Ever since I first tried it shortly after its introduction, Dolby Atmos on Apple Music felt, to me, gimmicky at best and counterproductive at worst? It's like, either the effect is too noticeable and it's distracting or it just doesn't add anything when it just doesn't make a whole song fall flat? If that makes sense?

At any rate, I was having a normal evening and randomly decided to give it a try again, and boy do I have thoughts.

A little setup note: all my listening is being done on Apple Music on macOS 15.1.1, with AirPods Max, with the "Lossless (ALAC up to 24-bit/48kHz)" preset, "Dolby Atmos" set to "Always On" like so and "Spatial Audio" set to "Fixed" in macOS.
I also used the "Music Library Tracker" app on iOS to even find which tracks in my library were available in Spatial Audio! Truly bonkers that I need a 3rd party app to do that, but whatever.
Also, I'm putting embed codes for each track. I'm going to assume Dolby Atmos is not available when playing them from the web, but at least it'll be easy to open them in a native Apple Music app if you have that.

Anyway, here are my thoughts gathered after listening to a few Spatial Audio tracks from the ~630 available in my library. I will try to gather a relatively broad range of genres, but it's my own library, so there will be a clear bias lmao.

Kraftwerk - Trans-Europa Express / Metall Auf Metall / Abzug

I could write a poem about Kraftwerk's Trans-Europa Express, it is genuinely one of my favorite electronic music albums of all time, I think. And to be clear, I do not mean Trans-Europe Express, Kraftwerk shall be listened to in German or shan't be listened to, in my humble opinion.

At any rate, this Spatial Audio... edition? Mastering? Of the 3-track medley is honestly a pretty great example of Spatial Audio when it actually works. The lossless version is already great because this track is a banger among Kraftwerk's bangers, but the minimal(ist) production and industrial sound design really works well when "mapped" into space. The Metall Auf Metall section (around the 4min mark) is a trip in the best way. It's like you are in the Trans-Europa Express, it rules.

Good times, recommend, if Kraftwerk's is your jam.

Hikaru Utada - Michi

I feel this one is a good example of a great track whose Spatial Audio master falls on its face and ruins it. The drums stand out because they sound, somehow, tinny, it's honestly pretty distracting! The vocals sometimes sound a bit "muffled" but mostly fine but are completely overpowered by the strings/rest of the backing instrumentals during the chorus. The whole thing ends up sounding like you accidentally turned out a bad EQ preset on the track. A damn shame.

Michael Jackson - Thriller

I probably don't need to introduce this track. It's a classic. You know it, I know it, we all know it.
The original already feels "immersive" due to its cinematic ambiance and impeccable mastering. I think it's one of the first tracks I've listened to that "rewarded me" for paying attention to things like "that one tiny guitar playing a few chords in the background of the chorus", good stuff.

The Spatial Audio master is...perplexing? Don't get me wrong, it's well-made! The vibe of the stereo version is intact, the door is creaky, the wolves' howls are spooky, the groove is chef's kiss and Vincent Price's evil laugh gives me both the goosebumps and a massive grin on my face. It's fucking Thriller!

But. They fucked with it! I do not know if it was intentional or if someone fucked up, but they messed with it! From the very intro, it's noticeable, the creaky door sounds different, almost as if it had a "record scratch" sound effect applied to it? There are a few piano chords added here and there, maybe a few more wolves howling in the background, shit like that.

And it's like, yeah, the effect is sold, and you can't miss the "spatialness" of it but... man it's distracting!! Perhaps I'm just obsessive enough that any tiny change would have 'triggered' me, but it's a bit of a bummer in my opinion because I do not think this Atmos master needed any extra "fluff" like that. At least the outro with Vincent Prince is (mostly) unscathed, thank god.

Not a bad time, but given the source material, I'm peeved.

Kendrick Lamar - GNX

I'm cheating and including the whole album because I cannot choose and also because, frankly, GNX is a no-skip-album. The Atmos master is not perfect, but it's pretty damn close!

I wanted to write a "highlights" section, but I quickly realized I would just say that every track slaps in Spatial Audio because, well, they do in specific ways because GNX is a good album.

Give it a listen if you liked the album.

Green Day - American Idiot

What a mess, dude. The whole thing sounds so "small" and tinny in Spatial Audio compared to the (remastered?) stereo lossless version. Unclear to me if this is just a thing with "rock" songs in Atmos or just this particular master but man, what a waste.

Keep to the stereo version on this one.

Justice - Hyperdrama

Another album, you can't stop me! ... And I don't know, man, the Spatial Audio just sounds mid on this one? Hyperdrama is a banger of an album, but it 100% sounds better in stereo than in Atmos. It's not even a contest.

Bo Burnham - Welcome to The Internet

Remember this song? Anyway, I wanted to end on a good note because I think here the Spatial Audio works here! I wonder if the mastering work from the Netflix special (who, I assume, had surround sound?) was used as a base here? Either way, it's great here.

Conclusion: Spatial Audio is still sort of a mixed bag*

* In my experience.

I would be tempted to say that Spatial Audio only really works on specific genres or very specific types of tracks/records, but even in the same genre... the results vary wildly?
Perhaps Spatial Audio only works when the master is treated as its own thing and just not a checkbox on a to-do list.

I don't know, I'm not an audio engineer, just a guy who listens to music perhaps a bit too much and who has opinions.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk,
- damien

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