Is it possible to mix Atmos without some expensive Dolby workstation? I bet you could do something really cool with a good Atmos mix to Fantasia, even if it’s not 100% true to the original Fantasound.
That would be interesting, another way that enthusiasts could mix their own versions. I don’t have Atmos, and I wonder how effective it will be with a stereo source but I think there is potential.
From reading http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/sound/fantasound1.htm I think there where 3 independent sound channels.
Each channel was directed towards a speaker (L C R Ls Rs) according to a control track. Basically they did the mix on playback.The 3 original channels don’t correspond to any specific speakers. Channel 1 could be directed to L at one point, and later on to R. So you absolutely need the control track to recreate it.
In theory Dolby Surround can reproduce the original mix perfectly.
Modern signal processing gives you quite good separation, even with complex sounds.
Dolby Surround could work as an automated approach with it’s ‘steering’ to focus sound on whichever speaker has the loudest waveforms, which is possibly what was done in the 90s. I think a more live approach could be interesting.
While the technical approach is good for a background understanding, I feel what what he have left today, that a dolby-esque mix is about as good as we could get it. This would be going beyond simply creating a 5.1 mix which is what the DVD/BD did and was unsuccessful.
The gif link here shows how Vegas will pan the sound depending on my keyframes.
https://imgur.com/a/c8pKJv0