When I joined TechRadar last year, one of the very first things I wrote about was the upcoming Oasis reunion tour – specifically my hopes for an iPhone 16 camera upgrade, so that I might have a better shot at capturing a few memories at the show itself.
Like many others, I was unsuccessful in getting reunion tour tickets, and despite launching as one of the best iPhones ever I passed on the iPhone 16 – but I remain a massive fan of Oasis, the greatest Britpop band of all time (Blur fans, please direct your opinions to the comments section).
It was, therefore, incredibly exciting to hear that the band’s entire catalogue has been remastered in spatial audio via Dolby Atmos, exclusively on Apple Music.
The Atmos editions of each Oasis album are already available via Apple Music, but the week before launch Dolby held a listening session to commemorate the completion of this huge creative task.
I’ve been a believer in the power of spatial audio since visiting L-Acoustics’ ultra-high spec showroom at the start of this year – here was a rare chance to hear Dolby’s competing Atmos technology in full-force, as well as experiencing reimagined versions of some of my favorite tracks of all time.
As I’ll detail below, this listening session left me thinking about spatial audio in an entirely new way – some might say I could really feel the noize (sorry not sorry).
Listen up
As you might expect, hearing the Atmos mixes of iconic tunes such as Stand By Me and Don’t Look Back In Anger for the first time left me revelling in a sense of space and dimensionality. Dolby’s screening room in Soho, London, where the session took place, is certainly equipped to show off the full power of Atmos, with plenty of presence and a broad soundstage.
I noticed that Grammy-winning producer Ryan Hewitt, in attendance for the session, had given the albums a sense of space while remaining authentic to the original core sound – there was movement in sound effects or background parts, while the main guitar lines and vocals stayed in place but benefitted from the wider soundstage. Even Wonderwall sounded new. Wonderwall!
As the session progressed through hits from Definitely, Maybe, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory, and beyond, I began to think about what these Atmos mixes will bring to the everyday listener.
In stereo listening, you have two channels to work with, and to some level music makers will aim for some level of balance between the two; it’s very rare that you’ll have one instrument hard-panned to the left or right in the mix in recordings from the 1970s onwards.
Effectively, there’s a physical constraint on the breadth of sound you can achieve in stereo. For Oasis, that means the distorted guitar riffs of a song like Morning Glory usually completely dominate the mix, and while that’s actually something I love about the song, the Dolby Atmos mixes opens new possibilities.
What amazed me most about this listening session was that Hewitt had used the increased space afforded by Dolby Atmos to create a mix that both grabs you with its heaviness and rewards listening for detail. In the case of Morning Glory, that meant hearing the full force of those noisy guitars as well as the full detail of the drums, bass, and vocals, with no compromise.
“It has to sound like that, only bigger”
At the session’s post-playback Q&A, I asked Hewitt how he achieved this balance between power and detail: “When I’m mixing a record that no one’s ever heard before, I get to decide what it sounds like. And this record, everybody in the room knows what it sounds like, and so it has to sound like that, only bigger.”
“There were a few instances of things flying around the room,” Hewitt continued, “and I was very intentional with when I did that, because if it comes out of that mono wall, like you’re talking about, then you start thinking about the technology, and you start thinking about, ‘oh, this is different’, you know?”
Hewitt also mentioned The Masterplan as a song that had a lot of scope for creative spatial mixing: “That orchestra’s really quiet. It was kind of stunning, that something that was so grand was actually so quiet. And, you know, so when you shift that to the rear speakers, or to the back portion of the mix, it’s more audible, but also it’s the same relative volume that it was meant to be in the stereo mix.
“And so that’s a case where you can pull like a big Jenga piece out, and the tower’s still standing – you can now hear it in all of its glory, you know, in this enveloping, immersive way.”
I honestly think that this aspect of spatial audio is what’ll (hopefully) make it stick long-term – the 3D effect is wonderful, but as a full-time music nerd what’s really lighting me up is the idea of going through old favorites on Apple Music, looking for new details in Atmos mixes. After all, who wouldn’t want to literally hear more from their most well-loved tracks?
Oasis’ full catalogue is available in Dolby Atmos only on Apple Music right now – let us know how you’re listening to the new versions in the comments below.
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jamie.richards@futurenet.com (Jamie Richards)
