Dolby Atmos positioning problem

I’m in a physical 7.1.4 studio. The angles and distances respect the official Dolby Atmos equidistant scheme.

As you know, the sides in the Dolby Atmos schematics are roughly at 8 and 4 o’clock, not 9 and 3 o’clock.

But the panning system has to consider this. In Atmos thinking, it doesn’t give the result according to the monitors, but according to a 3D space (or let’s say 2D here for simplicity’s sake, so forget the heights, we’re in 7.1, and even 7.0.0 if we forget the Lfe).

Now, if I place a sound, with the VST multipaanner, at 3 o’clock, I hear it at 4 o’clock. In fact, it comes out of the right side monitor. Yet it should create a ghost point between the right front and right side monitors to give a sound at 3 o’clock. But it doesn’t.

Any explanation? It’s really annoying, because the positioning of the sounds, and therefore all the front-side-rear panning, is wrong. It moves backwards too quickly for what is indicated with the multipanner VST.

Your monitor calibration may be slightly offset, you can manually try to fix the time delay compensation.

Thanks Rajiv,

I just did that with 2 of the pitches. Sonarwork is better for frequencies than power, I think. So manual placement becomes important. And it makes sense anyway. What’s at 3 o’clock on the VST panner should be at 3 o’clock on the monitor. I don’t think I’m wrong.