Apple Music Lefsetz: "Spatial Audio a hell bent drive in the wrong direction"

[turbineseaplane]

Great short article from Bob Lefsetz discussing a bit of a "warning letter" he received from a producer/engineer

Link: https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2021/06/11/spatial-audio/

A few tidbits:

"Atmos catalog remixing is being done by the truckload in a handful of Nashville, LA, and NYC rooms right now and has been for a couple of years, and almost none of it is being overseen or approved by the artist or original producer or mixer. And these versions- according to Apple- will be the new standard versions, superseding the original versions, now designated by Apple to the dustbin of history."

"In the rush to make content for Apple, labels are jamming this crap out with little QC and -again- almost no input from artists."

"It is sacrilegious to remix/Atmosfy classic tracks. They weren’t cut that way to begin with. It even bugs me that they’re using remixed tracks from “Abbey Road” to Atmosfy, now you’re multiple steps from the original."

"I compared Spatial Audio tracks to their HD equivalents on Amazon Music and I found exactly what one writer said: the vocal gets lost. Instead of being up front and in your face, it’s buried more in the mix."

"Actually, the more I listen to these Spatial Audio cuts, the more offensive they become. Kind of like those Beatles remixes. These are not the original records, they’ve been messed with, they’re not even facsimiles, they’re bastardizations."

 

[Lvivske]

I've got Dolby turned off, besides, unless I have some 5.1 stereo home theater to play it on, whats the point? Its such a niche thing and is honestly stupid as a form of remastering

for live concert dvds or new recordings that want to take advantage of it? sure, but dont touch originals without the artists involvement

 

[turbineseaplane]

It's super concerning to see that tidbit about Apple supposedly wanting their remixed catalog to become the default offerings.

That's got to be wrong intel I would think.

Apple Music will die if they think everyone will want that eventually.

I wish Apple would spend time on a new premium speaker offering and think it through better than the HomePod and just work towards getting great audio to be more accessible in more situations/contexts. The source files don't need to be monkeyed with please.

Video content is one thing, but the music version of "spatial audio" is mostly a massive distraction.

 

[bluespark]

Part of this is obviously correct: Remixing -- especially violently remixing, as is often done for Atmos -- should be careful and with artist approval where possible. Absent that, we're hearing something different from what the artist intended. (Different story entirely if something is recorded for Atmos.) And when sounds are moved around spatially after having been recorded without that spatial information, other sounds must be compromised. That's not to say it can't be done well -- some of the spatial remixes are truly cool, but they aren't masters, and plenty are not good.

That said, it's telling to me that Apple also made lossless audio part of this same announcement. Apple seemed to be acknowledging that spatial audio won't be for everyone, and that some of us really do expect the best sound and the approach that best captures the artist's intentions.

 

[Nermal]

It's not just Apple. I'm not going to name names, but I picked up a Blu-ray of a 60s movie and was surprised to find it in 5.1 surround as I didn't think it was common back then. A trip to Google revealed that the movie had been deliberately recorded in mono as the director apparently hated surround sound, yet the Blu-ray had a surround mix by default.