Getting Started with Dolby Atmos Music in DaVinci Resolve Fairlight

Quick tutorial on how to get started with Dolby Atmos Music in DaVince Resolve Fairlight.
Links mentioned in video:
Getting Started with Dolby Atmos Music in Nuendo: • Getting Started with D...
Sonniss GDC Game Audio Bundle 2020: sonniss.com/gameaudiogdc or sonniss.com/GameAudioGDCPart6...
DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor: www.blackmagicdesign.com/prod...

[@AbrEvig]

Great channel. More on Dolby Atmos in Fairlight is highly appreciated. Subscribed.

[@hunter8980]

This is a beautiful narration on the use of Dolby Atmos in Fairlight. You are the best. Thank you!

[@michaelgwagner]

Thanks!

[@hunter8980]

@@michaelgwagner I am waiting for a "moment" to watch your "series" of videos on the "game audio". Your "all" videos on audio should become a part of schools' and colleges' part of their education curriculm. Thanks again!

[@camshand]

Thank you for sharing such a straightforward workflow of this feature, I know it's a couple years old now video, but seeing v18.6 patch notes mention height channels for 3D Audio it reminded me of all the Dolby Atmos stuff I never tried out. Great vid 😄🤙

[@michaelgwagner]

Thanks! Yes, It’s an old video now. I should probably revisit DaVinci.

[@richardsisk1770]

Thanks so much. This info is hard to find just now.

[@kjvisual7]

The track you made was NICE!!!! And yes it was fun.

[@michaelgwagner]

Thanks!

[@georgedotyiv820]

Great video - thank you!

[@michaelgwagner]

You’re welcome!

[@Sheriffvlogs]

Thanks for the video

[@shellymoreira]

Thanks Mike Gerhard!

[@michaelgwagner]

Lol

[@AquashiiMusic]

You did it!!! Thank you SO much 🙏

[@michaelgwagner]

You’re very welcome!

[@AquashiiMusic]

@@michaelgwagner this was incredibly helpful. I really appreciate it. I have a question regarding the Dolby Atmos renderer that you can buy from Dolby itself. I read in another forum that they advise to link Resolve to the external renderer. I don't understand the benefits of doing that? Could you see why that would be a benefit or can we just use the built in renderer inside of Resolve and end up with the same result? Thanks!

[@michaelgwagner]

If you are buying the Dolby Atmos Mastering Suite (the one for $995) you get the cinema version which has more options for large speaker setups. I do not know of the implementation in DaVinci Resolve is in any way inferior to Dolby’s own implementation of the home theatre version of the renderer. It is possible but it could also just be that DaVinci Resolve’s implementation is not Dolby certified. Nuendo’s implementation, by contrast, is an official one.

[@AquashiiMusic]

@@michaelgwagner that's great news thank you. From what I read they were saying that the Dolby Atmos renderer had better binaural representation for mixing in headphones but wasn't sure. Thanks for clearing that up.

[@BrooksAudio]

Thanks for another great video Michael. What is the best way of bringing 1o Ambisonic audio into Davinci? Would you first convert it to a 7.1.4 file?

[@michaelgwagner]

DaVinci can‘t do Ambisonics, unfortunately. You have to convert it to another immersive audio format. 7.1.4 would be the most obvious choice.

[@BrooksAudio]

@@michaelgwagner thanks Michael. Keep up the good work!

[@nicoweiberg]

Hi Michael, great video :) Could you show how we can mix in Dolby Atmos and export a downmix (like 5.1) within resolve in the same file? e.g. how can I export different versios from a project that is mixed in Dolby Atmos? to be able to deliver in Stereo, DolbyDigital+ 5.1, ... (well and exporting ATMOS directly in a deliverable isn't possible sadly) Kind regards from Germany, Nico

[@eviluessfansy9644]

Hey man! Thanks for your video! It's good to know you use DaVinci, too. I found the multitap (delay plug-in) in Nuendo 12 is so powerful for Atmos, but I can't find even an "essential/lite" one in DaVinci. Do you have any recommendation of the 3rd -party ones? I am using windows, and I hope the delay plug-ins are free for use, I am not making music/video for money, just for fun. BTW, the built-in duckering compressor of DaVinci 18 is very poor, and I didn't find DaVinci Support SideChain to use FabFilters C2/Q3/MB to do the better mixing. Do you have any suggestion on this? Thanks in advance.

[@michaelgwagner]

Thanks! I need to look at the multitap plugin.

[@kelvinfunkner]

Great video! Thanks for sharing this...I have a question...If I purchase the full version of Davinci Resolve to mix for Atmos, do I still need to purchase the Dolby Atmos Renderer too? Or will I just be able to author everything right within Davinci Resolve alone? Thanks so much!

[@michaelgwagner]

No, the full version of Resolve has an integrated Atmos workflow. No renderer is needed.

[@Jp-xr2zk]

Thank you so much! Now i'm finally able to export songs in Dolby Atmos for streaming services like Apple Music and Deezer!

[@christophmaxen]

Hey Michael, loving your videos, they are a great help for me. When i setup a object panning automation and export it, the object is static and not moving in the final audio. Do you have any guess as to why ?

[@michaelgwagner]

I have not worked with DaVinci for a while but I don't think I ever ran into that problem. Sorry.

[@kris-lv7ql]

great vid! Do you listen back binaural via headphones? I couldnt see how to set that up within resolve :(

[@kris-lv7ql]

oh I just found out this is available already in fairlight 18 (it was not in 17)

[@DesertCookie]

I've been really struggling to get 5.1 to work as I expect it too. It's easy enough for the mono dialogue to be played on the center track and be faded to FL/FR via automation or the pan controls. However, I could never figure out how to make my also mono SFX not appear on the center speaker and only on FL/FR or RL/RR. If panned to the front, it will also always come out of the center. Do you happen to know how to fix this?

[@CharcoalProduction]

I would love to know if there is a way of linking the track point from video to audio panner to work with Atmos for movies

[@michaelgwagner]

Very good question! Unfortunately a bit outside my expertise.

[@nicholastoo7543]

Thanks! Would like to know how to setup surround sound. 7.1.4 What's the most affordable audio interface that can do that?

[@michaelgwagner]

Good question. I’ll put that on my to do list. There are inexpensive options for 10 channel audio, but 12 channel remains a challenge.

[@northillvideo]

Thank you so much for your useful videos. I've used ASIO Link Pro to pass audio from DaVinci Resolve to the Dolby Atmos Renderer 5.1 but the Object Metadata is not available. Do you happen to know whether / how this can be done?

[@michaelgwagner]

That is not possible, unfortunately.

[@northillvideo]

@@michaelgwagner Actually, It turns out that it is possible, after all. I had followed all of the steps necessary except one: the need to click on the Dolby logo on the Fairlight page!

[@michaelgwagner]

Ah, interesting, need to test that! Thanks for letting me know!

[@Altsouza64]

Hello Michael, great video, thanks. I am a little confused in one topic. I have a music video clip, with many raw tracks of bass, drums , guitar etc... (I created it using Presonus Studio One). Is it possible to create a Dolby Atmos 5.1.4 (or others formats) of this Clip in DaVince 18??? If not, which program do you recomend to do it for Windows. I can buy Adobe Premiere, Vegas Pro or Nuendo if needed. Thanks again.

[@michaelgwagner]

Atmos is not channel based, it will play in whatever system the end user has. If it is a 5.1.4 system it will play in 5.1.4. With video clips you are a bit limited by the deliverables the streaming provider requires. Video with Atmos audio is still limited to high end providers (Netflix, etc). With respect to a DAW, I would choose one with native Atmos support. Cubase, Nuendo, Pro Tools, or Logic are all good options. DaVinci is a bit too limited tbh.

[@Altsouza64]

@@michaelgwagner Thank you Michael. I think you did not understand my question. You said that DaVinci were limited to Stereo, so I was confused if I could create a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos with DaVince. I am newbie! Thanks again

[@shoug8387]

Been toying around with this, the only issue being that whenever i export my master file it comes out distorted when played back or encoded to Dolby Digital Plus/TrueHD

[@BallparkOrc]

Thank you for this easy tutorial but I have a question. Is it possible to add audio effects from vst plugins to the audio and export it with the dolby master file?

[@michaelgwagner]

On the individual object or bed tracks, yes. There is no master bus in Dolby Atmos though.

[@BallparkOrc]

@@michaelgwagner thank you, yes I was asking for the object track. One more question, is there difference between exporting the master file for the fairlight page and exporting adm bwf from the deliver page? Thanks!

[@michaelgwagner]

It’s the same.

[@LeoBercoff]

Great video! I think I'll keep using the free Davinci Resolve version for the video, and producing audio with Studio One 6.5. Then, put altoghether, probably in Studio One, since it can render its audio with external video (maybe not too many formats, but enough for me).

[@michaelgwagner]

You can’t do Atmos video that way though.

[@LeoBercoff]

@@michaelgwagner We'll, maybe I can edit Atmos audio in SO, then export it, and import it in Davinci (Fairlight) to finally glue audio and video together. Is that way possible?

[@michaelgwagner]

That you can do, but only with the Studio version of DaVinci.

[@edwardnixon1782]

I noticed in passing that there is an option to choose the external version of the Dolby Atmos Renderer in the settings. Does that mean that, for example, the single bed of 10 channels constraint with the built in DA Renderer is removed? In general, why would one opt for the external version over the internal in a Resolve context? As always, very helpful. Thanks!

[@michaelgwagner]

There are a couple of things you can do with the external renderer which you can’t do with the internal one. Exporting an mp4 would be an example. But in general you would choose the external renderer if you would be working with the Dolby Atmos Mastering Suite. This allows you to run the renderer on a dedicated machine, or go up to higher channel counts you would have in a movie theater, for example.

[@edwardnixon1782]

@@michaelgwagner Thanks. I think you referred to it as the "Mythical MP4" at some point. I suppose they have their reasons but that feature would be very useful as part of this, the Cubase and the Logic Pro x implementations... Do you know of an alternative way of deriving an MP4 from a DA project?

[@edwardnixon1782]

@@michaelgwagner Just found the video on the AWS Mediaconvert tool. Sorry for the noise.

[@michaelgwagner]

Not a problem.

[@tritonedelta3464]

Hello Michael :) Is it possible to export Dolby Atmos inside an mp4 container which contains the proper object metadata for playback on consumer systems (DD+JOC)?

[@michaelgwagner]

Unfortunately, the only way I am aware of is through the external Dolby Atmos Renderer. I had already scheduled a video about how use ffmpeg in order to create an mp4 with the eac3 codec. But with ffmpeg you would loose JOC and since that might confuse people, I decided to pull that video again.

[@tritonedelta3464]

@@michaelgwagner Thanks for the reply :) If you haven't guessed I'm looking for a method of testing Atmos mixes on consumer devices without having to purchase DAPS (Dolby Audio Production Suite), but alas it may be time to just buy it and make the files.

[@michaelgwagner]

There is a possibility but it is neither perfect nor straightforward nor free. I will talk about it in the next video.

[@burtward3431]

Hi Michael: I have a question for you regarding the output of Dolby Atmos files in progress and completed in Fairlight to our Dolby Atmos speaker system. We have a 9.1.4 speaker system and I would like to be able to hear the detailed motion of sound on our speaker system as I am modifiying the motion of the object files. I don't believe that an ADM BWF file can be directly played on our speakers. So, what file format and other hardware/software (if any) is necessary to directly play Dolby Atmos files on our speakers? Currently, we are outputting Dolby Atmos files in Logic Pro 10.7 not as rendered files, but as an extension of the computer speakers that we are using with Logic Pro as the files are played in Logic Pro. This is accomplished by splitting the sound files from our MacBook Pro to our computer speakers and also splitting the same audio files to two LEA amplifiers equipped with Dante (ethernet transmission). Thank you in advance for any suggestions you have.

[@michaelgwagner]

You would just play the output of the renderer. And if you need to play it somewhere else you can just bounce it to whatever speaker layout you need. That is admittedly a bit less obvious in DaVinci as it is one a ‘regular’ DAW, but in principle it works the same. And no, you can’t play the ADM directly.

[@GatotAlindo]

wondering why you’re not using waves nx on this. thank you for the video.

[@michaelgwagner]

I have not looked into that yet.

[@GatotAlindo]

@@michaelgwagner ok i see. looking forward for the next video. thank you.

[@EyesofTheKeeper]

Is it possible to configure resolve for mixing traditional 5 or 7-channel sound (and 11ch Atmos) with a home theatre audio video receiver like the Denon x4700h? I'm getting dizzy from trying.

[@michaelgwagner]

Working with AVRs can be a challenge. You might want to hop into our Discord. I know that people have been successful doing that.

[@EyesofTheKeeper]

Thank you, I'd love to! What's the channel's Discord handle?@@michaelgwagner

[@michaelgwagner]

The invite is in the description of my more recent videos.

[@clarkesinspace]

How did you export this video so we could hear this binaurally on KZbin? I am very stuck. Please help, and thank you for your videos.

[@michaelgwagner]

My video/audio recording setup is completely out of the box. The recording happens through an Atem Mini ISO Pro with the audio mixed in a Yamaha mixer. I‘ll likely do a studio setup video in the near future.

[@clarkesinspace]

@@michaelgwagner thanks for that. Makes perfect sense. I am still stuck trying to export an Atmos mix that plays as a stereo file. Have tried many options and googled my brains out. No luck

[@BuildEver]

Hi, I did as you, but my drone pan is 2D. Could you help?

[@theBullringLive]

22:04 Do you still need to enable Atmos on the fairlight tab in 18.6? Mine doesn't show that section

[@michaelgwagner]

I'm slightly confused by the time stamp. If you are talking about the immersive audio settings than yes. The Studio version is required to see that option.

[@theBullringLive]

@@michaelgwagner What I didn't realise is you have to be on the Fairlight page.

[@michaelgwagner]

@theBullringLive Ah, ok, yes, that tends to annoy me too. 😂

[@shellymoreira]

What about the monitoring? Don't you need to set up the output to monitor in binaural?

[@michaelgwagner]

Most of the information I found says that you should set up the audio output manually. And this makes a lot of sense if you have more complex monitoring environment that includes multichannel speaker systems. I only have a stereo setup and I did not find any audible difference between setting up the stereo output manually or just using the default system settings.

[@bobbecker2046]

How do I take 8 tracks that are individual and make them into an Atmos Track, or at least copy and paste them in?

[@michaelgwagner]

I usually use Reaper for that purpose. In Reaper you can just route each mono track into the appropriate channel of an 8-channel track.

[@oskarneftel3756]

I own the studio version, but in my Fairlight settings I can't find any of the immersive audio options. Does anyone know why?

[@michaelgwagner]

You need to enable immersive audio in the main settings.

[@michal_cywinski]

Why I have to disconnect the audio track that I want to place in Dolby Atmos 3D space from the bus? It seems to work fine even without disconnecting it.

[@michaelgwagner]

You just have to make sure that you are not feeding the object audio twice into the renderer which would happen if you route the audio into an object and at the same time route it into a bed. Blackmagic have also changed the way the Dolby master bus works in the more recent versions.

[@michal_cywinski]

@@michaelgwagner Thanks for the explenation!

[@chrisf.8177]

Das Rendering des Projects wäre jetzt noch interessant 😊👍 Ist nun Dolby Atmos kostenlos dabei oder nicht. Das checke ich einfach nicht.😞

[@michaelgwagner]

Atmos requires the paid version of DaVinci Resolve, unfortunately. The point I was making is that if you buy the Speed Editor from Blackmagic, you get the Studio version of DaVinci Resolve for free.

[@chrisf.8177]

@@michaelgwagner Thanks for the information. I even own the studio version. But I am of the opinion that you have to purchase a Dolby license specifically. In any case, I have not yet found any Dolby Vision output in the render settings. But I'm still a complete beginner. Sorry! I work with mp4 and mov files

[@AnasAlsayedStudio]

What about. Nuendo in doing these tasks?

[@michaelgwagner]

Nuendo is generally easier to use for this purpose. My first Dolby Atmos video was about Nuendo.

[@PascalPayantfilms]

Hi can you explain if i want to edit in 7..1.4 instead. cause when i chose the bus in 7.1.4 it'S not working, only 7.1.2 does for some reason. how can i have 12 bed channel instead of 10

[@michaelgwagner]

The Dolby specification limits beds to 10 channel audio. A 12 channel bed is not allowed.

[@PascalPayantfilms]

@@michaelgwagner But how can you edit in 7.1.4 then. the option is there and i have 12 speakers, 4 on the ceiling.

[@michaelgwagner]

You have to connect the 12 output channls of the renderer to the 12 speakers. In Davinci you can‘t do any processing on the 12 channel output. This is by design. There is no traditional „mastering stage“ when working with Atmos.

[@PascalPayantfilms]

@@michaelgwagner so you mean as soon as I connect 12 speakers to my Focusrite card , DaVinci will see that and enable the 7.1.4 is that what you are saying?

[@michaelgwagner]

Not automatically. You have to set the monitoring configuration in the settings and you also have to patch the renderer sends to the monitors in Fairlight. Do a search on „Dolby Atmos in Davinci Resolve“. Dolby has a nice writeup where they explain exactly how to do that.

[@clarrebarre65]

Hello.Is the Dolby Atmos only in Resolve Studio?….in the free I only find 7.1 Film capability?

[@michaelgwagner]

Yes, only in the paid version.

[@clarrebarre65]

@@michaelgwagner Got this answer from inside a FB group of DaVinviers….

[@clarrebarre65]

Claes Johansson no Dolby encoding takes place in Resolve, you can however edit and mix all your positional audio in Resolve.

[@michaelgwagner]

@@clarrebarre65 According to the Dolby Atmos documentation from Dolby, the native renderer included in Resolve 17 can now export Dolby Atmos Master files. I have not checked that yet though.

[@michaelgwagner]

This is directly taken from the Dolby website: "With the introduction of version17, Resolve now features a native Renderer for Dolby Atmos licensed from Dolby Labs and the ability to export master files. This allows for a self-contained Dolby Atmos workflow in Resolve. The Fairlight DAW component of Resolve 17 can be used for Dolby Atmos content creation, mixing, monitoring, master file import (.atmos and ADM BWF .wav), and master file export (ADM BWF .wav and IMF IAB .mxf)." In other words, encoding does take place within Resolve. Looks like I need to make another video, I got quite a few questions about this.

[@MJ-le2ui]

Thanks for your video but to do a "good" atmos mix I think the big problem you have is you are listening back in stereo. I know looking at the visual panning helps, but in order to create a better render you need a proper dolby atmos set up to listen back on. There are so many bad atmos mixes out there because the creators have such bad systems they are using to create their mixes on.

[@michaelgwagner]

No argument there but a full proper Atmos setup is expensive. The point I am trying to make is that you can get started on a very low budget as long as you are aware of the limitations.

[@george.exe_stopped_working]

hey, Im following this tutorial on the latest davinci resolve out right now which is 17.4.2. But it does not work. The Dolby atmos object does not produce a sound unless I specify a Bus send. Which it usually is Bus 1. So is it still a dolby atmos object or not?

[@michaelgwagner]

Did you patch everything into the renderer? You might also need to enable track directs for the objects. It should be enabled by default but it is possible that this is disabled in your setup.

[@george.exe_stopped_working]

@@michaelgwagner How do i enable the track directs? It already shows up in the track direct in the input output tab.

[@michaelgwagner]

Go to learning.dolby.com/hc/en-us/articles/360054574872-Module-11-3-Dolby-Atmos-Using-Black-Magic-DaVinci-Resolve- Scroll down to “configuring track settings” and follow the steps. If that does not help you might want to check the other sections on this page to make sure you did not miss anything.

[@george.exe_stopped_working]

@@michaelgwagner I've looked through the documentation. It says "Assign the Object tracks to B1o (the main output)" which contradicts what is said in the video at 13:45 where you disconnected the object track from the main bus to route it directly into the atmos renderer. I tried your technique in the previous version of resolve and it worked but i think it changed in the update. I'm not sure. Thank you for helping me.

[@george.exe_stopped_working]

And in the new update when you disconnect the object track from the B1o like in the video the panner becomes 2D instead of 3D and if you have the track playing in the background and dissconnect the object from the bus it does sound different. So im pretty sure it still treats it as a dolby atmos object but the only change is that you have to connect the object tracks to the B1o

[@clarrebarre65]

Why don’t you create a 7.4.1 bus instead….I happen to have such a speaker setup!

[@MuhammadKhusyairiPermata]

0:13 - 1:42

[@FutureAI_News]

In Davinci 18.5 i dont have Dolby Athmos

[@michaelgwagner]

You need the paid version.

[@FutureAI_News]

@@michaelgwagner I have the paid Studio Version. I’ll try to figure out how it works in 18.5

[@michaelgwagner]

Ah, ok. You need to enable it in the settings. It does not show up by default. Be aware, they moved that setting around.

[@gphmedia]

Wäre diese Video auch in Deutsch möglich.

[@michaelgwagner]

Möglich schon...

[@chrisf.8177]

Herr Wagner hat jedenfalls eine sehr symphatische us-englische Aussprache und der deutsche Untertiteltext ist perfekt.😊💯👍

[@mediaamerica]

Your just solved my day of frustration! Thank you so much!

[@michaelgwagner]

You’re very welcome!

[@mediaamerica]

So… I’m setting up a Dolby Atmos project in Resolve….. it seems to me that I should just set up every track I have as an object, rather than in the bed. Does this make sense? Is there a good reason to use the bed any more? I have a lot of FX sounds (mosquitoes, etc) that seem natural for objects, but I also have stereo music tracks and dialogue, that would not ago in the bed. In my mind I’m thinking that I should make every track an object, rather than putting it in the bed, since it will give me more control over the tracks. Thoughts on that? Thanks for all your great tutorials! 😊

[@michaelgwagner]

@mediaamerica That’s a bit a matter of personal preference. There are people who avoid the bed altogether. I would use the bed primarily for things like a 3d reverb. Anything that you can’t do with objects.

[@mediaamerica]

@@michaelgwagnerthank you so much Michael! You are a treasure! Of course, now you’ve got me googling 3d reverb, 😂