The Smiley Smile Message Board

I see that Apple Music has adopted a spatial audio option:

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/

I don't recall reading a thread about this development, but thought it was worth giving a "shout out" to Stephen Desper. In some ways this is the fruition of his ground-breaking pioneering work, started over 50 years ago while he was working for the Beach Boys.

Thought it was worth starting a thread about this, to discuss this development and how it (a) might impact any Beach Boys releases in future, and/or (b) relates to / has evolved from what Stephen was doing back in the day.

 :3d

COMMENT:  Thanks for the recognition of past work.  I was hired to "take the Beach Boys into stereo recording," which I did, but with technology too far ahead of its time for Warner7.  I took them into Virtual Surround, long before Dolby Surround Sound was created. In retrospect, if SF and SU and other songs had been released in Virtual Surround, as they were recorded . . . and if Brother Records had followed through with the technology, that label would have scored a major technological win -- perhaps giving them the boost needed to become another "apple records" of its day. 

After they went on to Holland, I formed a company, obtained patents, developed products, licensed many major equipment manufactures in Japan, Korea, and the USA -- and generally had a good run with the technology. But like all ideas, over time it became a commodity and was overshadowed by "surround sound in a box" with Dolby's development of Surround Sound using real (not virtual) speakers -- something the public could more relate to.  Apple's announcement is merely a way to take old masters and re-cycle them to get more money from the investment.  As I have often said, it is the music BUSINESS.

To me it seems both a triumph and a tragedy that all the songs I recorded can still only be heard in Virtual Surround (decoded through the matrix, as I call it) by listening to my Study-Videos.

Again, I appreciate your kind words more than you imagine. ~Stephen W. Desper     

Stephen
To what extent is the integrity of the properly decoded virtual surround versions at risk of being undermined by less than ideal acoustic conditions in the home ? (For example, imaging problems caused by undesirable reflections from surfaces, perhaps due to one loudspeaker being located closer to a wall than the other etc)?

The Beach Boys and Desper, a marriage made in heaven.

COMMENT to Sam:  As long as you are approximately as far back from forward facing speakers as they are apart (forming a triangle) listening should be fine.  In other words, any average stereo listening setup, works. To the extent reflections cause a problem with normal stereo, the same applies to virtual surround.  

Thanks for the question.  ~swd

I saw that Apple Music had released support for Dolby Atmos but then I tried finding any Beach Boys music in the catalog that was mixed in Dolby Atmos and found none.

I am really hoping in the next couple years that the stereo Pet Sounds mix gets a Dolby Atmos release. So many of the tracks in Atmos sound phenomenal (while admittedly some mixes sound awful). Stereo Pet Sounds already sounds like it was recorded on another planet (in a good way) and I'm sure that having the spacial audio of Atmos would only make the mix that much more incredible.

Also, for any people here who stream their music, Apple just made Lossless available on their platform at no extra charge - for any audiophiles that is really great news. The entire Beach Boys catalog on Apple Music is in Lossless format, so if you have the equipment it might be worth taking advantage of that.