This is something I think about a lot, partly from having worked with KEF a lot (check out their studio / showroom round the corner from The Social if you haven't, it's a nice spot, good coffee, free podcast studio, and a Dolby Atmos theatre and listening rooms in the basement....) and 4D Sound. I was chatting with Richard from 4D sound just the other day, and it suddenly struck me that one of the absolute key reasons it's not more shouted about - even though they're constantly growing, building new rigs, working with hundreds of artists etc - is that it doesn't translate to social media. In fact an immersive sound experience is just about the LEAST instagrammable / tiktokkable thing imaginable. Unless there's a fancy light show with it, it just doesn't provide anything to point the camera at, let alone translate in audio terms... It IS a huge growth area though and with more and more people with surround setups at home it will continue to be so.
I was actually very skeptical about reworking existing recordings for immersive, until I got to listen to Ziggy Stardust in the KEF theatre... The new mix had been done by Ken Scott, who'd recorded it originally, and he said he actually felt he was righting wrongs - in particular on "Five Years" where Bowie goes proper mental, he said they'd been timid and mixed his vocals lower so their cracking wasn't obvious, but now he'd brought it up loud and close... and my god the sensation of Bowie going screaming mad right into your ear is something else.
That's a really interesting point Joe - and I think you might be right, too. But I suspect it also lends weight to this point I made in the last NN (I think!) that music and the Big Tech companies driving the social media agenda are really NOT on paths of mutual interest or benefit any more. Quite the opposite; they're pulling in opposing directions.
So if we accept that to be true, what can the music industry do to gently position things so that the 'true' way to experience this stuff is either offline, or via other platforms, or whatever else.
If we continue to let Meta and co dictate the value of music, we continue racing to the bottom. We have to find ways to show the true value in experiencing music in formats such as these immersive ones, that can be so utterly brilliant and affecting.
100% - and I have been dropping that last post of yours into quite a few conversations lately! There is 100% a groundswell for gathering around tactile media (print as well as sound reproduction), DIY events/venues, finding IRL meeting places where music is central again which aren't in corporate hangars, connecting music culture to things like food and drink and fitness, and it's very much time to start joining the dots between all these and things like high street regeneration, arts accessibility etc.....
I avoided listening to dolby atmos untill I had a similar studio experience. Then I discovered that the car I had for over a year has surround capabilities.
Now I use Apple Music and listening to atmos in the car is one the best things in my life: It's so good!
Everytime I give someone a lift I'm always adamant to play them something and it blows people's minds. Thank you for highlighting this
I’ve always thought it was curious that everything in the world has gotten better over the last generation - except for audio. The average person listens to audio at a fidelity way lower than the average person did in the 1970s.
They do, but I wonder if that's more because the likes of Spotify just stream at a lower res that you eventually get used to, whereas on Qobuz and co you can stream the full 24bit, 96khz version that has infinitely more detail and depth.
I think that was the thing for me about moving to Qobuz: it's only when you hear that hi-res audio that you realise just how bad the music quality was elsewhere.
This is something I think about a lot, partly from having worked with KEF a lot (check out their studio / showroom round the corner from The Social if you haven't, it's a nice spot, good coffee, free podcast studio, and a Dolby Atmos theatre and listening rooms in the basement....) and 4D Sound. I was chatting with Richard from 4D sound just the other day, and it suddenly struck me that one of the absolute key reasons it's not more shouted about - even though they're constantly growing, building new rigs, working with hundreds of artists etc - is that it doesn't translate to social media. In fact an immersive sound experience is just about the LEAST instagrammable / tiktokkable thing imaginable. Unless there's a fancy light show with it, it just doesn't provide anything to point the camera at, let alone translate in audio terms... It IS a huge growth area though and with more and more people with surround setups at home it will continue to be so.
I was actually very skeptical about reworking existing recordings for immersive, until I got to listen to Ziggy Stardust in the KEF theatre... The new mix had been done by Ken Scott, who'd recorded it originally, and he said he actually felt he was righting wrongs - in particular on "Five Years" where Bowie goes proper mental, he said they'd been timid and mixed his vocals lower so their cracking wasn't obvious, but now he'd brought it up loud and close... and my god the sensation of Bowie going screaming mad right into your ear is something else.
That's a really interesting point Joe - and I think you might be right, too. But I suspect it also lends weight to this point I made in the last NN (I think!) that music and the Big Tech companies driving the social media agenda are really NOT on paths of mutual interest or benefit any more. Quite the opposite; they're pulling in opposing directions.
So if we accept that to be true, what can the music industry do to gently position things so that the 'true' way to experience this stuff is either offline, or via other platforms, or whatever else.
If we continue to let Meta and co dictate the value of music, we continue racing to the bottom. We have to find ways to show the true value in experiencing music in formats such as these immersive ones, that can be so utterly brilliant and affecting.
100% - and I have been dropping that last post of yours into quite a few conversations lately! There is 100% a groundswell for gathering around tactile media (print as well as sound reproduction), DIY events/venues, finding IRL meeting places where music is central again which aren't in corporate hangars, connecting music culture to things like food and drink and fitness, and it's very much time to start joining the dots between all these and things like high street regeneration, arts accessibility etc.....
AMEN Joe. And if I can be a part of that or a help, give me a shout and I'm there!
You are so right!
I avoided listening to dolby atmos untill I had a similar studio experience. Then I discovered that the car I had for over a year has surround capabilities.
Now I use Apple Music and listening to atmos in the car is one the best things in my life: It's so good!
Everytime I give someone a lift I'm always adamant to play them something and it blows people's minds. Thank you for highlighting this
I’ve always thought it was curious that everything in the world has gotten better over the last generation - except for audio. The average person listens to audio at a fidelity way lower than the average person did in the 1970s.
They do, but I wonder if that's more because the likes of Spotify just stream at a lower res that you eventually get used to, whereas on Qobuz and co you can stream the full 24bit, 96khz version that has infinitely more detail and depth.
I think that was the thing for me about moving to Qobuz: it's only when you hear that hi-res audio that you realise just how bad the music quality was elsewhere.