Universal Music to Remix Thousands of Songs Into Dolby Atmos

[LennonCobain]

Here’s an article with more info on upcoming Atmos music from Billboard:

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8512853/universal-music-group-dolby-atmos-sound-mixing
This also mentions another competing format:

To be clear, Dolby isn't the only company making a push into immersive audio for music. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, Sony Electronics introduced 360 Reality Audio, a technology that similarly utilizes three-dimensional space to enhance the listening experience. That technology has already received buy-in from companies Live Nation, Warner Music Group and, of course, Sony Music, as well as streaming services such as TIDAL, Deezer, nugs.net and Qobuz.

Could another “format war” be on the horizon? SACD vs. DVD-A didn’t help the adoption of mainstream multichannel music back in the early 2000s.

 

[HomerJAU]

Could another “format war” be on the horizon? SACD vs. DVD-A didn’t help the adoption of mainstream multichannel music back in the early 2000s.

It looks like the Sony system will be streaming so it’s probably not lossless. It also sounds like it may be an upmix technology. So is probably not a true competitor but it will still confuse the market.

 

[ar surround]

Could another “format war” be on the horizon? SACD vs. DVD-A didn’t help the adoption of mainstream multichannel music back in the early 2000s.

It looks like the Sony system will be streaming so it’s probably not lossless. It also sounds like it may be an upmix technology. So is probably not a true competitor but it will still confuse the market.

Format Wars...Low Bandwidth...Here we go again!

 

[4-earredwonder]

Format Wars...Low Bandwidth...Here we go again!

Yeah, ar, Samsung is touting their new 8K technology and DVDs and Dolby Digital are still viable entities [i.e. the NEW Carol King Live in Montreux DVD].

As we ALL should know by now.....format wars only bring more confusion to an already confused public. They say competition is GOOD ....yeah, maybe for the phone companies and cable operators .....but NOT for US.

Let's just hope ...and pray...that Universal/DOLBY won't botch up this 'marriage...' Divorces CAN DE STICKY!

 

[holland123]

I am salivating for sure on this news however not gonna hold my breath waiting for it, cuz bout 20 years ago we got the same promises from dvd audio and sacd, "hundreds of 5.1 albums forthcoming" , never happened. And BTW peeps, upmixes can be really good too, don't shoot em down till ya hear em. I've said this before but it bears repeating here, alot of those rockband and guitar hero multis were in fact upmixes. I have firsthand knowledge of this.

 

[bmoura]

I am salivating for sure on this news however not gonna hold my breath waiting for it, cuz bout 20 years ago we got the same promises from dvd audio and sacd, "hundreds of 5.1 albums forthcoming" , never happened.

Never happened?

Hmm, last time I looked at sa-cd.net, they were listing over 6,300 Multichannel SACD albums!
That certainly is more than "hundreds of 5.1 albums".....

http://sa-cd.net/titles/0/0/date/5/1

 

[quicksrt]

upmixes can be really good too, don't shoot em down till ya hear em. I've said this before but it bears repeating here, alot of those rockband and guitar hero multis were in fact upmixes. I have firsthand knowledge of this.

Upmixes no matter how good and how much real separation achieved, do not make me feel that I am in the studio with the recording team listening to the group put down their final over-dubs while listening to the playback of sub-groups off the mixing board. Good 5.1 or quad really get one closer to the studio performance as it really is.

I’m not sure upmixes can ever be so authentic. Maybe it depends on how well it’s done.

I’ve really enjoyed the fact that 2016, 17, 18, and 19 brought us quite a bit of the real stuff. I’d hate for Dolby to come along and show that real 5.1 from multitrack tapes is the old way to do it, and now there is a much less expensive way that is so good nobody can tell the difference. Who needs to bother with multis when you have the new Dolby method! On a “sound bar” nobody could yell the difference is what they will tell us.

 

[HomerJAU]

I’d hate for Dolby to come along and show that real 5.1 from multitrack tapes is the old way to do it

In engineer Steve Genewick’s interview (posted on his thread here) he said they would not do too many ‘old’ music mixes as there’s was not enough multi tracks recorded back then. (Atmos home has 16 objects so a bit pointless taking a four track master and trying to spread across an Atmos sound field).

He mentioned many ‘modern’ masters have quite a few tracks and talks about his preference for mikes on each of the drums, and placing each drum around the room in Atmos etc. I’m not sure when audio engineers started using 16 tracks or more. Anyone have a bit of history on multi track recording?

 

[HomerJAU]

I’m not sure upmixes can ever be so authentic. Maybe it depends on how well it’s done.

The best upmixes can be very good and surprisingly discrete sounding, certainly way more pleasing than stereo or even 4 channel stereo (stereo output to 4 channels). Hearing an old favourite album, never released in surround, in upmixed 5.1 can be quite gratifying.

 

[IMachine]

The best upmixes can be very good and surprisingly discrete sounding, certainly way more pleasing than stereo or even 4 channel stereo (stereo output to 4 channels). Hearing an old favourite album, never released in surround, in upmixed 5.1 can be quite gratifying.

They can, but not anytime!
Sometimes it is better to stay in Stereo, as the upmix looses punch.

 

[quicksrt]

The best upmixes can be very good and surprisingly discrete sounding, certainly way more pleasing than stereo or even 4 channel stereo (stereo output to 4 channels). Hearing an old favourite album, never released in surround, in upmixed 5.1 can be quite gratifying.

Stereo output over 4 speakers is wonderful - fills the room with exceptional “on axis” sound. Live albums seem like you are in stage with the artist.

It retains all the punchy rocking sound, but gives better separation in more areas of the room. I’ve been listening this way for 35 years.

Do not underestimate this layout for great home audio.

 

[holland123]

Never happened?

Hmm, last time I looked at sa-cd.net, they were listing over 6,300 Multichannel SACD albums!
That certainly is more than "hundreds of 5.1 albums".....

http://sa-cd.net/titles/0/0/date/5/1

That is true B, but what I was referring to was the initial DVDA/SACD rollout where we were promised Popular Hit albums of the pop, rock and jazz genre, Newly remixed in Hi rez surround, sorry my friend , but I am still waiting for the popular artists and titles that were promised. Now If you are a classical / opera fan there is a ton of stuff that has come out on sacd. but don't get me wrong I am most appreciative of the popular stuff that has squeaked out over the last 20 years and have purchased most of it. but I was told of entire pop rock and jazz artist catalogs that sadly has never materialized. K

 

[holland123]

Upmixes no matter how good and how much real separation achieved, do not make me feel that I am in the studio with the recording team listening to the group put down their final over-dubs while listening to the playback of sub-groups off the mixing board. Good 5.1 or quad really get one closer to the studio performance as it really is.

I’m not sure upmixes can ever be so authentic. Maybe it depends on how well it’s done.

I’ve really enjoyed the fact that 2016, 17, 18, and 19 brought us quite a bit of the real stuff. I’d hate for Dolby to come along and show that real 5.1 from multitrack tapes is the old way to do it, and now there is a much less expensive way that is so good nobody can tell the difference. Who needs to bother with multis when you have the new Dolby method! On a “sound bar” nobody could yell the difference is what they will tell us.

I agree completely, it would be nice if they give up the damn multis , that is if they exist.

but what they were doing with a lot of those rockband mixes was actually quite outstanding, the program that I saw pics of that they developed was ingenious, it looked to me like a Spectral editing program where different sonic signatures showed up as different colors ie. the bass and drums were blue, guitar was red, vocals were green... and the operator would pencil in what he or she wanted separated and the program would somehow separate. I would have killed for this program. it sounds easy but from what I was told it would take several days to do 1 song.

 

[skherbeck]

I agree completely, it would be nice if they give up the damn multis , that is if they exist.

but what they were doing with a lot of those rockband mixes was actually quite outstanding, the program that I saw pics of that they developed was ingenious, it looked to me like a Spectral editing program where different sonic signatures showed up as different colors ie. the bass and drums were blue, guitar was red, vocals were green... and the operator would pencil in what he or she wanted separated and the program would somehow separate. I would have killed for this program. it sounds easy but from what I was told it would take several days to do 1 song.

I think this was the method used for many of The Beatles' Rockband multis (especially their early stuff)

 

[quicksrt]

I thought that Rockband producers got the parts isolated from the true multis. I didn’t know about this spectrum isolater gadget.

Like when Keith Moon’s drum parts from WGFA appeared on YouTube, they sounded pretty darn clean and really separated - no need to suspect not from multis. Perhaps three were not Rockband stems in this case?

But yeah, it would be great to get that device and see if Aja could get completed in 5.1 with some help from it.

PS. Keith Moon was a horrid time keeper btw. Great spirited rock drummer, but this track showed off his messy time keeping.

 

[holland123]

well from what I was told some of them indeed were from the real studio multitracks, but often they still had to separate stuff like the bass and drums which are commonly together.

 

[markshan]

cuz bout 20 years ago we got the same promises from dvd audio and sacd,

I understand what you are saying, but I don't think this is exactly the "same promise". I don't recall Dolby or anyone else from the hardware side injecting money and gear into those efforts. I may be wrong, I wasn't paying as much attention then.

 

[markshan]

I’d hate for Dolby to come along and show that real 5.1 from multitrack tapes is the old way to do it, and now there is a much less expensive way that is so good nobody can tell the difference. Who needs to bother with multis when you have the new Dolby method!

Who is saying anything like that?

 

[markshan]

I’m not sure when audio engineers started using 16 tracks or more. Anyone have a bit of history on multi track recording?

Layla was 16 tracks. Most 70s and up were 16 or more.

 

[ar surround]

I agree completely, it would be nice if they give up the damn multis , that is if they exist.

but what they were doing with a lot of those rockband mixes was actually quite outstanding, the program that I saw pics of that they developed was ingenious, it looked to me like a Spectral editing program where different sonic signatures showed up as different colors ie. the bass and drums were blue, guitar was red, vocals were green... and the operator would pencil in what he or she wanted separated and the program would somehow separate. I would have killed for this program. it sounds easy but from what I was told it would take several days to do 1 song.

I didn’t know about this spectrum isolater gadget.

Christopher Kissel (QQ member @monotoSTEREO) is one of several engineers who does spectral editing for ERIC Records to make Digitally Extracted Stereo from mono tracks. Depending on the quality of the source, it can be quite effective...especially when subsequently expanded to faux multichannel. I would assume that the program could also be applied to a stereo track to make multichannel. I thought about giving it a go myself, but it would be yet another time consuming activity.