Dolby Atmos is a phrase you’ll come throughout if you’re looking for a brand new TV, soundbar or dwelling theater audio system. An extension of the extra conventional 5.1-channel encompass sound, Dolby Atmos goals to create a extra immersive expertise by including top channels to mixes, making a ‘dome’ impact that envelops you.
Dolby Atmos has now develop into a staple characteristic of dwelling theater tech by means of intelligent digital processing by among the greatest soundbars, such because the Sonos Beam Gen 2, and in bodily kind by among the greatest Dolby Atmos soundbars, equivalent to the wonderful Samsung HW-Q990D, which makes use of up-firing drivers on the soundbar itself and the system’s wi-fi encompass audio system.
After I’m reviewing a soundbar, related to probably the greatest TVs that help Dolby Atmos, the Dolby Atmos sound provides a brand new layer to the viewing expertise, with the added top results in scenes such because the Batmobile chase in The Batman and the ultimate Loss of life Star assault inStar Wars: A New Hope getting an much more immersive high quality.
It’s no shock then that Dolby Atmos has prolonged past films into music and likewise podcasts and audiobooks. Basic tracks are even now being given the Atmos remedy on streaming websites equivalent to Tidal and Apple Music (you may even see it known as Spatial Audio in some situations).
As widespread because it’s develop into, Atmos music has by no means satisfied me. It’s truthful to say I’ve at all times been extra of a traditionalist, preferring listening to a set of the perfect stereo audio system hooked as much as an amp whereas I crank out Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen for the hundredth time. For me, Dolby Atmos by no means added a lot to that have, and actually, I’ve thought it’s over sophisticated issues at instances. Name me old school!
However then, I had an opportunity to see what goes into the Dolby Atmos manufacturing course of for music, podcasts and audiobooks at Dolby Europe’s HQ in Soho, London, and all the pieces modified.
The place the magic occurs
Dolby’s 9.1.4-channel Atmos manufacturing room is compact, cozy and completely arrange for audio mixing. One thing unsurprising once I noticed how a lot work went into its 34-speaker reference theater.
My expertise began, of all issues, with a Dolby Atmos audiobook clip of a personality time-traveling. Because the time machine activated, a swirl of sound encapsulated the room, with pulsing noises and the calm voice of the time traveler making a Physician Who-esque ambiance. One other character’s voice chimed in from behind, giving an actual sense of house and involving me within the motion. It actually felt like a film.
Shortly after, I heard a clip from one other podcast/audiobook, this one a navy drama the place the ideas inside a personality’s head roamed across the room. I heard footsteps really transferring the size of the room as whispering, buzzing voices dotted throughout.
It was superb to listen to these audiobooks tackle a lifetime of their very own, giving me that very same sense of immersion I’d felt watching films with Dolby Atmos soundtracks.
Hit the music
Subsequent got here music. The primary observe that was performed was Believer by Think about Dragons. It’s a observe with large manufacturing and a stadium-sized ambiance and each factor sounded balanced. The drums thumped the ground, hand claps have been precisely positioned along side the room and the layered vocals got here at me from throughout, engulfing the room and sounding extremely clear.
It didn’t shock me {that a} trendy observe like Believer sounded nice in Atmos, however when the following observe, Elton John’s Rocket Man, was queued up, I used to be curious to listen to how an older observe remixed for Atmos would fare. This was the place my opinion of Dolby Atmos music actually modified.
Rocket Man in Atmos conveyed the ambiance of house and expanded it on a grand scale. The slide guitars used to create the sound of stars and ships panned from the again to the entrance of the room, passing overhead by means of the peak channels. The bass and pianos sounded well-balanced and when a choir of voices subtly appeared within the combine, it was one thing I had by no means observed earlier than when listening to the observe.
The house opera really feel of Rocket Man being given the sense of scale that Elton John had supposed when he first wrote it was, for me, the perfect demonstration of what Dolby Atmos can do for music. Crucially, the buttery clean, heat high quality of the unique recording was nonetheless current – as if the unique vinyl was enjoying on a Linn turntable by means of some Wharfedale audio system in a Nineteen Seventies UK front room.
As this all occurred, a visible show above the manufacturing room’s mixing board adopted the motion of the sound components throughout the audio system, displaying simply how a lot element went right into a Dolby Atmos combine.
Ultimate ideas
My time in Dolby’s Atmos manufacturing room lastly opened my thoughts to Dolby Atmos music. To get its true advantages, nonetheless, you want a system that may adequately play it to its full capabilities, with full encompass sound and overhead top audio system, and that admittedly gained’t be low-cost.
Does this imply I’m completed with stereo? No, not by a protracted shot. Nevertheless it does imply I wish to take heed to extra Dolby Atmos music – somebody get me some Bowie. On the subject of Atmos music, because the Monkees as soon as sang, “now I’m a believer”.