The mixing is different, as we've discussed, but so is the decoding. With Atmos (on the right), sound designers can pinpoint exactly where in any Atmos theater they want a sound to "appear." This could be just about any place in the room, including overhead.Ītmos is an end-to-end change in theater and home audio. Not "left surround speaker" but "left rear corner." Not "pan from left surround speaker to right sound speaker" but "pan smoothly across the rear wall." Not only does this give greater flexibility, but it improves the experience in the theater and, potentially, at home. Instead, most sounds are treated as "objects." Instead of assigning a sound to a channel (and by extension, a speaker), Atmos lets filmmakers assign a sound to a place.
#Dolby 5.1 cds movie#
Where your speakers are, how powerful they are, and increasingly, how much range each has, varies greatly compared with a decent movie theater.Ītmos, for the most part, doesn't use channels. After all, if you have a 5.1 speaker system, you have all those same speakers.Įxcept… you don't. To an extent, this same mix of channels also translates to the home. Zooming and swooping special effects might appear in the surround speakers. When the music swells during a dramatic moment, that's usually in the front left and right channels. So if two actors are speaking onscreen, that gets mixed to the center channel. So a sound would come from the left "wall" not a specific speaker on that wall.
Lots of speakers, but only a few "channels" to direct the sound to. This diagram should help:Ī traditional 7.1 surround system in a theater. All the low frequency booms and thumps go to the ".1" subwoofer channel. Some more complex systems add "surround back" channels.
#Dolby 5.1 cds tv#
To understand what makes Atmos different from, say, its direct predecessor Dolby Digital, let's first take a look at how sound is mixed for movies and TV shows.Įverything you hear in a movie, from the music to the voices to the sound effects, all gets mixed into specific "channels." For simplicity's sake, we'll say these channels are, as you look at them in a room, left front (L), center (C), right front (R), right surround (RS) and left surround (LS). The $450 Vizio M512a-H6 is an upcoming Dolby Atmos soundbar.
The $200 Amazon Echo Studio is a Dolby Atmos-compatible speaker.Īt its WWDC 2021 conference last week Apple announced "spatial audio" for its Apple Music service, and company exec Eddy Cue said it was like the transition to HD for television.