Not something I'd dedicated an entire commercial for. Then again I'm not in marketing so what do I know?
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Spatial Audio on Apple Music Promoted in New 'Beyond Stereo' Ad
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some people like dynamic range, some prefer compressed radio-ready tracks. I’ll take the former any day.
I’m guessing part of it is whether or not they can get the owner to go into the studio to remix. As Daft Punk is very recently not a thing, they’re likely not willing to.
It sounds better to me with rap and vocal heavy songs. Throw in a lot of bass etc. and it isn't as great as stereo.
Not too impressed so far.
I'd like to hear a Jean Michel Jarre album fully remixed by the master for Spatial audio though. Apple need some stand out producers to showcase this, if it's so good.
Anyone know if it's possible to create a smart playlist to look for Spatial audio songs?
I'd like to hear a Jean Michel Jarre album fully remixed by the master for Spatial audio though. Apple need some stand out producers to showcase this, if it's so good.
Anyone know if it's possible to create a smart playlist to look for Spatial audio songs?
In homes, yes, but not in headphones… MAYBE headphones, but at a mass market level. Which is one reason why I think SACD’s didn’t take off either. Higher quality music doesn’t HAVE to be a stationary pursuit anymore and this is just makes “surround sound” accessible to a huge number of people. With those many people looking for it, that should mean that there are more engineers and artists willing to put forth the effort to mix in surround.
A lot of comments will have “It sounds worse because it sounds different” without even realizing that’s what the comment is saying.
My understanding is that it’s the exact opposite. A human has to place the sound sources in three dimensional space during the production of the Atmos track. if It were automated, every existing track would already be available, but they’re not.
In my case dolby atmos is lackluster on mobile and refuses to work on my mac mini, but I'm loving the lossless so far.
Finally high quality tracks can be purchased from itunes (i occasionally buy albums).
I can actually hear a difference with lossless, especially on my wired headphones.
Finally high quality tracks can be purchased from itunes (i occasionally buy albums).
I can actually hear a difference with lossless, especially on my wired headphones.
How do you know the conversion is fully automated? That is a big turn off for me. I’ve always preferred these kinds of things to be done by hand. (So to speak.) It’s like when I had a 3D TV, I never used the pseudo 3D feature. I only ever watched movies that were actually Produced in 3D.
Since SA requires the artists and studios to design, record, and mix their music in the SA format in order to ensure it sounds correct, most songs won't be using it natively for a long time, if ever. Isn't this like forcing your ATV 4K to show everything in Dolby Vision and Atmos even when the original format is not in Dolby Vision or HDR? You get a automated, forced conversion which might or might not look okay, but you don't get what the original studio intended when they released the movie or TV show. For ATV 4K it is best to set it up wherein the movie is shown in Dolby Vision and/or Atmos only when the movie natively uses that format, but if it is in HDR10 it shown in that instead, or if it is in SDR it uses that rather than HDR. So it seems like the smart thing for Apple to do is allow a similar setup that will play SA native music in the SA format, but play non-SA music in stereo (or whatever other setting the user prefers). Forcing everything to be SA seems like a stupid move.
And for the poster who took a cheap shot at the folks over 40, if it were not for us old folks you would be listening to cats mate in the back alleys and hillybilly noise out of Nashville. Our generation made rock and roll. So show some respect...
And for the poster who took a cheap shot at the folks over 40, if it were not for us old folks you would be listening to cats mate in the back alleys and hillybilly noise out of Nashville. Our generation made rock and roll. So show some respect...
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I am listening to spatial audio with AirPods Max headphones and Pro earbuds. It sounds good. Some songs are more 'spatial' than others.
Did the last AirPods Max upgrade to 3E756 improve it for spatial audio? I would say yes. Listening to the Apple Music "Made for Spatial Audio" playlist, the Max can handle the most booming hip-hop tracks without a sweat.
Did the last AirPods Max upgrade to 3E756 improve it for spatial audio? I would say yes. Listening to the Apple Music "Made for Spatial Audio" playlist, the Max can handle the most booming hip-hop tracks without a sweat.
My receiver will play the SA songs in Atmos and when that isn't available, it uses stereo. Not sure how the AirPods works, but I don't see any option to get a fake SA version.
Ultimately it dramatically skews the original intention for sound signature and sound space. It’s not much more than a glorified surround concert hall FX minus the aggressive reverb, and, again, you’re listening to music in ways never intended by the original production.
If new music starts being mixed and mastered for spatial audio specifically that’s one thing, but all of this upconversion is really just distorting the sound and isn’t something I’d call “the next step in sound,” more of a marketing gimmick in its current form to upsell “Pro” AirPods.
the stuff I’ve produced - I would never want people to get their first listen of it with spatial audio on - it just doesn’t sound as intended, not even close.
If new music starts being mixed and mastered for spatial audio specifically that’s one thing, but all of this upconversion is really just distorting the sound and isn’t something I’d call “the next step in sound,” more of a marketing gimmick in its current form to upsell “Pro” AirPods.
the stuff I’ve produced - I would never want people to get their first listen of it with spatial audio on - it just doesn’t sound as intended, not even close.
If tracks haven’t been mastered for this type of format it’s going to be messy audio. Even from the artists perspective, you’re not ‘hearing’ the track the way the artist intended. Same issues arose when CDs came out. You have to master a track way differently if you’re going from vinyl to CD. The soundstage is way different.
Music sounds different on all the various sound systems and headphones out there for sale. Music sounds different when it is played live. Music producers can't say the way it was designed to be heard in the studio is the way people will hear it at home.
I don’t find that to be universally true, it really seems to be up to how it was mixed/mastered. Reminds me a bit of the early days of CDs when it was pretty common to have CDs that sounded objectively worse than even cassette tapes. For example Weezer’s Buddy Holly puts the vocals front and center to the detriment of everything else, the song actually sounds like it’s playing at 90% speed of the stereo track; it’s awful. On the other hand R.E.M.’s entire Automatic for the People album is perfectly balanced, probably because it was mixed as a 5.1 album years ago.
I’m sure just like with CDs engineers will find the right balance as we move forward, and unlike CDs we won’t have re-purchase everything when they get it right.
There’s a difference between different headphones and sound systems offering different reproductions of your mix but we’re talking about adding yet another layer on top of that, dramatically skewing the original reproduction more than switching headphones would (assuming you’re buying high end stuff)
Some of the albums were definitely mixed that way for prior multi-track productions.
That being said, I want what sounds best in my system regardless of the artist/original engineer's intent. Do you know how many albums they mixed for "loudness" (crushed wave peaks and low dynamic range)? If Atmos can bring life to albums with these issues, I am all for it. It comes down to the engineer. Listen to some of the remastered albums on SACD from Steve Hoffman...from the albums I have heard.. they all sound better than the original.
Perhaps "spatial audio" is best for the better systems and headphones. When I listen to songs I know in the new spatial audio format it sounds better; I am hearing it using AirPods Max.
I guess I don’t know, but I just assumed the process was done automatically. I’ve noticed a few songs in the Atmos playlists are those songs only and not the entire album they were on.
On top of some of the songs not sounding very great in Atmos, I find it hard to believe they needed a studio to output that type of low quality lol.
I do like Atmos overall though, it just seemed to me like Daft Punk would be one of the first for Apple to convert to Atmos based on how old some of their albums are and how it seems pretty likely they would all sound good, giving a better picture of how it could sound with older music.
I’m not a Daft Punk super fan or anything like that, and really only listen to one album of theirs, but Apples current songs they have in playlists now are what the majority of people are going to base spatial audio on for the next few years, so I just don’t know why they weren’t added.
I’m using headphones that way surpass that so I don’t think so. Not trying to flex at all, just saying the issue isn’t because I’m using bad headphones