Audient ORIA: Atmos Done Right (finally)…

I was looking at this and thinking it could be a great monitor controller for a traditional setup too…control 2-3 sets of monitors with bass management and sonar works integration…sounds awesome to me.

The thing that always scares me about affordable Atmos monitors is how many of these cabinets were actually designed to be supported from the rear baffle?

Stereo was launched by hobbyists and not record labels or gear manufacturers. It only took over because large corporate retail chains stopped buying mono versions around 1968. The suits stumbled into making a lot of money and have been trying to repeat the same process since then but failing over and over.

That's REAL stereo which can actually be very immersive. Most of what we get and prefer is multi-mono with little spatial effect.

So far other than the initial wow with any Surround recording other than film the only recordings in Atmos that have really impressed, especially in Bineral have been recorded with a single point surround mic.

Agreed!

With NAMM right around the corner, we can expect the yearly $weetwater Atmos push 😁

Well if ATC or Quested wants to give me a system, I’ll gladly tell everyone how great it is😁

Of Course it’s the hottest thing, because 1/4 system is entirely backwards compatible with good old stereo!

I’m cheap why they would just have to keep me under the influence, wait my bartender just reminded me that isn’t cheap 🤪

Get off our lawn LOL.  Seriously though, I don't mean to rain on your parade but if you look back a couple of years ago here I made an Atmos post very similar to yours.  I was really into and was excited, I was going to go all in but I'm so glad I didn't.  The experience you're talking about listening in a proper Atmos room is fun for those of us that will get to do it but what I realized is that basically no end user is going to ever have that experience. Unfortunately they don't care.  If we're lucky they will listen on headphones but a lot of times they listen on their phone speaker 🤦🏻‍♂️   The bad news for us is that Atmos sounds like 💩 on headphones and phone speakers.  

So, for anyone that has extra funds to purchase an Atmos rig and you're interested in the creative possibilities it offers, I fully support it.  However, if you have to sell gear that you're currently using and enjoy to pay for it, I can't help but caution you.  Nevermind the fact of how client un-friendly it is to your control room.  It's clunky, it gets in the way.  Anyway, do what you want in the end and who cares what anyone thinks but I don't see anyone on a high horse here, there are just some guys that have been around the block several times and have seen multiple surround formats fail in music over the years.  They all claimed to be "different this time" and they've all been wrong.  It's not because they aren't fun or aren't interesting...it's because listeners just simply don't care and aren't going to put in the effort to have that same experience you'll have in an Atmos room.  Heck...we could GIVE everyone a free Atmos system and they wouldn't even sit still long enough to enjoy it 🤣

My recommendation is do your stereo mix on your monitors...do Atmos mixes on headphones and use the extra savings to buy more Vari Mu Comps & Microphones 🤑

I disagree. I respect the view of the older, more experienced people than me. At the same time, I started working in studios in like 2004 and have seen enough changes over the years to where I’m not exactly a spring chicken either. People keep telling me stuff like “it sucks on headphones”, yet Ive heard some stuff that I thought sounded better than the stereo mixes switching back and forth. I’ve also heard really bad ones. Same goes for all the phones and shit devices out there, I’ve heard Atmos stuff sound WAY better coming out of a phone or Alexa like thing than the stereo. The potential is there, we just all generally suck at this as it’s a huge learning curve and takes time.

Anyway, I don’t want to turn this thread into another poop fest, there’s plenty of them everywhere else. I’m a big boy and I’m not stupid, and think about all of this a lot and continue to go back and forth. This product look promising for allowing professionals to “dip their toes into” the Atmos world. Thank you for continuing to tell me how bad of an idea this all is 😂. I’m sure I need to hear it a few more times before I give up on this for th umpteenth time.

It's not about fun or creativity.  It's about both business and the end user.  People literally do not care one iota about any sort of surround music only situations.  Quad in the '70s,  5.1 SACD in the '90s, Atmos in the '20s. Music consumers don't care. Sure there's the occasional 'audifile' who will buy the worst music in the world because "it sounds so clear," but typical music lovers and music makers have been and will continue to listen in stereo.