How Can You Limit And Compress A Dolby Atmos Mix?

In this video I discuss how you are able to limit and compress audio in Dolby Atmos via a mix bus. Unlike stereo you do not technically have a mix bus. Using a different approach you are able to achieve what you achieve using a mix bus.

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[PresentDayProduction]

Great video, Paul! We’re totally with you on the retaining dynamics approach - the ‘slam it into a clipper/limiter’ guys will always have stereo to crush 😉

[Limit]

Probably the best video you did….add in that you looked like you had a rough night at the pub the night before was awesome 😎

[okay]

I really like your channel. You have brought me to face one reality - Excellent Audio mixing and mastering and music production in general, is not a cheap endeavour. If you want to be excellent at this, one will need to acquire good quality tools, and the best of these can be expensive. Not a hobby or profession for those who want to cut corners.

Listening to you has improved my resolve to be the best and have the best. We only live once, so we might as well be good at what we do, and aim for the best experience possible.

Thank you, for weaning me off the opinion that digital technology alone will save me money. Excellent tools like very good microphones, preamps and speakers, as well as a well treated room will need non trivial investments, and there are no shortcuts in physics. None.

[gabrialjones]

Hey I have logic and I started mixing in Dolby Atmos. But I need help because in my mix there’s areas in my mix that it gets quieter and then loud in certain areas. How can I fix that?

[mattrixx_audio]

Great video, however, I think there are a couple of points that could potentially be described a little differently, so as to avoid some potential confusion,
The first one where you refer to ceiling. ie -18LUFS. I think you mean that you are describing the average program level of the full duration of said program.
The ceiling would be described as the True Peak, which on most music platforms appears to be either -3 or -3.5 dBTP. Not that you would even get close to that, if the average (or LUFS /LKFS) is sitting nicely at -18 to -19LUFS.
The second one relates to clipping, or buss compression. You made the point that it would be really great if DOLBY included some kind of master chain in the Renderer to accommodate the need to link not only the Bed channel, but also the object channels that do not have anything to do with the 7.1.2 bed leaving Pro Tools. (I would really love this too ...and that it be could controlled from a Pro Tools plugin guide, such like the one that lets you control the Binaural render settings in the remote Renderer now, that you displayed)
There are many ways around this, ie by having the exact same compressor and settings of on every Object channel and every channel of the 7.1.2 bed, all linked and being fed, by a sidechain send from every said channel (ie Everything)... It gets confusing, but there are even many "Atmos" compressor developers coming out that claim to be atmos mastering comps, that don't take the Objects into account.
If someone goes into the exercise of mixing in DOLBY Atmos and doesn't realise all of these points, their fold downs are definitely not going to translate well down through the re-rendering formats and the metadata being generated by the Object banners and binaural settings of said objects are going to be pretty crazy out of whack.
This is a great video Paul and I think you were alluding to and mentioned all of this, but I was hoping just to help a little in clarify for some people that may not understand the complexity of the issues, that make this such a different workflow to just smashing the traditional stereo master buss.
Cheers,
Matt

[summerfazed]

I have a killer mix in UAD Luna that has nothing on the master buss and is -18 LUFS. I think I HAVE to have you master it in ATMOS :) Should I print the FX sends into the stems or would it be cool to have those separate? Guess it couldn't hurt to separate them.

[siddantsharma]

how much ram and cpu core would u recoomend for streo mixing mastering as well as atmos?

[TheRetroBurn]

Hey, nice channel.

I am having trouble including the meta data when I render out my ADM files. The option to "apply program level meta-data" is greyed out and when I load the ADM file into a new session, the audio is fine but the object meta-data is missing. Any idea why that would be?

[scotteglasel]

You can use the new Album Assembler to limit your ADM files

[joeyramonelookalike]

I read in forums that you cannot use hardware processing when mixing in dolby atmos, is there any truth to this?

[theblowupdollsmusic]

Clipping is useful as a first stage before your final limiter, because spiky digital transients are not the most pleasing feeding into software compression or limiting. Some of the best mastering engineers in the world use clipping as a first stage in the mastering chain for this reason. Obviously this is a totally different process compared to using clipping is the last stage for loudness war volume.

[audiokemestry]

So it sounds like its not possible to incorporate analog gear into the Atmos mixing/mastering process at this point...at least until they add the architecture for some type of bus system.

[QFXmusic]

Wish they apple would play fair as a lot of major artists are getting above -18lufs some as much as 3 to 5 lugs louder.. Level playing field lol I think not
Good video

[NoQualmsTheArtist]

So do you not master your Atmos mixes?

[earledaniels]

No more than - 18 LUFS integrated and maximum - 1 dB true peak.

[NorteWeb]

Sorry but there is a lot of easy ways for you to explain that... And you are right into a certain point, and wrong in other point... You are right in about 128 channels... But those 128 channels are called objects, and it is includs the bed... If im not wrong it is a bad of 10 channels fixed... And the other 118 objects will rung on the bad... That leaves a 10 channels master... The objects you select what you need to do with them... I am only a hobbist...