Mike Mettler

Spatial Audio File
I Wanna Spatial Audio With Somebody
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 10, 2022

One thing that struck me as a most interesting common thread connecting the five tracks I’ve chosen for this week’s all-new Atmos recommendations here in your trusty Spatial Audio File column is how, to get the most out of these mixes, you really need to listen to them with your eyes closed and your head swaying along with their respective rhythms. Hence, these five finely Atmos-ified cuts are best experienced while on the beach and/or in your personal listening space, and not necessarily when you’re driving a vehicle. (You have been duly warned!)

As per usual, each of these tracks has been quite thoroughly test-driven aurally via personal deep-dive listening sessions on both my home system and headphones alike. Fact is, engrossing myself in the very best offerings of Made for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos tracks found within the burgeoning Apple Music library always tend to make the vibes of my week much cooler overall.

With that said, this week’s quintet of eyelid-gazing and ear-canal-fulfilling fully immersive tracks are. . .

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Music and Soundtrack Features
Remaster Class: Deep Purple: Machine Head
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 03, 2022
Fifty years on, Deep Purple's March 1972 masterstroke Machine Head remains a clarion call for hard rock fans the world over. Stamped onto polished metal, the band name/album title stack appearing atop a funhouse-mirrored image of the five-man group on the cover is the perfect visual representation of in-tune artists at the nexus point of transitioning from their late-1960s blues psychedelia phase into a signature sound clearly on the cusp of birthing heavy metal.
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Spatial Audio File
El Spatial Audio Romance-O
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 03, 2022

Sum-sum-summertime is officially in full-full-full swing, which means cueing up the latest five-spot of my all-new Atmos recommendations here in Spatial Audio File can only lead to many fun, fun, fun hi-res listening times ahead.

As always, each track herein has been fondly and thoroughly test-driven aurally via personal listening sessions on both my home system and headphones alike. As you’ll soon find out when you scroll and read on down, the artists themselves totally get why listening to the very best offerings of immersive Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos tracks available in the always expanding Apple Music library is the right way to go.

And this week’s quintet of winning summertime fun immersive tracks are. . .

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Spatial Audio File
Stay With Me, Spatial Audio
Mike Mettler  |  May 27, 2022

As we head into the long weekend ahead, might I respectfully suggest you open your ears to a fine quintet of all-new Atmos recommendations on display here in our latest weekly installment of Spatial Audio File? Each track has been lovingly test-driven via personal listening sessions on both my home system and headphones alike. And, hey, if your weekend winds up being somewhat travel-oriented in spots, you can tap directly into the very best of the immersive Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos universe available in the always expanding Apple Music library to serve as your perfect on-the-road-again soundtrack companion. Win-win, I say!! And this week’s five superstar tracks are. . .

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Spatial Audio File
United in Spatial Audio Gold
Mike Mettler  |  May 20, 2022

Welcome back one and all to the latest weekly installment of Spatial Audio File. As a card-carrying Spatial Audiophile, it's my sacred honor to select five (count ’em) prime Spatial Audio releases on Apple Music by vetting and recommending key individual tracks and (every now and then) full albums via deep-dive listening sessions on my home system and headphones alike. What you will find here is the very best in the immersive Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos universe that’s available in the ever-expanding Apple Music library so you can experience the aural wonders of it all for yourself.

And this week’s fab five are. . .

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Music and Soundtrack Features
Remaster Class: Simple Minds: Once Upon a Time
Mike Mettler  |  May 13, 2022
Talk about peaking at the exact right time. Scottish art-rockers Simple Minds had just hit their stride with February 1984's transitional Sparkle in the Rain and scored an unexpected No. 1 single in the summer of 1985 with the Breakfast Club soundtrack-only smash hit "Don't You (Forget About Me)"—and it was all precursor to the production power that propelled their October 1985 longplayer, Once Upon a Time, into one of the biggest albums of the MTV Decade.
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Spatial Audio File
All I Wanna Do, Is Spatial Audio
Mike Mettler  |  May 13, 2022
A veritable houseful of tracks by L.A. legends The Doors came onto the Dolby Atmos marketplace last week. Being a consummate fan of the legendary envelope-pushing ’60s band, I just had to check them out, most especially one of my absolute favorite tracks of theirs—“Riders on the Storm,” the last cut on Side 2 of their April 1971 swan song of sorts, L.A. Woman. I say “swan song” only because it was their last album with vocalist/lyricist/shaman-in-chief Jim Morrison as frontman. (Sadly, and somewhat mysteriously, Morrison passed away in Paris, France just three short months after L.A Woman was released.)
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Spatial Audio File
Hey! Ho! Let’s Spatial Audio!
Mike Mettler  |  May 06, 2022
Can it really be 20 full years since singer/songwriter/piano ingenue Norah Jones burst on the scene with her stunning, multiple-Grammy Award-winning February 2002 debut album, Come Away With Me? This breakthrough album is currently being properly feted with a 20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition that contains bonus tracks galore, but the immediate impact of its lead-track sensation “Don’t Know Why” is what sealed Jones as the real deal in the first place—and it mesmerizes the ears (and soul) even more fully in its Dolby Atmos incarnation.
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Stream On
Can Tidal Stem the Tide of Its Hi-Res Challengers?
Mike Mettler  |  May 03, 2022
Streaming giant Tidal continues upping its sound quality game. But can the company stem the tide of its many hi-res challengers? Mike Mettler takes the streaming service for a spin to find out.
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Spatial Audio File
Everybody Got to Elevate Spatial Audio
Mike Mettler  |  Apr 29, 2022
Spoiler alert: Rush’s February 1981 masterpiece, Moving Pictures, is my personal No. 1 favorite album of all time, so I was very much looking forward to hearing the entire album in its full glory in Atmos. Interestingly, stellar Atmos mixes of two great Pictures tracks, “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight,” were released last year on Apple Music in anticipation of celebrating the album’s 40th anniversary, but the balance of its seven tracks were held back until now, mostly due to supply-chain issues in order to align with the physical release of the Moving Pictures Super Deluxe Edition box set that finally came to market earlier this month—a mondo-disc collection that features a 24-bit/96kHz Atmos mix of the entire album on its included Blu-ray.
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