Modern > Spatial Audio

Dolby Atmos & Spatial Audio

Hear Spatial Audio Recorded and mixed at Austin Signal HERE. (make sure you have Dolby ATMOS turned on in Apple Music).

We’ve become big fans of Spatial Audio - always loved it in theaters and home hi-fi environments. But listening in those rooms is physically challenging; home theaters are expensive, and movie theaters are not a very convenient place to listen to your favorite playlist.

Things are changing, however. When mixing in Dolby Atmos, there are several versions of the mix rendered: 7.1.4 and 5.1 (for home theater systems, sound bars, etc), stereo, and binaural. Binaural is an immersive format that works only with headphones. Any headphones. Apple Music is fully committed to releasing a huge amount of music in Dolby Atmos, so we’ve made a significant investment in a Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 mixing environment.

Dolby ATMOS/Spatial Audio 

What is Dolby ATMOS for Music? https://www.dolby.com/music/

 Mixing ATMOS at Austin Signal

Why should you mix your project with Dolby ATMOS here at Austin Signal?

Well, because it sounds incredible.  And, when your finished, you’ll get masters for several formats; 7.1.4, 5.1, Stereo, and binaural (spatial audio for headphones).   Apple Music supports all the formats, and Tidal, Amazon support stereo and binaural.   These spatial formats are also supported by various types of listening hardware; headphones, sound bars, TV’s, Amazon Echo, Apple TV, and coming soon – audio systems for cars.  So, spatial (or ‘surround’) audio is going to be pretty much everywhere in the foreseeable future.

 We have the standard monitoring configuration for mixing ATMOS music: 7 surround speakers, 1 sub woofer, and 4 overhead speakers along with JBL Intonato for monitoring and multi-channel calibration. This is in addition to several pair of traditional stereo monitors with subwoofers.  To be serious about producing quality mixes that will translate appropriately to all the formats, this monitoring environment is important.  While it is technically possible to mix ATMOS projects using only headphones, it’s impossible to translate those mixes accurately to the other (7.1.4, 5.1, etc.) formats.   The proper, most reliable method is to mix into 7.1.4, then surround, stereo, spatial and binaural mixes for reference.

ATMOS/Spatial Audio Pricing

Mixing

  •   $650 per song (same price as standard Stereo-only mixing) for music recorded at Austin Signal.

  • Deliverables include ADM Master package, which includes mixes in Stereo, 5.1, 7.1.4, Spatial, and Binaural formats

  • Remixing program material recorded outside of Austin Signal, please inquire: jon@austinsignal.com

 Recording

  • Tracking: $750 per day

  • Includes engineering

  • 9 hour days

  • Rough mixes in Stereo and Binaural

  • Tracking and ATMOS production: $1,000 per day