Crafted in a Mercedes: Dolby, Universal Music Group and Merc Make Unlikely Audio Partnership

Using Mercedes vehicles, Universal's talent and Dolby technology, the three companies hope to improve the sound experience for listeners. Dolby it not new to car audiohelping to add Atmos to the place where most people listen to most of their music. Universal is, well, universal, covering such legendary labels as Interscope, Capitol, Def Jam, Abbey Road Studios and many others. Mercedes, you may have heard too: it produces cars for almost 140 years.

The idea behind this high-profile triumvirate was to make car audio so close to studio audio that creative people could use it to refine mixes, especially Atmos Music mixes. To this end, several journalists, including myself, were invited to the Interscope studios in Santa Monica, California. Once there, we listened to the Atmos-mixed music track in a large room with large speakers, then in a smaller studio with a sophisticated (and great-sounding) PMC speaker system, and finally the same track indoors. Mercedes-Maybach sedan.

Of course we couldn't AB instantly compare them side-by-side, and they weren't volume-matched, and I didn't know the song and forgot about blind testing, but to be honest, there were a lot of similarities between the studio sound and the Maybach. The car sounded amazing, as you'd expect from something that costs more than I paid for my house. Is this all just a marketing gimmick? Well, not really.

Mixtures for cars?

Checking the mixture in a car is nothing new. Even when I was studying audio production, we were advised to test any mixes on different audio systems. After all, just because something sounds great in a clean studio doesn't mean it will sound right on a boombox, headphones, or in the car.

The “Crafted in a Mercedes” setup is far superior to the days when I recorded the mix on tape and tried it out in my Volkswagen. At the announcement event in Santa Monica, I sat in the back seat of a Mercedes-Maybach with Aaron Forbesmixer and producer for artists such as Billie Eilish, Halsey and many others. Using your personal laptop working Professional tools Connecting to the Maybach, he played Finneas' track. With this setup there was no need to go back to the studio to adjust anything. Instead, he could make any necessary changes to the car's sound since the Maybach has an Atmos system, including an overhead speaker between the two glass roofs.

Screens on the backs of the front seats displayed a Dolby Atmos mixing interface showing where the virtual speakers were located. If he had an artist with him rather than yours truly, it would certainly make things easier than constantly leaning over the large middle armrest to point out objects on the laptop screen.

More atmosphere in cars?

Car audio is big business. A much bigger business than home audio. Several traditional speaker manufacturers have told me that sales of their entire line of home speaker systems hardly represent a rounding error compared to their car audio business.

Over the past few years, Samsung has made significant strides in the car audio market. With the purchase of Harman International, it already owned a large share of the market, and since then it has been gobbling up audio brands such as Candy. At this point, if it's not Bose (and its subsidiaries) or Focal-JMLab (ditto), it's most likely Samsung/Harman, regardless of brand. With very few exceptions, especially in this story with the Maybach Burmester system, there are three main companies that make all the “high end” car audio systems.

At least for now, everyone is doing a decent job of making car audio as good as possible. The car audio system is complex in many ways, and if you don't remember what the radio sounded like in older cars, consider yourself lucky.

So there are actually two versions of the same question here: will we get more Dolby Atmos in cars and will that lead to more Dolby Atmos music, or will we get more Atmos music and will that lead to more Atmos car audio systems? I think it's the first one. If there's demand, or if it makes it more likely that consumers will upgrade to a better system in their next car, you can bet you'll start seeing more of it.

Spatial sound is of great importance in a car. Unlike most homes, there are already multiple speakers positioned to provide surround sound. But where to get the content? Considering how long it took Spotify will add lossless audioI wouldn't expect Atmos to be added here anytime soon. So that leaves Apple Music, Amazon and Tidal for Atmos mixes.

As for “Crafted in a Mercedes,” Mercedes said aspects of the setup, such as special speaker controls, are being considered for production. So, for now, you can't have your own traveling Atmos studio unless you're very passionate about it. Making a van with your own hands with speakers and acoustic treatment. Let's hope we see Atmos in some less luxurious cars.

side B

Although the purpose of the visit was the car and collaboration, I love recording studios. There is a certain aesthetic that is common to all the ones I have visited. I'll call it “creative comfort.” Here are some additional photos if you're interested.

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In addition to camera lighting and display technologies, Jeff writes photo essays about cool museums and other things, including nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, Trips of 10,000 miles.

Also check Budget travel for dummieshis guide and his bestselling science fiction novel about city-sized submarines. You can follow him Instagram And YouTube.