ok I know this is probably more of a lounge topic, but because we have dolby atmos in wavelab, I’m hoping some knowledgeable people will respond to this. I have to figure if I am confused about this, someone else is to, but in regards to actually playing our newly created Wavelab ADM mastered file, well at this point its looking like the best I can hope for is admiring the pretty icon it makes in my computers file system, because finding a way to decode this and actually play it outside of wavelab on some kind of consumer device is not turning up anything hopeful.
I question how can this technology ever really catch on with the public if no one can play these files
we create a wave file in stereo, we can burn it on a cd, transfer it to any media player, so many options.
we create a dolby atmos ADM file and then what?, can someone point me in the direction of any kind of simple path to enjoy an ADM file besides uploading to a streaming service.
ADM BWF is a production file not a consumer file. As it is a multichannel file that needs a renderer to be played, it is not meant/can’t be used for consumers.
ADM’s will be converted by aggregators for streaming. Consumers will listen to this via speakers/soundbars or via headphones (binaural). There are some high resolution alternatives too, where consumers can dowload an immersive file.
Even more niche: you can also turn an ADM into a binaural one yourself, and upload to some specialised websites or distribute yourself. And you can turn your immersive project into other formats than Dolby Atmos (no through WaveLab).
If you want to release a physical consumer format, than blue-ray is the prefered way.
I just published a book on immersive music production, in which I explain all of this into very detail. It’s called ‘Stereo was a nice try’; please check it out if you’re interested!
For referencing consumer-level files, I use two things: Audiomovers’ Binaural Renderer when I’m in the studio, and for out-in-the-wild Atmos streaming I export MP4s from Dolby’s renderer, then upload to a player in Samply where one can listen on phone/iPad/etc…
Agreed this is all a pain, and poorly implemented.