On Sting's The Dream of the Blue Turtles in Atmos:
https://music.apple.com/no/album/the-dream-of-the-blue-turtles/1440880757?l=nb
What a massive dissapointment! There is so much in this mix that is wrong. I don't know whether this is done in a control room with bad acoustics/monitoring or done by someone who is unexperienced, it sounds so bad. In the top end so much eq is added that it sounds really harsh and metallic even on my usually laid back B&W speakers. Way too much energy in the 5-9 kHz range make tamburine, cymbals and hi-hat sound bad. Taste is different and some like bright mixes, but if one choose to make a bright mix one should also use enough de-essing on the main vocal to compensate the overexposed esses. This scream listening fatigue before you have come half way through the first song. This mix isn't the only one to suffer from this. E.g. check out Norah Jones' Come Away With Me where someone turned this well recorded album into an unbearable bright and ugly vocal sound.
The treble area is also the part of the frequency spectrum that is hardest for compressed formats (like Atmos in Apple Music and Tidal) to reproduce without artifacts. Too much treble will much likely emphasis these limitations, often making it sound harsh and metallic. Another way to balance a bright mix work is to have a solid low end. This mix over all lacks this as well. It varies from song to song, but is never really good. Drums sound distant and bass guitar/upright bass is lacking body. The upper bass area into the low mid range which is so important for adding warmth and making the mix sound natural is almost absent in all songs. Sting's vocal is often mixed too loud distancing the rest further. And as others have said, it has not got much use of heights and backs. Not much creativity put into the immersive part either.
It is a shame that the remix of a masterpiece like this can get released with this painful quality. Even worse when you think how much money this album has brought the record label over the years. Is there no quality control envolved? If they will cut down expenses by skipping the mastering studio at least let someone with experience listen to it in another control room and give feedback/guidence during the remixing. I hope we won't get many more bad Atmos examples like this, it will destroy the reputation of music mixed in Atmos and slowly kill the format.
https://music.apple.com/no/album/the-dream-of-the-blue-turtles/1440880757?l=nb
What a massive dissapointment! There is so much in this mix that is wrong. I don't know whether this is done in a control room with bad acoustics/monitoring or done by someone who is unexperienced, it sounds so bad. In the top end so much eq is added that it sounds really harsh and metallic even on my usually laid back B&W speakers. Way too much energy in the 5-9 kHz range make tamburine, cymbals and hi-hat sound bad. Taste is different and some like bright mixes, but if one choose to make a bright mix one should also use enough de-essing on the main vocal to compensate the overexposed esses. This scream listening fatigue before you have come half way through the first song. This mix isn't the only one to suffer from this. E.g. check out Norah Jones' Come Away With Me where someone turned this well recorded album into an unbearable bright and ugly vocal sound.
The treble area is also the part of the frequency spectrum that is hardest for compressed formats (like Atmos in Apple Music and Tidal) to reproduce without artifacts. Too much treble will much likely emphasis these limitations, often making it sound harsh and metallic. Another way to balance a bright mix work is to have a solid low end. This mix over all lacks this as well. It varies from song to song, but is never really good. Drums sound distant and bass guitar/upright bass is lacking body. The upper bass area into the low mid range which is so important for adding warmth and making the mix sound natural is almost absent in all songs. Sting's vocal is often mixed too loud distancing the rest further. And as others have said, it has not got much use of heights and backs. Not much creativity put into the immersive part either.
It is a shame that the remix of a masterpiece like this can get released with this painful quality. Even worse when you think how much money this album has brought the record label over the years. Is there no quality control envolved? If they will cut down expenses by skipping the mastering studio at least let someone with experience listen to it in another control room and give feedback/guidence during the remixing. I hope we won't get many more bad Atmos examples like this, it will destroy the reputation of music mixed in Atmos and slowly kill the format.
