Audioholics really is the Anti-Atmos site still I see from this review updating on the Atmos is DOA one. No one could watch the movie Fury (with Brad Pitt) at my house and think Atmos was barely distinguishable from their 5.1 system. People don't bang on their ceiling trying to get into the tank with 5.1. The movie's sound was incredible in Atmos. The problem is 50% of Atmos mixes SUCK for no other reason than incompetence on the mixing guy's part. They think they're still doing 5.1 or something. Another 30% are decent with several noticeable moments of overhead sound throughout the movie. These are "hey that's better, but I don't think it's worth the investment" type responses. There's maybe 20% of the mixes where someone would go WOW! That was incredible and I maintain this is due to nothing but incompetence and/or laziness on the mixing team/guy.
Most movies still seem to follow the "less is more" concept that surround sound in general is distracting to the audience who should be paying attention to the screen, not some sound floating above their head out in the theater/room. Unfortunately, that viewpoint is anathema for the entire concept of "Total Immersion". If I go out into a forest with a wildlife group, birds and other animals are going to make whatever noises they're going to make. The birds don't stop chirping because the head of my group starts talking. But watch the movie Annihilation (a movie that does have its moments of Atmos immersion when it wants to) and that's exactly what happens. The birds are dead quiet all around except in the front main speakers (I didn't even think they were in the height speakers unless I switched to Neural X). Was that an oversight on the mixing guy's part or was he following the doctrine of no immersion while people are talking or doing something important that isn't a car wreck or explosion? Either way, it pulled me out of the movie, which was fascinating me with the weird synth sounds coming from every which direction in the soundtrack. But you can't have an open forest scene and bird sounds only come from the main speakers while it's dead silent all around everywhere else in the room. That's not immersion at all.
I think Hollywood should start including TWO major soundtrack versions in the primary language each time. One mix should be for "home optimized for crap systems" (you know the Disney Crapmos sound we get with dynamics designed to not overload your flat TV speaker's driver that is supposed to pass for a woofer. They can make this mix following that methodology of using surround sparingly if at all. It can be 2-channel Pro Logic even if we're going to go with the methodology that was created for that era of sound. The other soundtrack that is Atmos or X should be TRULY IMMERSIVE. I mean full tilt. I like to point to Groundhog Day as an example of a newly immersive film that didn't seem to need to be. I never recall the sound being very noticeable or good in that Bill Murray comedy, but it's a highly entertaining movie. So I was extremely curious to see what they would do with it when it got an Atmos mix. I can't say I recall a large amount of overhead material (if I cut the overhead speakers off, though I'm often surprised to hear how much ambient reflections and the like actually is up there that we don't associate with "there's something on the ceiling" type of thinking with Atmos), but what it did have was a new fully immersive soundtrack that did the best it possibly could with the material it was given. When Phil (Bill Murray is outside in the town, it really sounds like you're outside in the town with him. Cars moving around and people talking are everywhere in that mix and they were barely noticeable at all before! Here's a mixing guy that did the absolute best he could to make that film more immersive. Would most of those effects hold up in just 5.1? Yes, it's more of a new mix than an Atmos "height" mix, but what it is that the old one wasn't is IMMERSIVE. You sound like you're there in the room rather than watching a stage play where everything is only happening up front most of the time.
If you don't like that mix, the old/crappy mix should be there for people to select if they like. Blu-Ray and UHD and even iTunes has plenty of room for foreign soundtrack dubs so they sure as heck ought to be able to fit a 2-channel or 5.1-channel mix on there that isn't as immersive. Yes, Atmos can play on 5.1, but that's not my point. My point is I'm tired of newer movie home soundtracks catering to the lowest common denominators (TV speakers, sound bars and cheap 5.1 systems) rather than containing the best soundtrack it can. Moreover, I'd prefer to have the actual CINEMA soundtrack, not some arbitrary "near field" mix that more often than not does more than just correct for the high frequency increase you get with having speakers closer to you. That correction is ALREADY available on most AVRs. It's called "Cinema EQ" or "THX Re-EQ" or whatever. That's what it's there for. They could have included a flag that automatically triggers it for cinema mixes and turns it off for near field mixes even, but they didn't. So you end up with the wrong setting most of the time (one or the other) and wonder why Paramount soundtracks sound better with one setting and Sony sounds better with another and Disney doesn't sound good with any setting.
But this notion that overhead sound doesn't add anything or we can't hear or track it very well is utterly misleading, IMO. It's harder to gauge overhead sound BEHIND ME, but I maintain I can image sounds directly above or in front of me every bit as well as sounds directly in front of me. This was one of the first things I tested before buying an Atmos receiver. I mounted speakers in the front height position and combined it with my high mounted side surrounds and played things like environmental sounds (thunderstorms, etc.) upmixed with PLIIx through them as if they were the bed speakers (connected them as such). This played everything overhead and let me gauge whether the Atmos effect would "work" or not in my room. It did in spades! All those sounds imaged just fine on the ceiling except things behind me, which were a little more nebulous sounding. Certainly sitting at the 40% or 50% mark, everything in front of me overhead imaged perfectly fine. Sure enough, the same is true with actual Atmos soundtracks. Over time, the overhead sounds behind me have become a bit more clear to me as well as my brain has clearly adjusted to listening for them through the demos, etc. But all I have to do is play the newer Flatliners (2017) movie in Atmos (iTunes 4K version or German Auro-3D version) and the opening with the voices talking about near death experiences just float all over my ceiling in every direction. The ones behind me aren't as easy to track (they sound halfway behind me at best), but the rest image ALL OVER the ceiling sharp as a tack! This is actually my favorite short demo for demonstrating just how well Atmos can image on the ceiling when given true overhead material in spades. It's UNCANNY. If more movies would use that level of immersion, Atmos would be a much greater standout than it is, in my opinion.
