anyone have a chance to listen the spacial audio on apple music with AirPods Pro
do I need to do some setting in the music setting or airpots pro to turn on something?
Check in Settings/Music. There are settings there for Spacial Audio, which was set to Automatic for me, and Lossless, which is off by default (and not required for spacial audio). You can use AirPods, AirPods Pro, or AirPods Max. But it only works on songs or albums that have a Spacial Audio or Dolby indicator, which is labeled for VoiceOver. I only found some songs by The Weeknd and Ariana Grande, for example their joined collaboration on the song Save Your Tears. So while Lossless will be available on many songs and albums already, spacial audio may not.
I think spatial audio on Apple Music sounds cool. I am wondering if my favorite artist will be supporting this feature. I do not see spatial audio or lossless audio anywhere in the music settings. Lol. I checked the EQ settings and I can only see things like spoken word, classical, loudness, etc.
They're promoting the heck have of spatial audio content in the browse tab of Apple Music. There are created playlists of songs that have it, as well as albums. I just happened to find my new favorite album of 2021 available with spatial audio, but only the standard version has it. The versions with extra tracks have lossless though.
As for settings to enable it, they're in settings>music>audio quality. Apple clearly explains this when you find an album that supports it.
I played with it a bit last night and I too am ready for my favorites to be available in this format! I actually took a listen to the from mono to spatial audio thing with Zane Lo and Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," and it was a fun experience to hear the sound evolve.
Spatial audio is supposed to make different instroments sound like they're coming from different directions. To me, this is usually more subtle than I thought. The biggest thing I notice is that vocals seem to be a little more clear and have more reverb, in some cases making lyrics easier to understand.
To me it sounds like the music is in your head. It's hard to explain. Some songs sound better than others though. The rock songs I've listened to sound worse than the stereo mixes because the guitars aren't as loud and the vocals stand out more. I agree with posts on other Apple centric forums that there should be a way to choose to have spatial audio turned off for certain songs.
No, you don't need specific headphones. If you're using Apple headphones (Air Pods or Beats) spatial audio is turned on automatically. with any others, you have to turn it on in settings.
hey! wha I understand is:
spacial audio is working on airpots pro.
and when you move our head or walking around. the music steroe will be moved around your head right?
Generally with spacial audio, there is a lot of hype around it. It's a good thing for apple to sell products but I really don't think the comparison of going between mono audio and stereo and then stereo to spacial is equivalent. We hear in stereo, all the clever stuff about direction is done in our brains. I think the best for the sound, as a layman, is that is airy. Whether it actually makes things sound better, I'm not sure. I used to be very into high fidelity audio but realised that, if the content is good, EG it is a good song, it doesn't really matter. Even more so when it comes to movies, I'm lost in the story rather than if I can hear a bullet flying past my head. It's cool, but, for me, the pursuit of quality removed the enjoyment of the source material.
Saying that, I've got the AirPods Max, so I'm a complete hypocrite. The reason I like them so much is that they work to make the music sound good, there is nothing to fiddle with, you get what you're given after you've selected the music you want, of course. I think spacial audio and lossless add a layer of complexity I don't really want in my music listening. I want to stick something on and believe it sounds as good as it can. As others have said here, rock sounds lacklustre, as far as I can tell, with spacial audio, where as classical is nice... I think. Still, I can't really tell.
I don't like to be in a position where I'm trying to convince myself something is better than something else. it's like looking at a window frame, the clarity of the glass, the material of the locks and quality of the paintwork, all the while we're forgetting to see what the view is beyond the window... A poor metaphor for blind people maybe, but you get the point.
This is a confusion between spacial audio and head tracking that loads of people make because apple didn't really separate.
This is not coming for music because it doesn't make sense for it to do so when you think about it. It does work with movies though on supported headset, EG AirPods Max and AirPods Pro. Other posters might know more if it is coming to other apple headphones.
This currently works on iPhone and iPad and will be coming to the Apple TV. The way it work is that it uses the focus of the user, you, to centre the audio in front of you so when you turn your head it uses the jyroscopes to move the soundstage. There is nothing clever about the AirPods knowing where the phone is, it is clever it that it takes the users actions and sets that as the default. This is why they re able to do it with the Apple TV.
Personally I turn it off. It's a nice idea for those who can see the screen but, if you are like me and listening to a movie whilst doing other things, all that happens is when you are not looking at the scree for a time, or more accurate, you keep your head in a set orientation, the centre stage resets anyway.
I am interested to try it with Apple TV though, with friends, if we are watching a movie. The ideal would be to have two audio streams, one with audio description and one without so I can customise my listening experience. It feels like this is getting closer with share time, so we will have to see. I'm thinking I could create a dummy account, share content to the Apple TV and have a separate on my iPhone playing content with audio description on.
September 2019 I had a large room in my home acoustically treated. Then I had a team of highly experienced, knowledgeable people install a home theatre system with 7.1.4 surround sound.
For those who don't know the terminology, 7.1.4 means 7 speakers surrounding you, 4 speakers spaced around overhead, and one subwoofer to deliver ground shaking bass.
The sound is magnificent. Watching movies in ATMOS UHD is fantastic. My wife absolutely loves the 72 inch 4k TV. I've been listening to ATMOS music and movies ever since.
Yesterday I joined Apple Music, I hit play on an Apple Music ATMOS music track on my iPhone 10s, I turned on airplay, and I sat back to listen. Smile. Yes! Atmos from phone to home theatre to 7.1.4 sound system. Magnificent!
There is no hype. ATMOS is great. It's just that headphones can't deliver like an acoustically treated room with a high end ATMOS sound system. Expecting headphones to deliver isn't realistic. That's all.
I can believe that ATMOS sounds fantastic on a high-end sound system as described by Bruce, but many of us don't have that as an option. I live in an apartment and there's no way. The best I can do is a pair of excellent headphones.
I did my own comparison, first with my airPods, then with my Sony V6 headphones. In both cases, I could hear a difference between the stereo version and the ATMOS version, but in general, the stereo version was better. It sounds to me like the ATMOS mix is just using some phase shifting on specific tracks, mainly the lead vocals, to give it a "spread-out" sound, sort of like they used to do to make mono recordings into stereo. It only made the lead vocal sound muddy. I will admit the bass sounded a bit more distinct in the ATMOS versions, but it was so subtle that it's not really worth putting up with the muddy lead vocals. Perhaps once new tracks are mixed with ATMOS in mind, it will be great, but until then, I'll be sticking with stereo mixes.
"I just want to try and alert you to the potential seismic scam happening with this Atmos roll out. Atmos catalog remixing is being done by the truckload
in a handful of Nashville, LA, and NYC rooms right now and has been for a couple of years, and almost none of it is being overseen or approved by the artist
or original producer or mixer. And these versions- according to Apple- will be the new standard versions, superseding the original versions, now designated
by Apple to the dustbin of history."
You're absolutely correct. I should have been more clear. Spacial audio through headphones, in my opinion, is hypes. When you actually have speakers placed around you in a dome of sound, that's very different as it is closer to a real world faximilie of how sound works. I've got a Sonos arc and, as yet, I've not got Atmos working consistently, I have an old TV and a rubbish broadband connection, even then, it is projecting beams of sound up to bounce off the roof which isn't as good as a real speaker in the roof like in a cinema.
So, I'm sorry I wasn't quite as clear as I should have been. Real world speaker set ups all through the living room are great. The headphone Atmos is hype though, especially when it comes to music only tracks, at least, in my view. Strangely both are called spacial audio where one is a virtualisation for headphones, where the other is 'actually' pushing sound to specific speakers.
The interesting thing will be how turning off Atmos will change native Atmos tracks. I can't imagine the experience will be good, especially if it has been specifically mixed for spacial audio, leaving us with a rather fragmented way of listening to music where we'll have to be constantly toggling between settings. Seems a very un apple thing. I buy apple because I'm a horror for fiddling and apple products are notorious for one size fits all well.
Comments
Check settings
Check in Settings/Music. There are settings there for Spacial Audio, which was set to Automatic for me, and Lossless, which is off by default (and not required for spacial audio). You can use AirPods, AirPods Pro, or AirPods Max. But it only works on songs or albums that have a Spacial Audio or Dolby indicator, which is labeled for VoiceOver. I only found some songs by The Weeknd and Ariana Grande, for example their joined collaboration on the song Save Your Tears. So while Lossless will be available on many songs and albums already, spacial audio may not.
got it! thanks!
before I post this thread! it seems didn't ahve it.
right now.
I got it now!
Yes! It's awesome! I want it…
Yes! It's awesome! I want it for the whole Apple music catalog now. lol
How to find out what tracks are available in lossless format
The subject line says it all.
yeah
yeah.
seems I can not get the spacial audio thing
I think spatial audio on…
I think spatial audio on Apple Music sounds cool. I am wondering if my favorite artist will be supporting this feature. I do not see spatial audio or lossless audio anywhere in the music settings. Lol. I checked the EQ settings and I can only see things like spoken word, classical, loudness, etc.
will try it again
I am looking foI'll try it again today. and see I can find one of the track has it as well.
They're promoting the heck…
They're promoting the heck have of spatial audio content in the browse tab of Apple Music. There are created playlists of songs that have it, as well as albums. I just happened to find my new favorite album of 2021 available with spatial audio, but only the standard version has it. The versions with extra tracks have lossless though.
As for settings to enable it, they're in settings>music>audio quality. Apple clearly explains this when you find an album that supports it.
Happy listening!
spatial audio
I played with it a bit last night and I too am ready for my favorites to be available in this format! I actually took a listen to the from mono to spatial audio thing with Zane Lo and Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," and it was a fun experience to hear the sound evolve.
spatial audio?
How does spatial audio even affect music? And do you need special headphones for it to work?
Spatial audio is supposed to…
Spatial audio is supposed to make different instroments sound like they're coming from different directions. To me, this is usually more subtle than I thought. The biggest thing I notice is that vocals seem to be a little more clear and have more reverb, in some cases making lyrics easier to understand.
To me it sounds like the music is in your head. It's hard to explain. Some songs sound better than others though. The rock songs I've listened to sound worse than the stereo mixes because the guitars aren't as loud and the vocals stand out more. I agree with posts on other Apple centric forums that there should be a way to choose to have spatial audio turned off for certain songs.
No, you don't need specific headphones. If you're using Apple headphones (Air Pods or Beats) spatial audio is turned on automatically. with any others, you have to turn it on in settings.
spacial audio do I get wrong?
hey! wha I understand is:
spacial audio is working on airpots pro.
and when you move our head or walking around. the music steroe will be moved around your head right?
Not right now. That's how it…
Not right now. That's how it works for TV shows and movies, but not music. The head tracking that is used for movies is coming for music later though.
I see
got it! thanks !
A lot of hype
Generally with spacial audio, there is a lot of hype around it. It's a good thing for apple to sell products but I really don't think the comparison of going between mono audio and stereo and then stereo to spacial is equivalent. We hear in stereo, all the clever stuff about direction is done in our brains. I think the best for the sound, as a layman, is that is airy. Whether it actually makes things sound better, I'm not sure. I used to be very into high fidelity audio but realised that, if the content is good, EG it is a good song, it doesn't really matter. Even more so when it comes to movies, I'm lost in the story rather than if I can hear a bullet flying past my head. It's cool, but, for me, the pursuit of quality removed the enjoyment of the source material.
Saying that, I've got the AirPods Max, so I'm a complete hypocrite. The reason I like them so much is that they work to make the music sound good, there is nothing to fiddle with, you get what you're given after you've selected the music you want, of course. I think spacial audio and lossless add a layer of complexity I don't really want in my music listening. I want to stick something on and believe it sounds as good as it can. As others have said here, rock sounds lacklustre, as far as I can tell, with spacial audio, where as classical is nice... I think. Still, I can't really tell.
I don't like to be in a position where I'm trying to convince myself something is better than something else. it's like looking at a window frame, the clarity of the glass, the material of the locks and quality of the paintwork, all the while we're forgetting to see what the view is beyond the window... A poor metaphor for blind people maybe, but you get the point.
Head tracking is for movies
This is a confusion between spacial audio and head tracking that loads of people make because apple didn't really separate.
This is not coming for music because it doesn't make sense for it to do so when you think about it. It does work with movies though on supported headset, EG AirPods Max and AirPods Pro. Other posters might know more if it is coming to other apple headphones.
This currently works on iPhone and iPad and will be coming to the Apple TV. The way it work is that it uses the focus of the user, you, to centre the audio in front of you so when you turn your head it uses the jyroscopes to move the soundstage. There is nothing clever about the AirPods knowing where the phone is, it is clever it that it takes the users actions and sets that as the default. This is why they re able to do it with the Apple TV.
Personally I turn it off. It's a nice idea for those who can see the screen but, if you are like me and listening to a movie whilst doing other things, all that happens is when you are not looking at the scree for a time, or more accurate, you keep your head in a set orientation, the centre stage resets anyway.
I am interested to try it with Apple TV though, with friends, if we are watching a movie. The ideal would be to have two audio streams, one with audio description and one without so I can customise my listening experience. It feels like this is getting closer with share time, so we will have to see. I'm thinking I could create a dummy account, share content to the Apple TV and have a separate on my iPhone playing content with audio description on.
Anyway, this has gone on too long.
7.1.4; not hype; no way
September 2019 I had a large room in my home acoustically treated. Then I had a team of highly experienced, knowledgeable people install a home theatre system with 7.1.4 surround sound.
For those who don't know the terminology, 7.1.4 means 7 speakers surrounding you, 4 speakers spaced around overhead, and one subwoofer to deliver ground shaking bass.
The sound is magnificent. Watching movies in ATMOS UHD is fantastic. My wife absolutely loves the 72 inch 4k TV. I've been listening to ATMOS music and movies ever since.
Yesterday I joined Apple Music, I hit play on an Apple Music ATMOS music track on my iPhone 10s, I turned on airplay, and I sat back to listen. Smile. Yes! Atmos from phone to home theatre to 7.1.4 sound system. Magnificent!
There is no hype. ATMOS is great. It's just that headphones can't deliver like an acoustically treated room with a high end ATMOS sound system. Expecting headphones to deliver isn't realistic. That's all.
Maybe not hype, but certainly not for everyone
I can believe that ATMOS sounds fantastic on a high-end sound system as described by Bruce, but many of us don't have that as an option. I live in an apartment and there's no way. The best I can do is a pair of excellent headphones.
I did my own comparison, first with my airPods, then with my Sony V6 headphones. In both cases, I could hear a difference between the stereo version and the ATMOS version, but in general, the stereo version was better. It sounds to me like the ATMOS mix is just using some phase shifting on specific tracks, mainly the lead vocals, to give it a "spread-out" sound, sort of like they used to do to make mono recordings into stereo. It only made the lead vocal sound muddy. I will admit the bass sounded a bit more distinct in the ATMOS versions, but it was so subtle that it's not really worth putting up with the muddy lead vocals. Perhaps once new tracks are mixed with ATMOS in mind, it will be great, but until then, I'll be sticking with stereo mixes.
Lefsetz Letter
Music Blogger Bob Lefsetz just sent this out.
"I just want to try and alert you to the potential seismic scam happening with this Atmos roll out. Atmos catalog remixing is being done by the truckload
in a handful of Nashville, LA, and NYC rooms right now and has been for a couple of years, and almost none of it is being overseen or approved by the artist
or original producer or mixer. And these versions- according to Apple- will be the new standard versions, superseding the original versions, now designated
by Apple to the dustbin of history."
https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
Agreed
You're absolutely correct. I should have been more clear. Spacial audio through headphones, in my opinion, is hypes. When you actually have speakers placed around you in a dome of sound, that's very different as it is closer to a real world faximilie of how sound works. I've got a Sonos arc and, as yet, I've not got Atmos working consistently, I have an old TV and a rubbish broadband connection, even then, it is projecting beams of sound up to bounce off the roof which isn't as good as a real speaker in the roof like in a cinema.
So, I'm sorry I wasn't quite as clear as I should have been. Real world speaker set ups all through the living room are great. The headphone Atmos is hype though, especially when it comes to music only tracks, at least, in my view. Strangely both are called spacial audio where one is a virtualisation for headphones, where the other is 'actually' pushing sound to specific speakers.
Optional Atmos in settings
The interesting thing will be how turning off Atmos will change native Atmos tracks. I can't imagine the experience will be good, especially if it has been specifically mixed for spacial audio, leaving us with a rather fragmented way of listening to music where we'll have to be constantly toggling between settings. Seems a very un apple thing. I buy apple because I'm a horror for fiddling and apple products are notorious for one size fits all well.