Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3iUovBk

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“It’s been a long time comin’

“It’s goin’ to be a long time gone”

1

David Crosby was a difficult man.

But he was brilliant. And the special sauce, the man whose magic could be hard to pin down, but without him in the room it didn’t happen. And when he was…

Let’s start with James Taylor’s “Mexico.” James was on a losing streak. He was losing his impact. After “Mud Slide Slim” the excellent “One Man Dog” was not well-received commercially and the follow-up, “Walking Man,” produced by David Spinozza, was a dour disappointment. Not that James had lost his songwriting talent, it’s just that certain something that endeared him to the public was gone.

And then came “Mexico.”

Believe me, no one was waiting with bated breath for a new James Taylor album. The story of the summer was the domination of the Eagles’ “One of These Nights” and the continued impact of Bob Dylan’s revelatory “Blood on the Tracks,” it was no longer 1970. And then out of car speakers was heard…

“Oh, Mexico

It sounds so simple I just got to go

The sun’s so hot I forgot to go home…”

It was the background vocals that put “Mexico” over the top, the voices of David Crosby and Graham Nash. I need to mention Russ Titelman and Lenny Waronker’s production, they brought a sunniness back to James’s sound, but when you heard those background vocals you smiled like you just bit into a candied apple and felt life was beautiful and you couldn’t wait to live it.

Which is not the way it was for most of the sixties.

The sixties were all about growth, testing limits. The youth were quaking, and the establishment didn’t like it. And what drove the youth was the music, it was the tribal drum, radio was far more important than television, music was not compromised, it embodied truth, and everybody listened.

First there was the British Invasion.

Next came folk rock. After that came the San Francisco sound.

And folk rock was ushered in by the Byrds, with “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Sure, today everybody knows it was written by Bob Dylan, but this was before Bob broke through on Top Forty with “Like a Rolling Stone.”

Yes, it was the jingle-jangle of the guitar. And Jim McGuinn dominated the vocals, but David Crosby was there too.

And back then music was scarce, not plentiful, you tuned in “Ed Sullivan” just to get a glimpse of your newfound heroes. And sure, Jim wore those granny glasses, but there was this slightly chubby guy with a Prince Valiant haircut holding his guitar high on his chest, the one who wore that velour overshirt that became all the rage.

That was David Crosby.

We didn’t know who David Crosby was, we didn’t know who ANYBODY was, other than the Beatles. All we really knew was what was on the album covers and what we occasionally saw on TV. But what we did know was everything, we wore the clothes of the stars, we wanted to be different, we wanted to stand out, we wanted to stand up for something.

So Gene Clark left the Byrds, and Crosby was kicked out.

This was before Eric Clapton formed and dissolved bands on a regular basis, we thought our groups were forever. And to a great degree we forgot Crosby, he didn’t have a hit on the radio…

But neither did the Byrds, without Crosby they never had another hit single. Sure, they did “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” with Gram Parsons. And “(Untitled),” but that certain something that puts a track over the top, to the point where you had to hear it so much that you went out and bought it, was gone.

And then Crosby resurfaced with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash.

Stephen Stills was the guy who sang “For What It’s Worth.” And there were some hipsters who owned the Buffalo Springfield records, but that’s about all most people knew about Stills, the hit. As for Graham Nash… The Hollies were seen as a lightweight pop group, and if you knew, and almost no one did, you thought Allan Clarke was the star. Believe me, when it was announced as “Crosby, Stills & Nash,” most people went HUH? regarding Nash.

Which is all to say that the CSN debut was a complete surprise, a tour-de-force that no one was looking for, never mind expecting.

And it was all about “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” You heard it once… I tingle even thinking about it. There was nothing quite like it. Acoustic-based, but with energy, long, with changes, meaning… You could listen to it again and again and again, you had to, you wanted in on this!

Sure, “Marrakesh Express” got some Top 40 airplay, but that was not the track, it was all about what was being played in people’s houses. Yes, “Crosby, Stills & Nash” was not an immediate monster, that was ” Déjà Vu.” It took a while for the word to spread, half a year, a bit more. Most markets didn’t even have an FM station, you went to a friend’s house and they spun “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” and your eyes bugged out. It was like J.C. had returned from the dead, embodied by these three angels.

But the amazing thing was it wasn’t only “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” You bought the album, you had to, and it took no time to get it, but the more you listened, the more you understood.

And the Stills songs contained a certain genius. Nash added a bit of lightness. And Crosby? David delivered the heaviness. It was a heavy era, completely different from today. You “rapped” with your friends about not only politics but emotions, personal development, it was all about conversation, who you were, more than money. We all had questions, and we were willing to raise them, but there were not a ton of bloviators boasting they had answers. All we had was these musicians, we pored over the words and the music looking for insight.

2

Don’t forget, there were two sides, and they were different. I always preferred the second side, which began with “Wooden Ships.”

“If you smile at me I will understand”

It started off quietly, then boasted searing electric guitars, and then got all quiet again. And Crosby wrote “Wooden Ships” with Stills and Paul Kantner, but it was definitely Crosby’s song. There was a rich mellowness that Crosby specialized in. That only he could deliver. They say it was the honey in his voice, however you want to describe it the truth is it was unique, you always knew it was him, and unlike so many of his contemporaries Crosby still had it, intact, when he died.

But my favorite song on side two is “Long Time Gone.”

Talk about heavy.

You can’t fully appreciate “Long Time Gone” on headphones. Because it’s the bottom that pushes it over  the top. An oozy substructure on the verge of distortion that touches your heart and soul, your body vibrates in concert.

And the groove. Just a bit slow. You couldn’t listen, still can’t listen, without nodding your upper body in time.

“Speak out, you got to speak out against the madness

You got to speak your mind if you dare”

Talk to a performer today, I do all the time, and the one thing almost no one wants to talk about is politics, they don’t want to take a stand, they’re fearful of alienating a potential audience member, their pocketbook. But that was not the ethos of the sixties, and David Crosby was a representative of that era and never lost its essence. He continued to speak his truth, which was always considered and reasoned, sometimes uninformed, but he was willing to mix it up, get the issues in play, and you can’t come to conclusions, can’t get to the truth unless you lay it all out and argue about it.

3

“Déjà Vu” was a disappointment. Nothing could live up to the expectations. Not that that hurt sales. In my mind, adding Neil Young changed the chemistry. It wasn’t the same band. Neil’s songs didn’t fit in.

Now that I’ve offended Young fans, I’m going to stick to my guns.

The “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” was “Carry On,” which was nearly as magical, nothing could equal “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” and nothing has to this day, by either these guys or anybody else. But the sheer elation of “Carry On”…you listened to it and felt hope, possibility. And the magical blending of the voices…

And David’s impact on “Déjà Vu” was not as obvious. Of course, “Déjà Vu” contained “Almost Cut My Hair,” but to tell you the truth, it seemed a bit obvious, a bit out of date, playing to those who hadn’t gotten the message. It wasn’t long after this, a matter of months, that I cut my own hair, because I didn’t want to be associated with those who thought by growing their hair they were hip.

Not that “Almost Cut My Hair” is not a great track, it’s got that “Long Time Gone” feel…slow, hypnotic, great guitarwork, great vocal.

And forgetting the title line, deeper in the song there is meaning and magic that had impact.

“Must be because I had a flu for Christmas

And I’m not feeling up to par

It increases my paranoia

Like looking at my mirror and seeing a police car”

Personal. Today people strive for the universal by being general, but the opposite is true, the more you testify as to your personal truth, the more your music resonates.

And the police are not your friend. Nor is the military. Necessary evils, but don’t expect them to be there for you. The police don’t even come, and if they do they do so late. I get uptight whenever I see a policeman or a cruiser. Too many of these guys are uneducated and aggressive. Yes, I’m a child of the sixties, Joni Mitchell, Crosby’s discovery, sang about kissing a Sunset pig in “California” and she was not talking about the kind of swine that lives on a farm.

We were all paranoid, untrusting. As we should have been. As those in minority communities still are. That’s what the L.A. riots taught us thirty years ago, everything the rappers were saying was true, and their music burgeoned because of this truth.

“But I’m not giving an inch to fear

‘Cause I promised myself this year

I feel like I owe it to someone”

Standing up, not giving in. That’s a sacrifice most people are unwilling to make. As for owing it to someone…that’s us, the audience, Crosby was standing up for us!

4

You can rewrite history all you want, but “If I Could Only Remember My Name” was a disappointment then and still is. Oh, I bought it the day it came out. The opening cut, “Music Is Love,” with everybody involved, is hypnotic and magical, especially when Neil starts to sing, but then…

“Tamalpais High (At About 3)” was supposedly about checking out the high school girls when they exited the building. Who knows, this was back when you couldn’t check out rumors on Snopes. Furthermore, most people had no idea where or what Mt. Tamalpais was and still is.

“Laughing” is also hypnotic, but…

You see David Crosby was never supposed to be the leader, he was always supposed to be in a group, the guy calling b.s., adding the special sauce. When in total control, he didn’t quite know where to go.

Believe me, if you were stoned, some of the cuts, like “Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves)” would take you on a trip down a lazy, lolling river, or eight miles high.

But “If I Could Only Remember My Name” had to stand up against everybody else’s work. “Stephen Stills,” “After the Gold Rush,” and the complete surprise, Graham Nash’s “Songs for Beginners,” and just wasn’t in the same league.

But Crosby was smart enough to throw in with Nash and they immediately recaptured the magic with “Immigration Man.” Sure, it’s Graham’s song, but Crosby is in there too. “Immigration Man” was a hit, whereas as good as “Songs for Beginners” was, it didn’t break through on Top 40.

And then the duo switched to ABC, a second-rate record company, and the label might not have been able to deliver, but the opening cut on the act’s first album for the label was so special, one couldn’t even imagine it being cut, I mean humans can’t produce this sound, can they?

“Carry me, carry me

Carry me above the world”

Play “Carry Me” for a youngster, they’ll be stopped in their tracks, they’ve never heard anything like this before. It’s like a Dead Sea Scroll, nobody makes music like this anymore. Authentic, from the heart, without airs, yet smooth and easy at the same time. “Carry Me” carried you away, above the world, released you, inspired you, what else can you ask for from music?

5

And when everyone had given up on the band reuniting, they did! Sans superstar Neil, but that meant there was no disruption in the magic, no thorn in the sound, it was what it once was, but the better part of a decade later. Sure, 1977’s “CSN” was not as good as the first two albums, but it was in the same league.

The album opened with Crosby and Craig Doerge’s “Shadow Captain” as opposed to a Stephen Stills extravaganza, but “Shadow Captain” was a journey on its own, it had the power of an opening cut, it inspired you when you dropped the needle, this was SERIOUS!

After that…

6

Well, there were more albums, even with Neil Young, none as good, the band lost credibility and stature. And the last time I saw them… It wasn’t good. There was something missing, they were all there, but there was no magic. As for some of the voices…

But not long before that, in 2004, Crosby & Nash made an album that came out on the ill-fated Sanctuary label that opened with a cut…

It was a two-CD package in an era where the CD was in deep decline. As was terrestrial rock radio. I heard “Lay Me Down” a couple of times on XM, but…

I had a promo copy, but nobody I knew was even aware of this cut. A complete return to form without being nostalgia, “Lay Me Down” was exactly what it sounded like, aged rockers sans plastic surgery, owning their history, laying it down in the present.

And then Crosby commented on Young’s wife to be and did something to Nash that is still unclear and not only did collaboration amongst the four end, the speaking relationship, other than with Stills, was gone too.

But at this strange point, completely down on his luck, Crosby soldiered forward. Decided to continue to make music, test limits, and the end result was GOOD!

This is astounding. Neil Young pulled out all the PR stops but his new album is nowhere near as good as Crosby’s last, not that most people heard it. Crosby kept putting out records, kept going on the road, he was an inspiration, but even better what he was doing was current and had appeal. When everybody else was dyeing their hair and playing their hits David was still exploring, testing limits. You WANTED to listen to his new music, and I can’t say that about most dinosaurs.

7

Yes, there was that song “Triad,” but isn’t it interesting that eventually it was Crosby who ended up with the most sustained relationship, with Jan.

And all that drug stuff…

None of it admirable, but Crosby admitted his faults and flaws and soldiered on, he didn’t keep trotting out his sordid past for attention and cash.

Crosby was like Dylan in this way. They were artists, they needed to create, otherwise the whole enterprise didn’t make sense.

And then there were the complaints about the internet and streaming… I didn’t bother to get into it with him, he was convinced, but I believe he was ill-informed.

But talking to Crosby…

Did you see the movie? You should. One of the greatest rock movies ever made. Because Crosby is completely honest, not only revealing his warts, but owning them. NO ONE DOES THIS!

And speaking to David… He always talked about dying, at least for the last few years. To the point where you felt he’d be here forever.

But he’s not.

Crosby’s death was a shock in that it happened so soon, not in that it happened at all. He kept telling us he was in ill-health. He told me he probably didn’t have the strength to go back on the road after Covid… But he was continuing to make music.

Jeff Beck was a complete shock, out of the blue.

Whereas Crosby…

Warren Zevon kept telling us he was going to die and he continued to live to the point where we wondered if he really had the Big C. We figured it would be similar with David, but it was not.

8

So where does this leave us?

Crosby was there. At the beginning. When America awoke after the Beatles. And he’s been on the ride ever since, engaged, observing, not changing his identity a whit.

Let’s be clear, Crosby didn’t suffer fools. And hanging with his buddies he could be insufferable…I’m a rock star and you’re not!

But the whole game changed in the last two decades and when all his contemporaries refused to own it, wanting the past to return, Crosby got into the flow and continued to swim, maybe with an aged body, but with all that experience, insight and wisdom.

Crosby was an untouchable god.

And then you could get into it with him on Twitter, he was right there.

Image? This guy didn’t care at all.

Crosby was a survivor. When so many were not. And unlike Keith Richards, he realized, was forced to realize, the error of his ways, he adjusted, he changed, in a world where almost no one does. It’s a badge of honor to change, to admit you were wrong. If someone never admits they’re wrong ignore them, they’re untrustworthy.

So when I think of David Crosby, I don’t only think of the music. He and his work make the eras come alive in my mind. He was engaged. Sure, he lost a decade or more, but so did I, most everybody who lives long does, especially if you’re pushing the envelope, living your life according to your own principles. People don’t like that, they want to beat you down, make you crumble. But Crosby never folded.

Sometimes you wanted to be David Crosby, and sometimes you didn’t. But who else had such a long career and continued to mean something?

Almost no one.

And Crosby wasn’t running on fumes. The fire was still lit.

But now it’s out.

9

David Crosby’s death was a long time coming.

He talked about his money problems. Sold his catalog to Irving. He was not a rich rock star living off his past in the hills, he needed to work, he wanted to work. You see that’s what artists do.

“Turn, turn any corner

Hear, you must hear what the people say”

Crosby was telling us to listen. To pay attention. To the people. The truth. Not the supposed leaders. That was the magic of Crosby, he was beholden to nobody, and he did not want you to be either, he was an inspiration.

“It’s been a long time comin'”

It most certainly has been. Marijuana may be legal, but not abortion. In so many ways we seem to be going backward. Sure, we have these shiny devices, conveniences, but people’s brains, what they think…

But David Crosby never gave up.

“But you know

The darkest hour

Is always, always just before the dawn”

Sure, it’s a cliché, but the dawn Crosby was talking about…we believed in the possibility of change. We had no idea that Ronald Reagan would legitimize greed and the boomers would sell out to the dollar.

And many acts sold out too.

But David Crosby maintained his internal tuning fork throughout his life. He never compromised, never did it the easy way, always kept pushing towards the goal. There are people who don’t like this, but Crosby was smart enough to know you don’t retreat because of institutional blowback, you stay the course, otherwise you can never get to the goal.

So that’s all she wrote. All he did. There will be no more story.

But there’s enough for two or three lifetimes.

David Crosby first and foremost embraced life.

He’ll be a long time gone.

The story of the year isn’t the AI chatbot, but the risk to Google.

For years we’ve been hearing that these mega-tech companies were indomitable. Forever. If you started a new company they’d either buy you or compete with you, your choice, but they weren’t going to allow you to build an independent unicorn.

Facebook bought Instagram. And then WhatsApp. Before D.C. was fluent in either. They owned the sphere. A juggernaut.

Then came TikTok. Which no one foresaw. And then the Apple privacy restrictions. Facebook is still making money on ads, but the future is not as rosy as it once looked.

As for Amazon… They’ve really screwed up the company. Forget the negative optics of being anti-union, the site itself is becoming unusable because of advertising. Anybody who shops there knows this. And although Amazon is still dominant, there is now an opening for a resurgent Walmart.

And we always thought that Tesla would have competitors, but we didn’t think the company would be wounded by a self-immolating Elon Musk.

So the story this year certainly is not about hardware, despite Facebook telling us so with its nearly dead on arrival virtual reality system.

As for software… We always thought it was about manna from heaven, some startup would deliver something new that would thrill us. And I’m not saying we’re not going to get new stuff, but just not at the furious pace of ten years ago, certainly not in the near future.

Silicon Valley, tech, is mature. And now old companies are being superseded, just like GE.

As for GE… It led the way in financialization. Which ruined not only the company, but the entire country, if not the world. Making money for the sake of making money. Wall Street used to provide the cash to build things. Then it became a casino wherein quants created products no one else could understand and everybody wanted a piece of the action.

And then China hiccupped.

You might have caught this week’s news. That there are not enough young people to support the old people, China is heading for a cliff as a result of its one child per couple edict. Turned out it was totally wrong.

The world is fluid. Take a snapshot today and although it might be similar the following year, in a decade or two it won’t look the same at all.

And it’s not only tech, it’s everything. Look at television.

As for music…

The focus for the last two decades has been on technology. And now it’s shifted to software, the music itself, and no one acknowledges this. Unlike tech, the catalogs of major labels provide power. But the business always runs on the new, which the majors have lost control of. Meanwhile, the usual suspects, the terrestrial radio stations, the media, are still focusing on hit product when hit product means less than ever before.

Zach Bryan is going on an arena tour. And most people in America have never even heard of him! And demand is so great there is essentially a lottery for tickets. And the money isn’t in the records, no way. And Zach’s career is not driven by hits, but by authenticity and credibility. Kudos to Warner for signing Zach, but Zach’s the outlier, the majors aren’t signing anything that does not easily sell.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the hit parade. Never has there been such opportunity for the outside, at least not in decades. You’re building it yourself. And the great thing about music is it scales. It costs even less to sell/stream the millionth or billionth copy than the first. And you can reach everybody.

We haven’t had disruption in the creative sphere of music for more than two decades. We’ve been on this hip-hop/pop train and… In the old days, Top Forty played a smorgasbord of music. No more. It’s like Top Forty is Google and we’re waiting for ChatGPT.

And until the public actually sees it…

We heard about AI forever, but we didn’t get it until we experienced the product.

So it’s less about talking about trends than unique artists delivering what satiates the audience. I’m not talking about playing down to people, just the opposite, something so incredible that people glom on to it and want more, talk to everybody about it.

This is coming.

It won’t be one act that everybody talks about, but many acts. More Zach Bryans. In their very big and profitable but relatively narrow verticals.

And it won’t be about becoming a brand, it will be all about the music. The music will be the identity of the band, which is what the Beatles ushered in and underpinned the entire classic rock era. Matching songs with singers… That’s old school, that’s Yahoo, not even Google.

So this is the time. This is the line of demarcation. A mature music business is ready for disruption. Not via innovative business strategies as much as music. Which you can make and market for nearly free. A huge change from the past.

And the truth is if you do something great you will get some traction. Everybody is looking for great and there’s very little of it and when they find it they tell everybody.

Top-down publicity no longer works. A story can’t break you, but word of mouth can. People have to hear it from others. People trust no one but their friends these days. They’re relatively unreachable. The key is to tap into this friend network. And you can’t game the system, because you need legs to make this work. The word has to be spread from group to group and to happen the underlying music must be nearly spectacular.

You’ve got the tools.

The enemy is not the major labels, the streaming companies or Ticketmaster. That’s completely old school thinking. The only person holding you back is you.

But ChatGPT wasn’t built in a day. It took years. It takes longer than ever to break. And if you try and short circuit the process you don’t sustain. It must be organic. Which means you must be dedicated for the long haul, it must mean everything to you. And sure, you should be available online, but hyping yourself is not enough to get you over the finish line.

The whole world is up for grabs.

This is the time music can fly. Reclaim its place not only in the artistic firmament, but the cultural and political worlds too. Nothing affects people like music. If it’s honest and has something to say. Sure, people need to party, but they’re thinking 24/7, appeal to their brains too.

Zach Bryan is a harbinger. He’s been at it a while. Which is how it used to be. When you heard about an act they used to have already made a few albums, like Zach.

But these acts could never go clean in arenas the first time out.

They could never make this much money.

But today you can.

Start your engines. We’re hungry for your words of wisdom. Aim high, we want to be wowed. You’ve got a shot. Only a few, talented, dedicated people will break through and triumph, but that’s the way it always was. But the wealth will be spread around. And you might not be able to become an overnight billionaire like in tech, but you can have even more influence, speaking truth to power. Put the pedal to the metal!

Note: I’m focused primarily on commercial appeal. I’ve heard quad that is great, but every format beyond stereo has failed in the marketplace. I am also worried creatively. As in if the Atmos versions of originals become the standard. Atmos is the default in Apple Music. Which is criminal. Atmos should be opt-in, not opt-out. It’s bad enough that Beatles remixes are superseding the originals on platforms. It takes an effort to find the older, original versions. I mean when you mess with the Beatles… But it’s always about money. I’ve got nothing inherently against Atmos, although I don’t believe in remixing already recorded material. I’ve got nothing against the experience but do I think it will become anywhere near the dominant, accepted playback format? No.

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In 1975, my band, Fireballet, recorded our first album, Night On Bald Mountain, in Sansui Quad.

Oh, it was fun having things bounce around the room, but that’s all it was,  sonic fun you could  only properly experience if you stood dead center in the control room.

We did not do the 2nd Fireballet in Quad.

Quad faded away very quickly.

We’re coming up on 50 years since my Quad experience.

I’m with Mr. Ezrin and Mr. Anderton about this.

Jim Cuomo

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I’m sticking with the two Bobs on this.  I think Ezrin makes the most persuasive argument. Being blown away is exciting but it’s about where we focus our attention on a primal level. Like worshiping at church or a sacrifice. The difference between the energy at a rock concert versus silent disco where everyone is free to focus on whet they want. The best experience is when are attention is directed. As a producer I’m always aware of HOW I introduce the information.

I’m intrigued by the long game theory but I think it’ll end up applying more to VR experiences than music which will always be worshiped at the temple of stereo.

All the best,

Jeff Bhasker

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One fallacy repeated here is that stereo is effective because people only have two ears. That wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. If you go back and review Steinberg and Snow’s papers presented to the IEEE ca. 1931-1934 on stereo and auditory perspective, you will notice that they always intended for stereo to be delivered via three speakers, not two. Dropping the center channel was a mistake made by the business folks involved, citing costs.

Jim Rondinelli

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Music lovers use equipment to listen to their music,
Audiophiles use music to listen to their equipment

Rusty Hodge

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Hey Bob, I’ve found it interesting that several of the most vocal and fervent supports of Atmos that have replied to you here also have a financial stake in it’s success. Add a paycheck to the equation and it’s easy to see objectivity go right out the door.

Bret Bassi

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There is a big fallacy in spatial audio marketing, which is that two speakers cannot properly recreate a three-dimensional experience.

It’s just that, with the availability of multi-track recording, audio engineers seem to have forgotten how to produce true stereo recordings, i.e. with a coincident pair of cardioids, or, if you also want to capture what’s happening behind, with a pair figure of eight polar pattern microphones. On two tracks.

What has been happening since is the production of “fake stereo” where the spatial rendition is invented at the mixing table with or without the addition of effects. Atmos takes us even further down that path.

While Atmos may provide more life-like simulations for movies or gaming, I doubt it is necessary for music if the aim is to reproduce a live experience. Pleasing or not, the final effect will be us listening to sound engineers much more than musicians. But in this realm of product manufacturing, if it is the product that sells…

Sincerely,

J-Dominique Sellier

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As usual people are thinking about Atmos with dated thinking. It seems a waste of time to take stereo mixes of music created for stereo and try to create a spatial experience. Atmos  is a niche technology that people need to write a musical experience for. As Mr Ezrin says we a wired to look where sound comes from so this technology at its best would be coupled with immersive visuals.  It isn’t a mass market tech. Some people eat at Michelin rated restaurants. Most eat at McDonald’s. Looks like the industry is trying to add garnishes to our happy Meal.

Allan Davey

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Atmos, or any future “immersive” scenario will definitely get traction from a generation that grew up on video games, that are also immersive and may eventually prove to be influential in future music creation … who knows? Humans evolve… or “devolve” depending on which side of the fence you fall on.

Which is a good segue to my stating that nonetheless, I’m on “Team Ezrin” 100%.

Jason Steidman

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I haven’t seen anyone mention this and I believe it’s crucial.

The current technology is evolving towards the metaverse –at least that’s where many big players are placing their bets. Immersive audio may be a fad now, but once virtual/augmented reality becomes a… well, a reality, dolby atmos will not only make sense, but play a huge role in our virtual lives.

I guess that’s a whole other conversation. Not many people are talking about it from this perspective, I’m curious what are your thoughts.

Sergey Boket

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How many households have 5.1 speakers for watching films/sports/movies?

How many have 7.1?

Most consumers will use the tv speakers or maybe a sound bar, similar to just AirPods.

I wonder if you went back though and looked at curmudgeons railing against new found stereo vs. mono would you see the same thing? Think of how bad early stereo mixes were because they were an afterthought after mono was done. Or how bad CD transfers were originally.

Dolby and others are continually pushing tech to deliver different audio experiences. But just like any tech, it will be for a small part of the general public. And that’s OK.

Regards,

Ned Ward

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Dirty little insider secret among many top engineers (please don’t use my name if you share this) is that Auro-3D is the best sounding of the immersive formats for music, due to speaker angle placement and lossless PCM playback (typically from Blu Ray disc).

Both Sony 360RA (which is a variant of MPEG-H) and Dolby Atmos are encoded in a lossy manner, Sony tends to have better imaging and placement and is a bit more “hi-fi”, Atmos was developed for cinema and can work quite well for music, but seems to be a few steps behind the others when it comes to ultimate audio quality and fidelity. The angle and placement of the height channels in Atmos tend to make it difficult to get a seamless audio image from top to bottom.

Sadly Auro is a tiny niche within the limited immersive niche itself. Sounds incredible though if you ever get a chance to check it out.

Funny to see the “old guys” (Ezrin, Fremer – who’s whole life is vinyl, etc) firmly rooted in the established standard. As you like to say, the cheese is being moved. Will they come along into the future (stereo isn’t going anywhere, immersive is a bonus), or stay stuck where they’ve been throughout their career? Anderton’s comment is correct, engineers are paid to listen to sound, and the good ones (along with the producer) are also listening for music -performance, artistry, magic, lightning in a bottle. Regardless of format or number of channels.

I could name a long list of horrible sounding vinyl LPs and CDs. Does that mean the formats suck? Not according to the market. Same goes for immersive. There’s cheesy dreck, rushed remasters that butcher the original as well as mind-boggling well done inspiring tracks, new and old. Just because not everything is incredible doesn’t mean it’s dead as a format. Caveat emptor, as always.

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OMG,

I remember not so long ago higher-ups in the business seemingly severely allergic to change screaming “PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS WANT TO HOLD SOMETHING IN THEIR HANDS – LIKE A CD!!! AND THE ARTWORK!!!  THIS WON’T STAND”!

It really doesn’t matter what people think – this thing is here to stay.  You know what, like Giles Martin says: “You don’t have to listen to it”.

Far from a wank, this format, done right, is transformative – it takes listening to recorded music to a whole new level – there is no doubt about this.

To my dear friend John Van Nest: You can’t listen to Atmos on stereo speakers – doesn’t work that way.

To my friend Bob Ezrin – I love the allegory of human beings spinning to face the new sound, but once we realize that it wasn’t a lion about to eat us, we relax and enjoy the immersive-ness (yep that’s the word) of an Atmos music mix.

For what it’s worth – the amazing kids I teach at USC are crazy for this shit!!

All my best, -b

Brian Malouf

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Subject: Suddenly everyone is an Atmos expert

Hi Bob, respectfully disagree with almost everything that was posted on your pages regarding this topic.

I get it, most of the released Atmos is shit. So when people are complaining, it’s because they have a lack of skill or a lack of imagination.  Yet if a scientist compared three or four tracks for a few minutes each of a format with 70 years of experience versus a more complex format with just a couple of years of experience and came to any conclusions they would be fired.

This is mostly a headphone format not a speaker format as with cinema, and it’s the future of headphones, absolutely.  Apple invests billions per year in developing VR.  Atmos sounds objectively better when it’s done right in headphones versus the stereo in headphones.  More canvas, more dynamics. Better.

I have pioneered analog atmos mastering using 50 custom EQ’s and 48 analog compressors.  Better in headphones, always, compared to stereo.  Not only is 99.9% of Atmos released unmastered, the rare mastering paid for by the people who care is not sufficient for the format. Too safe, too clinical … something we wouldn’t pay for it if was a Stereo mastering job.

I had to figure out what was the purpose of mastering in this format (if any) and learn how to do it on any project in any genre, at any quality of mix, just like I do in stereo. I have done that work.

My analog Atmos mastering work sounds better in the headphones vs. stereo, every time, every headphone, every listener, every style, no exceptions, no excuses, no fish bowl of sound, no phase mess, no weird center vocal image, no lack of punch down the center … absolutely better, end of argument.

Analog while mastering atmos is needed else the distortion / harmonics sound like a demo.  No analog bus processing in atmos and no analog mastering processing as we have with the highly evolved stereo format.  Plugs in don’t add what Class A discrete op amps with juicy transformers do. So analog has to happen on every object (3D track).

As far as the skill set, almost everything released is middle to awful and the five percent that’s good could still be much better. And that makes sense.  This is new territory, and it’s a great opportunity for those of us who are older to be young again, to learn every day, to take everything we know about stereo and to apply it into an arena which is not a completely new invention. It’s just an extension of stereo into a larger field.

Everything we know about stereo still applies and it’s important.  Again we have 70 years working in stereo vs. just a couple years on this format, with many skilled people not even bothering.  And yet suddenly everyone is an expert?  I’m at the front of this and learning constantly, that is the mind to have.

This is not surround … or from the past … this is a streamable and accessible room full of sound decoding for every speaker system and every headphone. That is new.  As are the height speakers.

Humans are wired to expect sounds from behind to be a threat, and we hear them very well … so there is a stress thing that can happen.  Yet when the music is great, and we let that fear stress go, there is no greater feeling of euphoria assuming the music has the punch we expect down the middle like in stereo.

Yet again, Atmos is a headphone product 99.9%

What’s needed in atmos is Center Power and to combat the phase issues from the DSP in headphones.  That’s the skill of atmos.  What’s needed in stereo is to combat stereo phase issues, created by the limitations of the two speakers. And we have mastered that skill.  Phase issue either way, just a different issue.

Size is built from the center power out, in stereo.  Power is built from the inherent size inward, in Atmos.

Atmos is triple the canvas, and double the dynamics, and that’s good news for music.  It’s a better phase problem to have.

Stereo is not going away, this is not a contest.  Stereo is convenient for speakers and Atmos is superior for headphones and the rare speaker set up, when done well which most people have not heard.

Stereo headphones are actually quite terrible yet we accept that. What’s good about them is the phase clarity and punch of everything that’s mixed down the middle .  Except that center lives at our third eye, it’s not in the audio in front of us as in a room, it’s in our head.  There’s a whole empty space in front of us.  Stereo headphones have no center image like a room, it’s a weird image in the mind.

Those of us who understand and enjoy phantom center from speakers are in the .00001 percent of humans on the earth.  Meanwhile atmos on any headphone (highly recommend the new $200 Apple AirPod Pro 2) puts everybody into a room with not just a center, but a room experience all around … just like a studio with 2 speakers up front.

Putting the average person into real listening rooms is a big deal.  And just because we don’t have the skill on aggregate to do it consistently well yet, as we do with stereo, doesn’t mean anything about the format or its potential.

That potential is available today.  Send me anything and I’ll send it back better than the stereo in headphones.  That’s the job of Atmos mastering, something with an evolving understanding, to beat the stereo in headphones. Every time.

Yes atmos speakers don’t translate perfectly to the headphones yet, but that doesn’t matter.  Move on.

Brian Lucey

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Everyone has the wrong take on Atmos. Personally I like The Beatles in mono but that’s just because that what I’m used to and I think most atmos mixes are disappointing because we’re used to the listening experience of stereo. The question is where is music listening experience going and how should we format for that?

Arguably, no one sits and listens to music anymore, well certainly no on under the age of 40, its generally a soundtrack to something, driving, washing up, working out, etc and sometimes accompanied by visuals, so what listening experiences are actually needed?

Ever since the Walkman, stereo as a listening experience became normalised and therefore more intense and where instruments were placed in the stereo field became an artistic choice tuned to that experience. Want the chorus to sound bigger? Add more stereo instruments, backgrounds, FX, etc.

As we move more into an immersive online experience, which if you speak to any 15 year old you will see they are already there, then sound has the opportunity of working in different and exciting ways with the visual. Companies like Dolby are building for that. Personally I love the way atmos mixes envelop you on even a straightforward Sonos 5.1 system and listen to a good atmos system in a Merc, its incredible but on AirPods some mixes work, some don’t. That’s the art form and over time the tech and engineers ability will improve exactly the way stereo mixes did. Remember all the drums on the left hand side in Beatles stereo mixes?

As a music creative my job is to take people on a journey and deliver messages and experiences through sound. Where the world is going is augmented reality and 360 immersive experiences, totally blowing stereo out the water and atmos will be imperative for that.

Best

TommyD

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I’m with Tom Waits who said something along the lines of, music sounds best when you hear it blaring out the windows of a passing car.

Rob Radack

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I admire and appreciate innovation and technology but hearing sounds in recorded music I do not recall from the originals is discomforting and disingenuous but I remain open.

Andrew Paciocco

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A little late to the game, but so glad many said the same thing I was thinking – Ezrin nailed it. The man who got one of the best ‘no frills’ sound for guitar/bass/drums on a hard rock album with Love It To Death.

Cheers,

Thomas Quinn

Spencer Proffer made his name producing records, most notably Quiet Riot’s “Metal Health,” which sold in excess of ten million copies, and now he’s producing movies, most recently “The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean’s ‘American Pie.'” Proffer is a hustler/entrepreneur/survivor with a long history in entertainment, tune in for the story of his career.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spencer-proffer/id1316200737?i=1000595414384

https://open.spotify.com/episode/387wrhYaaXZPdlNVu8sqW8?si=z6f8N6DVRXGlYhocZHHhCA

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/041035cf-0add-46a9-98a5-762131c5bb29/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-spencer-proffer

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/spencer-proffer-210934085