Dolby Atmos Music

The Dolby Atmos Music format is created in the studio with an artistic intent that is preserved in the bitstream and replicated in the car cabin by the Dolby Car Experience Implementation through fine-tuning and optimization.

The main characteristics of a Dolby Atmos Music experience within the car are:

• Immersion
  Listeners experience a virtual room that seems bigger than the car cabin.
• Spatial balance
  Delivers balanced acoustic energy mapped for every seat as the sound field builds organically, tuned for each unique car cabin design.
• Front stage
  The center soundstage builds directly in front of each passenger, independent of the seating position.
• Smooth
  The acoustic impression is well rounded, highly detailed, and energizing. The music blends perfectly within the overall audio experience (for example, mixing with and transitions from other sound sources, such as voice, radio, system sounds, and engine sounds).
• Adaptable
  The experience can be adjusted based on personal preferences, such as passenger seating positions.
• Seamless user experience
  Listeners experience the same immersion within Dolby Atmos Music tracks, whether they enjoy their playlists in the car or elsewhere.

A Dolby Atmos Music experience must be capable of delivering these aspects:

• Enhanced spatial precision in all three dimensions for static and moving sounds.
• A sensation of overhead sound (also referred to as height).

This experience of overhead sound is delivered with the equipment of height speakers in a car cabin or through the application of psychoacoustic filtering mechanisms to the content. In both cases, the audio equipment must meet certain requirements to provide the experience.

Reference listening environment

An average consumer should be able to discern a significant, positive difference in a Dolby Atmos Music experience compared to a standard stereo experience. The reference for this experience can be obtained when performing subjective listening tests in a mixing room setup that complies with the Dolby Atmos Music Studio guidelines, available here.

Dolby Atmos Music in the car

When stereo music content is reproduced inside a car cabin, the main focus is on the speakers in the front of the car. The goal is to create a general and wide front stage between the left and right, in which mono-like content, such as vocals, appears in front of the driver and the front-seat passenger. This setting is more or less replicated for the rear-seat passengers using back speakers in the back doors. If the car cabin is equipped with additional back speakers or even height speakers, these are used only to extend the sound stage, sometimes also by applying additional reverb to simulate a larger room.

In contrast to stereo, music content mixed in Dolby Atmos contains separate center, rear and height content. The goal is to create a comprehensive and detailed three-dimensional sound stage across the entire car cabin. It is important to understand that each speaker in the car, including the speakers in the back as well as the height speakers, contribute to this specific experience. To preserve the artistic intent of a Dolby Atmos mix, it is essential that all speaker levels and speaker frequency responses are carefully aligned and that no back- or height-specific signal processing, such as additional reverb, is applied.