This is huge! Apple just released a "minor" update for Logic Pro, version 10.7.3, that includes a new feature that is an industry first. Every mixing engineer working on a Dolby Atmos Music mix was waiting for that feature which is now available in Logic Pro and only in Logic Pro: The ability to monitor your Dolby Atmos mix using Apple's Renderer in real-time.

The Problem ... so far

Dolby Atmos Music already launched in 2019 and was available through the streaming service Tidal. However, the big push came when Apple, in May 2021, announced their Dolby Atmos support for their own music streaming service "Apple Music", available to their 80 million subscribers at no additional charge.

But mixing engineers soon found out that there was a little "challenge" when mixing for Dolby Atmos Music. When a Dolby Atmos song is played on Apple Music and listened over headphones, Apple uses their own Renderer, their headphone virtualization referred to as Spatial Audio to convert the Dolby Atmos mix to a binaural audio signal. However, when using the Dolby Atmos Renderer app or any integrated DAW, the mixing engineer listens to Dolby's Binaural Renderer. The only way to playback the Dolby Atmos mix through the Apple Renderer was a tedious offline procedure to export the mix to an mp4 file and jump through some hoops to get it on an iPhone and listen to it.

I explain the challenges in a previous article

The Solution

Logic already implemented the Dolby Atmos Renderer and the Dolby Atmos mixing workflows in their 10.7 update in October 2021. Now with this new 10.7.3 update, in addition to monitoring via dedicated speakers or the Dolby Binaural Renderer, Logic added three new monitoring options. You can monitor using the Apple Renderer with three different "flavors" of their Spatial Audio technology.

Here is a screenshot of the updated Monitoring Format pop-up menu in Logic's Dolby Atmos plug-in that now lets you switch between any of nine render options to listen to your Dolby Atmos mix

Spatial Audio x3

Here is a screenshot from my YouTube video where I explain the implementation in more detail with some audio examples.

Now, while creating your Dolby Atmos mix in Logic Pro, you can switch between the following monitoring options:

• Dolby Renderer: This is the standard Binaural Renderer from Dolby built into any Dolby Atmos Renderer application.

• Apple Renderer: Logic is using the headphone virtualization of Apple's Spatial Audio technology, the same engine that is used when playing back Dolby Atmos content on any of the Apple Devices

• Apple Renderer (Head Tracking): This option uses the same headphone virtualization but has Head Tracking enabled, the same feature available on supported Apple Devices. If you use, for example, your AirPods Pro as the Output Device in Logic Pro, then you can turn your head while mixing and the immersive sound field remains anchored to the front-center position.

• Renderer for Built-in Speaker: This option is also part of Apple's Spatial Audio, but instead of creating the immersive sound field in headphones, it creates it with the speakers built into your computer or hand-held device. However, this only works if you use Logic on any of the Macs that supports that feature.

• 2.0 to 7.1.4: The five speaker options use the Dolby Renderer to playback the Dolby Atmos mix on a dedicated multichannel speaker system.

  There is one little fine print to pay attention to. All the three Apple Renderer options require the most recent macOS 12.3 operating system and in addition, Head Tracking requires an Apple silicon computer. Otherwise, the options are grayed out.

One More Thing

The Logic Pro 10.7.3 update added another feature, the new "Spatial Audio Monitoring" plug-in.

One often overlooked fact is that Apple's Spatial Audio is not restricted to Dolby Atmos. It is an immersive audio technology that can convert any audio signal to a 3-dimensional sound field when played back over headphones (using binaural rendering) or when played back over the internal speakers of supported Apple devices (Macs, iPads, iPhones). The audio source can be a Dolby Atmos mix, but also a conventional surround mix and even a stereo signal.

Logic's new Spatial Audio Monitoring plug-in can be placed on any Surround Channel Strip, and you can render (monitor) that signal using the same three Spatial Audio rendering options available in Logic's Dolby Atmos plug-in.

The same macOS 12.3 minimum requirement (and Apple silicon for Head Tracking) applies to the new plug- in, or it will not be available in the plug-in menu under the Imaging category.

Further Reading

I hope you find the information in this article useful. If you want to learn more about Dolby Atmos, please check out my three-part book series "Mixing in Dolby Atmos", part of my Graphically Enhanced Manuals (GEM). The books are available as pdf, iBook, Kindle, and printed books with all the links on my website.