After immersing us in the ocean with the music of “The Big Blue“, and in space with the score of “The Fifth Element”, Eric Serra returns with a new music album, “SPACE PROJEKT U.M.O.”, once again inviting us on a journey into space. This musical space opera offers a cosmic voyage through a wide range of rhythms and musical styles (rock, lyrical passages, sound design, etc.). Composed and mixed for an immersive listening experience, the Dolby Atmos version delivers the ideal rendering for this album. However, the stereo digital and vinyl editions also provide a compelling journey, as we will explore in this review.

For this review, you will find 3 versions tested:

• Ed 1: Clear Green vinyl record – 2026
• Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026
• Ed 3: Tidal Max – 2026

Below you will find the description of the different editions, as well as the measurements of each edition in the following chapters.

The synthesis of the review are available here

The album is composed of 14 tracks:

1. Astronaut
2. My Dream is On
3. Feel the Rush
4. Soyooz Night
5. Space Child
6. Welcome to Your Space Home
7. The ISS Lullaby
8. This Only Home to Care About
9. E.V.A.
10. The Pale Blue Dot Intro
11. The Pale Blue Dot
12. Stardust Miracle
13. Back to Gravity
14. Return to my Planet

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Clear Green vinyl record – 2026

Presentation

A very fine vinyl edition featuring two transparent green LPs, pressed at 33 1/3 RPM (ref : 7564570)

Waveform and Spectrum: DR11

The waveform of the Clear Green vinyl record – 2026 version shows a good dynamic range confirmed with DR11.

The spectrogram shows that the signal rises above 20 kHz with signal above this frequency ) containing musical information and distortion due to the vinyl record s operating principle.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Clear Green vinyl record – 2026 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Tidal Max – 2026 (blue curve). A comparison of the spectrum curves for Soyooz Night shows a very close overlap between the curves, with only slight variations above 3 kHz (yellow area). The yellow arrow indicates the frequency limit at 22 kHz of the digital version, due to the 44.1 kHz sampling rate used. It is also worth noting the excellent reproduction of low frequencies, even down to 40 Hz (green arrow), preserving the album s overall sonic character.

Synthesis and listening

A superb vinyl edition, released in a special version featuring striking transparent green discs and a carefully crafted sleeve that is both visually appealing and high quality. The cutting and pressing, of excellent workmanship, deliver a very faithful reproduction of the album, highlighting every sonic detail as well as a deep, well-defined bass presence (as confirmed by spectrum analysis). The soundstage also benefits from a pleasing sense of openness, fully preserving the spatialization of the original stereo version.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Surface noise: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3.5)

Sample : Soyooz Night 24 bits 192 kHz:

Sample : Astronaut 24 bits 192 kHz:

Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026

Presentation

This is the Tidal Dolby Atmos presented in Dolby Digital Plus (768 kbits/s) or AC-4 (link).

Below the spatialization for all tracks. Click on the images to zoom in.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR13

The waveform of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026 shows a high range confirmed with DR13.

The spectrogram of the Tidal Dolby Atmos track in 7.1.4 is limited to 20kHz (yellow arrow) with no signal above (white arrow). This limitation is due to Dolby Digital Plus encoding, which is a lossy encoder that limits bandwidth to optimize data size for a bit rate of 768 kbits/s. The green arrow shows the 120Hz filtering of the bass channel (LFE).

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026.
The spectrum of Dolby Atmos version decoded in 7.1 shows that all channels are used. The LFE channel is used with a cutoff frequency of 120 Hz (green arrow). Significant peaks can be seen in the low-frequency range, particularly around 30 Hz (blue arrow). The white arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 20 kHz due to Dolby Digital Plus encoding. The yellow arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 24 kHz due to encoding at the 48 kHz sampling frequency used.

Synthesis and listening

This Dolby Atmos version is the definitive edition for embarking on a journey into space with this space opera, delivering a truly immersive experience that plunges the listener into the vastness of the cosmos through a 360-degree soundfield that fully exploits all available channels. To fully appreciate ric Serra s immersive composition and mix, this album should ideally be experienced on a 7.1.4 or 9.1.6 system in order to discover its full potential. One can only hope for a release in Dolby TrueHD format, whether on Blu-ray or digital files, to take even greater advantage of the album s nuances in immersive mode.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization: ●●●●●●●●oo (7.7)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4.5)

Sample : Soyooz Night 7.1 Dolby Atmos (Downmixed in 7.1) :

The sample is in 7.1 wav format, if you can not play the sample in your navigator, you can save it, right button menu and Save Audio As and play it with an external player.

Sample : Astronaut 7.1 Dolby Atmos (Downmixed in 7.1) :

The sample is in 7.1 wav format, if you can not play the sample in your navigator, you can save it, right button menu and Save Audio As and play it with an external player.

Ed 3: Tidal Max – 2026

Presentation

This is the Tidal Max version presentetd in 24 bits 44.1 kHz.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR8

The waveform of the Tidal Max – 2026 version shows a low dynamic range confirmed with DR8.

The spectrogram shows that the signal rises to 24 kHz with no signal above this frequency due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Clear Green vinyl record – 2026 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Tidal Max – 2026 (blue curve).A comparison of the spectrum curves for Astronaut shows a very close overlap between the curves, with only slight variations above 3 kHz (yellow area). The yellow arrow indicates the frequency limit at 22 kHz of the digital version, due to the 44.1 kHz sampling rate used. It is also worth noting the excellent reproduction of low frequencies (green arrow), preserving the album s overall sonic character.

Synthesis and listening

The stereo version makes it possible to rediscover the spirit of space travel that defines this album. The spatialization is well rendered, though more restrained, which is to be expected, compared to the Dolby Atmos version, which presents the album as it was conceived for immersive listening, with greatly enhanced spatialization and dynamics.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●ooo (2)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3.5)

Sample : Soyooz Night 24 bits 44.1 kHz:

Sample : Astronaut 24 bits 44.1 kHz:

During an interview with Eric Serra for the Dolby Atmos release of The Big Blue, Eric Serra mentioned that he was working on immersive music composition. That vision has now become reality with this new album, conceived as a space opera that takes us on a musical journey through space. The Dolby Atmos version stands as the reference edition for fully immersing oneself in the spatial voyage offered by this album. If you have the opportunity, listen to this album on a multichannel system.The stereo versions do not offer the same level of immersion, but they do deliver a reproduction with a pleasing and well-defined soundstage. The vinyl edition adds to this experience with a very attractive sleeve and transparent green LPs.

Dynamic Range measurements and spectra are shown below.

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Measurements

Dynamic Range comparaisons

Dynamic represents the ability to reproduce a wide range of sounds from the softest to the loudest. The target is to compare the dynamics of the music and not of the media (CD, digital files or vinyl).

For our 3 editions reviewed have obtained the following Dynamic Range (DR) :

	Clear Green vinyl record – 2026	Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026	Tidal Max – 2026
Global	DR11	DR13	DR8
Min	DR8	DR9	DR7
Max	DR13	DR16	DR10
Astronaut	DR11	DR14	DR08
My Dream is On	DR11	DR13	DR08
Feel the Rush	DR10	DR12	DR07
Soyooz Night	DR11	DR14	DR09
Space Child	DR12	DR14	DR09
Welcome to Your Space Home	DR10	DR10	DR09
The ISS Lullaby	DR11	DR11	DR09
This Only Home to Care About	DR11	DR13	DR08
E.V.A.	DR13	DR13	DR10
The Pale Blue Dot Intro	DR08	DR09	DR09
The Pale Blue Dot	DR11	DR16	DR08
Stardust Miracle	DR10	DR12	DR08
Back to Gravity	DR11	DR14	DR08
Return to my Planet	DR11	DR12	DR08

As a reminder, the scale goes from 0 to more 20, but the dynamics are considered good from 12, quite good between 10 and 11, and deteriorate below 10.

Detail of the ratings :

• Dynamic :
  1. Significant dynamic compression, DR less than 7
  2. Compression of the present dynamics, DR between 7 and 9.
  3. Correct piece DR >=10
  4. No dynamic compression (DR >12), dynamic rendering
  5. No dynamic compression, high DR and very dynamic sound rendering
• Spectrum :
  1. Spectrum cut and less than 15 khz
  2. Spectrum cut at 15 khz
  3. Spectrum not conforming to the original and cut (not HD) or original but limited bandwidth (but less than 20 kHz)
  4. Spectrum conforming to the original (but not HD)
  5. Spectrum conforming to the original with HD resolution (higher than 24kHz)
• Surface noise (only for vinyl):
  1. Continuous audible noise
  2. Audible surface noise except on passages with a high level of noise
  3. Reduced surface noise, barely audible on low level crossings
  4. Low surface noise, very good quality
  5. Very low surface noise, no defects, almost inaudible on the quiet passages (exceptional disc)
• Spatialization :
  • Between 0 and 5 for 5.1 or 7.1 channels configuration
  • Between 0 and 10 for Atmos configuration (7.1.4)
  • For more information on spatialization, you can read the article describing this parameter here.
• Restitution :
  1. Low quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
  2. Average quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
  3. Quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Good record.
  4. High quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Very high level disc.
  5. Maximum quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Exceptional disc.

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