The BEST DAWs for Dolby Atmos for 2025!

[@eddie3569]

Pro Tools and Nuendo are the best!

[@damarpdamarp]

Great video. I work in Nuendo and it's indeed a very good DAW, especially for Dolby Atmos. I have a Rode NT-SF1 microphone. I haven't been able to use it for some time now because the Sound Field plugin has been discontinued for a few years and Nuendo no longer supports it, which is very strange because this microphone is still being sold. Thanks to your excellent AB Decoder plugin I was able to start using it again, many thanks!

[@rano12321]

Fantastic video. About the Native Dolby support in Reaper, in a podcast from IDDQD sound, the creator/main Reaper dev mentioned that Reaper will most like never get support for native Dolby support due to licensing and business deals etc. and possibility of raising the price, but he said, they'll add every possible necessary features that'd let you do Atmos in Reaper unofficially overtime.

[@AudioBrewers]

Still my favourite daw though 😍

[@rano12321]

@@AudioBrewers Mine as well.

[@jonesing4fame922]

Thank you so very much for commanding my attention and heightening my awareness with your breadth and depth of experience and knowledge about this topic! Cheers!

[@gertkeunen2720]

Great overview and a good crash course for comparing workflow in different DAW's. I'm so happy I'm a Nuendo user!

[@alvaromorello]

Thank you for putting this together Alejandro!

[@AudioBrewers]

Thank you!

[@labmike3d]

Great review, Alejandro! 👏 Only thing I was missing when you were talking about the clumsy DR UI... was some hilarious meme references! 😂 Otherwise, solid info as always. Oh, and I have to say-Reaper is absolutely perfect for experimenting with Ambisonics! 🎶🔊 I'm pretty sure that one day, those Dolby folks realize they need to hook up Reaper with free Atmos integration-because it’ll make their whole ecosystem that much stronger. 😎 Anyway, enjoy your 2025!

[@SpicyPeppercorn]

I really love using Nuendo.

[@SamHocking]

As you noticed, Davinci Resolve can't adapt an Ambisonics input into a Dolby Surround/Atmos bus/output. You need the output Bus to be Ambisonics too and then you'll see the Ambisonics spherical panner on the Ambisonics tracks. imo the Ambisonics is still work in progress as various parts of it seem broken, such as the panners have a visualiser, but they don't work.

[@AudioBrewers]

So the only thing I didn't try was the solution, 😂

[@SamHocking]

@@AudioBrewers I thought you were being very restrained and not marketing it haha!

[@AudioBrewers]

@@SamHocking Hahaha trust me I tried, too difficult still hahaha

[@SamHocking]

@@AudioBrewers Just getting DRs built in Atmos to work the first time is a full days hard work + research I found. The whole blurring of tracks, busses, outputs and the patchbay seems messy to me. ie why would you ever want to manually connect each and every object up to a track manually is a heavy workflow.

[@aefv.eliane]

Thank you so much for your incredible work and plugins. Happy Hollydays

[@AudioBrewers]

Thank you for watching, happy holidays!

[@eddie3569]

Good work!

[@AudioBrewers]

Thank you!

[@roncoleman5007]

Excellent work as always. Thank you so much and Happy New Year!!!

[@AudioBrewers]

Thank you!

[@xiaobi100]

brilliant explained!!!

[@AudioBrewers]

Thank you! 😀

[@alvaromorello]

One issue with Reaper is that it currently does not have post fader inserts, which the Fiedler Audio DAC recommends. There are workarounds but they are just that. Hopefully Justin adds those sooner rather than later.

[@AudioBrewers]

True! That's a feature still missing!

[@Meteotrance]

Thanks for this review,Now question, i have Da Vinci Resolve Studio the payed version, is there any solution to convert my Fairlight Atmos Mix to a consumer atmos codec ? The Fairlight module of Da Vinci is already Dolby Atmos Native with binaural render but the export format was mostly a broadcast one, an BWF/ADM that can be open in another DAW or Dolby codec like an MP4 file. I probably need a separated Dolby licence with some hardware for the consumer export, it was not realy design for Music but for Atmos on Cinema , Streaming service and Bluray release... And assign the BED and the Object output was totaly painfull, im happy than im not the only one to have, some head scratching with the way Da Vinci Manage that.

[@yeshumerasukoon]

where can i get those files, to listen and figure it out. non copyright material is fine.

[@AudioBrewers]

in freesound.org you can find ambisonics files 😊

[@roberteismann1929]

Hi, I am confused, why is Ableton disqualified and Reaper is not? Reaper also does NOT do atmos natively. And Ableton works just fine with the Fiedler atmos plugins.

[@AudioBrewers]

Ableton doesn't support wide tracks (Ie you cannot import quad, Surround, etc files), which is the point of this video. Panning a stereo source in an atmos mix is all you can do. Let me know if I missed something 😊

[@roberteismann1929]

@@AudioBrewers ah ok, I didn't understand that, thanks for clarifying.

[@MusicTechExplained]

Although you provide a lot of detailed information in this video, it has some serious flaws. I know, and you clearly state that, this this is your personal opinion, but it is not clear that you mainly focus on two features that (in my opinion) are not very important to the majority of Dolby Atmos music mixes. First of all, the title implies that you compare Dolby Atmos implementation/use in various DAWs. However, the title should be "The BEST DAWS for Dolby Atmos for using three-dimensional objects or Ambisonics." That comparison is okay, but I would argue that the number of engineers mixing music who use Ambisonics files or need to pan surround files as objects is close to zero. BTW, all the DAWs that have an integrated Dolby Atmos Renderer use the code of the original Dolby Atmos Renderer licensed from Dolby. And in that code, "three-dimensional objects" is not a thing. It is an object routing workflow, mainly used in post-production or music mixes to route multi-channel outputs of a plug-in to an object instead of a bed. But in that case, the last thing you want to do is panning it around. I would argue that the most important aspect when mixing music in Dolby Atmos is the end user and the system they are listening to your mix. My guess is that it is 99% binaural listening and maybe 80-90% in the Apple Spatial Audio version of binaural. That is the main concern of every Atmos mixing engineer, and not if you can pan a multi-channel audio file as an Object. I think Logic Pro is the only DAW that allows you to monitor through the Apple Binaural Render to listen to your Atmos mix the way it will sound when listening later on Apple Music. And it allows you to listen with your personalized HRTF, similar to the Dolby Atmos Renderer. These are crucial components that should be part of the criteria when comparing DAWs for Dolby Atmos. And then there are other important features like coloring Objects and Beds in Pro Tools or the Grouping feature, all very important workflow components. Or even more important features like the Download & Trim settings. Do all the DAWs provide these original Dolby Atmos features? I wish you would compare those relevant features between the DAWs.