The famous classical music label DG (Deutsche Grammophon) held a sharing session with Dolby China on the beijing international music festival in mid-October. I've already introduced this album to you online before:
It is the "Song of the Earth" performed by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Master Yu Long. This album contains two symphonic works composed by the German composer Gustav Mahler and the Chinese composer Mr. Ye Xiaogang in different eras with the same theme (7 Tang poems).
One of the highlights of the album is that it was recorded using Dolby Atmos technology, so the best way to reproduce it is, of course, to play it in a system powered by Dolby Atmos. So, is there a better place in the world to rerun this album than "Dolby Cinema"? In fact, the Beijing International Music Festival was held in a Dolby Cinema auditorium in Beijing, and it is a pity that I, a veteran Dolby Cinema enthusiast, could not rush to listen to it because of the epidemic!
Fortunately, probably after hearing my desire to go to the Dolby Cinema to listen to "Song of the Earth", I took advantage of the Opportunity of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra to hold the Meeting Day of the Leader, and the Dolby Theater version of the "Song of the Earth" audition also came to Shanghai!
This time I will definitely not miss the opportunity, yesterday early in the morning rushed to the event venue - Shanghai North Bund Paragon Studios Dolby Cinema Hall! I just watched the Dolby Cinema version of the movie "Mei Yanfang" here two weeks ago, and I praised the audio and visual effects of this theater. Unexpectedly, after just ten days, I was able to sit here again and listen to the Dolby Atmos system in the auditorium
Some on-site information about the meeting day of the head of the group yesterday, I have successively published it on social networks. I'm not a professional symphony fan myself, and I don't know much about the experience of listening to live performances in shanghai only a few times. However, due to the fact that he learned to appreciate music with his father who engaged in folk music since he was a child, his love and understanding of music can still exceed that of ordinary people. Although it is certainly not as good as the symphony and love of the symphony and love of the symphony for decades on the stage, it is still easy to be infected by the atmosphere full of philharmonic emotions in the audience - so although no one brushed Weibo on Saturday morning, I was still very excited to continue to brush the screen over there to share what I saw and heard on the spot.
Of course, the highlight of yesterday's event was, of course, enjoying "Song of the Earth" in the Dolby Cinema Hall. Due to the long time of the original song, two tracks were played in excerpts, namely: the sixth movement of Mahler's symphonic vocal suite "Song of the Earth": Farewell and the sixth movement of Mr. Ye Xiaogang's "Song of the Earth": Su Ye Shi Shan Fang Waiting for Ding Da Bu - Farewell.
In fact, the creative materials of these two pieces are taken from the Tang Dynasty poet Meng Haoran's "Suye Shi Shan Fang Waiting for Ding Dabu" and Wang Wei's "Farewell". But Gustav Mahler is based on Hans Berg's German translation of the Chinese Flute (which is said to have been translated from the French version), and Mr. Ye Xiaogang certainly based it on the original words of Tang poetry— the different cultural contexts and understandings of the poems make the two works on the same theme both distinct and similar (for example, in the end, both express similar emotions about the theme of 'farewell').
Frankly speaking, I really don't appreciate the Mahler version sung by the foreigner soprano (this work is relatively niche in China); but Mr. Ye Xiaogang's "Song of the Earth" is much easier to understand because it is accompanied by Chinese lyrics (sung by soprano Zhang Liping), plus Ye Xiaogang's works also include some national instruments (such as cymbals, gongs and other percussion instruments) when playing with a symphony orchestra.
As Director Shuhei of the Symphony Show said, the feeling of listening to the work at the scene of the symphony performance and on the sound at home is completely different, and listening to the symphony work in the Dolby Cinema Hall with the very enveloping and calm Dolby Atmos system is a new feeling!
It is worth noting that unlike the "flying around" sound effects in the movie, The Symphony of Dolby Atmos pays more attention to the accurate positioning and encirclement of the soundstage. Compared to a good stereo system that will portray a symphony orchestra directly in front of you, the dolby Atmos symphony will make your "seat" more advanced:
In my opinion, I was in the conductor's seat – I didn't "go deep" inside the orchestra, the whole orchestra was still in front of me (very close) and the pitch was spread out in a very wide horizontal direction! Such a wide sound field even gave me the illusion that I was listening to a symphony with open headphones, but its knot center did not gather above my head like a headset, but stood normally in front of me, and the whole orchestra was neatly arranged on the left and right sides with this center.
Corresponding to the wide unfolding orchestra "in front of me" is the sense of realistic space created by the spatial reverb. Despite the large size of the Paragon Dolby Cinema Hall, I can clearly feel that the recording space I am in is far larger than the auditorium, and I am clearly in the "wonton skin" (this is everyone's nickname for the new concert hall of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra at 1380 Fuxing Middle Road)! This kind of incredibly real sense of space restoration is something I have never felt before. I think this is because I haven't had much of a chance to experience the same scenes as in the movie, but I've heard it in concert halls many times ,including the cassation wonton skin).
In addition, if Mahler's version of "Song of the Earth" is still more authentic in terms of recording, then Mr. Ye Xiaogang's version of "Song of the Earth" is likely to have made some breakthrough attempts in post-production using Dolby Atmos technology. For example, at the end of the sixth movement, the gong that suddenly sounds in a drum that rolls like far thunder is not fixed in a certain position inside the orchestra, but is obviously located high above the listener's head and moves rapidly with the sound of the gong - this sound positioning is obviously different from the live recording scene, but it makes the mood of the finale more lofty and long, evocative!
Finally, I have to show off to you: there was a prize QA session before yesterday's event. There were three questions, the first two of which were related to turning in/music, and I didn't have time to raise my hand to answer them even though I thought of the answers.
The last question is about the technical aspect, which is to ask one of the previous speakers, Zhang Yan (Technical Director of Dolby China), who mentioned which two key technologies are used by Dolby Cinema? Ha, isn't this topic hitting the muzzle of my gun? I immediately raised my hand and answered the correct answer: The two technologies are Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. As a result, the QA award, the CD record of "Song of the Earth" signed by Mr. Yu Long, artistic director and conductor of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, was collected by me
The record was actually a double CD package, recording two versions of Mahler and Ye Xiaogang's "Song of the Earth". On the front cover of the album, there is a signature of Mr. Yu Long... (Allow me to laugh for a moment). Of course, due to CD carrier limitations, this version should not have Dolby Atmos information.
But if you want to listen to the Dolby Atmos version of "Song of the Earth," there's no problem: The album has now landed on Apple Music. As long as your device supports Dolby Atmos, the badge will appear on the AM Song Playback page. Theoretically, even if you use only a pair of headphones, you can experience the Dolby Atmos effect, of course, I still recommend that qualified partners use the real Dolby Atmos surround sound system as much as possible to enjoy it...