Audio: Listen to this article.
Immersive Audio continues to gain steam, adding to the current streaming catalog of 25,000+ albums, with more enjoyable releases available for purchase. In the last month or so I’ve added TrueHD Dolby Atmos albums from artists that I know well and artists in which I previously had little interest. In all cases, the fact remains that immersive audio has brought me more musical enjoyment than any other technology or format I can remember.
This week the nine time Grammy winning album Genius Loves Company from Ray Charles was made available for purchase at Immersive Audio Album. The TrueHD Dolby Atmos download was co-mixed by Eric Schilling and Michael Romanowski, and mastered by Romanowski at Coast Mastering in Berkeley.
I loved this album when it was released in stereo in 2004, never really listened to the 5.1 mix back in the day, and now I’m enthralled with the immersive mix twenty years later. Of course everything starts with the world’s best artists joining the genius Ray Charles and original engineering by the best people in the business (Al Schmitt, Doug Sax, etc…). Eric Schilling and Michael Romanowski took the aforementioned ingredients and baked an immersive masterpiece. The new mix serves this wonderful music perfectly.
It doesn’t matter where one starts listening, all the tracks on this immersive release are superb. As I write this, I feel like I’m sitting in the studio with Elton John and Ray Charles, with a string section enveloping my listening chair. It’s just beautiful. A big tip of the cap to Eric Schilling and Michael Romanowski.
Genius Loves Company is available as a TrueHD Dolby Atmos download at IAA for $24.99 (link). I hate to say it, but I’d pay twice that price for an album this good. If there are more albums waiting in the wings, please pre-add them to my cart or start a subscription for me :~)
Here are details for each track, including the standard Dolby Atmos high dynamic range.
Immersive audio has a way of pulling listeners into the music, even if they’ve heard it thousands of times in stereo and even if they’ve previously written off the artist, album, or even complete genre. The first example of this, for me, is Thin Lizzy’s 1976 : Jailbreak and Johnny The Fox. I’ve heard Jailbreak on the radio a million times and have never been thrilled. I tapped play in JRiver Media Center on the extracted TrueHD Dolby Atmos release and didn’t stop listening until all nineteen tracks were finished.
I was so drawn into the music that I started the album again and while listening I researched the band. I had no clue these guys were Irish and knew nothing about one of my new favorite musicians, bass guitarist, lead vocalist and principal songwriter Phil Lynott.
That’s the power of great music and a great immersive mix. Music created a year after I was born, that has been played-out on FM radio for decades, now has a new fan and I’m discovering deep cuts I love much more than the hits. I could listen to Romeo and the Lonely Girl all day long!
Thin Lizzy 1976 Jailbreak - Johnny The Fox was available from Super Deluxe Edition (link) on Blu-ray Disc with a Dolby Atmos mix, 5.1 mix, and new stereo mix for 25 GBP, but is now sold out. I REALLY wish these sold out physical releases would then be sold as downloads via Immersive Audio Album. It’s hard for a label to make money after a physical release no longer exists and it’s impossible for fans to enjoy something unobtainable. In other words, please take our money by offering this as a download.
Here are details for each track, including the standard Dolby Atmos high dynamic range.
Along the same lines as Thin Lizzy, in terms of my fandom, is David Bowie and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars. Neither Bowie nor this album were on my list of favorites. After getting the TrueHD Dolby Atmos version of the album, I’m all-in on Bowie and Ziggy. After watching Ken Scott, the original co-producer of the album (and many others from Bowie), as well as Dolby Atmos mix engineer, Emre Ramazanoglu talk about the album and mixing process, I have a newfound respect for Bowie, the engineers involved, and this album.
The music on its own, in TrueHD Dolby Atmos, is really neat. The quality of the mix is what takes it to another level for me. Scott and Ramazanoglu did a masterful job, changing some details from the original and bringing this album into 2024 and to a new generation of Bowie fans, myself included.
To be honest, I’d likely have gone the rest of my life without listening to this album. To my detriment of course, but it’s the truth. However, the Atmos version sounds so good it enables me to get into the music and actually feel it on an emotional level. In stereo, this album was too out there for me and left me distant. In Atmos, I feel a connection to the musicians and the story being told. Listening to Bowie literally in tears at the end of Five Years, is an experience I won’t soon forget. It’s hard to explain much better than that. In a way I’m at a loss for words. Everyone should experience this first hand.
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars is available direct from David Bowie’s website for $24.98 (link) as a physical Blu-ray Disc with TrueHD Dolby Atmos, 2024 stereo mix (24/96), 1972 stereo mix remaster (24/192 and 24/48).
I encourage everyone to watch this video produced by Dolby, with Ken Scott and Emre Ramazanoglu.
Here are details for each track, including the standard Dolby Atmos high dynamic range.
Some other TrueHD Dolby Atmos releases in my library this month include:
Frank Zappa - Apostrophe (link)
Tori Amos - Unrepentant Geraldines (link)
David Gilmour - Luck and Strange (link)
Carly Simon - No Secrets (link)
Chicago - IX Greatest Hits (link)
Seal - Seal I (link)
Trio Medieval - Yule (link)
About the author - https://audiophile.style/about
Author's Complete Audio System Details with Measurements - https://audiophile.style/system
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