Carbon and Dolby atmos

[ericlees]

With the new release of. The carbon pre (expander) will the carbon be updated to handle Dolby atmos mixing? Maybe just using eucon monitor tab or something? I mean you can use it for atmos routing everything on the Dolby production suite

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by ericlees

With the new release of. The carbon pre (expander) will the carbon be updated to handle Dolby atmos mixing? Maybe just using eucon monitor tab or something? I mean you can use it for atmos routing everything on the Dolby production suite

If you have enough outputs (you will!), and don’t mind doing monitor control from within DAPS, I don’t see why not.

What it is lacking is the monitor control and speaker management functionality of the MTRX. Presumably Avid has some master plan to unify the two worlds at some point, the idea of stackable I/O with Carbon is super-cool but it needs to integrate with Dante, AES, and existing HDX cards whilst supporting the complex cross point routing that DADman brings. I mean, in an ideal world at least.

[MarkH]

Support from Avid for Atmos with Carbon would be great. I think one challenge is MTRX and MTRX Studio rely on DADman software for Atmos. To support Atmos with Carbon, Avid would have to write the software themselves. Not sure if they are up for that given Carbon's target market. I'd love to be proven otherwise!

[jlthermi]

For those who are wondering how to use Dolby Atmos with Carbon.

You can perfectly well use Dolby Atmos with the Carbon and the Dolby renderer.
You can use the 10 analog outputs + the Adat outputs.

In my case I use Carbon Analog outputs 1 to 8 then Adat outputs 9 to 16. (My first Adat port is not working in that configuration and I don’t know why), So I have 16 outputs. That means 9.1.6. which is already a pretty nice set up.

You can configure the different outputs in the Routing Room set up of the Dolby renderer : 3 to 10 for the analog outputs of the Carbon (1 and 2 are for the monitor outputs) then 21 to 28 for the second Adat port.

You will need something for the monitor control and speaker management. I use an old Yamaha Dm1000 mix console. It may be old but it can be efficient. I can store all the routings, eq, levels etc.. for each loudspeaker and I have up to 20 outputs. It’s probably longer and less precise to set up than the MTRX and the Dadman system but it’s working.
It took me a long time to understand the relation between the Carbon outputs and the Dolby renderer outputs but now it seems to work.

[Megalobass]

I did a lot of tests and one Atmos mix with the Carbon. This interface has a great potential for immersive mixing.
For the monitoring control, I use the SPL MC16, it's simple and efficient.

The two drivers (Pro Tools Reserved and Core Audio) are very practical to work with the Dolby Renderer in simple way and without changing the I/O every time.

[MarkH]

Originally Posted by Megalobass

I did a lot of tests and one Atmos mix with the Carbon. This interface has a great potential for immersive mixing.
For the monitoring control, I use the SPL MC16, it's simple and efficient.

The two drivers (Pro Tools Reserved and Core Audio) are very practical to work with the Dolby Renderer in simple way and without changing the I/O every time.

Great to hear. Thanks for sharing!

[Megalobass]

Update on my tests with the Carbon in the context of a Dolby Atmos mix.
I've done some very conclusive tests with Ginger Audio's GroundControl Sphere software:
https://gingeraudio.com/groundcontrol-sphere/
You can create a very efficient Dolby Atmos workflow with this piece of software. And it adds everything that the Carbon lacks but that is found on the MTRX: delay management, bass management, integration of plug-ins like SoundID, for example.
What's more, it supports the Eucon protocol, giving real support for Atmos and stereo monitoring via Eucon, which is lacking in the current version of the Carbon.

[JanuS]

Hi Megalobass, just curious, because we're in a re-fit of 3 studio's and we're looking into alternative monitoring options:
Is Shere gentle on the GPU? And have you tested Sphere on a M1/M2 machine?

Originally Posted by Megalobass

Update on my tests with the Carbon in the context of a Dolby Atmos mix.
I've done some very conclusive tests with Ginger Audio's GroundControl Sphere software:
https://gingeraudio.com/groundcontrol-sphere/
You can create a very efficient Dolby Atmos workflow with this piece of software. And it adds everything that the Carbon lacks but that is found on the MTRX: delay management, bass management, integration of plug-ins like SoundID, for example.
What's more, it supports the Eucon protocol, giving real support for Atmos and stereo monitoring via Eucon, which is lacking in the current version of the Carbon.

[Megalobass]

Originally Posted by JanuS

Hi Megalobass, just curious, because we're in a re-fit of 3 studio's and we're looking into alternative monitoring options:
Is Shere gentle on the GPU? And have you tested Sphere on a M1/M2 machine?

I tested Sphere only on Mac M1 Pro and M2 Pro. Everything worked perfectly. Once I had a small graphics bug, but it didn't affect operation in any serious way.