It’s funny when people you work with are really excited about some new audio tech and then you listen to it and find out it’s smoke and mirrors or just barely acceptable.
Case in point is this Dolby Atmos demo. check out Prince – “When Doves Cry”. First off, the stereo version seems like it’s from a 128k or less mp3. That made me listen to the vinyl version to see if it was indeed a remix.
It is…
BUT,
If you are to believe the visualizer, this mix is mostly forward facing. Come on man! Is this the best you can do? You were there with this songs tracks in front of you and all you could conceive was placing all the sounds in the front, but throwing us a bone when a keyboard goes around your head toward the end of the song.
I mean, it’s a spatial music mix which has the ability to place sound anywhere is a 360 degree sphere, so first you decide Atmos is best, (which limited you to the upper hemisphere). So you decide to first negate HALF of the available space, THEN you put everything in front. You negate another 25% of useable real estate.
Your grand vision for spatial audio is to use 25% of what is available. I ordered a 4 course meal, but you decide that I should only get the soup served in a spoon? Please.