A few months ago a friend and ex-coworker sent me an audio file, a piece of music, for me to listen to. He expressly told me to enjoy it with headphones. The sensation when feeling the music was more than spectacular. The truth is that I could not define it with a single qualifier. What I can say is that it was the first time I heard the music as if it were really in the same place where it was being produced. My expression, affirmation at that moment was to say: “it is as if I felt the music with all the parts of my brain”. Some call it immersive or three-dimensional music.
Ricardo Viñas, Dolby Atmos technical advisor, was the one who made me understand this new reality that the Dolby company has developed in recent months. “It is useless”, as he himself says, “knowing what sound is without understanding how the human being perceives it and what each person gives importance to and what not”. And that is precisely what they have done in Dolby, using a processing that they call ‘aurealization’ of sound to use simulation techniques of how the human ear works through how we are physically designed. We humans have our heads on our shoulders, our ears have a shape, and all of this affects how we hear. What frequencies do we hear more, which ones less, what delay do we have in one ear with respect to the other,… “All of this is mathematically modeled with algorithms and reproduced to create a very realistic sensation of where the sound is positioned,” says Viñas.
Dolby Atmos Music HD
Dolby is working closely with artists, streaming services, and consumer electronics manufacturers so that everyone can enjoy the incredible Dolby Atmos Music experience. Two of the world’s largest music labels, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, are releasing songs on Dolby Atmos Music from some of the giants of the music scene, such as Ariana Grande, The Beatles, Coldplay, Elton John, J Balvin, Lady Gaga, and many others. There are also Spanish artists who are betting on this technology for their new albums.
For those of you who don’t know what Atmos is, I’ll tell you what Ricardo explained to me: “Atmos, unlike stereo sound, is a sound that is based on objects. The sound object is a new concept in which the sound is no longer a channel, but is made up of the sound wave or a traditional audio file and information in the form of metadata that is positional. In this way, sound is an object because it has certain dimensions and coordinates in a three-dimensional space. In such a way that when that is mixed and reproduced later in a cinema or in a home system, the player knows where to place that sound, regardless of where the speakers are placed ”.
Left and right channels
Dolby’s technical advisor also told us that music had traditionally been separated from audiovisual in the evolution of the format, because most of it was still stereo and using two channels. It did not finish curdling a system beyond the left and right channels. Now the music industry has taken a big leap and has also embraced the Atmos system, which is much more advanced than any other multichannel. “Now, with Dolby Atmos Music, music is no longer heard, it is felt with the brain. Which means that the user feels that they are inside the music. We hear in three dimensions in real life. Whatever is recorded and reproduced, the more it resembles what we live and listen to, the more realistic it will be and a more complete feeling will give us ”.
Since September 10, Dolby Atmos Music is available on Amazon Music HD throughout Europe with the introduction of the service in Spain and France, allowing music lovers to enjoy the immersive experience of Dolby Atmos Music with the Amazon Echo Studio, the device Amazon’s flagship audio for the delight of immersive music. Echo Studio users can also easily turn their living room into a home theater by simply pairing one or two Echo Studio devices wirelessly with a Fire TV Stick 4K or Fire TV Cube to enjoy movies and TV shows. in Dolby Atmos.
TIDAL and Dolby Atmos Music
TIDAL was the first music streaming service to offer Dolby Atmos Music to users of Dolby Atmos-compatible soundbars, televisions or AV receivers, and home theater systems. To access this experience, TIDAL HiFi users must connect their Dolby Atmos enabled device to a compatible streaming content player that has the latest version of the TIDAL app installed. Supported streaming devices are Apple TV 4K, Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV Cube, Fire TV Stick (2nd generation), Fire TV (3rd generation), and SHIELD TV or SHIELD TV Pro from NVIDIA (model 2019 or newer). The updated TIDAL app is also available on Sony and Philips Dolby Atmos-enabled Android TV devices, which offer users the option to try out the Dolby Atmos Music experience natively through TVs with Dolby Atmos-compatible or bar speakers. sound systems or connected home theater systems that support this technology.
The future of Dolby Atmos Music seems, according to Ricardo Viñas, that it will be in the world of video games. Can you imagine Fortnite or any of the star video games with immersive music that feels in the brain? As the Dolby technical expert points out, “a director at Universal told me that now with Dolby Atmos Music he has gone from being a painter to a sculptor, in reference to three-dimensionality. And some musicians tell us that listening to music with Dolby Atmos is like being on a stage surrounded by musicians and instruments. “
