New Music Industry Observation Original article, reprinting without authorization
Author | Yibai
I believe you have had this experience in the cinema: the sound of a helicopter taking off sounded in front of you, gradually overtaking the top of your head, disappearing behind you, and the soundtrack of the movie continued to be played. The immersive sound effects allow you to be completely surrounded by the atmosphere of the video. According to Star Wars director George Lucas, 50% of the movie experience comes from sound.
For many years, people's exploration of sound effects technology has never stopped. From mono, surround sound to 3D or immersive sound, we can already get an immersive sound experience while watching movies, episodes, and even playing games. For those who love to listen to music, how can we devote ourselves to the world of music anytime and anywhere in a more convenient and low-cost way to gain an immersive listening experience?
2021 has become a year that changes the way we listen to music. This summer, Apple announced after the end of WWDC that Apple Music will release spatial audio features that support Dolby Atmos. Since then, the concepts of Dolby Atmos and Space Audio have truly entered the homes of ordinary people in China.
Thanks to the increasingly popular smartphones, ordinary people can now easily enjoy an immersive music experience through space audio that supports Dolby Atmos on Apple Music with just one pair of headphones. Music creators also have a broader space to display their talents and release their potential.
Foreign technology website Digital Trends simply calls 2021 the year of Dolby Atmos. If you haven’t experienced Dolby Atmos music yet, 2022 will almost certainly be the year you start to experience.
Immersive music experience only requires a pair of headphones
With the launch of Dolby Atmos in 2012, the spatial sense of sound, 3D sound effects, and immersive audio have become popular topics in the entertainment audio field. It is a new way of creating and listening to sounds that "beyond stereo, or even beyond surround sound". It is an excellent achievement in the past years that people have tried to break through the constraints of physical sound channels, freely define the size, distance, and displacement of sound, and restore the original sense of space of sound.
Initially, Dolby Atmos was used in the film field and was favored by a number of well-known Hollywood and domestic directors and creative teams. Later, it expanded to domestic and foreign streaming platforms and gaming fields. In recent years, Dolby Atmos has begun to develop in the music field, quickly gaining support from top artists and creators in the European and American music fields, and providing content to users through Amazon Music and Tidal; in China, it was not until Apple Music launched the spatial audio function that supports Dolby Atmos that such an experience was truly brought to Chinese music fans and began to change the way the public listens to music.
To explain it more simply, when you listen to Dolby Atmos music through spatial audio on Apple Music, just use a pair of headphones to feel the immersive listening experience of being in the music, vocals, instrumental sounds and various music details lingering around you.
For example, at the end of September 2021, Apple Music exclusively launched the Dolby Atmos audio version of "Jay Chou's Strongest World Tour (Live)". The stereo version of this concert was released in 2019, but in comparison, it can be found that the Dolby Atmos audio version can not only restore the auditory experience at the concert, but also allow you to clearly feel the direction of different instruments, the distance of Jay Chou's singing, and even the reactions of audiences from different distances around. This experience can sometimes bring more live effects.
For example, in Ayunga's "Immortal THE ART" Dolby Atmos album, the title song "Immortal" contains a variety of different styles of singing, combining classical and electronic elements. In the Dolby Atmos environment, you can clearly feel that various elements are fully displayed in the song, and a large number of backing songs linger around. In another song "The Illusion of a Gorgeous World", you will feel like you are in a dance floor, surrounded by a band. A Yunga's voice will appear above your head, very close to you.If you come to listen to this song with your headphones, you can feel the random rotation on the dance floor, just like A Yunga is taking you to dance.
According to Zhang Yan, technical director of Dolby Laboratory, Dolby's technology is actually integrated into terminal playback products, and the headset does not require any processing.
So Apple Music subscribers run the latest version of Apple Music on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and consumers can listen to Dolby Atmos music through any headset.
allows creators to get rid of the limitations of left and right channels
Dolby Atmos’ spatial audio not only changes the user’s auditory experience, but also subverts the way musicians create.
Many artists including Coldplay, J Balvin, Lizzo, Post Malone, as well as many Grammy Award-winning music producers all enjoy Dolby Atmos. In China, producer Chen Jianqi carefully remakes the spatial audio version for Wei Ruxuan's new album "Have A Nice Day" in July 2021 (related articles). Whether it is a national musician, popular idol, independent band, or symphony orchestra, they have begun to release spatial audio versions of Dolby Atmos on Apple Music.
Ready Steady Sound! Music Studio (RSS) in Drum Tower is an upgraded and renovated Dolby Atmos music mixing studio. Not long after the upgrade, the Dolby Atmos version of the works completed here include the theme song of the finale of the large-scale documentary "Forbidden City", A Yunga's "Immortal The Art", 88rising Zhang Yanqi's "Better Than You", and "Lovers' Mood" co-starring Mai Su and Joyside band's lead singer Bian Yuan. Liu Ren, head of
RSS, co-founder Liu Ren, head of
RSS, and co-founder Liu Ren, introduced that in the past, stereo had to make choices about music elements due to the limitations of left and right channels, and many details had to give way. But Dolby Atmos is no longer subject to the duct. In the three-dimensional space built by this technology, the sound can be arranged and moved freely here, which provides great flexibility and creative space for music creation to post-production.
In the eyes of Dolby engineers, sound is regarded as an object that can move freely in three-dimensional space (Object). In Dolby Atmos renderer, these objects are visualized as small green spheres that are precisely positioned and moved in a three-dimensional sound field. For example, the drowned guitar performance in the stereo version finally has the opportunity to be prominent in the Dolby Atmos version. The harmony gradually rises not from both sides of the ears but from behind to the top of the head. These details instantly bring the listener into new emotions.
Dolby Atmos Sound Object Small Ball Movement Trajectory
"Based on the familiarity with this album, the RSS team also adapted to the concept and characteristics of each work to a considerable extent when producing the Dolby Atmos version, and fully demonstrated the content that the entire album wanted to express in the mixing stage." For A Yunga, Dolby Atmos can not only restore his original creative intentions more completely, but also fully express the overall artistic nature of the song.
"Dolby Atmos makes my music dynamics fuller, and I can hear the producer's design for each track." Zhang Yanqi said after listening to the Dolby Atmos version of the work. This is also the first reaction of many musicians after their first contact with Dolby Atmos.
More importantly, Dolby lowers the threshold for new technologies to be used in music production. "We can install a professional monitoring system for 7.1.4 in the recording studio according to our own conditions, or use a pair of headphones to create Dolby Atmos music in almost any digital audio workstation. At the same time, the visual effects in the Dolby Atmos renderer can especially help creators enter the situation and help everyone create." Liu Ren said. Here, music production becomes a game, a enjoyment.
Ready Steady Sound! Music Studio
This may also be the reason why many independent musicians, including independent brands, are attracted by Dolby Atmos. Works made with new technologies can be directly posted on Apple Music and heard by the whole world. Even, as long as the previous stereo versions retained the track recording file, they could be remixed into the Dolby Atmos version, freeing the sound elements from the two channels.
In the eyes of RSS chief engineer Zhang Buruo, if music and painting are compared, then Dolby Atmos music can be said to provide a perfect "canvas" for music creation. Many of the musicians' imaginative ideas can be fully displayed on this canvas, the details can be portrayed more detailed, and the overall presentation will be more shocking.
What else will happen to Dolby Atmos in the new year?
industry has always pursued sound effects, but from the initial sound systems used in commercial cinemas, to the continuous upgrading of home and mobile entertainment equipment, the innovation of sound effects has never been so close to ordinary people. It can be said that 2021 is the year when Dolby Atmos is most popular at the public level.
devices that support Dolby Atmos were once expensive, but in 2021, from TVs, computers, mobile phones to soundbars, you can see more hardware appearing in the feature list. Apple is also making Dolby Atmos suitable for compatible Android devices outside its own system, further increasing its audience.
and even, since Dolby Atmos music is so good, why should it be limited to electronic products? Starting from 2021, Dolby Atmos will also bring such a spatial sound experience into the car space.
In 2021, Dolby Atmos first announced a cooperation with Lucid Motors, and then Mercedes-Benz announced that it would introduce Dolby Atmos in the Mercedes-Maybach model and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan. In November of that year, Dolby Labs announced a partnership with smart electric car maker NIO, the company's flagship electric sedan ET7 will be equipped with Dolby Atmos standard.
With the increasing support for Dolby Atmos from major video and music streaming services and device manufacturers, Dolby Atmos has ushered in an important moment. Technology website Digital Trends even said that Dolby Atmos has truly become a mainstream audio technology in 2021, and the public can experience it at a more reasonable price and convenient way. With this momentum, it may soon be everywhere in film and television entertainment and the music industry as a whole.
Liu Ren feels that the general concept of everyone is to remake and "upgrade" the stereo version to Dolby Atmos. But the future trend is likely to be combined with Dolby Atmos from the creative stage. When musicians first think about notes and chords, they may be thinking about "space" first.
"After we have one more dimension, the content we want to learn and think about may be in an exponential explosion form. This is an innovation and a major trend," he said.
The imagined boundary may not stop there. With the continuous development of VR, music, podcasts, and gaming, everyone has not only become more interested in immersive sound experience, but also has a more practical need. The increasing popularity of various mobile hardware and the convenience of sound production methods are promoting the commercialization of sound technology.
Think about it, this can be combined with popular concepts such as VR and metaverse, and these may also be opportunities for Dolby Atmos in the future. As users, we are also at a turning point in the industry.
-Full text-
