through again, and now in addition to those three, tracks 3, 8 & 11 are stereo-only as well. Shenanigans, or senility? Maybe I'd rather not know the answer...
 
Back
Top