Dolby Atmos Music : Sony 360

[rick]

I don't know what we all know that I don't know about immersive sound - 3d audio, formats, realities and the cost of setting your studio up for the future how interested you actually are ? .

But I do know from first-hand experience there is a huge line of big business thought and money betting on the biggest change in audio in the last 70 years happening in the next 7 years 2020 - 2027.
it's not just movies and installations anymore its the whole 9 yards.

#disclaimer -I have a lot of friends at Dolby and Sony 360 that are not yet part of the forum so in the future they could well read what you write in this discussion and add to or correct some thoughts when I reopen the door to the forum.

What do you know? what have you done so far, what don't you know?

I think I will reinstate some kind of old school Turtlerock door prize for the best answer .. I don't know what yet but I am bound to have something in the shed I am not using that's worth more than paper you use to post.

[Chris H]

ok, .......Back in about 2003-4-5 i was recording a concert annually by PLC students at Melba Hall at the Melbourne UniCon of Music . Les Craythorn was the in house engineer, a real old school engineer and a great bloke to boot. He had a calrec soundfeild in the hall and i used to record the individual outputs of the Calrec B format preamp/processor that came with the mic. Back at the school studio and at home I used to mess with the various options available at the time for B Format surround sound and ambisonics processing in Logic. I got in touch with some academics in the UK who had developed software using Bidule software code they had written for Ambisonic processing:
https://www.plogue.com/products/bidule.html

http://pcfarina.eng.unipr.it/TBE-conversion-old.htm

The school wasn't interested in a surround sound DVD of the concert so it never came to any final product but it was fun at the time. Messing with various options to psycho acoustically throw the sound feild about in the headphones etc. Major limitation i found was you have to sit in the sweet spot with a 5.1 speaker arrangement. Interestingly I found it more interesting with a main stereo pair of speakers. I hear it now on the new mac powerbook watching a movie and hearing sounds way beyond the stereo spread of the lap tops speakers.

By the way Les is the tech who restored the famous Melbourne Uni Synthi 100:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S339uKcjhI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvqaiy77jIs

[Text_Edifice]

At my old job we looked into getting 'certification' for atmos.

We also planned for a multi-speaker array (like, lots and lots) in the main concert hall that would enable 'convincing' reverb times longer than the room was designed for. I never heard the tech but everyone who did was pretty convinced. I only mention this as the powers that be decided this was more important - and there might be parallels to home market?

The atmos thing didn't really make sense as the value we thought it would bring (scoring gigs) didn't really map to where the money was / is.

I suspect being at the end of the chain (mastering) might be important if / when it transitions to a real consumer format - for quality control and marketability - and might be lucrative as it seemed like the upfront investment would be a barrier to entry.

On the capture end there's a lot o manufacturers are doing 'immersive' / multi-channel sound capture pitched at VR /gopro video. I've used the zoom and sennheiser ones. They work fine for what they are and are supposed to do. Stitching and working with 360 video is a pain in the arse and I don't personally see it as a compelling experience - even with goggles. It's cute and fun to strap a 360 camera to a skateboard or whatever but I'm not sure if anyone but the creators really care.

But if there's a sudden compelling reason for everyone to own VR headset (dunno if the new half-life game is it) I'm not totally sure whether it's going to result in a whole lot more $ flowing into audio production.

Just thinking out loud here.

[Text_Edifice]

I was also gonna suggest that properly immersive audio might not stream properly - but nah, sony's already got this going on with deezer and tidal.

So I guess it's going to come down to whether people can be convinced they want audio in real surround (outside of a few specialist, probably lucrative, fields like medicine or disaster management).

[rick]

Dolby have partnered with universal and Warner’s and have been remixing music in atmos for 4 years
Capitol blackbird and abbey road amongst a few others have been churning out catalog for the online release about 6 months back
It’s available via amazon and tidal as streaming downloads and the atnos plugin is available for about 300 bucks
To do it yourself on protools .. plus speakers and controllers and all that stuff .
Works on stereo headphones to by a process called magic .
And it’s in most phones and millions of consumer gear .

Sony 360 is in games and lots of them and some Sony only titles and it’s also streaming on atmos and tidal
Sony are doing their releases in house studios

It’s clear immersive sound in all its formats film music theatre concerts installations car
Oem and telephones and total home integrated systems is a force going forward but who wants in ?
What’s the real spend for a studio owner ?
What’s the real client desire ?
What’s the consumer desire ?
Questions questions
Let me know what you know .

[Text_Edifice]

I think the consumer desire is the important one. I feel like we've been here before with music and it didn't work.

Just because it's available doesn't always indicate consumer desire.

4k is available.on Netflix but not sure how many typical users it attracts/retains vs that new series everyone is talking about. For a small subset it's gotta be the killer feature.

New format = rerelease opportunity for back catalogue, which makes sense of you own a lot of back catalogue. Obviously makes sense for games - hence headphones / hrtf.

DIY for.immersive sound proved easier in reaper believe it or not. But who 's going to actually have snd pay more for you to diy an immersive mix that isn't going to be swayed by somewhere 'proper' that 'understands' the complicated process and guarantees acceptance to the store.

I know you're asking for what we know and this is speculation.

[rick]

I think although it’s been going on in a big way it’s still very early days for immersive
Although there are Grammy sections and a zillion reviewers that can play it

But I guess I am trying to judge local knowledge or interest
Protools 2020 just landed and its setup is plumbed for atmos all the way through it

[Text_Edifice]

As it seems like it's just you and me talking for the moment.

I'm also pretty interested in the questions

Whose interests does mainstreaming atmos/360 serve?
Who stands to benefit most?
How accessible are the consumer marketplaces?

[smash]

All I know is that for years, I had never even been asked to set up an edit suite for anything but stereo, and now, the next four movies that we have moving through our facility are all finishing in Atmos, and all are editing in surround.

Smash.
__________________
Simon "Smash" Ashby

[Drumstruck]

let me rephrase that.....for theatres yeah but I'm not so sure for home entertainment - do people spend up on n.1.4 audio setups for home? Is there enough work coming out to warrant (us) setting up to mix to this extent? It's interesting for sure....... but there goes the budget on a dozen spkrs, n/w switch, dante convertors.... 7 years Rick? better get started now

but some think it's going to be cheaper and will generate more work:
https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/tech/mak ... 66.article