Im a noob and pretty much confused at this point but let me try to describe my situation and maybe someone can clarify some things.
Im using windows 11 with an hdmi to my denon 5.1.2 avr.
I can hear atmos sound using either the dolby access app or using a media player as vlc.
When mixing using nuendo, to be able to hear sound from the ceiling speakers i had to switch the avr to 7.1, disable dolby atmos in windows and assign the speakers as 7.1 in windows sound config.
Inside nuendo im using flexasio with 8 channels from the hdmi and an 5.1.2 output with the back channels as top left and right.
Using either the internal atmos renderer in nuendo or the dolby atmos composer vst from Fiedler audio, assigned as 5.1.2 for monitoring, i can place and hear the sound objects in 3d space. The avr reports multi in 7.1, which is correct i believe as we are not sending atmos encoded data.
Now the questions are:
is what im hearing/monitoring a real atmos format or a multichannel sound placement, is there actually a difference as we do have the adjustments (distance, volume, azimuth, elevation, spread etc…) needed for the 3d objects from the atmos plugin in the daw?
when i export the bwf wav from either internal renderer or fiedler composer and playing it using eg vlc, do I hear just the multichannel sounds without the 3d space placement info and adjustments for atmos and also losing the top speakers?
when played using vlc i’ve noticed that the top speakers for the composer one are playing in front and for the one exported from the internal renderer are placed in the surrounds. Is this expected?
Im reading around tutorials and info but I do understand my setup might not be appropriate for the case thus making it more complex.
You need to understand that Nuendo is not sending a “stream” of Atmos data to your receiver, but only the speaker sends. Meaning that if you receiver can work in 5.1.2 only, then you need to set the Nuendo control room to that format, as well as the internal renderer. That means that what you hear is what you get.
Do check proper assignment of channels with a mono track with a Test generator (pink noise) and pan it to the different channels to be sure.
As I mentioned, when I assign the avr as 5.1.2 the top speakers are not producing any sound when in nuendo (renderer/composer are 5.1.2).
In windows sound config the top speakers are showing as Rear and when clicking to test, the sound comes from the surrounds. When clicking the surrounds the sound comes again from surrounds. Now, when playing a true atmos content through apps it does work properly plus with the top ones.
As a workaround I assign them on the avr as 7.1, and in windows as 7.1.
In nuendo now everything is setup as 5.1.2 and they work.
It seems that when the combo is windows atmos enabled and avr as 5.1.2, either windows or the avr are using the top speakers only when the signal is atmos, and cant see/use them as an independent channel.
Difficult to know how the AV Receiver is set up internally. It probably receives a flag for Atmos streams which enables the Tops. There is not way of replicating that, as what you are sending from Nuendo is channel based PCM audio and not a stream.
Just a few more things to clarify this (spent hours on this a while ago).
Via HDMI, a maximum of 8 Wav-Streams can be submitted. Under normal conditions, this can be up to 7.1 (Looks like, you did that as per your description.
If you play back a Dolby-Atmos material (e.g via VLC), it will be transmitted as 8 Streams, each of which (or all together) carry the Dolby-Atmos encoded information. The AVR decodes the material within its decoder and also plays back on the height-speakers too.
Nuendo does (correctly) not provide the play back of Dolby Atmos Material via HDMI. It has no Dolby-Atmos encoder for e.g. 7.1.4. (as of now, only for Binaural).
What works (for me) is to have two cheap AVRs (each good for 7.1) and use an aggregated sound adapter (Asio4all) for a total of 16 channels via 2x HDMI. With that, you can even go for 7.1.6 or 9.1.4. Nut it is not enough for 9.1.6, where you need a 3rd HDMI-connection.
(BTW, just spotted, that Cubase 14 can do 7.1.2. Did not dig into the details as of yet.)
I believe you meant to say “does not provide the playback”, right?
As for binaural, again nothing with the encoder just the downmix?
For cubase 14 you mean the functionality that nuendo has already, correct?
I like your solution with multiple avrs, but ofcourse only if they were available in the first place else a proper interface would be better, right?
Which asio4all are you using that allows to assign multiple hdmi interfaces if you dont mind? Or maybe the official version just allow for it, never tried for multiple.
Yes, you are correct. My fault. Correct is, that Nuendo does not support direct Dolby Atmos playback. Corrected it in the above post.
For CUbase 14: Not sure as of yet. Have found text in the announcement, that C14 supports Dolby Atmos in 7.1.2 and Stereo “direct”. Don’t know, what is meant with “direct”.
It would be great, if it is a realtime Dolby Atmos Encoder. Hard to believe, as it does require quite some compute power.
Overall, the new C14-Features are a great outlook for N14. Watched a lengthier 1-hr video on C14 yesterday. Had very little to nothing on Dolby Atmos.
About my Asio4all solution:
Just to ensure, I am at most an ambitioned hobbyist and far from being a pro.
Did not yet find a sound adapter, that supports multiple HDMI-inputs in parallel operation to support more than 8 channels.
There are plenty of multi-channel sound adapters with USB-Interface to the DAW that have than 8 channels. Cost roughly $500 and up. All of them have only analog outputs (XLR). This is dedicated to the usage of active monitors. And their price is starting at $100 per piece (for hobbyists) and goes well above $1k/pc for pros. Gets pricy if you need 11 (7.x.4)or even 15 (9.x.6) of those for full Dolby Atmos.
Such sound adapters would work for sure with multiple AVRs and their Cinch-Inputs too. This is technically not really optimal, and also starts getting a bit pricy. The used Yamaha AVRs I found at E**y where about $200 a piece.
Am using the official Asio4All Software version 2.13. This version is for me (!) the one with the least latency issues. The most recent ASIO4All version is 2.16. Is all free.