Dolby Atmos - Hype Or Nah?

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read) Version: Hype.

Now, now, before I get flamed for this, let me just address the elephant in the room.

The majority of people will end up hearing this song in mono anyway. No, not stereo. Mono.

Let me be clear, here at Bay Phoenix Studios, we'd love to have your business. I'm not in the business of giving our clients our services if we don't feel they will benefit from it. So let's dive into Dolby Atmos, what it is and if you need it. To be fair, we also haven't invested in a Dolby Atmos system for the same reasons anyway.

Unless you're playing at The Sphere in Vegas , a movie, or your music is gonna be in a VR (Virtual Reality) game. Dolby Atmos is not for you. Here's why:

A) You're wasting your money. As stated, unless you're doing one of the above ventures, it's just hype, and most likely your fans won't have the equipment required for Dolby Atmos. There's one other venue I know in San Francisco that has Dolby Atmos (Halcyon, San Francisco), the patrons complain about the sound quality difference between stereo tracks vs Dolby Atmos. The reality is that at least 90% of the previously released music will never be remastered into Dolby Atmos to remedy that complaint.

B) Most people will listen to Mono or Stereo versions anyway. Dolby Atmos is expensive, I see a lot of club venues that just want something that works. They might not have the budget to install Dolby Atmos. With that being said, also being a live-sound engineer, when we mix in clubs we mix in mono for the most part. Sometimes LCR setup (Left | Center | Right), but that depends on the artist and sometimes the project manager. It's usually my choice to make though.

So the reason we mix in mono in indoor venues a lot is because you don't want the audience in the Left side of the room to miss all of the content on the Right side of the mix. Give a few rooms, hallways, chatter, etc into the mix and everyone who isn't in the center will miss part of the content and experience.

For that reason we almost always mix in mono.

So even if you send us a sweet stereo mix or a fancy Dolby Atmos master, we will just collapse that bad boy back into mono. And to complete the circle, as a result, most people who listen to your music will listen to it in mono anyway.

C) This is really point B.2 but it didn't look as good aesthetically. Most of your listeners will not be able to afford a Dolby Atmos system to listen to the master and all its glory. To listen to a true Dolby Atmos experience you need 7 speakers on the ground and 4 on the ceiling, minimum.

To be more specific, you need a Left | Center | Right | Mid Left | Mid Right | Far Left | Far Right | and your four ceiling sources which will give you the Front | Back and Left | Right sensations.

Who is going to be walking around with 11 sound-sources anywhere? A good portion of people don't even have a true stereo system. I'm talking about a system that has at least a few feet of distance between the Left and Right monitors.

It's just not practical for most applications. Dolby Atmos is something you think about later on your career when you're raking in some real money. An artist can allocate that money elsewhere where it will perform better for them.

On The Other Side Of The Coin

Now that I've finished my Hateradeç©, Dolby Atmos is actually extremely cool. We got to listen to a Dolby Atmos system at CES (Consumer's Electronic Show) in the past (Las Vegas, NV), and similarly Sennheiser's AMBEO. Essentially it's what 3D is for movies, but audio equivalent. It's actually one of the coolest life experiences ever.

When I was playing a VR game that was recorded with Sennheiser's AMBEO system, I remember thinking "You can actually get lost in this false reality, specially if you were like super depressed or something".

Actually after doing a bit of research I found that Sennheiser actually partnered up with Dolby Atmos to make systems for cars. So I guess it will be a bit more accessible than anticipated but it sounds like there will still be some time before it's widely adopted.

What Does Dolby Atmos Or Sennheiser's AMBEO Sound Like?

It sounds like real life. It sounds like the sounds are where they are respective to your position. It's one of the craziest mind trips. It pairs extremely well with VR. The future with audio exciting.

Final Notes.

My personal opinion is that they will try to push the product, then they will scale back on it because the hype will die a bit and the margins wouldn't be worth it and they will settle in some sort of configuration of where things are at already. There will have to be some sort of practical revolutionary audio source in order to practically implement any sort of surround sound audio. I think the majority of applications will be with movies and video games.

Ultimately, I think they will be listening to Dolby Atmos mixed sound in stereo headphones lol.

- Bay Phoenix