Those who know me in other places will be amused to hear that I woke up to not one, not two, but a grand total of 3 different pings across Discord and Reddit that overnight a Dolby Atmos mix of Flight b741 showed up out of nowhere.
What is Dolby Atmos? It’s Dolby’s latest and greatest surround sound format. Instead of authoring to channels, you author to “objects” and float those around a 3D space. At playback, this gets interpreted by your Atmos setup (whether it be a full home theater set up, a sound bar, or headphones), and sounds are placed behind, to the sides, and above you in the nearest speaker the object is. It was largely intended for film and television (debuting alongside Pixar’s Brave) but has opened up to just about everything, from movies and TV, to video games, to Audible originals to music. You can see what the objects are like in this demo here: https://youtu.be/UsHxDwiWdNw
As of right now I can only confirm of the mix’s existence on Apple Music, but it is also likely on Tidal and Amazon Music HD, the only 3 platforms to support Dolby Atmos music. A considerable amount of music has been mixed for the format, from the entire Talking Heads catalogue, to Dark Side of the Moon and Animals from Pink Floyd, and of course, how could we forget the surround mixing legend Steven Wilson, who among his own albums has done The Yes Album and Fragile, the vast majority of the Chic discography, A-ha’s Take On Me, American Beauty/Europe 72/and an unreleased Blues for Allah mix.
I am happy to report that after a spin on my Samsung Q990C soundbar, an 11.1.4 (11 “bed”, 1 sub, 4 heights) it is a good mix. Not a stunner of a mix like Steven Wilson’s mixes or even Giles Martin’s Pet Sounds mix, but a really solid one. Rears are used to great use, lots of the backup vocals like oohs and aaahs are deflected there, Amby’s harmonica lives back there, and effects float up to the heights. That said from what I could tell, the sides/wides were not used that much, more for ambience and filling out the space rather than discrete elements, it felt closer to a 5.1 mix that also happened to have heights, but considering other than the theatrical release of Chunky Shrapnel we have gotten no surround Gizz, I’m more than happy with the results
There’s lots of fun effects here and there, the airplane chime comes from overhead, like on a real plane, harmonica in the second half of Mirage City circles the room. Rear backing vocals on Hog Calling Contest have a slight lift to them, floating a bit higher than standard rear speaker placement.
It’s a great first effort from the boys in the realm of surround and I hope it signals more to come, whether it be back catalogue material, or new albums going forward. I’m also hoping it energizes the surround community to make their own mixes of the US tour if the stems that Stu seemingly promised in that Instagram post do in fact materialize.
If you have Apple Music it’s well worth checking out. It’s worth noting that you don’t need a full fancy surround setup, you just need a pair of headphones. If you’re using AirPods or Beats it should flip on automagically, but for any other headphones you need to go to Settings>Music>Dolby Atmos>Always On (and then hit OK on the message that pops up). I’ve been giving the mix a spin again on my AirPods Max (which I feel image slightly better in surround than the smaller AirPods Pro 2) while I write this, and the surround effects come across well