I don’t think there’s a dedicated thread for this yet, and whenever the topic comes up in either the Have You Quit Spotify? or occasionally the Hi-Fi Nerds Assemble threads it often risks derailing the topic at hand. Or even worse, it leads to a religitation of the Does Rumours Actually Suck discourse.
Anyone with an “atmos” sound bar or the last couple of generations of Apple Airpods likely has some Opinions on atmos mixes, and given that this forum leans guitar-heavy those opinions are understandably varied. But but having spent the last few weeks with a pair of over-ear headphones explicitly designed with Atmos in mind, I thought I’d share some of my favourites and see if anyone else is fully onboard the Object-Based Audio bandwagon.
When it’s good, it has the same effect as a decent remix/master - it’s like someone’s lifted a towel off the original mix.
The Great
- Fleetwood Mac - Honestly, the whole Buckingham Nicks run but in particular Rhiannon and The Chain - it sounds like that bass drum is right next to your ear, in the best possible way
*Billie Eilish - All three albums were mixed with Atmos in mind but All The Good Girls Go To Hell, Lunch, The Diner, - Pretty much anything Jack Antonoff touches, the man loves this shit. Taylor Swift albums use it sparingly, Bleachers goes nuts
- Rush - Tom Sawyer
- Alanis Morrisette - You Oughta Know. Never knew I needed the drums panning back and forth over my head but it turns out I did
R.E.M - Automatic for the People - life affirming
CRJ - The Loneliest Time - whole album
Random Access Memories 2013 Rerelease - quietly maybe the best use of atmos there is
To Be Avoided At All Costs:
- The Blink-182 albums: you can’t improve on Jerry Finn, so why try? And if you’re going to try, why do it this way?
- Almost any metal. The most recent In Flames album sounds pretty good but the retro-fits that have been applied across the Lamb of God back catalogue are a real mixed bag. It’s hard to mix walls of brutal guitar in object-based audio, I’m sure someone can do it.
- Weezer - Blue Album. Retrospectively strip Rivers Cuomo of any awards he won for this album.
