Mixing With Dolby Atmos: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Started

Follow these steps to start mixing in Dolby Atmos. You'll learn to set up a session, control panning and automation, and render a finished mix.

Thank you to Sebastian and @steinberg for making this video possible!

Steinberg Nuendo 12:

00:00 - Introduction
01:19 - Atmos Music Example (Binaural)
04:01 - What Is A Binaural Downmix?
05:33 - Monitoring Setup Overview
12:25 - Objects & Beds
21:13 - Starting From A Blank Session
26:57 - Panning Controls
36:30 - Mixing Atmos With Headphones vs Speakers
38:26 - Loudness
42:53 - Panning Automation Examples
51:16 - Exporting An ADM File

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[RudalPL]

Thank you for this video Kyle.
I am one of those so called "bedroom producers" and have been using Cubase since 2010 or 2011. Since version 12 came out I got myself Nuendo as well. Mixing and doing stuff in Dolby Atmos via the Binaural downmix is a lot of fun but it's really hard to find some decent videos explaining basics. Everyone jumps straight to the "fun bit" and leaves a lot of the important details out.
One thing I have to say though... As much as I would like music to be produced in this format I don't think it will stick for long. Yes, I know it's been present for about 10 years. What I mean is "as consumer audio format for everyday music".
Just look at 5.1. Where is it? How many people actually have 5.1 setup at home and listen to music that way?
To fully experience Dolby Atmos you really need proper speaker setup and those are very expensive. Binaural mixes are very dependent on the listener and don't work for a lot of people.
I don't think we will move to Dolby Atmos full time anytime soon. And at the moment the only places to listen to music like that is streaming platforms and most of the people are not even aware that you can stream binaural versions of the song.


PS: If you play ADM file on your computer through a standard player of your choice. It most of the time just plays left and right speaker channel from standard bed.

[johnmatt]

Fantastic technology and what fun to assign audio to objects in space and place those objects for artistic design. I enjoyed watching the objects as I was listening.

[mark-stefaniw]

A local recording studio has recently invested in Atmos system, and they have been doing ~some~ immersive sound work, but their non-Atmos mix work has suffered -- yeah the basic bread-n-butter stereo mixing. It's like they're mixing in Atmos all the time. The problem with Atmos, IMO, is that it can be a detrimental distraction. So this opens an oppty for stereo studios to step in and take work away from the Atmos distracted studios. I'm sorry I may not be articulate enough, but hopefully getting my point across.

[DeltaWhiskeyBravo]

Great stuff Kyle. It's pretty amazing what can be done.

[ebormajaw]

Steinberg is my favourite, but i only have cubase 5 and Nuendo 4 which are only in 32bit. Thank you Kyle for this video..

[milkyway]

i appreciate this video, and all work put into it. Visuals do help allot, but still this can't beat stereo. Would love to experience this on proper setup though. I don't see this for music, theater or movies or some kind of performance art, like audio visual then yes. Honestly for big and public spaces this must be amazing, i am just surprised how heavily this idea is pushed on studio producers who don't do these types of work. If there was no moving parts in this presentation this song would be even less impressive as is it now. Even your guest uses gaming and helicopter moving as an example

[davidedemarco.mp]

Thanks for the video, is there a way to listen to it rendered in dolby atmos since youtube doesn't support it?

[johnmatt]

Can an individual HRTF profile be created and applied to a binaural rendering to achieve better resolution. Something like applying a display color calibration to adjust colors to a personified experience.

[Sheriffvlogs]

@ Audio University, do u know how he was able to change the skin colour of his interface to Brown in nuendo.

[GavBeats]

Is there any reason I would want to use the bed instead of an object or objects??

[JonAnderhub]

Dolby has really been pushing Atmos hard recently in order to try and increase sales but the fact of the matter is that Atmos has been around for over 20 years and has less than 10% of the world movie theater market.
This is because Atmos is expensive on all levels from mixing to theater installation and the returns on investment are nonexistent.
Additionally, Atmos "fold down" to stereo typically has poor results.
Unless you are specifically mixing for Dolby Atmos films investing in Atmos for recording, mixing, or mastering is a waste of time and money.

[georgeogrady]

Backing sings bring it forward same as other front singer so can hear backing singer

[franlarsen]

The mix (i.e. 3:00-) seems to have way too much sub here.

[personalfreedom]

If we only have 2 ears (effectively 2 preamps maximum for our brain) and we evolved to only process sounds this way in a basic stereo field, (with some somatic experience of bass frequency in our bodies), then why would we invest in technology that assumes we have 9 ears? It just seems flawed to me, unless you are in a movie theatre, big gaming studio or have decent distance from the sound sources, … but even in those instances our brains would have filled in the gaps if there were just 4 speakers. We know this from cochlear implant technology because the brain biologically does surround sound simulation via interpolation methods in our neural pathways. Why pay extra for something our brain does for free? This is why Atmos is doomed to be redundant.

[jen]

just proves technology can't help crap music. not impressed at all, but perhaps I am placing too much emphasis on the music and not enough on the computer stuff. I'm too old fashioned, I guess. Music matters more to me than Atmos trickery. You might as well pump noise into it. Garbage in, garbage out, just more shiny poop