Headphone Mixing Tips for Dolby Atmos

As the world of immersive music continues to expand, many of us, as mixing engineers, need to learn how to adapt to the challenges of mixing for these new formats.

As of this writing, the dominant player is Dolby Atmos. It’s available on the widest number of platforms and underpins Apple Spatial Audio technology (both are derived from the ADM file created when a Dolby Atmos mix is finished).

One of the most significant hurdles for would-be immersive mixing engineers to overcome is access to a studio with a properly calibrated Dolby Atmos speaker array. As a result, many will have their first Atmos mixing experience on headphones using the binaural fold-down headphone output from the Dolby Renderer. This approach is absolutely valid, but it has several potential pitfalls for engineers making their maiden voyage in Atmos after a lifetime of stereo mixing. With any luck, this article will point out and help you avoid some of the most significant issues on your binaural headphone mixing journey.