Apple Lossless and Spatial Audio (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

Are we allowed to copy an article and post it here with full credit to the wsj?

It’s frowned upon.

 

[Sam Posten]

Interesting tech details

Advanced Tips and Tricks for Mixing Dolby Atmos Music

Award-winning re-recording mixer Sreejesh Nair shares tips for mixing music in Dolby Atmos, including how to breathe life into a mix, and much more.

www.avid.com

 

[Sam Posten]

If You Are Mixing Dolby Atmos For Apple Music - Read This Now | Production Expert

These are the early days of immersive music streaming, and there are many questions about Spatial Audio coming from both consumers and professionals. Nathaniel Reichman doesn’t claim to have all the answers, but he has already mixed and mastered several albums in Spatial Audio and has learned from t

www.pro-tools-expert.com

I only understand about 25% of that

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Is it just me or does streaming via the iTunes Windoze program not work consistently for others too?

Granted, I'm running an older version of the program, but still... seems like that shouldn't really matter.

I'd often have to try a bunch of times before it actually starts playing whatever album or (Apple generated) playlist I choose.

I've also tried my ATV4K, but don't really like streaming music regularly that way, particularly when I'm (often/already) on my PC and listening from there. Not crazy about how the ATV4K just decides to append additional music it automatically assumes I might be interested that I didn't ask for and then plays just those in repeat fashion (and not including my original request). Also, until I get around to adding a small monitor to my HT rig just for such purpose, I don't wanna have to fire up my mondo FP setup just to stream some music thru the HT, LOL.

And oh, anyone else getting occasional audio dropouts streaming from the iTunes Windoze program over DTS Play-Fi to their HT? Pretty annoying...

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

And oh, anyone else getting occasional audio dropouts streaming from the iTunes Windoze program over DTS Play-Fi to their HT? Pretty annoying...

The dropouts might be specific to my setup since it also seems to happen when streaming from Qobuz via my iPhone over DTS Play-Fi. Forget if it ever happens when I have my Anthem AVM60 take over the Qobuz->DTS Play-Fi stream from my iPhone (to exclude the extra channeling and back-and-forth of the phone)...

_Man_

 

[Sam Posten]

No. Nothing like this on any of my boxes

 

[DaveF]

The dropouts might be specific to my setup since it also seems to happen when streaming from Qobuz via my iPhone over DTS Play-Fi. Forget if it ever happens when I have my Anthem AVM60 take over the Qobuz->DTS Play-Fi stream from my iPhone (to exclude the extra channeling and back-and-forth of the phone)...

_Man_

None of that sounds like an Apple Music issue. Or that Apple Music is even being used.

 

[DaveF]

I am for the first time listening to Apple Music in Spatial Audio in my 7.2.4 Atmos theater.

This is fun

 

[DaveF]

I still prefer original stereo mixes on headphones, and have turned off spatial audio on my iPhone. But I only got a 4K aTV in the movie room earlier this year. And I never just listen to music here. Today, I remembered this was on my “to do” list.

I don’t know if this is better than the original stereo even here. But sitting in the theater room, it’s delightful having the music fill the room.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I still prefer original stereo mixes on headphones, and have turned off spatial audio on my iPhone. But I only got a 4K aTV in the movie room earlier this year. And I never just listen to music here. Today, I remembered this was on my “to do” list.

I don’t know if this is better than the original stereo even here. But sitting in the theater room, it’s delightful having the music fill the room.

Certainly good for while one needs to wait some time before actually firing up a movie/show for whatever reason... kinda like at (some good) theaters before they start running (seemingly endless) trailers and such... well, at least back in the good o'days anyhow IIRC...

A couple friends of mine loved experiencing Apple's James Bond playlist in my HT setup (and I don't even have Atmos) while we waited a bit for the last buddy to show up for us to (re)watch Skyfall (and then Spectre) IIRC ahead of us going to see No Time to Die in giant IMAX...

But yeah, I don't use my ATV4K that often for streaming Apple Music either. These days I'm more likely to just stream via their web portal on my PC (usually via good headphones) instead when I'm home...

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I've also tried my ATV4K, but don't really like streaming music regularly that way, particularly when I'm (often/already) on my PC and listening from there. Not crazy about how the ATV4K just decides to append additional music it automatically assumes I might be interested that I didn't ask for and then plays just those in repeat fashion (and not including my original request). Also, until I get around to adding a small monitor to my HT rig just for such purpose, I don't wanna have to fire up my mondo FP setup just to stream some music thru the HT, LOL.

And oh, anyone else getting occasional audio dropouts streaming from the iTunes Windoze program over DTS Play-Fi to their HT? Pretty annoying...

OK, maybe this changed sometime this year or something w/out anyone noticing (and somehow Apple didn't bother to publicize???) or I simply didn't understand before (due to what seems like complete lack of clarity on the issue), but AirPlay (2?) from iPhone to ATV4K (using the Music app, not the Remote app) seems to do pretty much exactly what I had wanted that I thought wasn't the case before... well, except when it comes to music files actually on my iPhone, LOL, but that's a mostly secondary (in some ways opposing) issue (for me anyway).

At least when it came to Apple Music, I really just wanted my iPhone to be able to control the ATV4K for streaming lossless music (NVM in Atmos) w/out the additional (full) streaming traffic going thru my iPhone (and needlessly consuming its battery power amongst other potential issues)... and seems like that's actually what AirPlay 2 via the Music app does (nowadays?) -- it even seems to stream Atmos this way now (according to my prepro) even though I don't actually have Atmos channels/speakers in my setup.

IIRC, I had last googled this a couple months ago and found nothing that suggested this was implemented (that way) instead of either relegating music streaming to something lossy or having to fully channel thru the iPhone, if it streams lossless at all.

That's why I thought I'd need to get a small, 2ndary monitor to use in my HT rig just for controlling the ATV4K for music streaming, but seems I don't need to go that route anymore (as long as AirPlay 2 via my iPhone's Music app doesn't consume much battery power).

Of course, there are still some (relatively) minor (enough) nuisances like seemingly not being able to stream what's actually in my iPhone's own dedicated library/storage to the ATV4K, LOL, and the lack of higher sampling rates using the ATV4K. But yeah, those are mostly minor enough issues for my purposes (at least for now)...

_Man_

 

[DaveF]