APPLE SPATIAL AUDIO
Our selection of the best 11 tracks to enjoy on your headphones when using Apple’s new immersive Dolby Atmos-equipped tech
As part of IOS 14, released in September 2020, Apple introduced spatial audio, a technology designed to deliver surround sound and 3D audio for movies and TV shows through headphones from Apple devices. The idea is to recreate the audio experience of a cinema, between your ears.
Apple’s spatial audio is unique in that it doesn’t only provide virtualised surround and Dolby Atmos sound; it also tracks your head movement using accelerometers and gyroscopes in the Airpods Pro and Airpods Max in order to position the sound accurately, and even tracks the position of the iphone or ipad that you’re watching on so that sound is also placed relative to the screen. This means that even if you turn your head or reposition your device, dialogue will still be anchored to the actor on the screen. Movies and TV shows are where spatial audio all started, but music has now been invited. This year, Apple launched a sound-only implementation of spatial audio – there’s no headtracking involved. It’s powered by Dolby Atmos and means thousands of immersive tracks are now available to subscribers of Apple Music. What’s more, you don’t need a pair of Apple or Beats headphones in order to listen to them from an iphone or ipad – any headphones will work, as long as you enable a specific setting.
Once updated to IOS/IPADOS 14.6, you can go into your iphone or ipad’s Settings and, in Music, you’ll see a new Dolby Atmos option available. This is set to Automatic by default, which means Dolby Atmos spatial audio tracks will play correctly when you’re listening via any W1- or H1-enabled pair of Apple or Beats headphones, but not when you’re using third-party headphones. However, if you switch this option to Always On, even non-apple headphones will play back the tracks correctly.
You can also listen to these spatial audio tracks through your iphone or ipad’s built-in speakers – but not older models.
“The speakers built into an iphone XS or later (except iphone SE), 12.9-inch ipad Pro (3rd generation or later), 11-inch ipad Pro or ipad Air (4th generation) are supported,” reads Apple documentation.
So, the spatial audio music party is in full flow and, so long as you own a supported Apple device and subscribe to Apple Music, you’re invited. But where should you start? We’ve immersed ourselves for hours and below is our pick of some of the best tracks to experience this all-new 3D audio technology.
Weaver of Dreams Freddie Hubbard (1961)
At its core, jazz is the interplay between musicians – the way the players and instruments weave around each other in direct reaction to what is being served. Here, Hubbard’s iconic trumpet continually toys with our left ear while drum strokes underpin everything he’s got to say in our right. Expect blue note saxophones plus keys behind you and a melancholy bass over by the kit; you’re right in the middle of the action here. Want to close your eyes and pretend you’re onstage at Birdland in the
“The idea is to recreate the audio experience of a cinema, between your ears”
mid-’70s? Go right ahead. You’ll have to sort your own Manhattan though.
Haule Haule Sukhwinder Singh (2008)
As this slinky, tango-meets-hindi Geet track evolves, voices, strings and an accordion surround you. If it feels like you’re being carried into the dance break of a raucous street party in a joyous Bollywood flick, good – you are. The Hindi language song is part of the soundtrack to the Indian romantic comedy movie Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, composed by Salim–sulaiman. The message is uplifting (be patient, wait for love and good things will come), the time signatures are challenging, and for danceability as well as immersion, it’s a stone-cold 10.
Drive R.E.M. (1992)
The lead single from R.E.M.’S eighth studio album Automatic For The People was apparently the first song Michael Stipe wrote on a computer, and it gets an emphatic new lease of life here. The guitar in our left ear, the bass above our heads, Stipe wandering pensively around the studio and likely throwing a shape or two as the harmonica bursts in on our right; it’s a sad soundscape that now smacks even more of both David Essex’s Rock On and Queen’s musical stylings – both of which have been cited by the band as inspirations behind the song.
Fancy Amaarae (2020)
If Amaarae’s tracks were paintings, they’d be abstract. The Ghanaianamerican
vocalist continues to paint whatever she likes here, bending the sonic format in a marvellous sugar-sweet creation. As one of the pioneers of alté (the alternative new African music genre hailing from Nigeria) the track is underpinned by a DIY, lo-fi feel, but join Ckay, Moliy and others and sit up in the star’s big fat caddy. Now, nod along to the trap beat and enjoy the incredibly immersive ride.
Flight from the City Jóhann Jóhansson (2016)
Using Orpheus (the ancient Greek hero endowed with superhuman musical skills) as his muse, award-winning Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhansson takes us on a minimal, serene but dynamically delightful flight that sees us aim for greatness and soar above the dystopian distortion below us, continually looking for the light. As close as you can get to flying without leaving the ground, CGI visuals or hallucinogens.
Blessings (feat. Drake) Big Sean (2015)
Crisp, honest, raw vocals delivered right to your face. Stream it and the effect is as forceful as if you are Michelle Pfeiffer and Big Sean is Coolio, sitting across the table eyeballing you and spitting lyrics just like in the video for
Gangster’s Paradise. When you keep company with Kanye West and Drake, you have to know how to make yourself heard, and Big Sean is very much in his element here.
Ocean Eyes Billie Eilish (2017)
It’s nigh on impossible to believe that when Eilish first recorded this track from her bedroom, she was just 14. The vocal in this, her debut song (written and produced by her then 17-year-old brother) is mature, assured and yet ethereal in this re-recorded version. It’s almost unnerving as extra, layered voices come at you from all directions. Then, as the track progresses and vocal stylings surround you, a percussion loop joins in on your right side, almost within touching distance – but always just beyond reach as it, too, starts to circle.
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds The Beatles (1967)
A controversial one, this – you may hate it. The opening synth snakes between our ears in this remix, grazing our cerebellum en route. The rhythm guitar is more impactful on our left and the mix right before the chorus is altogether… different. The thing is, that’s just one of the beauties of spatial audio: extra pieces of information present themselves. Perhaps not all of them will be welcome, but it’s an eye-opener to learn that they were even there in the first place. Along with copious amounts of LSD.
This London hip-hop track heard in immersive spatial audio is tough to top, in all honesty. The intro alone drops you several storeys down into the thumping heart of a brooding Brixton-meets-croydon scene – and into the domain of two leviathans of UK music. Step inside their world: key samples, beat loops, treatments and most of all, their considered annunciation. It’s important.
Die Walküre, Act III Ride Of The Valkyries Wagner (1851)
Want to pretend you’re Ben Gernon, conducting the London Philharmonic at Abbey Road Studios? Here you go. Turn your head to the left and direct the strings. Then, face forward for the omnipresent horns. Flutes and oboes are in front of them, closest to you, and off to the right you need the double basses to hold everything in check. And cutting through this intense wall of sound there’s a triangle – don’t forget that or the whole thing will be ruined. Spatial audio gets it so very right here. Glorious.
You Ain’t the Problem Michael Kiwanuka (2019)
Kiwanuka told Apple Music, “You Ain’t The Problem is a celebration, me loving humans. We forget how amazing we are. Social media’s part of this – all these filters hiding things that we think people won’t like, things we think don’t quite fit in… I wanted to write a song saying, ‘You’re not the problem. You just have to continue being you more, go deeper within yourself.’ That’s where the magic comes – as opposed to cutting things away and trying to erode what really makes you.” And remember, this is the man who was asked to join Kanye West’s Yeezus sessions but snuck out silently, suffering from a nasty bout of impostor syndrome. Here, the track is opened out to expose Kiwanuka’s very soul. There’s space between the crowd and “la la la la la” hook to give the vocal extra room to shine, and the effect is quite remarkable. Clash Dave and Stormzy (2021)