What Atmos needs from you
In a stereo mix everything sits between two channels. In a Dolby Atmos mix each voice or instrument can be placed, and moved, around the listener. To do that, the mixer needs each of them as its own recording.
Apple Music, which calls Atmos music Spatial Audio, requires an Atmos track to be created from multitracks, or from stems made from multitracks. Upmixing a finished stereo release is not allowed. Our Why Dolby Atmos page cites Apple’s own guidance for this. The practical result is simple: a song that exists only as a stereo bounce cannot become an Atmos mix later, however good it sounds.
Before you record
Decide whether the song might be released in Atmos before you start tracking, not after. That decision is made with you, song by song, and not every song needs it. What you want to avoid is recording in a way that rules it out.
- Record parts on their own tracks. A guitar and a vocal printed together on one track cannot be separated again.
- Keep the recording of every take you might use. The multitracks, not the stereo mix, are what the Atmos mix is made from.
- Name tracks plainly, such as “Lead vocal”, “Bass DI” and “Snare top”, so that whoever mixes it can find things.
- Note anything unusual: a part that is meant to move, a sound that must stay central, an effect that is part of the performance.
Settle the arrangement before the mix
The stereo mix and the Atmos mix have to line up: Apple’s specifications require them to match in length and timing. We check the two versions against each other for that reason. The easiest way to make it easy is to finish the structure first. Changing the length of a verse, or moving an edit, after one version is mixed means doing it again in the other.
This is the same preparation any good mix needs, and it is the work of pre-production: structure, key and tempo, and the parts. The songwriting day guide covers how that part goes.
What happens at the mix
The stereo master and the Atmos mix are both made in our own control room. The Atmos mix is checked on speakers and on headphones, because headphones are how many people will hear it: on headphones, an Atmos mix is turned into a two-ear (binaural) version that keeps the sense of space.
When the two versions are done, they are lined up and checked against each other. The Atmos master is an ADM file. It goes to the streaming services alongside the stereo master as one release, so the song is available in Spatial Audio on Apple Music and in Dolby Atmos on the other services that support it.
Listening and checking
Listen to both versions on whatever you actually use, and not only on studio monitors: your usual headphones, your phone speaker, and the car if you can. Ask three questions. Is anything lost in the stereo version that the Atmos one has? Does anything move or sit somewhere that distracts from the song? Do the two versions feel the same length and the same pace?
If you can only hear one version, check the stereo mix on its own too. Most people still hear stereo on most services, so it has to stand up by itself.
Be realistic about what it does
Atmos will not make a song better on its own, and it will not get a song onto a playlist. Editors choose what goes on playlists, and nobody can promise a placement. It is a way of delivering a song to listeners whose setup can play it. The songs that benefit are the ones that were recorded, arranged and mixed with care in the first place.