Prince "Purple Rain" Dolby Atmos Mix (Blu-ray Audio to be released later this year)

[Steve Bruzonsky]

I have not seen this mentioned anywhwere. 4K reissue of the movie:
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=34483
No Atmos but new 5.1 mix of the audio for the movie:
"The film's audio was also restored from the original Dolby Stereo (LCRS) archived 35mm magnetic film source elements containing the separate dialogue, music, and effects (DME) tracks. These restored elements along with the 20th anniversary's 5.1 multi-channel print master were used to complete a newly remastered 5.1 presentation for the film."

Just upgraded to the new 5.1 4k HDR version of this film which just became available on Kaleidescape!

 

[ssully]

The volume differences stem from the Dolby 'dialnorm' parameter not set consistently across albums.
Purple Rain is especially bad in this regard as there's 13dB differences between some tracks.

The problem is as old as Tidal Atmos streaming I'm afraid, so don't count on them to fix it at this point.

Some AVRs are able to ignore the dialnorm setting, otherwise you'd have to rip the tracks off Tidal and decode them and compensate the volume differences by applying gain on a track by track basis.

(For comparison) Just listened to the whole Purple Rain album Atmos stream, via Apple Music. I had no need to adjust the volume from track to track. Denon AVR reports the Atmos offset as -31 dB for all tracks , the same as when I play The Yes Album.

 

[ssully]

I quite liked the surround mix,. It's not an aggressive mix -- I don't *think* any of it's an upmix, though 'Take Me With U' had me wondering -- but there's enough spice, and the increase in space and clarity overall compared to the original mix is undeniable.

(Disclaimer: I listen in 5.2, not true Atmos)

 

[surroundedbymusic]

I don't have anything capable of doing playback for Atmos music via streaming platforms (I'm still sticking to DVDs / DVDA's / Blu ray audio for now) but I do hope this mix of Purple Rain ends up better than Diamonds and Pearls! It was very disappointing on a lot of the tracks - some really unusual choices vastly reducing the impact of previously stunning vocals.