Loh – Hearing the Call (Streaming Dolby Atmos)

Spatialization SP: ●●●●●●oooo (6.4) , SK: ●●●●oooooo (4), Dynamique: ●●●●o (4) – Global: ●●●●o (3.5)

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

For the release of Loh’s album Hearing the Call, I had the opportunity to speak with David Patrick Huckaluk from WHITE MASTERING STUDIOS, the sound engineer who handled the Dolby Atmos mix. He explained the specifics of his mix and the optimizations made for binaural listening for the artist Loh. In this album, Loh creates a musical world that blends contemporary folk, alternative pop, and melodic rock, driven by a cinematic and introspective sensibility. Her music, gentle and contemplative, is intended above all as a space for sharing, listening, and understanding, a place where vulnerabilities can become a source of growth and light.

In fact, I often discuss Dolby Atmos in the context of listening on a speaker system with a reference configuration like 7.1.4. But in practice, most people listen with headphones or earbuds rather than on a multichannel system.
For this album, the decision was made to optimize the sound for this type of listening to meet the artist’s request to maintain a vocal presentation with a presence similar to that of the stereo mix.
To fully understand this approach, it s important to recognize that there are two types of binaural rendering. The official Dolby rendering, which uses the reference algorithms and HRTF profile, and, on the other hand, the Apple Music rendering, which uses its own implementation of binaural sound with its own profile. David points out that Apple Music’s rendering of Dolby Atmos when listened to through headphones produces a soundstage that is wider than that of the official Dolby Atmos binaural rendering. This has a direct impact on the vocal rendering, which loses some of its energy and localization.
As David explains: “Regarding the choice of vocal placement, I decided to optimize the headphone listening experience (binaural/HRTF) after discussing it with sound engineer Nicolas Martin from NMAudio, who handled the stereo mastering, in order to exchange ideas on the best way to showcase this immersive version. Placing the vocals slightly above eye level (+15° to +30°) takes advantage of the ear’s natural filtering. This helps the voice step out of the head, since the front soundstage is always slightly recessed when listening through headphones.“

This results in a beautiful vocal presence, just as the artist intended. This effect is also present when listening on a speaker system, giving the voice a lovely sense of spaciousness. Another goal of the mix is to carefully control the widening of the surround soundstage, creating a Dolby Atmos mix that suits this style of music well and adapts to the various tracks on the album. Thank you to David for these explanations, as they provide a better understanding of the choices made in the Dolby Atmos mix for the album Hearing the Call.

This album features a Dolby Atmos mix focused primarily 180 degrees in front of us, with excellent use of the side channels and the vocals clearly positioned high above us, giving them a strong sense of presence. This sensation is also present in the binaural mix, which has been particularly well-crafted with the vocals seeming to emerge from inside your head.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization SP: ●●●●●●oooo (6.4)
• Spatialization SK: ●●●●oooooo (4)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (3.5)

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

You can download the 3D spatialization representation file below and open it with the application available on this page.

Waveform ,Spectrum and Dynamique: DR13 (Min: DR12, Max: DR15)

The waveform of the Dolby Digital Plus – 2026 shows a high range confirmed with DR13.

The spectrogram of the Dolby Digital Plus 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 LFE (bass channel) channel is filtered at 120Hz.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Dolby Digital Plus Atmos – 2026.
The spectrum of Dolby Digital Plus Atmos version decoded in 9.1.6 shows that all channels are used. The LFE channel is used with a cutoff frequency of 120 Hz (green 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.

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.