One Atmos to rule them all
Steven Wilson was interviewed by Australian outfit Noise11, and he spoke, among other things, about the motivation behind the yet another remix of Made in Japan:
Thanks to Amit for the heads-up.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan8.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/airey3.jpg)
Steven Wilson was interviewed by Australian outfit Noise11, and he spoke, among other things, about the motivation behind the yet another remix of Made in Japan:
Thanks to Amit for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
At least we now know something that many predicted and of course it wasn’t hard to do. The classic Black Sabbath holy or unholy trinity of albums master tapes are no more to be found. Makes us wonder if their old manager from that era would know where they are. Changing subject matter and Steve Wilson, who I have respect for as a musician etc and myself being a Porcupine Tree aficionado, seems to be using the ‘amazing’ word a lot these days. That Atmos is to blame. Between Steve and Rick Beato, there could be a prize on offer as to who uses that word the most. I suppose I had better mention Deep Purple and Made in Japan. Now I have forgotten what I was going to say about it. Cheers.
July 30th, 2025 at 06:55I always thought MIJ had terrific sound, I have all the earlier versions and can not for my life find that any version is superior to the original. Well, Dolby Atmos is something new to me. I use Tidal and enjoy Dolly Atmos. Then, sad to hear that the Tidal version of Highway Star is not Dolby Atmos. Hopefully when the album is released it will be Dolby Atmos. I see few reasons to by the box though, as I will need to buy a new bluray player and a Dolby Atmos enabled receiver – just to get the sound to my headset. To get the Dolby Atmos experience in the room I have to by a new set of speakers as well. Well, probably good for future generations! 🙂
July 30th, 2025 at 08:31Well, I don’t care what anyone thinks! I am so THRILLED that MiJ is being remixed!
July 30th, 2025 at 11:31I have always loved that album, and the two songs that have been presented are very very promising for the rest of the album 🥰
The original was good enough for me when I bought it in 1973..and its still good enough for me..and I dont care what anyone thinks!! LOL!!
July 30th, 2025 at 14:11My issue with Atmos is: I tend to listen to music all day, but I‘m mostly doing something else when doing so, music doesn‘t distract me. But when listening to Atmos, you have to stay put for it to make sense, it‘s more like watching a movie where you can‘t concentrate on other things either. I rarely if ever listen to music without doing something else unless I am at a gig.
July 30th, 2025 at 19:06Steven Wilson’s studio and sound system would be a wonderful thing to experience, same with Dweezil’s and other sound engineers, producers and musicians. To sit there and have a listen would be something else. The two Porcupine Tree concerts I attended approximately 15 years ago, 2008 and 2010 were superb in sound delivery as well as performance. He has won awards for all that too. It blew Robert Fripp’s mind back in 2010 when he sat in Wilson’s studio and he listened to the new surround mix of the 1970 Lizard album from King Crimson. Fripp could’t even remember the music as he had a ‘mental’ block with a lot of that older music for different reason. That lead to Wilson commencing his journey into the remixing of more Crimson albums and other artists. Well done Sir. So yes indeed, I have no doubt Made in Japan and the Machine Head release would be astonishing to hear in a situation similar. The two live King Crimson blu-ray concerts I have just received are awesome in their sound, stunning. Small theatres are the go no doubt, much better acoustics. Superbly filmed with alternate shots of each musician,. And my most sort after live concerts are where the crowd is so respectful to the performance. No shouting etc from certain rude audience members in the quieter sections of the music. Different music and concerts for different aficionados and isn’t it grand. I will read reviews of the MIJ release and that is as close as I will probably get to Atmos. Unless I happen to bump into someone who has their own home ‘theatre’ set up and they are a DP freak. Stranger things have happened. Cheers.
July 30th, 2025 at 22:30Regarding Black Sabbath master tapes:?the podcast ‘A Word In Your Ear’ presented by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, interviewed Rob Caiger, who I initially knew as via ELO fanzine Face The Music. In the interview Rob mentions finding some lost Black Sabbath master tapes, whilst looking for ELO tapes. As many of know the studio masters for Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow are still missing,50 years on..
July 31st, 2025 at 10:08Excuse my ignorance, but how is Dolby Atmos supposed to sound when played in stereo?
I ask because the Steve Wilson remix makes me sick when played in stereo…
July 31st, 2025 at 20:48shouldn’t there still be compatibility in the mix when played in stereo?
@ 8 – no Fla76, stereo is for stereo, surround for surround and no doubt Atmos for Atmos. To my ears and a few aficionados of rock music I know, most rock music sounds better in stereo, as Wilson himself says. It depends on theound and Atmos, they are a rock band. The original Machine Head was in Quadrophonic, it didn’t really suit it to my ears. It is a different take on it. I have the Stormbringer Quad set. It sort of doesn’t suit it either. Stereo for hardartist no doubt. Pink Floyd sounds grand in surround etc etc. I do have reservations about Deep Purple in surr rock and other genres it seems to be. Wilson gives it a marketing spin with the ‘it sounds like you are in the hall and so aaammmmmaaaaazzzziiinnngggg’. It probably does in a way. But doesn’t our mind hear it like that at times. I remember my first heavy stoned experience as a youngster and guess what we were listening to. Side four of MIJ. It was an ‘experience’ indeed and I do remember thinking and saying to my friends that it sounded like I was there. Our minds can take us where we want at times. Of course this is a new marketing toy to play with for some. Each to their own. I would have a listen if presented with the correct sound system, but I have no intention of buying an Atmos sound system. My mind is ok for all that. Cheers.
July 31st, 2025 at 22:36Sorry a couple of glitches in my previous post. It should say that DP are a hard rock band and also surround sound etc etc. Too much early morning coffee, Karin I am going to drink tea first thing from ow on………… I have to blame someone. Cheers.
July 31st, 2025 at 22:40Steve had done a new stereo remix too and his stereo remixes always sound excellent —> Jethro Tull, Chicagol, Black Sabbath.
July 31st, 2025 at 23:41Do you have a YouTube link of Wilson’s stereo mix?
I tried to play what I found on the car stereo via Bluetooth, but it was a mess because I guess it wasn’t compatible with the car stereo.
from YouTube via smartphone I think you at least need to have headphones compatible with Dolby Atmos if you don’t have a compatible hi-fi system….
I realize that over the years I have gotten worse at listening to CDs (I always rejected vinyl), I sold my old Pioneer hi-fi with 4 3-way speakers + 4 surround speakers before moving…then in my previous house I installed a JBL system…now in my latest house I listen to CDs in the basement with a PC and some Edifier table-top speakers from a few years ago…
Unfortunately, it’s all a question of lack of time and practicality… and I don’t do justice to my profession (I started out as a sound engineer even though I’ve been working in television for almost 25 years) because I’m not a die-hard audiophile and I’m not up to date on the evolution of Dolby and DTS. To my ears, with Dolby active the sound got worse. I only used DTS whit FLAC codecs on PCs when I bought €200 sound cards and audio systems from the glorious Creative when they made excellent products. After that, I’ll be old by now, but I consider everything that’s happened in the last 10 years with Dolby and DTS to be just marketing.
I’ll stop here, I don’t know if Uwe or Mac or others will want to continue the discussion on the new frontiers of hi-fi, low-fi, lossless audio, etc…..
August 1st, 2025 at 11:47…..honestly….I’m curious to read your comments and experiences
I’m not an audiophile obsessive, most people say I hear my music with too much bass and subwoofer dialed in. I’m also a creature of habit and a stereo guy, so while I do enjoy a movie over my – 18 years old and long ripe for the museum – Dolby 5.1, 7.1, Atmos and DTS setup, I don’t really ever hear music with it. That surround sound with music is more of a novelty effect to me, fascinating at first listen, but not something I’d go back too.
Re the Wilson stereo mixes, I don’t quite get your question Fla76, two of the Stereo Mixes )not the Atmos Mixes) are of course available on YT:
https://youtu.be/ANy5LN9Wufg
https://youtu.be/pMt0tVdInfc
Or am I misunderstanding you?
August 1st, 2025 at 23:28@ 12- I am old school Fla76, so my take on modern sound equipment is out of touch in that regard. Hence my comment regarding hearing Atmos in a proper setting. Otherwise to me it will always sound weird or very different or possibly not to my liking. When surround sound was being marketed as the next biggest thing 20 odd years ago, we knew that most of our stereo albums or cd’s would not sound good on that setup. And when I heard it, that’s certainly was the case. We hear what we hear, different amps and speakers, different rooms and different music being played on the setup at that time. I have heard really impressive systems over my years that other people owned. They spent a lot of time and money searching for that. It is tricky hearing a new sound system or separate components in a store and then hearing it back at your abode. It can be disappointing or still rather good, depending on the expectations or sound that we may be content with. JBL speakers and a friend had a Yamaha receiver with a pair of those and I had a JVC amp with Boston Acoustic speakers. He wasn’t happy after a while with his sound, so we put the JVC on the JBL’s and didn’t they spring to life. It was his amp that was holding them back and it was worth twice the price of mine. He was rather disappointed, but at the time when he was in the store, he obviously was impressed and that is an easy trap to fall into, for any of us. In the end he had to buy something or nothing. In 2003 I had the privilege of listing to a new surround system in a privately built home theatre room. It was different and exciting to hear music in that setup. Now we have the modern day setting to think about. I couldn’t be bothered with that as my age now has me thinking, does it really matter anymore. I am content enough with what I have set up in the room it is in and sure there are still some recordings that have me tweaking the dials trying to get a better overall sound. Some people are still searching for the holy grail of sound, many are content with whatever they have. Some people buy new products all the time, thinking it will be the best, when it may not necessarily be that at all. All this new Atmos may be very well exciting in some aspects. But rock or pop music from older recordings doesn’t necessarily fit Atmos does it, just like the ‘old’ surround sound doesn’t. Depending on the artist and the style of music. The shift from mono to stereo way back in the day was similar I guess but not as radical. I have an older Sherwood surround amp 2004, a friend gave it to me when my trusty old JVS stereo amp finally let go after 28 years. Boston Acoustic speakers, a JBL sub and a Dali centre speaker in a small room. It sounds pretty good to my older and slightly damaged ears. There is another thing, our ears and how good are they compared to our younger days. One last comment, the genuine Hi Fi store is unfortunately becoming a thing of the past, a few still exist thankfully. However, these huge stores that sell anything and everything trying push off so called sound systems, a bit of a joke in some aspects. The sales people, well most of them don’t appear to really know or care what they are selling. They push anything at unsuspecting shoppers simply to get their commission and to keep their job, that is the way of things. Many shoppers are rapt with their ‘new’ sound system. Going into a genuine sound store is a relief in many ways, people who are dealing with much more specialised equipment for a more serious hi fidelity experience. At least that is what it is like here in Australia. Acquired sound to me is a little like food and taste. Somethings work really well with others, some are better in a simpler setting and of course some are best left well alone. Cheers
August 1st, 2025 at 23:47From my compelling experience with wimmin, only one thing counts for them with sound systems: NO CABLES !!! 😂
Men of course know that for optimal sound cables are irreplaceable.
August 2nd, 2025 at 13:02He should do “Born Again” and include “The Fallen” and some of the live shows.
August 2nd, 2025 at 17:09#13 Uwe:
Yes, I was asking because when I connected my smartphone to the car stereo, it was absolutely awful, with instruments disappearing with the reverse phases and the speaker drowning out everything!
I had to disable Dolby Atmos on my phone, and then the mix returned to stereo.
I’ve read a lot of negative comments on YouTube, but I think it’s because people weren’t listening to the Atmos mix properly enough to reproduce it coherently.
Well, I’ve listened to Steve Wilson’s new mix a few times, and I can only say that in my opinion, Martin Birch is turning in his grave!
Personally—and I hope I don’t get censored—this stereo mix is terrible.
I listened carefully to the track from YouTube Music on headphones, on desktop speakers, on the 2.1 LG connected to the TV, and finally in the car (with EQ flat, of course), comparing it to Martin’s original version (which is still my favorite).
Let me preface this:
Besides having a background as a hard rock and metal cover singer, and knowing Ian’s voice perfectly, although I currently work in television as a video/audio technical manager, I started working as an audio engineer at 19 (with two degrees) and, thanks to a decade of experience in recording studios and live concerts, I’ve developed a good ear for sound.
When I started working, I had two sound engineers, and they taught me to listen to the mixes I made on as many media as possible: in the recording studio, on my home stereo, on my Walkman, and, of course, on my car stereo… it had to sound good everywhere to be a good mix!!!
Guys, Martin Birch’s original mix is not only unbeatable, but Wilson’s ruined all the magic of Japan!
In detail:
The kick drum is too prominent, with low frequencies that seem artificially created (I’m convinced the kick drum didn’t have those frequencies in the original recording), unpleasant frequencies.
Too many low frequencies, the bass’s edge is lost, with so many beautiful phrasings that no longer stand out.
The keyboard and especially the guitar are no longer as prominent as before.
The vocals are too “out there” at times.
I say “sometimes” because generally speaking, the perception is that during the song, Wilson has raised or lowered the foreground instruments to highlight them, but for me, it has the opposite effect; you can hear this constant artificial up-and-down.
Furthermore, on both the guitar and keyboard, but also on Paice’s cymbals, he has softened the aggressiveness of the original sound (introducing mid/low frequencies) or cut the mid/high frequencies, making it—perhaps—more functional for listening with Atmos, but he has completely altered that high-pitched sound that pierced your ears and made you hear the devil inside Lord, Blackmore, and especially Paice.
Now everything’s in a soft place, in my opinion, much less irritating to my ears.
Too many irritating low frequencies, needlessly boomy kick and bass, too much overall roundness.
And then the almost constant ups and downs in the mix, with sounds fading into the background as something else comes to the fore, is obscene.
I don’t hear the fire of the Japanese stage here.
Honestly, for me, it’s not a good mix, too invasive and artificial compared to the “neutral” and excellent work that the great Martin did!
I don’t think I’ll buy this new mix, except for the curiosity of doing a CD vs. CD comparison.
I haven’t listened to the Atmos mix; I’ll have to see if a colleague can play it for me in the next few days.
August 4th, 2025 at 11:53I’m correcting an inaccurate sentence: two certified post-secondary school diploma courses…not a degree, because in my time in Milan there was no sound engineering and I couldn’t move to other cities with the job I was already doing…so I’m not a doctor, even though the courses I took corresponded to a Bachelor’s Degree.
August 4th, 2025 at 15:24I’d say mixes are very much a matter of taste, listening habits and what system you listen your music over. I for one like subwoof oomph which is why vinyl simply doesn’t do it for me anymore. And I find there was too little of it in 70s productions. I need to feel a bass drum, not just hear it.
I didn’t even know you could listen to Dolby Atmos over a cell phone in a car, I only listen to CDs in the car (and if a car doesn’t offer a CD player, I don’t buy it). I don’t have a single song in my iPhone’s music library nor do I have a streaming subscription. Amazon goes mad in writing regularly to me why I am not using their free streaming service with all the CDs I’m buying, I couldn’t care less. I don’t register my iPhone as something to listen to music with, I thought it was a telephone and for receiving emails and maybe navigating around in a city you don’t know?
August 5th, 2025 at 04:30#19 Uwe:
in fact you can’t listen to Atmos in the car, or at least, not in mine… it was the smartphone that had it active and the car played the music completely wrong!
I don’t know if modern cars released in the last year can play Dolby Atmos.
Surely if you buy a pair of Atmos headphones for your iPhone you can listen to Wilson’s mix!
August 5th, 2025 at 07:53@ 19 – “I need to feel a bass drum, not just hear it.” Uwe, I am touched, such passion for a little ole bass drum. I get it though as you are a bass guitarist, that connection is a critical part of the engine room. For a nano second there I thought you were going to take up playing the drums, he he he. I do enjoy a little extra bass in certain music too, so the sub gets turned on at times depending on the music and yes I agree, many 70’s recordings are too light with the kick drum. A few Purple albums are among them, Burn and Stormbringer. I even turn up the sub a little more on music that has that extra bottom end, the bass pedals or Taurus pedals of a few bands and the keyboards too. Also orchestral music, the timpani’s and even the good old cello, that deep rumble etc.. Modern day movies too. I could never have it as loud as some people do in their cars. We can hear them coming from kilometres away, not the vehicle itself, the sub, doof, doof, doof, doof. Then after a few minutes the vehicle whizzes past and if you don’t see it. The windows on the house can even get an annoying vibration. Oh well, I suppose we had our music, so they have theirs, if we can call that music. I know what you mean regarding Apple products. This new computer presumes I will allow iTunes, iMovie, i this and i that and everything else. First thing is to disable most of that big time. Even that cursed cloud, wherever that is in deep space. I can just imagine a Robert Calvert lyric in regard to all this. Cheers.
August 5th, 2025 at 09:18I saw a demo of a very expensive Volvo with Atmos. At the link below, Audi and Porsche are also mentioned. So, cough up yer money and you can get it!
Cars are probably the best environment for a thing like Atmos and surround sound. You sit tight in one spot for a long time in a controlled space.
https://professional.dolby.com/music/dolby-atmos-for-cars/
August 5th, 2025 at 11:45A drummer’s bass drum work is for me by far the most important thing he does, Herr MacGregor! Always has been. Guitarists always listen to the snare, hi-hat or cymbals, I couldn’t care less what goes on there, I latch onto the bass drum. That is why a drummer like Phil Rudd has little appeal for me, his bass drum work is meat & potatoes. No one could so far point me to an AC/DC song where the bass drum did something remotely interesting. In contrast, I could listen to Mark Nauseef’s, Paicey’s and Simon Phillip’s bass drum work all day even without anything else around it.
I could have never been a drummer. I’m simply too uncoordinated for it, I even get apprehensive when I have to catch something. Any sports games involving a ball at school were a nightmare for me (and of course sports teachers never really “teach” you anything unless you are already talented, it is utterly beyond them). I’m eternally grateful that old age has it that forced participation in such activities is now behind me. 🙄
Svante, danke, I can see your argument with the Volvo. That is indeed something to consider for the future. Not that I use the car a lot anymore, since I got my Harley five years ago, car driving has diminished greatly, I ride my bike even in winter or when it rains (unless it’s a monsoon type rain, then you have bad visibility with a helmet which is a huge issue on a bike). I guess Atmos could work underneath a helmet too, but I never listen to music when riding my Fat Bob, on a bike it’s crucial for safety reasons that you hear everything around you and of course the calming engine drone is part of the 🧘♀️ zen-like experience I have.
August 5th, 2025 at 15:49@ 23- yes indeed Uwe, critically important the single bass drum technique. The only reason I mention single is because of the modern day take of many drummers of over doing the machine gun like double kick nonsense, terrible that is. Regarding music in a vehicle, it is always nice to have, especially on a long journey. Riding your Harley in winter and in the rain? Now that is dedication. That sounds really cold and wet! Cheers.
August 5th, 2025 at 23:27We don’t have real winters in Germany (at least where I live) anymore. Even some bird species have stopped migrating. There is no need to anymore. Our whole flora and fauna is readjusting. We are now getting jackals that once lived only in Spain!
This last winter we had two short spells (= a few days) where day and night temperatures dipped below the freezing point. That is laughable by historic standards and the winters I experienced as a child.
I’m no global warming alarmist (but no denier either), but it is happening and with a force. It will not be the end of humanity nor the end of the world, but accommodating the temperature rise will be costly for us and deem some regions uninhabitable and others more inhabitable. Some species will vanish/be greatly reduced in their environmental spread, others will profit. I can see how some fish species in my pond for which German climate should generally be a little too cold for them to really flourish growth-wise have been growing in leaps and bounds over the last years because the weather simply gets warmer sooner, stays warmer longer (even with rain) and the winters are by now so mild the fish only enter hibernation for a short while if at all.
So I’m not such a heroic motorbike rider after all 😂 – we had zero snow to speak of last winter.
August 6th, 2025 at 19:41Come on guys! It s yet another take to cash in. All this f…ng improvements, remixes, remasters are bullshit. The records have to sound as they were back then. To me it is like adding some fresh colours to Mina Lisa on the pretext that paints have faded out. It is an artefact of time and it has to be preserved.
August 7th, 2025 at 21:37Yes Solaic, everything like it was, I always listen to the mono versions of Shades of and Book of Taliesyn too, those stereo versions were gimmicky crap and didn’t mono prevail in the end?
August 8th, 2025 at 01:03But if the Mona Lisa has faded, it is not now as it was then…
August 8th, 2025 at 08:12@26 & 28
I enjoy immensely that this great music is compared with one of the most interesting, beautiful paintings we have seen.
I was at the Louvre and saw her bedazzling smile before the painting, due to vandals, was needed to be secured.
It is an amazing painting. I stood there for what seemed to be seconds, but was in fact 30 minutes. Da Vinci knew how to keep people interested, and so does our favourite band too ❣️
August 8th, 2025 at 18:44I listened to Wilson’s Atmos mix with a colleague of mine’s Apple headphones (€700)
well, even the Atmos mix didn’t satisfy me….ok, there’s a greater sense of separation of the sound plane, of the dimensional positioning of the instruments.
but to my ears, the flaws I heard in the stereo mix here are exactly the same:
too much kick, too many low frequencies, not enough brilliance on the cymbals, guitar and keyboards too “inside”, almost all the frills that Roger, Ritchie and Jon insert here and there are lost.
and the hell on that Japanese stage is missing, which was heard in the original mix.
Maybe with an Atmos listening on a hi-fi system the situation is different and everything would be incredible, but from what I was able to hear on Atmos headphones, Martin Birch’s mix is simply unrivalled.
August 9th, 2025 at 01:32Solaic has his opinion and I can relate to what he is saying in some aspects. It is marketing spin while people play with ‘new’ technology and they then spin the ever predictable marketing hype. That is the way of trying to justify the end product to a sales pitch. They look at MIJ as a definitive live album mix, which as we know it is. Then they attempt to dress it up, when in fact it cannot be dressed up that much. Spread the sound around a little, that is all it will be. It has always had that ‘it sounds like you are in the hall’. Coming at you from the front of the stage, not behind you or around the hall. It will be different no doubt. Wasn’t a Quadrophonic mix of certain artist including Deep Purple, deemed a ‘gimmick’ by some critics and listeners at the time, back in the early 70’s? It is up to the individual listener. The recent Machine Head re releases in Atmos and Quad had one sound engineer’s review saying that he preferred the original Quad mix, much truer to the sound, not as artificial or words to that effect. I posted his review at the time.@ 28 – Solaic said ‘under the pretext’ it has faded, a little different to saying that it has faded. @27 – I have read some people’s comments over the years that say they prefer some of those older mono mixes to the re releases of certain music in stereo. Each to their own. Cheers
August 9th, 2025 at 07:39