The spacial audio in music videos is a different thing than atmos, completely unrelated. Listen to Kraftwerk 3-D if you want to know what atmos is.
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Apple's Zane Lowe Introduces Apple Music Spatial Audio
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Last I checked we only have 2 ears, so the brain ends up downmixing all this nonsense back to stereo. And since 99% of Apple Music listeners don’t run tracks through an actual Atmos speaker system, it’s already downmixed to 2 channels anyway.
Marketing hype, which is what this video represents… no talk about the tech. We’ve been here before, when it was called quadrophonics and Super Audio CD. You need a speaker for every channel or it’s just a simulation.
Then again NosePods might be able to legitimately add a couple of bass channels.
Marketing hype, which is what this video represents… no talk about the tech. We’ve been here before, when it was called quadrophonics and Super Audio CD. You need a speaker for every channel or it’s just a simulation.
Then again NosePods might be able to legitimately add a couple of bass channels.
It really depends on the mix. Currently sifting through the offerings... Some stuff is really cool. It's the new music that will benefit most, I believe... Even more on an actual surround speaker system.
For some people, a girl singing like she’s half asleep with crust in her eyes is just not their thing.
It sounds slightly better, but it's so subtle that I got used to it very quickly and then it just sounds like stereo to me.
It really depends on the mix. Currently sifting through the offerings... Some stuff is really cool. It's the new music that will benefit most, I believe... Even more on an actual surround speaker system.
i just tried some like J Balvin and I find it weird that the Voice is sometimes only coming from my left ear while the sound is more prominent on the right ear. Maybe I need to get used to it but so far it mostly sounds to me like either AirPod is about to fail. However, I am not an audiophile by any means in the first place.
You do realize this is the EXACT type of thing that was said about the Beatles during their time too right?
It’s like you missed the point entirely lol.
Buddy holly is laughably bad, but I think that’s mostly because they turned down the volume on the guitar and now you can hear the lack of talent better
So this was the supposed event that was supposed to be at noon yesterday?
Apple Music over the weekend highlighted a Spatial Audio-focused "special event," and it turns out that event is a discussion between Apple's Zane Lowe and music producers No I.D., Sylvia Massy, and Manny Marroquin.
The Apple Music event can be watched in the Apple Music app or on YouTube, and it features Lowe and the music producers discussing the evolution of music and the sound improvements for music fans.
Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio for Apple Music began rolling out last night, with special Spatial Audio tracks now available in the Apple Music app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos is a feature that artists need to implement when mixing music, so it is not available for all songs. Apple has, however, introduced thousands of Spatial Audio songs, including popular titles like Lady Gaga's "Rain on Me."
For those unfamiliar with Spatial Audio, it is a three-dimensional audio format that is designed to let musicians create songs where the instruments sound like they're coming from multiple places in the spaces around you.
In an interview shared earlier today, Apple's Eddy Cue likened Spatial Audio to watching high-definition TV for the first time.
Article Link: Apple's Zane Lowe Introduces Apple Music Spatial Audio
I haven't found an indicator for it yet on either the macOS or tvOS Music apps. If you go to the Get Info window on a song in macOS Music, under the File tab there is a field called "Available" which shows "Dolby Atmos" if you've downloaded it with that format, but it doesn't seem to be displayed elsewhere and you can't search for it as far as I can see.
There is an indicator on iOS and iPadOS - a little "Dolby Atmos" tag immediately below the scrubber line if it is currently being used.
Listened to the Spatial Audio Jazz selections and they sound great with either headphones or HomePod via AppleTV.
Mixed results for me so far, at least with HomePod. Some tracks (mostly rock, classical and jazz) are improved a bit - vocals are definitely clearer for the most part, and bass seems to be a bit fuller in the room than before. But there are a few tracks that are not as good - the spatial version of "Silent Lucidity" in particular got much worse, with the guitar kind of disappearing in the mix under the strings even in the solo section. Haven't tried on my PowerBeats headphone much yet.
Is this gonna be what 3D TVs are? DOA cause nobody cares?
Do AirPods v1 support spatial audio/Dolby Atmos?
If so is this only on an iPhone, or is it the headphone hardware the limiter? I can’t see a list that says what is.
Thanks
If so is this only on an iPhone, or is it the headphone hardware the limiter? I can’t see a list that says what is.
Thanks
I don't currently have access to any lossless-capable equipment. Just glad to get that without increasing subscription fee so when I get a job I can enjoy that.
Regardless of what you think about Buddy Holly (great song), the fact that Apple hand-picked the few songs that do have Atmos mixes on Apple Music right now and curated them into playlists, and despite this some of the Atmos mixes are absolutely god awful and a much worse experience than the stereo mix, is not good.
Now, if you want to enjoy the DA mixes that are good, you will have to manually switch off DA whenever a song with a poor DA mix comes on. Instead of only a service-wide setting, you should be able to set a preferred mix for each song. Default to DA if available, but when I hear something like Buddy Holly where clearly something is wrong considering you can't hear anything but the vocals, I should be able to just change my preferred/default mix on that track to stereo.
Nice overview and hype. As a survivor of 80's Holiphonics® scam and burn, which was essentially glorified semi-digital binaural, how does this WORK? How is this going to be implemented in Logic? How are you going to pan "all around"? How is it mixed for delivery? And how soon is this going to be implemented in Logic? And how are you going to get this onto all the recording studio production towers in use that are still using High Sierra because of 32 bit plugins and older interfaces not to mention the sheer cost of a new Mac Pro? Already the newer versions of Logic are limited to Mojave+. And what does it sound like?
Already I'm thinking of the 5.1 headphones and digital simulation of 5.1. And again, you have the huge problem with binaural... it just sounded like mega distant garbage on a pair of speakers. No "in your face" presence. It ONLY worked in headphones.
So the hype and promise of full spatial audio is fine, and we've been here before, and more than once. However, in the real world, there is a reason why stereo outlived quad. I would have hoped if you got a bunch of engineers and producers in a room to shoot a video they would have delved deeper into the mechanics and the process instead of just the promise and hype.
And as far as the "upgrade your system" mantra, pro audio is NOT surfing the web and iCloud. There are thousands of working studios out there still using 2006 Tascam DM-4800's as control surfaces for Logic.
Already I'm thinking of the 5.1 headphones and digital simulation of 5.1. And again, you have the huge problem with binaural... it just sounded like mega distant garbage on a pair of speakers. No "in your face" presence. It ONLY worked in headphones.
So the hype and promise of full spatial audio is fine, and we've been here before, and more than once. However, in the real world, there is a reason why stereo outlived quad. I would have hoped if you got a bunch of engineers and producers in a room to shoot a video they would have delved deeper into the mechanics and the process instead of just the promise and hype.
And as far as the "upgrade your system" mantra, pro audio is NOT surfing the web and iCloud. There are thousands of working studios out there still using 2006 Tascam DM-4800's as control surfaces for Logic.
3D TVs were DOA because no one wants to wear special glasses to watch TV. Now when a TV comes out that doesn't need glasses it will be different.
I actually tried the spatial audio iPadPro>Bowers & Wilkins PXY headphones with full noise cancelation on ( I was in a coffee shop). It actually didn't sound bad.
However, once I got home I've tried it with my Schiit Asgard 3 with True Multibit DAC card on high and low gain via my Senneiser HD-650 headphones. I don't like it with that equipment at all. I guess I won't be quitting Tidal anytime soon.
I need to try Apple's spatial audio with my Bowers & Wilkins P9's (cabled only) to my iPad Pro and see how that fares. BTW these particular headphones don't sound good with my Amp/Dac, too much bass.
My point is equipment makes a difference (good or bad) no matter what equipment or source you using. I would love to hear what other people are using to listen to Apple Spatial, and what their reactions are.
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Are all of Apple Music offerings going to be spatial audio??? What if the end user/subscriber doesn't like it? Or is there a software off switch?
I don't get it, can I play music with Dolby Atmos only or will Dolby Atmos not work UNLESS you also enable spatial audio as well?