Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

The BEST DAWs for Dolby Atmos for 2024!

AudioBrewers

AudioBrewers

Are you listening?
Hi everyone, and happy new year! I made a (very long) video exploring every single DAW that supports Dolby Atmos and Immersive Audio and ranked them looking for "The Best DAW for Dolby Atmos" to get you started in 2024.

In this video, I explored the capabilities, ease, and set-up of each DAW using both their native Dolby Atmos renderer (when available) and the Dolby Atmos Composer.

So if you are thinking about:
- Starting to mix in Dolby Atmos
- Switching DAWs
- Looking to understand how to get you started with the renderer
- How to implement three-dimensional objects in your mix for immersive sound effects or stems
- Learning something new!

This video could be of your interest!

​


DAWs considered: Pro Tools, Nuendo/Cubase Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Logic, Bitwig, Ableton, Luna, Studio One, Reaper, Cakewalk

This video is aimed exclusively at MIXING FOR DOLBY ATMOS, not for composing, arranging, recording, tracking, or audio editing.

Please note that the ranking is a personal opinion based on my needs, so if you disagree or want to add something new to the discussion, feel free to do it healthily! I'm happy to always learn something new! :)
Click to read more...
 
Sophus said:
As far as I know you cannot even get the valid software for encoding Dolby Atmos as a consumer. You need an Enterprise license for this.

Dolby Media Encoder v3.4.0 | Dolby

customer.dolby.com customer.dolby.com
Click to expand...
That encoder is for encoding DD+, DD+ Atmos, DD TrueHD, and Dolby TrueHD Atmos - all of that applies ONLY if you are in the LAST STAGE of mixing a film for Cinema.

For mixing music (i.e. Apple Music, Tidal), or audio for films for streaming (i.e. Netflix) in Dolby Atmos, you can absolutely do that from your DAW as of today :)

Stay tuned for the video, I am sure you will definitely find it interesting.
 
Very interested to enter the topic to work on an upcoming project.
Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge.
Curious if you will give feedback about this tool in your video or if you consider it as a gadget tool?
www.plugin-alliance.com

Embody Immerse Virtual Studio

Mix and Monitor Surround Sound or Atmos content in up to 7.1.6 channels with headphones from the studio of legendary film mixer Alan Meyerson.
www.plugin-alliance.com www.plugin-alliance.com
 
Francis Bourre said:
Very interested to enter the topic to work on an upcoming project.
Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge.
Curious if you will give feedback about this tool in your video or if you consider it as a gadget tool?
www.plugin-alliance.com

Embody Immerse Virtual Studio

Mix and Monitor Surround Sound or Atmos content in up to 7.1.6 channels with headphones from the studio of legendary film mixer Alan Meyerson.
www.plugin-alliance.com www.plugin-alliance.com
Click to expand...
IMHO, using these emulators in the long run are not a viable option because the sound will never be the same than in the place they are trying to emulate - there are many things to take into account! (for ex. when they say "compatible with all headphones", do they take into account the curve of all headphones on earth?). That goes for any emulator of anything (be it stereo, Atmos, etc.)... even if you had the curve of a set of headphones, curves don't behave equally at different sound pressure levels (both on the speaker side, and the headphone side).

The Atmos Renderer already does a good job doing a binaural downmix and, it already comes with head-tracker support in case you absolutely want/need to monitor a 7.1.4 mix using headphones, which to me, is a much better option to give it a listen (but not monitor, neither to mix).

In other words, I don't fancy using emulators to mix, maybe to have a listen they could be fun, but at no point am I considering that what I hear on the headphones will be a serious take on my mix.

On the other hand, for the price, I guess it wouldn't be a bad purchase, but again, I'd never use it to give "final touches".
 
AudioBrewers said:
IMHO, using these emulators in the long run are not a viable option because the sound will never be the same than in the place they are trying to emulate - there are many things to take into account! (for ex. when they say "compatible with all headphones", do they take into account the curve of all headphones on earth?). That goes for any emulator of anything (be it stereo, Atmos, etc.)... even if you had the curve of a set of headphones, curves don't behave equally at different sound pressure levels (both on the speaker side, and the headphone side).

The Atmos Renderer already does a good job doing a binaural downmix and, it already comes with head-tracker support in case you absolutely want/need to monitor a 7.1.4 mix using headphones, which to me, is a much better option to give it a listen (but not monitor, neither to mix).

In other words, I don't fancy using emulators to mix, maybe to have a listen they could be fun, but at no point am I considering that what I hear on the headphones will be a serious take on my mix.

On the other hand, for the price, I guess it wouldn't be a bad purchase, but again, I'd never use it to give "final touches".
Click to expand...
I see... I was more worried by the binaural representation of the signal in the simulated 3D space at the end to be able to mix, I mean more than the EQ curve of the headphones, but maybe the former depends on the latter? They're using HRTF (tbh 1st time I see this tech acronym) to adapt the decoding to the shape of your ears from a picture of your ear. Don't know if it's pure marketing or it's a solid tech step forward, same for the quote from Bob Horn "The Alan Meyerson signature plugin is the best playback of Atmos in headphones I have ever heard.".

Reply
https://vi-control.net/community/posts/5478166/report (Report)https://vi-control.net/community/posts/5478166/edit (Edit)
 
HCMarkus said:
Too bad you didn't consider DP.
Click to expand...
AFAIK, not possible to work in Atmos with DP (at least without suffering an inteanse headache due to re-routing) since it doesn't support 7.1.2/7.1.4 layouts, and instead, it goes from 7.1 to 10.2... so the video would be +30 minutes just in rerouting channels :)

SOOO for starters, it would be disqualified :)

Francis Bourre said:
I see... I was more worried by the binaural representation of the signal in the simulated 3D space at the end to be able to mix, I mean more than the EQ curve of the headphones, but maybe the former depends on the latter? They're using HRTF (tbh 1st time I see this tech acronym) to adapt the decoding to the shape of your ears from a picture of your ear. Don't know if it's pure marketing or it's a solid tech step forward, same for the quote from Bob Horn "The Alan Meyerson signature plugin is the best playback of Atmos in headphones I have ever heard.".

Reply
https://vi-control.net/community/posts/5478166/report (Report)https://vi-control.net/community/posts/5478166/edit (Edit)
Click to expand...
No matter how they sell it, emulating spaces will never be the same than real spaces, so always take it with a grain of salt.

I must say however, that I have not tried it :), so if you ever get to try it, do let me know your thoughts :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom