Apple Music Spatial Audio to Get Dynamic Head Tracking in the Fall

[ErikGrim]

Yes I realise that now i've done some more testing - still a useless premise as you walk around.

It's more effective as you sit still, but I just did a 6km walk listening to lots of genres and it didn't bother me that much. Sometimes it would get stuck in the wrong position, and it sounds slightly unnatural if you turn your head too fast, but for regular walking it sounds fine.

 

[Kier-XF]

As for the full 360 thing I still disagree. It just doesn't trick my ears like it apparently does yours and a few other peoples - my brain distinctively just hears the sound swap from the left to the right speaker like it's hard panned with a touch of out of phase stereo widening.

That's what I was referring to with the comment about having an unusually shaped head. Your brain is wired to place sound based on the way it travels around your head, so if your head is quite differently-shaped from the model used to render Dolby Atmos into binaural audio by Apple Music, you won't hear the full three dimensions. Most people's heads are sufficiently similar to the model to get a close approximation.

On the other hand, if you were to get your head shape scanned and the data plugged into a Dolby Atmos renderer, you absolutely would hear sounds above, below and behind you - that's just how hearing works.

 

[anticipate]

You are absolutely correct. Can confirm this is happening.

EDIT: This is now the case for all spatial audio, so it must have been turned on server side as this was not the case yesterday. Abbey Road is an absolute revelation listening like this.

Definitely head tracking. I just noticed this now as I am working with AirPods Pro on. It wasn't the case a few days ago.

On iOS 15, it also works with stereo tracks. It's pretty astonishing.

It seems to anchor to your straight forward gaze - kind of like VR does, centers on your straight ahead gaze. So the "center" is straight ahead. It's really amazing.

 

[dannys1]

It's more effective as you sit still, but I just did a 6km walk listening to lots of genres and it didn't bother me that much. Sometimes it would get stuck in the wrong position, and it sounds slightly unnatural if you turn your head too fast, but for regular walking it sounds fine.

There is an option to turn it off though right? It's not something I can ever imagine wanting in music.

 

[anticipate]

There is an option to turn it off though right? It's not something I can ever imagine wanting in music.

Yes, you can go to control center and toggle it on/off, separate from Dolby Atmos support, which is in settings.

 

[dannys1]

Yes, you can go to control center and toggle it on/off, separate from Dolby Atmos support, which is in settings.

Just tried on iPad and that's not the case at all unfortunately - you can only turn Dolby Atmos on/off in control centre (and music settings) if it's on, you get head tracking, there's no way to have it like iOS 14 unfortnately.

 

[ErikGrim]

There is an option to turn it off though right? It's not something I can ever imagine wanting in music.

Not at the moment. What I would LOVE for them to do however is make it context sensitive: head tracking while sitting down and listening, change to anchored static when moving around / walking.

 

[cmarsili]

in iOS 15 there is an option now under accessibility/airpods to have headtracking only for videos (or to completely turn off). I keep it on for videos only. Hope that helps.