I’ve been reading through the manual, but I couldn’t find an answer there. I have an Atmos mix that’s ready for export. I can export the ADM from the renderer just fine, but what is the proper way to export a 2.0 stereo downmix?
Should I be using a send to a stereo output channel post-renderer, have the renderer set to 2.0 mode, and export via Nuendo’s usual mixdown export window? Or is there something in the renderer that I’m missing?
Bonus side question- I noticed offline render was the way the ADM exported. What if I use external hardware on a future mix? Does the Atmos Renderer switch to a real-time export automatically? Or would I need to print the external tracks beforehand?
from what i can tell, for client review, i need to export the ADM, import into Davinci Resolve, and export a video version so it can be played back properly on an iOS device. this seems to be the only way to get proper playback.
i still need to get a standard 2.0 stereo version of this mix exported though, since the biggest streaming service (spotify) needs a stereo file and probably won’t support atmos for the foreseeable future.
If you have the Atmos renderer on the master bus just set the renderer to 2.0 and do a normal audio export of that same master bus. You’ll have some empty channels in the resulting file but the two stereo channels should be in there.
The way I’m doing it now, I’m creating an output for stereo and doing a post-fader send from the Renderer track to a stereo Group channel connected to the stereo output and it seems to work fine. It feels a little hacked together, but its translating just fine.
it has just just be a standard binaural downmix to send for client review though apparently, as the option to export a video version is locked behind having the Dolby Production Suite which is also MacOS only. Not even Davinci Resolve Studio can do this currently without the Production Suite.
Atmos feels like a cash grab from Dolby at this point, and I’m having serious doubts about its survival as a format.
It’s a product, all products grab cash in a capitalist market. Dolby isn’t a non-profit organization and Atmos is their product. And I think it’s entirely safe as far as survival goes. More and more content is showing up in that format.
It’s a product, all products grab cash in a capitalist market. Dolby isn’t a non-profit organization and Atmos is their product. And I think it’s entirely safe as far as survival goes. More and more content is showing up in that format.
This is true, we do live in a capitalist hellscape.
My reasoning behind doubting it as a format is mostly due to how cumbersome everything feels, and I get the feeling the cumbersome nature of everything is because everything is locked behind licensing. Like, why can’t I export an MP4 mixdown for client review from either Nuendo or Davinci Resolve? That feature is exclusive to the Atmos Production Suite so to send a mix to a client I have to
buy a license for the production suite
buy a mac to run it since it’s mac only
export an ADM
move that ADM to the mac
open the ADM in the actual full-featured renderer
render an MP4 video file so a client can review the mix.
OR
Subscribe to the Dolby Mastering Suite so I can do all of this on my Windows system.
OR
Pay Amazon AWS to make a hacked together client review deliverable for each revision.
That’s a lot of extra steps and inconvenience for something that SHOULD be a simple export. The alternative would be to just use the Dolby Atmos Production Suite renderer instead of Nuendo’s built in Atmos Renderer, but then I’m having to switch my Dante Routing for my whole studio to facilitate that go-between and send panning data over OSC to another system. I’d much rather just keep everything simple and in Nuendo but that doesn’t seem like that’ll be an option for the foreseeable future.
If there was an open standard for ADM and OSC panning metadata, object-based mixing like atmos could be quite a bit more feasible and a hell of a lot more ergonomic to work with. No one has an exclusive license for mixing in 7.1, and that’s a hell of a lot more convenient. I’d imagine if we were using an open standard, object based mixing for higher channel counts would be just as painless.
@analogexplosions If all you need for certain productions is a binaural render, or even something which you can decode to any other immersive format afterwards in case of necessity, give HOA a try.
If all you need for certain productions is a binaural render, or even something which you can decode to any other immersive format afterwards in case of necessity, give HOA a try.
I can’t because Atmos is the final deliverable that my client wants. We need an accurate representation of what the final mix will actually sound like. Of course, the client does not have the capability of playing back Atmos in speakers, so that’s why I’m trying to get them a binaural mix. I figured it out through bussing for now, but it looks like to see how everything is going to playback on an iOS device, I’m going to have to use Amazon’s AWS service for Atmos MP4 creation since my studio is Windows-based.
just an addition or alternative to your recipe to create MP4 for quality check.
There is also the Dolby Encoding Engine (DEE). Is available for Windows too (to my knowledge not for MacOS). Fully command line based (not integrated into a DAW). Can do Binaural and also Atmos in TrueHD. Costs roughly $500 per year.
Atmos type audio is here to stay, but Dolby probably doesn’t have all that much time left as the premiere supplier of it. SMPTE has approved the “Immersive Audio Bitstream”, which is based on Atmos but isn’t locked to Dolby licensing. Both Atmos and DTS:X decoders can read IAB so it’s only a matter of time before that starts nudging Atmos aside, at least in my clueless opinion. Only thing holding it back is a current lack of creation tools for IAB.