ADM export from VST Instrument tracks: No panning info in ADM BWF file

I just discovered that when exporting Multi-channel VST instrument tracks (7-8 sound sources on separate channels for the same instrument) using the Dolby ATMOS authoring tool that the panning info is not correctly or not at all registered in the exported ADM BWF file.

I imported the resulting file in Logic where all 3D panners are dead center against the front wall and also played the file back in the Fiedler Atmos Composer. All sound comes from the middle. Is this a Cubase bug or is this wanted?

The original project with the VST track plays back fully correctly in Atmos with all instruments and surround sources in the right place. A workaround to get a correct ADM BWF file is to render all tracks to audio before exporting in the authoring tool.

Browsing this and other forums (fora?) there seems to be surprisingly little in depth discussion about Dolby Atmos. On Youtube you only see people demonstrating in principle what you can read in manuals of DAWs and plugins. Sometimes with as little as one audio track and focus on showing you that you can spin a sound around in space rather than getting the best possible spacial audio for a full an orchestra or band. You find little about the use and positioning options of multi microphone instrument sample libraries. Maybe it is only used professionally today for recorded audio.

Anyway, I really think Dolby Atmos is well integrated in Cubase but the issue I raised might be a bug. I checked using a setup and export of the same VST instrument based tracks with Fiedler Dolby Atmos Composer. The resulting ADM file imported in Logic shows all panning correctly.

Hi - sorry I can’t offer insight myself. But if not done so already, have you tried the Nuendo forum pages.? The post-pro folk there may prove more fruitful… Perhaps start a specific new topic there and post in a link to this thread…?

Interesting that the ADM file loads correctly/as expected, in Logic…

Good luck.!

Thanks that might be a good idea although Nuendo has some options which maybe for a commercial reasons have not been included in the Cubase Dolby Atmos integration. Among them import of ADM files. In the Youtube videos the presenters using Nuendo often get confused due to these slight differences of the integration of the same functionality.

Logic creates a Dolby Atmos project with all audio tracks correctly panned from the ADM file when the ADM file is exported from audio tracks but as said with no panning if the sources are VST instrument tracks. I will experiment some more with smaller instrument numbers.

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I can confirm that the export of an instrument gets no panning when exported to ADM. So I assume it is a bug.

Here a first screenshot of the ADM file exported from the multi channel instrument tracks and subsequenlty imported in Logic and a second screenshot, the same procedure after rendering/bouncing all tracks to audio and connecting them again to the Atmos bed and objects before export. This is how it has to be. Marimba in the middle, Surdo right and Shaker left.

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SB may know about all of this already of course… But in the meantime, any chance of posting a small ‘dummy’ ADM file here that folk (including SB staff) could examine, in case of a need to review exactly what you are seeing.?

Doesn’t guarantee anything will happen, but who knows…

Let me try opening a ticket first.

In the mean time I switched to mainly using the Dolby Atmos Composer instead of the internal Cubase renderer and that exports VST instrument based tracks correctly.

The VST based setup with 18 instruments and SpaceLab reverb is also a bit of a strain on the CPU. Despite the fact that I already put the instruments in VEP instances (on the same Mac) which in general helps.

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Oh yes… of course… I leave it with you for now.