Mixing in Dolby Atmos - How it Works

hello this is music tech explained the visual approach if you plan to mix in dolby atmos or just want to listen in dolby atmos it might be a good idea to watch this video to better understand what dolby atmos is what it is not and more importantly the many challenges around it [Music] welcome to music tech explained the visual approach my name is edgar rafamich author of the best-selling book series graphically enhanced manuals in this video i will explain dolby atmos with all the important information you need to know before you start to mix in dolby atmos even if you only listen to music in dolby atmos which you definitely should this video contains valuable insights you don't want to miss also if you are confused about apple's spatial audio like everybody else on the planet i will explain why it is the same as dolby atmos and at the same time why it is not but before we get started make sure you subscribe and hit the bell button to get notified about exciting new videos in my music tech explained youtube channel so let's get started the video has six chapters plus one bonus chapter in the introduction i give a perspective of dolby atmos to show where it came from because it didn't just fall out of the sky one day in the second chapter i discussed the troubling question of how many speakers you need to buy before you can start mixing in dolby atmos spoiler alert none in chapter 3 i give an overview about the software and hardware requirements for dolby atmos then in chapter 4 we dive into the details to learn what dolby atmos is in chapter 5 i show the new workflows the different steps when mixing your dolby atmos song and in the final chapter i provide a few information about the dolby atmos distribution steps including apple spatial audio that caused a lot of question and concerns in the dolby atmos production community i added a bonus chapter at the end of this video to explain a little bit about binaural audio an important key element of listening to dolby atmos and immersive audio in general keep in mind that dolby atmos is used in many fields like film music games broadcast etc and the information i provide in this video is helpful regardless in what field of audio production you are working in however i concentrate a bit more on dolby atmos music i also released a book mixing in dolby atmos part 1 how it works the first comprehensive book about dolby atmos i get into much more depth of what i show in this video with many unique diagrams and graphics that you won't find anywhere else on 284 pages i explain not only the dolby atmos renderer software application in great detail but also the dolby atmos ecosystem the technology the delivery mechanisms all the new file formats and especially new mixing and mastering workflows in this first chapter i provide some perspective about dolby atmos which is important to eliminate some misconceptions dolby atmos is a technology introduced by dolby laboratories in 2012 with the first movie disney's brave mixed in dolby atmos so dolby atmos is already 10 years old and keep in mind that it is a sound format originally developed for film and not for music that little fact explains a lot of challenges when we look at mixing music in dolby atmos the very first insight you need when jumping into the dolby atmos world is the understanding of the evolution of soundcloud production there are four steps first all sound recordings and reproductions starting in the 1900s were mono a single spot source where sound was emitted around 1930s stereophonic recordings then used two speakers to create a one-dimensional sound field then the one-dimensional sound reproduction was expanded to a two-dimensional sound field with the introduction of surround sound by placing more speakers around you although the invention of surround is credited to ray dolby starting in the 1970s there were earlier experiments like the disney movie fantasia in the 1940s now the fourth step in the evolution is the move from a two-dimensional sound field to the three-dimensional sound field that's where the buzzword 3d audio is coming from now in addition to all the speakers around you hence the name surround sound like 5.1 there are additional speakers above you that means now you are immersed in sound coming from all directions and that is where the term immersive audio is coming from there is one little detail in that evolution of sound reproduction that you have to be aware of the evolution was different for film sound and music sound the evolution of film sound was very straightforward the first sound in movies started in the early 30s as mono then in the 40s came stereo sound experiments that evolved into the late 70s to the early surround sound formats mainly developed by dolby virtually every film and many tv shows and broadcasts were mixed in surround over the years the step into immersive sounds started 2005 with introduction of oro 3d and then later the dominant format of dolby atmos in 2012 so the important fact to keep in mind is that dolby atmos was originally developed and introduced for film sound it was a film sound format now let's compare that to the evolution of recorded sound without picture just music recordings the early sound recordings in the late 1800s of course started with mono then in the 1930s the introduction of stereo which became hugely successful with first vinyl then cassette tapes and then cds all the way to digital audio file distribution we have nowadays then in 2019 dolby introduced dolby atmos music the step into the immersive sound format but what happened in between where was the big surround era in music recording michael jackson's thriller proof springsteen garth brooks nothing there was a big dry spell and sound was pretty much stuck in stereo since the 1930s at least for commercial music production the attempts with quadrophony in the 70s and the dvd audio debacle in 2000 to 2007 showed that for some reason the mass consumer audience was not interested in anything other than stereo when listening to music so what makes dolby atmos different will it ultimately fail like surround sound after the initial hype fades off as some people predict definitely not because the main reason why those audio surround formats failed are not there anymore something important has changed as i will explain a little later with new technology always comes new terminology although terminology should make life easier by using specific words that have specific agreed upon meaning very often those terminology erode and then a term can mean different things depending on who you ask here are just a few examples regarding sound reproduction immersive audio is the generic term for sound systems that reproduce a three-dimensional sound field that's why the term 3d audio or 360 audio has the same meaning unfortunately some people also use the term surround to describe immersive audio which can be confusing when differentiating established sound formats like quad 5.1 or 7.1 that are only two-dimensional with true immersive sound formats that are three-dimensional so be careful with the term surround with the term spatial audio it gets even more confusing originally it was a generic term used like immersive audio where you can receive sound from all directions to give you the impression that you hear the sound source around you and not only hear the actual speaker source but then apple kind of hijacked that term for their own immersive sound technology i will explain that later because apple created some confusion about what spatial audio is and what it is not and then there are many other related terms like ambisonics auro 3d 360 sound 360 reality audio and also dolby atmos which are all different formats that can produce immersive sound and last but not least there is binaural audio the key to success of immersive audio which i explained in the bonus chapter at the end okay now let's jump right into dolby atmos with the first important question how many speakers do we need in our studio to mix in dolby atmos a conventional surround setup is usually 5.1 or 7.1 that means 5 or 7 speakers around you on ear level plus the subwoofer the dot 1 also referred to as the lfe channel low frequency effect that means you need a studio with a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker layout to mix in that surround format dolby's recommendation to mix in dolby atmos is to have at least a 7.1.4 speaker setup that means seven speakers at ear level which is your left and right a center and four surround speakers the dot one again represents the lfe channel and the dot 4 at the end refers to the number of height or overhead speakers they are mounted at the ceiling as left right pairs of course you need a big enough room especially high enough to mount all those speakers then you need an audio interface with at least 12 output channels some kind of monitor control device and most importantly a lot of money in your bank to buy and install all that stuff but wait before you get discouraged and put your dream of mixing in dolby atmos away remember dolby recommends those setups they don't require that you might have heard of studios that are certified to mix in dolby atmos but that applies now only to big movie productions that are mixed in dolby atmos dolby figured that if they want to have dolby atmos take over the music world and make it the new stereo they have to be less strict about it that means your garage turned into home studio or even your bedroom is sufficient to mix your songs in dolby atmos at a minimum all you need is a pair of headphones and the magic of binaural audio will do the rest now on to the next step besides the speakers and headphones what software and hardware do we need to mix in dolby atmos although there is one specific software application to mix in dolby atmos the dolby atmos renderer plus some hardware configurations there are various configurations you have to be aware of to figure out what you need best case scenario you might not need any software or hardware other than what you already have to mix in dolby atmos you need two main components your daw and the dolby atmos renderer let's start with your diw the good news is that all the mixing is still done in your diw you don't have to learn a new mixing application all your editing mixing plugins everything can stay the same the main difference in your mix will be the output routing plus panning including some adjustments with mixing workflows that also means remixing your existing songs that you have already mixed in stereo is as simple as opening them back up and make those dolby atmos adjustments and additions you don't have to start from scratch the second component for mixing in dolby atmos is the so called dolby atmos renderer that is the software application that lets you transform your boring two-dimensional stereo mix into an exciting three-dimensional dolby atmos mix here is the basic signal flow your audio is played in your diw where you do the mixing as usual the diw routes up to 128 audio channels to the dolby atmos renderer the dolby atmos renderer is connected to the speakers so it's like a daisy chain setup there are three types of setups that determine how these two components work together first setup number one the dolby atmos renderer is a separate application that you have to buy 299 or 99 if you are a student or teacher and there is a three-month free trial to get your feet wet that software will run on the same computer as your diw but it has to be a mac sorry no window support for this setup one important aspect is whether the daw has dolby atmos renderer support or not diws fall into two categories pro tools on window have various features and functionality implemented that makes it easy to communicate with the dolby atmos renderer application these dws are used already for years to create dolby atmos mixes for movies on the other hand diws like ableton live or logic pro 10.6 don't know anything about dolby atmos however dolby provides free plugins that enables those daws to also mix in dolby atmos technically all diws can work as long as they have the necessary routing capabilities next setup number two this is the same software setup with the two independent applications the daw and the dolby atmos renderer however the dolby atmos renderer now runs on a separate computer this has the advantage that the diw and the dolby atmos renderer can run on a mac or windows computer however the software now costs 999 dollars in addition to the dedicated computer that you have to purchase from an authorized dolby reseller this is a configuration that might be required for more demanding mixed jobs where you run sessions with a high track count with lots of plugins that could bring down your computer if you want to run the dolby atmos renderer on the same machine this setup requires a lot of high channel count audio interfaces that can increase the price tag of such a solution quite a bit the consideration regarding the daw if it supports the dolby atmos renderer or requires additional plugins is the same and finally setup number three this might be the most attractive solution because you could end up having to spend no money at all to get yourself into the dolby atmos driver seat with this setup you don't need to buy the dolby atmos renderer software because its functionality is integrated directly into the daw as of september 2021 only nuendo and da vinci resolve have that full integration but apple already announced in june that and i quote apple is building immersive music authoring tools directly into logic pro later this year end of quote does that mean integrated dolby atmos renderer in logic we will see so it seems to be a trend that more and more diws will have dolby atmos mixing capabilities built into their software however you have to check whether it is a full integration or if the diw only uses a subset of the dolby atmos renderer features in the end you might still consider setup number one to have access to the full feature set of the dolby atmos renderer please be aware that there are some confusing naming conventions for the different software packages like dolby atmos production suite and dolby atmos mastering suite that both include the almost identical dolby atmos renderer plus additional software that is included and other free software that needs to be downloaded separately i explain all that in my book with more detailed graphics about the various software and computer configurations now we know what speakers software and hardware we need let's discuss what dolby atmos actually is and look at three of its key elements object-based is a term that you hear a lot when talking about dolby atmos it describes the main difference compared to stereo or other surround formats which are referred to as channel based channel based means that the individual tracks in your diw are routed to a stereo output bus two channels or a surround bus more than two channels a pen control on each track lets you determine to which channel you send the signal for example center left right half left etc the important part is that the mix is committed to a specific channel count for example stereo quad 5.1 or 7.1 and in order to playback that mix you need a playback device with the same amount of speakers or it doesn't work an object-based system lifts that restriction there are three things you have to understand number one now the output of each track in your session after inserts and level is routed directly without the pan controls to one of the 128 input channels of the dolby atmos renderer number two the pan control on each track however is still working but instead of routing the actual audio signal to available output channels now whatever pan position you set at the pen control a single position or changing the automation will generate metadata similar to gps data that describes the xyz coordinates of where in the 3d space you position the audio signal on that track that metadata will also be sent to the dolby atmos renderer along with the corresponding audio circle on that same channel that signal on that track now is referred to as an object keep in mind that this separate transmission of audio signal and its pen information requires some special configuration on your diw number three there is an important exception to that concept of audio signal plus metadata that can cause some confusion the first 10 of the 128 available input channels of the dolby atmos renderer are reserved to function as a conventional channel-based routing system that means on your daw you can route a track or multiple tracks to a multi-channel bus for example 7.1.2 using the surround panel and those 10 audio channels are sent to 10 input channels of the dolby atmos renderer with the pen information baked in so to speak that group of input channels is referred to as a bed so which tracks on your diw do you configure as objects that keep the audio signal and pen information separate when sending to the renderer and which tracks do you configure as bets to use the conventional channel base routing when sending to the renderer that is a decision you have to make for each track in your session before you start however you have to prepare the dolby atmos renderer and assign the 128 channels in the renderer or the ones you need to either an object or to a bed and then configure the mapping and routing of the individual tracks in the diw to those corresponding objects or bad channels there are many reasons why to map a track to an object or routed to a bed they fall into the category of personal preferences best practice and there are few technical considerations i discuss all that in my book but here are just a few technical considerations channel 1 to 10 can only be assigned to a bet with a channel width of 2.0 up to 10.1.2 the remaining 118 channels can be assigned to objects you can assign any of those 118 channels as additional beds but then those channels are not available as objects anymore signals that are spatially static or are pre-recorded with a surround format are better routed to a bed there are only mono objects one input channel assigned to one object that is mapped to a mono track in your diw if you have a stereo track in your diw then you have to map it to two objects you cannot map multi-channel tracks to objects signals that you want to position at precise spatial location or want to move around are better mapped to objects only tracks in your diw that are routed to a bed can be sent to the lfe channel tracks that are mapped to objects cannot reach the lfe channels without special routing tricks the third and most important element of dolby atmos is the renderer that is the magic component that makes dolby atmos special and not just another surround sound format with height speakers remember channel based formats are fixed and restricted to their channel count for example you need a 5.1 playback system to play a 5.1 mix dolby atmos on the other hand is playback agnostic that means you create only one dolby atmos mix and it can play back on systems with any speaker layout 7.1.2 11.1.6 5.1 stereo binaural headphone or any of the smart speakers or sound bars that support dolby atmos the concept behind that is fairly simple all the up to 128 audio channels and their separate pen information which means the individual location of those audio signals are fed into the renderer that processes those signals in real time to produce a channel based output the only thing you have to tell the renderer is what channel based output format you want for example 7.1.2 5.1 binaural headphone all the way down to stereo whatever xy position a signal has the renderer tries to place it into the speaker that is available in that setup of course the more speaker channels you have available the more precise the spatial reproduction will be the less weaker channel you have available the more compromised the end result will be for example if there are no height speakers then those signals will be placed into the nearest surround speakers and if there are no surround speakers then the signals will be folded into the plane stereo mix the mix that you listen to at the end might not be immersive or not be even surround but you will not lose any signals that were in the original dolby atmos mix with that basic understanding of the dolby atmos concept now let's look at the workflow the individual steps when mixing in dolby atmos keep in mind that the following is a very simplified description and that there are a lot of additional details that also vary depending on what daw you are using as i already mentioned all the content of your session is in your diw as usual where you do the editing and processing the big difference is the output routing instead of routing everything to a final stereo output bus now you have 128 audio channels that you can route your tracks to those 128 output channels on your diw represent the 128 input channels of the dolby atmos renderer app that are assigned to either objects or beds depending on your diw you can use either their own surround banner or a free plugin called the dolby atmos music panel that you can load on each track the major difference is that for objects the pan control is not part of the signal flow and instead any adjustment that you make on the pan control will create separate metadata that are also sent to the corresponding audio input channel of the dolby atmos renderer along with the audio signal that's what you see on the diagram ignoring the bad concepts for a moment the heart of the dolby atmos renderer application is the renderer you select what speaker setup you are listening to for example 7.1.2 and the renderer then processes the 128 input audio signals based on the pan metadata to play your atmos mix over those output channels when you change your output format for example to binaural headphone then the renderer process the same 128 input channels plus pen information to play your atmos mix as a 2 channel binaural audio signal and here is another important difference once you are done mixing instead of bouncing the dolby atmos mix to a wav file you record the atmos mix to a special dolby atmos master file that still keeps the 128 audio signals and the panning information separate it functions similar to a tape machine that has 128 channels that you can record on record over punching in and out or extend your final recording if necessary in the next workflow step the diw is not in the picture anymore now you load a previously recorded dolby atmos master file your completed mix into the dolby atmos renderer and the up to 128 recorded channels of the master file are now the inputs of the dolby atmos renderer the next step is similar to the bounce procedure in a diw because now you export the loaded dolby atmos master file to a file format for delivery to the mastering engineer the record company or your aggregator like distrokit that exported file format is a adm bwf file that you will hear a lot of in the future this audio definition model broadcast wave format is like a wav file on steroids it contains the up to 128 audio channels plus the corresponding pan control metadata and all sorts of other metadata that adm bwf file will then be encoded into yet another special bitstream format that will represent your dolby atmos mix distributed to the end user via the various music streaming services and finally here is another super important fact the consumer receives the dolby atmos mix as an encoded file that still has the audio and pan information separate with some data reduction and the atmos playback device also has a renderer similar to the one we had in the dolby atmos renderer app it calculates the dolby atmos mix to whatever speaker layout is available at the current end user's playback system if you think about it the actual mix of your song happens in real time when the user listens to your dolby atmos mix depending on the individual speaker layout so to summarize you have three main tasks when mixing in dolby atmos task 1 is the actual mixing mostly done in the diw that includes a lot of configurations and monitoring done on the dolby atmos renderer app and monitored through various output formats that you can select task 2 is the part when your mix is finished and you record it to a dolby atmos master file as individual channels in an interleaved audio file task 3 is the part where you import the dolby atmos master file of your mix back into the dolby atmos renderer to export it to the actual delivery format the adm bwf file which is still a special interleaved audio file the dolby atmos renderer also lets you create other exports to create various channel based versions of your dolby atmos mix for example a standard wav file in 5.1 or stereo or as a binaural mix that you can easily upload as a two channel audio file to youtube that you can fans can enjoy as a binaural audio headphone mix in this chapter i want to talk about what happens after you've finished your mix and it gets delivered to the end consumer usually the musician slash engineer slash producer doesn't have to worry about the actual distribution mechanism of their music and luckily so because it can get very complicated and especially nerdy with all the online and cloud-based delivery procedures however with dolby atmos mixes it is a good idea to have at least some kind of understanding what is going on because there are quite a few steps that affect your mix besides the fact that you have no idea with what playback system the end user is listening to your song i provide a more in-depth explanation of those steps in my book to show what happens to your mix in this section of the video i just want to touch on a few things first the music delivery workflow on this graphics i show the comparison of the delivery workflow between the traditional channel based music production and the new object-based music production of a dolby atmos mix here are a few differences i want to point out the delivery format for a master file is different wav file versus the adm bwf file i didn't show the step of the mastering but they have to reinvent their workflow for dolby atmos mixes the encoding process and all the various file formats are different that's where it gets complicated with dd plus chuck and ac4 ims encoding formats but also important because these are the steps where the various algorithms mess around with your mix to squeeze it to deliver the data over the internet the actual distribution pipeline however is similar but the most important component happens at the end user when they play back the atmos file that is where the atmos renderer is involved to convert the dolby atmos mix into a channel based format that renderer component is where apple's spatial audio can put another dent into your mix here's a graphic to scare you just a little it shows the various components along the distribution chain that can negatively affect your dolby atmos mix that you worked on so hard it all starts with your perfect three-dimensional atmos mix it is distributed through different music streaming services each using a slightly different technology then the end user listens on different platforms that run on different operating systems all with their only little twists then the renderer that converts the object-based file into the channel-based output is different depending on what device the user is listening to and then finally what speaker setup the user has now you get the idea why you should be aware of those variables and how they affect your atmos mix and last but not least a word about apple's spatial audio that puts a special twist on dolby atmos music mixes remember when apple rolled out that feature for the apple music streaming service in june 2021 they didn't just say apple music now plays back songs mixed in dolby atmos no instead they said that apple music now has spatial audio with support for dolby atmos so why did they use that sneaky wording the simple answer is yes they playback the original dolby atmos mix but they don't use the dolby atmos renderer technology let's pause and let that sink in for a moment when you mix your dolby atmos track you listen to the dolby atmos renderer but when the user listens to that song on the apple music streaming service that dolby atmos mix is surrendered by apple's own engine their own renderer that then produces the channel based output from the object-based atmos mix do you need another pause to let that sync in there are other confusions based on additional variables as i show on this diagram as you can see at some point apple is actually using the dolby atmos renderer instead of their own apple renderer more detailed information about all that in my book and explanations of the not so intuitive spatial audio implementation on the various apple devices now let's have a closer look at headphones and binaural audio and the reason why it will be the key to success for dolby atmos and immersive audio in general i showed in the previous section that music recordings were stuck with stereo and never had a chance to evolve to surround or even to an immersive sound format there are two simple reasons cost and convenience enjoying films in movie theaters is a closed environment you have no control over the technology you just pay the ticket so when the technology evolved from mono to stereo to surround and then immersive it just happened without the control of the consumer they just got a better experience and the gradual increase of movie tickets that paid for the new implementations yes they are home theater systems but only a small portion of households have installed a nice surround system in the living room or basement however there is some movement with increased adoption rate in this sector with new technological advancements by using speaker virtualization that i also cover in my book now music consumption is a different story because the user is in charge of acquiring the medium vinyl cd or streaming and they have to buy the playback system that's where the two c's come in place cost and convenience in the old days everybody remotely interested in good sound quality of their music collection invested in a decent hi-fi system these days are gone and the younger generation doesn't even know anymore what a hi-fi store was music is mainly consumed on portable devices starting with mp3 players like the ipod around the year 2000 and nowadays virtually everybody has a cell phone and that is the main device of playing back music and here's the important part they listen over headphones it is estimated that 80 of music is now consumed over headphones and here you have it the reason why surround sound never caught on for music recording it was just too expensive to buy the equipment with all the extra speakers and the inconvenience where to place them or mount them there was no chance of adoption in the mass consumer market in an interesting twist the consumer market actually now moved towards the technology if you will they decided not to buy any playback equipment and use the cell phone and the earbuds they already have to listen to music the cheapest and most convenient solution however if you think that this would be the deciding factor to stick with stereo then you forgot the magic sauce and that is a technology called binaural audio if you consider to mix in dolby atmos or just listen to dolby atmos music you have to understand binaural audio there are a lot of buzzwords around that like binaural rendering headphone virtualization hrtf or head tracking and i explain all that in my book here's just a quick rundown although we have only two ears that's where the term bin aural is coming from we can hear three-dimensional locating sound all around us our brain makes all that possible by comparing the sound entering the left and right ear and analyzing its level timing and frequency difference caused by our head and the shape of our ears you can simulate that binaural listening by sticking two tiny microphones inside your ear and playback that recording over headphones this is called binaural recording usually done with a dummy head there are plenty of examples on youtube that demonstrate that effect the key element is that you need only two audio channels play it back over headphones and you can achieve the impression of hearing sound playing around you instead of playing inside your head or in the left or right ear like with stereo headphones this is where you have to pay attention to to the terminology stereo headphone means playing back a conventional two channel stereo signal over headphones binaural headphone means you also playback two channels but it is a special binaural signal that achieves that 3d listening effect you can also artificially create a binaural audio signal by processing a signal and to position it anywhere in 3d space and when listening back over headphones you will get the sensation that it is coming from that direction that is called binaural rendering binaural rendering uses a complex math function called hrtf or head related transfer function that simulates the shape of the head and ear because those shapes are different for each person that binaural renderer in most applications uses an average shape with a drawback that the more your own shape is different from the average shape the less convincing the 3d experience will be that's why you have different testimonies about how convincing binaural audio sounds the remedy for that is to use your own measurement for the binaural processing which is called personalized hrtf this is a complicated process done in an anechoic chamber here's a picture of me where they measured my personalized hrtf done at the harman research center here in los angeles this part of the technology is still developing with lots of money and efforts going in from many companies that means the dolby atmos playback what you experience right now regarding the immersive experience will improve quite a bit over the next few years once it is easier to create personalized hrtfs and import them into your playback device apple with their own spatial audio technology added some unnecessary confusion although they don't mention the term binaural audio they are using their own renderer also referred to as headphone virtualization this is actually a big problem because right now the majority of dolby atmos music is consumed over headphones via the apple music streaming service but when mixing in dolby atmos with the dolby atmos renderer and monitoring your binaural signal over headphones then this mix is different from what is played back on apple music head tracking is another key element of binaural audio that is already implemented in apple's spatial audio once you understand the concept don't think it is only relevant when watching movies that have a visual reference point it can also improve the music listening experience keep in mind that our brain automatically moves our head slightly to better locate sound so head tracking is not only good for giving you the experience of a live concert it is important for overall spatial localization again a lot of exciting research and development going on as we speak here is a simple demonstration to understand the difference between a stereo headphone signal and a binaural headphone signal please put on your headphones my voice represents the motorcycle when i pan it in the center it would appear as a phantom image in the middle of the two loudspeakers but when listening over the headphones the signal appears inside the head which is unnatural because sound sources always happen outside your body now when i pan the mono sector towards the left more to the left more to the left it would move towards the left speaker in front of you but over the headphones it is still stuck inside the head moving towards your left ear which is even worse because your brain signals an alert in nature that only happens if a signal is projected directly into one ear without reaching the other ear that means someone or something is so close to you that it could cause danger the same thing happens when you pan to the right side more to the right more to the right more to the right on the headphone it is now playing in your right ear that means your brain locates that thread on your right side listen to jazz recordings where two players are panned extremely left or right or worse podcast where two guests are penned left right the drier the signal the more uneasy the experience with loudspeakers that doesn't happen because you will get a cross feed between left and right loudspeaker plus the additional room acoustics that adding to the signal now let's do the same where the monocycle of my voice is running through a binaural renderer the experience is now that the voice should appear in front of you instead of inside your head and when i pan the signal to the left more to the left more to the left the renderer processes the signal in a way that the brain hears that it is moving to the left but you have the feeling of a room position so the signal is not stuck exclusively inside one ear now when a pen to the right my voice moves to the right but still not stuck inside the ear now i have panned my voice all the way to the right to the right to the right there are a lot of things you have to play around with to be aware of and often unlearn unnatural practices that we grew accustomed to when listening to headphones i encourage you to subscribe to apple music and listen to dolby atmos music mixes over headphones as much as you can and constantly switching back and forth between stereo and dolby atmos to experience the difference okay that sums it up about my video about dolby atmos for more in-depth explanation please check out my book mixing in dolby atmos part 1 how it works with information and details you won't find anywhere else all the links are on my website dingdingmusic.com don't forget to subscribe and check the bell for notifications about exciting new videos in this music tech explained youtube channel in addition you can read my free logic and pro tools tutorials on my website and please explore the books in my graphically enhanced manual series they are available in different formats as pdfs from my website as ibooks on the apple bookstore and kindle and printed books on amazon all the links are available on my website dingdingmusic.com [Music] you

Channel: Music Tech Explained

Views: 60,480

Keywords: Logic Pro X, Pro Tools, Tutorial, Tips, Audio Production, Music Production, Music Tech, Apple, macOS

Id: W54VcLaSMjM

Length: 47min 39sec (2859 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 14 2021