Spatial Audio File

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Spatial Audio File
Everybody Got to Elevate Spatial Audio
Mike Mettler  |  Apr 29, 2022  | 
Spoiler alert: Rush’s February 1981 masterpiece, Moving Pictures, is my personal No. 1 favorite album of all time, so I was very much looking forward to hearing the entire album in its full glory in Atmos. Interestingly, stellar Atmos mixes of two great Pictures tracks, “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight,” were released last year on Apple Music in anticipation of celebrating the album’s 40th anniversary, but the balance of its seven tracks were held back until now, mostly due to supply-chain issues in order to align with the physical release of the Moving Pictures Super Deluxe Edition box set that finally came to market earlier this month—a mondo-disc collection that features a 24-bit/96kHz Atmos mix of the entire album on its included Blu-ray.
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Spatial Audio File
It’s Spatial Audio O’Clock, Yeah
Mike Mettler  |  Apr 22, 2022  | 
British indie-rock sensations Wet Leg made quite a splash with their deadpan and earnestly quirky June 2021 debut hit single “Chaise Longue.” Now a key component of this dynamic duo’s full-length, self-titled April 2022 debut album, “Chaise Longue” gets to stretch its compositional legs that much more in Atmos.
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Spatial Audio File
What a Wonderful Spatial Audio World
Mike Mettler  |  Apr 15, 2022  | 
British supergroup Asia consisted of four virtuosic musicians who shared an uncanny knack for distilling their progressive-leaning chops into pop rock for the masses. The evidence is on full display all over their chart-topping self-titled March 1982 debut album, and the Atmos version of its popular lead track “Heat of the Moment” makes it even more appealing across the board.
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Spatial Audio File
Please Don’t Leave Me, Spatial Audio
Mike Mettler  |  Apr 08, 2022  | 
To certain observers, jazz multi-instrumentalist Jon Batiste’s March 2021 passion project We Are was the surprise winner of Album of the Year at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards last weekend. But to these ears, this multi-layered, genre-defiant album displays the best of all musical worlds—as in, everybody can find something to love within the grooves of its wide-ranging sonic palette.
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Spatial Audio File
A Little Ditty, About Spatial Audio
Mike Mettler  |  Apr 01, 2022  | 
“Jack & Diane,” the second No. 1 single from John Mellencamp’s multiplatinum breakthrough album, April 1982’s American Fool—which was originally released (and still catalogued) under the gimmicky stage name he never personally liked, John Cougar—cemented the feisty Midwestern rocker as an American songwriter to be reckoned with. The track’s most definitely best-they-can Atmos mix only serves to make this knowing tale of growing up in the heartland and clutching onto the fleeting vibrancy of youth that much sweeter.
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Spatial Audio File
Hold Me Closer, Spatial Audio
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 25, 2022  | 
Could it really be that Elton John is turning 75 today, March 25? (And here I thought he was on such a timeless flight. . .) Well, in celebration of our favorite pop piano maestro, we’re going to kick off this diamond birthday gala edition of Spatial Audio File with a pair of prime Elton tracks in all their Atmos-ified glory.
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Spatial Audio File
Your Faith in Spatial Audio Brings Me to Tears
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 18, 2022  | 
Portuguese-Canadian songstress Nelly Furtado hit the Top 10 back in 2000 with her sultry debut single “I’m Like a Bird,” a deceptively melancholy flight-of-fancy kiss-off of sorts that soars even higher in its Dolby Atmos form. (“Bird” ultimately appeared on Furtado’s acclaimed October 2000 debut album, Whoa, Nelly!)
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Spatial Audio File
Hungry for Spatial Audio From Heaven
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 11, 2022  | 
It only took Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, a.k.a. the twin towers of Tears For Fears, 18 years to follow up what was thought to be their final album (September 2004’s Everybody Loves a Happy Ending), but February 2022’s The Tipping Point might just be the release that resides at the apex of four decades’ worth of their creative push-pull partnership. (Incidentally, you can head on over to The S&V Interview later today to catch my deep-dive conversation with Orzabal about the making of the new album and his thoughts about TFF’s long penchant for serving up great surround sound releases.)
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Spatial Audio File
Spatial Audio, You’re One of My Kind
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 04, 2022  | 
All-channel mixing maestro Giles Martin shared some truly key insights during his sitdown with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in a global virtual live event this past Monday, in celebration of the Atmos mix Martin had recently completed for The Beatles’ November 2000 collection of (count ’em) 27 U.S. and U.K. chart-toppers oh-so-appropriately titled 1—as well as for their groundbreaking double-A-sided February 1967 single, “Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane.”
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Spatial Audio File
Spatial Audio in the Sky, With Diamonds
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 25, 2022  | 
The phrase “immersive audio” and the name of producer Giles Martin are practically synonymous terms these days, and his magic Atmos touch is out in full force on “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds (Remix),” an updated Spatial Audio take on this most head-trippy of tracks from The Beatles’ truly seminal June 1967 masterpiece, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
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Spatial Audio File
As Long As You Stand By Me, Spatial Audio
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 18, 2022  | 
Hear ye hear ye, o fine fellow hi-fi-inclined friends o’ mine! It’s Week Three here in the always aurally intriguing world of the Spatial Audio File, and I’m more than ready to delve right on into five more choice selections for the best of this week’s Dolby Atmos mixes Made for Spatial Audio on Apple Music. Happy Spatial Listening, everybody!
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Spatial Audio File
Loving Spatial Audio Is The Right Thing to Do
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 11, 2022  | 
Welcome back my friends, to the column that never ends—but in our case, that’s a good thing indeed. Yes, it’s Week Two here in the wide world of the Spatial Audio File—and rather than just ramble on, I’m instead going to get right into our choices for this week’s pick-six of great Dolby Atmos mixes Made for Spatial Audio on Apple Music. Happy Spatial Listening, everybody!
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Spatial Audio File
I Hope We Passed the Spatial Audio Audition!
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 04, 2022  | 
Welcome one and all to the inaugural weekly installment of Spatial Audio File. Some people call me the Spatial Audiophile—some people call me Maurice, though I advise against it—but at any rate, each Friday in this space, I will be reviewing select Spatial Audio releases on Apple Music by vetting and recommending key individual tracks and (occasionally) full albums via listening sessions on my home system and headphones alike.
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Spatial Audio File
Introducing: Spatial Audio File
SV Staff  |  Jan 28, 2022  | 
Sound & Vision has long been an advocate for surround sound music. Back in the SACD and DVD-Audio disc heyday, we regularly reviewed multichannel music releases in those formats, and when they eventually ground to a halt, we moved on to music-only Blu-ray audio discs and then Deluxe Edition box sets. The latter now serves as the most common outlet for surround music on disc, most often presented on Blu-ray in the immersive Dolby Atmos sound format.
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