Sorry, I meant spatial audio in general. But the issue is still valid: Engineers monitor their mixes using the Dolby Atmos Renderer. Apple Music users hear the Atmos mixes rendered using Apple's own "spatial audio" renderer.
No, Logic Pro uses the official Dolby Renderer. Apple has not integrated spatial audio rendering in Logic. Yet. (As mentioned in the article.)
They don't need to. You can already mix in Logic using Dolby Atmos with any headphones. I'll explain...
Dolby Atmos uses psychoacoustic techniques to simulate with only two speakers (along a digital profile that explains a computer processor how big they are, how fast they accelerate and de-celarate, among other things) a multi-speaker setup (surround sound) within a perfect acoustic listening environment. That's why you need certified speakers for Atmos to work.
For Spatial Audio, think about it as an audio plugin like the ones that come with Logic Pro, that Apple has embedded in their newer Macs and earphones/headphones hardware and software, that allows them to simulate that those tiny speakers are certified Dolby Atmos speakers and environments according to the tiny physical speaker characteristics they use for each product.
That's why they go hand to hand. You cannot render Dolby Atmos sound in your Apple headphones or Mac speakers if they don't support the Spatial Audio plugin that allows them to become a certified Atmos setup.
So, Logic doesn't need Spatial Audio support, because it depends on you. If you are mixing Dolby Atmos, you have a physical certified monitoring setup (speakers and probably a DAC.) Or, Logic gives you the option to activate the binaural mode for each track you'll use and mix the final 3D sound file using any type of decent quality headphones.
Again, they are not different standards that Apple is supporting. Spatial Audio-type of audio plugins have been around for ages as additional support for monitoring mixes using headphones, among other applications. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple got some sort of license from Waves and their Nx tech for simulating speakers and studio environments for audio/music mixing.
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