Dolby Atmos - Sound Arts Mastering

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What is Dolby Atmos?

Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. It is designed to create a more immersive audio experience by adding height channels to traditional surround sound setups. With Dolby Atmos, sound engineers can place individual sounds or audio objects in a three-dimensional space, allowing for more precise and realistic audio positioning. This creates a more life like and immersive audio experience, with sounds seemingly coming from all around and above the listener.

Dolby Atmos Mastering Practice

Listed below are the fundamental elements of Dolby Atmos music mastering practice.

IMMERSIVE OBJECT-BASED MASTERING

Our extensive experience with stereo, surround & Atmos mix/mastering engineers informs our practice as dedicated mastering engineers for this format

ADM BWF FILES

The main format for Dolby Atmos music is ADM BWF files (Audio Definition Model Broadcast Wave Format). The ADM BWF file retains separate multi-channel bed tracks & mono/stereo object tracks with their associated panning metadata. This provides a seamless workflow for immersive object-based mastering.

MASTERING GRADE TOOLS

We use a combination of analog and digital tools in order to refine the mix before it is released to the world. This includes mastering grade analog processors, and extensive stereo and immersive audio collection (Nugen, Exponential Audio, FLux, Fab Filter, Cargo Cult, Dear Reality, Sound Particles, Reverb Foundry, Softube, Liquid Sonics, DMG Audio, Avid, Izotope, Waves, & more)

CRITICAL LISTENING ENVIRONMENT

Dolby Atmos certified music studio equipped with a 9.1.4 Genelec speaker array, an extensive stereo & immersive audio plug-in collection, and mastering grade conversion, analog/digital processors, headphones & measurement tools. The studio features a custom-designed acoustic environment which guarantees that our productions accurately translate to all playback systems and listening environments

DYNAMIC MANAGEMENT

Multi-channel object-based music productions require specific techniques to effectively manage dynamic range. we use a combination of digital tools to precisely control peak levels, and reach the appropriate target loudness for each production.

Why master in Dolby Atmos?

Mastering in Dolby Atmos allows the sound engineer to fine-tune the final mix, ensuring that the audio is optimised for playback on a wide range of devices and in a variety of listening environments. This helps to ensure that the music sounds great whether it’s played back on a high-end home theatre system or on a mobile device with headphones.

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