This is a little off topic, but it feels like Tidal almost doesn't want me to find Dolby Atmos tracks - not just in the car, in general. If I search on an artist like Jack Johnson, I don't see the Dolby Atmos version of Meet the Moonlight listed as one of the albums. If I search on Jack Johnson dolby or Jack Johnson atmos or Meet the Moonlight dolby or Meet the Moonlight atmos, it doesn't show up as a search result. I can only seem to find it if I go to the Dolby Atmos genre "page" (in an of itself hard to find) and manually grovel through what's there. Even then, the organization is baffling. When I look at one of the various lists of albums, they don't seem to be alpha by artist or alpha by title. Even worse, if I look at the list of tracks, I can't even sort by title or artist or anything. Do others find the useability of Tidal (in the car, on the phone, or PC app) lacking? Or is there a better way I just haven't discovered?
Why does Tidal make it hard to find Dolby Atmos music
- Thread starter mraschko
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I completely agree!
yup - totally agree! how hard can it be to simply add a check box that says 'only return dolby atmos recordings'! they obviously track that as meta data! i've had SOME luck actually typing out 'dolby atmos <then the song/genre i'm looking for>' - but now that i think about it, maybe only genre actually returns anything... i'll have to try that specifically
Yeah. it's as if Tidal is expecting you to think ATMOS, then artist. When really you want to think Artist, then ATMOS.
I have major issues with the way most music apps think, to be honest. My brain always goes Artist -> Album (sorted by year) -> Track. I never want to simply search for a song or a genre. I always know specifically what I want and which album that track is on. And I always think of albums in the order they were released. And then I usually want to listen to the entire album, anyway.
But I'm goofy that way.
I have major issues with the way most music apps think, to be honest. My brain always goes Artist -> Album (sorted by year) -> Track. I never want to simply search for a song or a genre. I always know specifically what I want and which album that track is on. And I always think of albums in the order they were released. And then I usually want to listen to the entire album, anyway.
But I'm goofy that way.
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Yeah, I've spent a lot of time trying to find the best way to find Atmos tracks on Tidal and there isn't one. Searching in the Lucid is difficult, and CarPlay actually is even harder, so the best way to do it is in the desktop app or on your phone, and what Tidal does is they do have Atmos genres but I don't think about Music as "genre", so as a result you'll miss tons of great stuff if you're only looking at Tidal's 80's Atmos playlist for example. To make matters worse, the tracks are not named consistently, some times it will just say Devo Whip It Atmos Mix, sometimes it will say Prince When Doves Cry (Atmos Mix), sometimes it will just say Atmos, there's just way too much inconsistency. There should be a way to just add "Atmos" to the search term and it should immediately come up as the first choice, but it doesn't. What's also stupid is Tidal actually has plenty of great custom playlists... but only on the phone app. They don't show up at all in CarPlay, you only get "My Mix 1-6", and the only one that shows up in the Lucid version of the app is "My Daily Discovery", you don't get the other playlists aside from My Mix 1-6, and those Tidal playlists aside from My Mix are actually pretty smarty curated and worth listening. And then what's extra frustrating is that while in the Lucid you can get Tidal to play you new music via My Daily Discover, well too bad if you like any of the songs because it won't let you add anything to a playlist or even click "like"! Meanwhile CarPlay does allow you to like the track which then adds it to your saved tracks... but doesn't give you the Daily Discovery playlist to find new music from. It's just a stupid dumb aggravating mess of chaos and inconsistency.
AppleMusic is no better, but the one upside is it allows you to add things to playlists if you like them, which is nice, but it doesn't do Atmos via CarPlay, and also to my ear I've played back identical tracks in Apple Lossless and Tidal Hi Fi Plus formats and Tidal absolutely sounds better in the car, and neither of them sound as good as original files on USB drive. I think the Tidal superior audio quality as compared to Apple Lossless via CarPlay though is that there's something about the Lucid algorithm with Tidal that uses the car's DSP and speakers better, like the bass just sounds fuller and there's more depth of field in Tidal than AppleMusic. And Spotify is the worst in terms of audio quality, but also unfortunately is the best in terms of usability, customizability and music selection and algorithms.
So the TL;DR version is streaming services in the car, and in general in any car, are a total confusing to use half-assed mess where if you want the best features you're stuck with the worst quality.
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The trick I have found is a pain in the ass. It requires using the phone app:
Go to the artist you want. Scroll down and click on the first album.
Once you're in the album, scroll down past the songs to the section that says 'More Albums by <artist>' and click VIEW ALL.
Now you'll see all versions of all their albums, so if any are Atmos, it'll show.
Now go back to the artist and also look under their EPs & Singles because some Atmos releases aren't full albums.
Lather, rinse, repeat for each artist you want to look up.
I haven't found a good way to just search to see if anything is specifically in Atmos. If I know a song title that is definitely Atmos encoded, I'll search for the title and scroll through the list of all searched tracks until I find it.
Make life easier, Tidal!
Go to the artist you want. Scroll down and click on the first album.
Once you're in the album, scroll down past the songs to the section that says 'More Albums by <artist>' and click VIEW ALL.
Now you'll see all versions of all their albums, so if any are Atmos, it'll show.
Now go back to the artist and also look under their EPs & Singles because some Atmos releases aren't full albums.
Lather, rinse, repeat for each artist you want to look up.
I haven't found a good way to just search to see if anything is specifically in Atmos. If I know a song title that is definitely Atmos encoded, I'll search for the title and scroll through the list of all searched tracks until I find it.
Make life easier, Tidal!
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Thanks, I’ll see if I can not lose my patience using that method haha.
I use the Tidal app on my desktop. Search for "Atmos" and it comes up as "Atmos genre." Click then dive into the albums. Looks like Neil Young catalog just got added.
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That works on the iPhone app now also. I see Spice Girls Spice World album is now available in Atmos. My life is complete.
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Thank you for this . I will give it a shot! It seems like the best way to find the ATMOS tracks.
And it's fantastic.
I stumbled on it the other night (when I can't sleep I go to the garage and sit in a very comfortable chair in my climate-controlled acoustically engineered dedicated listening room that all runs on a noiseless DC power supply. (Audiophiles love dirty talk = rooms/rigs ... peter?)
I love Bunny L's reviews here...and as frustrating as it is trying to find a specific artist/music Bunny has a great point: hunting for Atmos took me places I may otherwise not have gone, and it was good. Good music is like pornography = I can't tell you what is but I know it when I get a reaction.
Let's not give any shade to the "regular" tracks. During my late-evening listening sessions in the garage or a few times this summer, parked in the driveway with the windows down, which is not great audio but the video is cool, and it's all nice and fun until it occurs to you the reason it's such a nice world is everyone is asleep...or trying to be asleep....
I was saying the audio, at least in my GT, sourced through the Tidal library, not just the Atmos sutff, has been more than satisfying through the Lucid system. It's seriously good. I have an earworm of Emerson Lake and Palmer classics....it's been days now. I found them about 2AM and it was like acid-flashback in the sensory-deprivation tank space ship: sitting in the closed garage in the locked car all sung and infinitely comfortable eyes closed head full of visions the musicianship, loving the organ (the Lucid does this difficult mass of harmonics and reverbs very very well!). I thought I was sick of listening to ELP. That organ...the MOOG...
Same with the Cream classic "White Room", from my time a big hit but I never really loved it. It's because we never heard it. Listening to the Tidal "White Room" in the Lucid I'm immediately zeroed-in on Peter Ginger Baker's drumming. That is some mind-blowing work...and the other guys are just there to support / back Ginger? Wait, I thought this was an Eric Clapton joint??? I listened to White Room over and over trying to kept time with Ginger Baker then going to his other works and then Zep and Zap I'm off to track down drummers I've listened to but never heard. The sound-staging is just wonderful...never heard anything so clean and accurate. Well done Lucid team.
wait ... what was the question?
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I think you were asking for recommendations for the best sounding Grateful Dead studio album on Tidal: Definitely Blues for Allah.
Yes. Tidal on iOS has an option for volume leveling of tracks, so it can be done. What I don't know is if this is a Tidal API feature that hasn't been implemented by Lucid yet, or if this is something that was developed specifically for the iOS app.
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Yes, but I think it's the source information and whether Tidal classifies the track as Atmos, Max, Hi-Fi, or just High. I'm not a fan of how Tidal has changed up how they name and classify their tracks. Of course I wish the car would tell us if a track is in Hi-Fi or Max quality on the actual in-vehicle screen. Only shows Atmos for now.
The Gun
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Completely agree
Install Tidal app on your Lucid - don’t use CarPlay
Search for Atmos tracks on phone or laptop and whatever you download will be playing on your Lucid because you signed in Tidal app with your Tidal ID and Password - all the Tidal on your phone are now at your disposal in your Lucid
My 2023 Air GT has Surround Sound - Atmos is outstanding / massive upgrade over Spotify
The Gun
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Install Tidal App on your Lucid
Login with your Tidal ID Password
You will have All the tracks album Atmos you have on IPhone or PC
No need for CarPlay - go direct and get all you have elsewhere
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I just have to share this track, recently used as the theme for HBO True Detective, Atmos mix of Billie Eilish’s “bury a friend”. This mix is spoooooky, really excellent use of the surrounds and center channel and amazing use of QUIET empty space, very very clever mix that is enhanced dramatically by Atmos compared to the two channel version. https://tidal.com/track/187933540?u
Fantastic track! But I can't get the picture of the Tarsier from the Sing 2 auditions out of my head now!
