Lately I have been trying to catch up. And I have tried to find out what the new surround standards are all about. The whole Atmos thingy so to speak. I have bought the new Pro Tools. And I am saving up for some tools. I switched from windows to Mac. And I am trying to figure out my flow. The whole 7.1 is something only present in movie theaters. The 5.1 audio for music didn't catch on. Tho I kinda dig that. So do I keep investing in 5.1 mixing for no audience. Or....
why when the majority listen thru crappy earbuds, through the phone's speakers or sometimes a mono boombox? do whatever standard suits YOUR situation I reckon.
This - in a nutshell - has determined a disproportionate amount of my gear and studio-technique decisions. I know people who painstakingly produce/track their music, mix meticulously, then spend a great deal of time experimenting with the mix/master and playing it on 'everything their listeners will': in the car, on their phone, in earbuds, over a crummy little bluetooth speaker...trying to get their music to sound on THOSE devices what they intended when they recorded. I guess I'm sort of an anachronism: I couldn't give a bag of pucks about whether my projects sound good on various garbage gear. I mix to a sound I like; and if anyone listens on any device/equipment worth a stick of gum, it'll sound good. But - thankfully - my belligerent attitude hasn't created any problems, because no one listens to my recordings. Ever. I once spent 10 months lovingly crafting an entire album of originals; I don't know how many people heard it, but it sold exactly 4 copies. Coupla friends. So who gives a flock??? EDIT - to Bazz: Not that my opinion is worth a bag of pucks...but if I were me, those fancy multi-channel standards are meant for what you indicated - movie theaters and such. Maybe a fancy home-tv-theater? But for music - the standard is still stereo. Not that a sub-woof will hurt your chances of making good recordings...but IMHO, mixing for those complicated multi-spectrum standards is a waste of time.
Atmos is, indeed, a remarkable development in sound technology/studio recording. But I'd venture that it's more suitable for commercial/professional production. For amateur hobbyist geeks like me, it's like using the Space Shuttle to deliver a pizza.
It doesn't matter what any of us think about Atmos. This is happening and whether or not we personally start mixing in Atmos, whatever we release eventually will be presented in that format, mastered by someone else. But I won't lose any sleep over it. And I'm not building a new Atmos room.
