Unlocking Top 10 Pro Atmos Mix Secrets with a $28,000 decoder

Hi!

Quad is back baby, and then some! As long-time channel viewers may know, I'm a fan of making music with and for more than two speakers - the experience makes stereo sound flat and lifeless. 

I've already published two videos about Quadraphonic music-making - a theory masterclass with Suzanne Ciani and a follow-up with practical quad performance tips and ideas. Over the years since I've expanded on both topics in my book as well.

However, while those tips are still valid and great for live performance, actually delivering quad/surround/spatial music to a large number of people over the web remained a challenge, until recently:

1. A standard for creating a mix to any number of speakers is emerging with the adoption of Dolby Atmos as a delivery format by Apple Music, Tidal and Amazon Music.
2. Soundbars with multiple built-in and wireless speakers are getting cheaper, and binaural rendering with head tracking simulates the experience well, to a certain degree.
3. Authoring tools are getting cheaper and easier to use, in particular, Logic Pro's Atmos implementation is a no-brainer for the most part.

With the technical hurdles out of the way, how the heck do you mix in space? I mean creatively, not technically.

I checked last week's billboard top hits, and it turns out 7 of the top 10 tracks already offer an Atmos mix! So, pro mix engineers have been doing it for a while, but it's hard to decipher exactly what's going on with pair of headphones, plus, the end result rendered using binaural tech in headphones isn't always better than the original mix :/

A few months ago I stumbled across a $28,000 box by Trinnov that can help unpack these mixes both in space and into separate channels, and they were kind enough to let me borrow it for a few weeks.

This video is the result of me listening to over 100 Atmos mixes and attempting to bring to you the best of the best ideas and techniques with which they were mixed.

It includes actual examples of 14 top tracks, so, hopefully it doesn't get taken down by a copyright strike (it has already been claimed, so no ad revenue for me... despite the fact that I think a video like this is fair use).

So, if you've ever wondered how the best minds in the business are putting together spatial mixes - consider those secrets unlocked!

All my best,

Ziv (giving the lock picking lawyer a run for his money on youtube as "Loopop"...)

P.S. All the ideas in this video and more will be added to the next book update of course