Franck Martin contacted me after reading my review of Eric Serra’s album, and took the opportunity to introduce me to his own work, as well as to Thanks for the Invite, an album conceived specifically with spatial music in mind, as Franck explains on his website, www.peachymango.org.

With summer bringing its usual wave of electronic music concerts and festivals, the timing seemed particularly appropriate to explore an album designed for immersive listening. Electronic music, with its emphasis on space, movement, texture and sound design, is arguably one of the genres best suited to spatial audio.

For this review, I listened to Thanks for the Invite across various medias, including the different Dolby Atmos encoding options currently available. I also compared the different encodings against the Dolby Atmos ADM master, using the master as a reference to assess which version comes closest to reproducing the original spatial master without alteration.

For this review, you will find 4 versions tested:

• Ed 1: MKV Dolby Atmos TrueHD – 2025
• Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2025
• Ed 3: Tidal MAX – 2025
• Ed 4: Dolby Atmos Master ADM – 2025

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 10 tracks:

1. Crescendo
2. Ice Gliding
3. The Clock
4. Mad Sax
5. Space Time
6. Victory
7. Celluloid Voice
8. Techno Roll
9. Sleep Noise
10. Abyss

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: MKV Dolby Atmos TrueHD – 2025

Presentation

The MKV version includes the Dolby Digital TrueHD Atmos track (lossless format) with a sampling rate of 48 kHz. This version is available at https://immersiveaudioalbum.com. The album is also available on Blu-ray for those who prefer a physical copy (link to the website)

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

Waveform and Spectrum: DR12

The waveform of the MKV Dolby Atmos TrueHD – 2025 version shows a very good dynamic range confirmed with DR12.

The spectrogram of the Atmos in 9.1.6 version of MKV files shows that the signal goes down to 24 kHz and that there is no signal above this frequency , due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency used with Dolby Digital TrueHD encoding (lossless). The low-frequency channel (LFE) shows a very gradual roll-off above 120 Hz, with more pronounced filtering around 1 kHz in some tracks.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the MKV Dolby Atmos TrueHD – 2025.
The Dolby Atmos TrueHD downmixed to 7.1 is based on a sampling frequency of 48 kHz, limiting the bandwidth to 24 kHz (as indicated by the yellow arrow). The low-frequency channel (LFE) shows a very gradual roll-off above 120 Hz, with more pronounced filtering around 1 kHz in some tracks (as indicated by the green arrow).

The LFE channel shares the same filtering characteristics as the ADM Master, as does the maximum frequency of 24 kHz for the other channels, further confirming that the Dolby Atmos TrueHD version is the most faithful release. This is in contrast to the Dolby Digital Plus Atmos used for streaming, which has a maximum frequency of 20 kHz and LFE filtering capped at 120 Hz.

Synthesis and listening

This Dolby Atmos version, encoded in Dolby Digital TrueHD, stands out from the streaming version thanks to its precise spatialization, the subtlety of the sounds, and the clarity of the bass. It is therefore the best version of this album available to the public. Although it is slightly less precise than the ADM master, this version offers excellent spatialization that holds its own against the master when listened to. It is therefore the version to choose. On the track “The Clock,” the mix does not use the front stereo channels, only the center channel, thereby enhancing the track’s fully immersive sound. Across all the tracks, sounds are distributed all around us to truly deliver a 360-degree immersion in the music, including the overhead channels. Movement is also utilized, as in “Space Time” or “Victory,” to expand the sound experience.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization SP: ●●●●●●●●oo (8)
• Spatialization SK: ●●●●●●oooo (6)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2025

Presentation

This is the Tidal Dolby Atmos presented in Dolby Digital Plus at 768 kbits/s. This is also available on Amazon Music and Apple Music.

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

Waveform and Spectrum: DR12

The waveform of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2025 version shows a very good dynamic range confirmed with DR12.

The spectrogram of the Tidal Dolby Atmos track in 9.1.6 is limited to 20kHz with no signal above . 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 bass channel (LFE) is fitrered at 120 Hz, this is a requirement of Dolby Digital Plus encoding.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2025.
The spectrum of the Tidal Dolby Atmos track in 7.1 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).

Synthesis and listening

Compared to the other two Dolby Atmos versions, the streaming version, with its lossy Dolby Digital Plus encoding at 768 kBits/s, cannot compete with the TrueHD version of the MKV in terms of subtlety and precision of spatialization, let alone with the Dolby Atmos ADM master. [See the description of the Atmos mix in the summary of the MKV version]

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization SP: ●●●●●●●●oo (7.9)
• Spatialization SK: ●●●●●●oooo (6)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3.5)

Ed 3: Tidal MAX – 2025

Presentation

This is the Tidal MAX presented in lossless 24 bits 48 kHz format. This is also available on Amazon Music an Apple Music.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR5

The waveform of the Tidal MAX – 2025 version shows a extremely low dynamic range confirmed with DR5.

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 represents the spectrum of the Tidal MAX – 2025.
The spectrum shows that the signal rises to 24 kHz with no signal above this frequency due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency.

Synthesis and listening

This stereo version is heavily dynamically compressed, as is typical for this genre of music on other albums, however, given the album’s immersive composition, it’s best to opt for the Atmos versions to fully experience the soundscape Franck Martin intended.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●oooo (1)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●ooo (2.5)

Ed 4: Dolby Atmos Master ADM – 2025

Presentation

This is the Dolby Atmos Master ADM used to compare to the other Dolby Atmos versions. The ADM is a very large format with a size of 7.8 GO for the album compared to the MKV version (1.3 Go).

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

Waveform and Spectrum: DR12

The waveform of the Dolby Atmos Master ADM – 2025 version shows a very good dynamic range confirmed with DR12.

The spectrogram of the Atmos in 9.1.6 version from the Dolby Atmos Master ADM Files shows that the signal goes down to 24 kHz and that there is no signal above this frequency , due to the 48 kHz sampling frequency used with Dolby Digital TrueHD encoding (lossless). The low-frequency channel (LFE) shows a very gradual roll-off above 120 Hz, with more pronounced filtering around 1 kHz in some tracks.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Dolby Atmos Master ADM – 2025.
The Dolby Atmos TruHD in 9.1.6 format is based on a sampling frequency of 48 kHz, limiting the bandwidth to 24 kHz (as indicated by the yellow arrow). The low-frequency channel (LFE) shows a very gradual roll-off above 120 Hz, with more pronounced filtering around 1 kHz in some tracks (as indicated by the green arrow).

Synthesis and listening

It s always a pleasure to listen to a Dolby Atmos ADM master. Here, you get the studio sound without any conversion, with all the dynamics and subtlety of this album’s spatialization. Indeed, electronic music allows you to fully appreciate spatialization by making the most of the distribution of sound in space and incorporating movement as well. This is the case, for example, with the track “Victory,” which features 28 sound objects in addition to the bed, as shown by the Dolby Renderer below:

It’s on a track like this one, for example, with lots of movement and many objects, that the ADM master is slightly more precise than the versions encoded in Dolby Digital. [See the description of the Atmos mix in the summary of the MKV version]

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization SP: ●●●●●●●●oo (8)
• Spatialization SK: ●●●●●ooooo (5)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4.5)

Franck Martin, with the electronic music from his album Thanks For The Invite, offers us a soundscape that makes full use of immersive sound by employing spatialization that leverages the distribution of sounds throughout the space, while also incorporating movement.This album is a wonderful example of what can be achieved in immersive audio with electronic music. To fully enjoy it, the album is available in MKV format or blu-ray with Dolby Digital TrueHD Atmos encoding, a lossless format that is far superior to the streaming version and very close to the ADM Master listened to during this review.

Dynamic Range measurements 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 4 editions reviewed have obtained the following Dynamic Range (DR) :

	MKV Dolby Atmos TrueHD – 2025	Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2025	Tidal MAX – 2025	Dolby Atmos Master ADM – 2025
Global	DR12	DR12	DR5	DR12
Min	DR8	DR9	DR5	DR8
Max	DR16	DR16	DR7	DR15
Crescendo	DR14	DR15	DR05	DR15
Ice Gliding	DR08	DR09	DR05	DR08
The Clock	DR12	DR14	DR05	DR12
Mad Sax	DR13	DR14	DR05	DR13
Space Time	DR12	DR13	DR07	DR12
Victory	DR11	DR11	DR06	DR10
Celluloid Voice	DR16	DR16	DR06	DR15
Techno Roll	DR10	DR10	DR05	DR10
Sleep Noise	DR10	DR11	DR05	DR10
Abyss	DR10	DR10	DR05	DR10

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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