All Over You in Dolby Atmos Options

[lovemachine97]

Last month, Apple Music announced upgrading to Lossless playback and, in some cases, Hi-Res Lossless. At the same time, they announced support for Dolby Atmos, and an initial set of albums and songs were upgraded to Atmos as part of their new Spatial Audio

I’m no expert, but the way I understand it, it is supposed to envelop you in sound. True Atmos at home is 7.1.4 surround as opposed to the more common 5.1 surround. In addition, you have two rear speakers (5+2=7) and 4 ceiling speakers (the .4).

Which brings me to this. All Over You from the 25th anniversary reissue of TC is one of the initial wave of tracks remixed in Atmos.

Now, you don’t have to have an Atmos system. Apple is saying they and Dolby can simulate it in headphones, and not just their own Air and Beats headphones, but any headphones. Results differ, of course. If you have an Apple TV4K and a 5.1 system—like me!—the sound is instead played as 5.1, so it is still a new, surround sound mix.

Now for the not so great news. All Over You is one of the more disappointing remixes. I’ve spent a lot of time A/B-ing between them initial batch of remixes and their stereo counterparts and, for the most part, Atmos, even simulated is an improvement. There is more depth and space between the instruments and the stereo mix just sounds flatter in comparison.

But for whatever reason, All Over You, to me, is not helped by this mix (may not be Atmos itself, but an uninspired remix supplied to Apple). But I’d like to hear what you think!

(As an aside, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody sounded amazing even on just my 5.1 system.)