Free interactive tool · Dolby Atmos

Will your heights be heard?

In an Atmos mix, the speakers above you (the "heights") often sound great on their own, then disappear once the full mix plays. That's called masking: a louder sound covering a quieter one. Try it here. Move a slider, see the answer, and hear it.

🎧 Put on headphones to use the listen buttons
1
Pick a sound for the heightsA copy of the main mix, a warm pad, or a bright shaker.
2
Set how loud they areCompared with the main left and right speakers.
3
Read the answer, then listenSwitch the heights on and off while it plays.
Sound in the heights
quietersame as L/R
How loud each height speaker is compared with the main left and right speakers.
Listen like
"Moment to moment" catches short sounds, like shaker hits, that slip through quiet gaps in the mix.
Listen
It loops. Flip between the two while it plays to hear what the heights add.

What's playing

Your room from above. You're in the middle.

main mixheights (above you)

How masking works

Your ear splits sound into bands, from low bass to high treble. A loud sound covers quieter sounds in the same bands, and a little in the bands next to them.

So heights that share the same frequencies as the main mix get covered first. Heights with something the mix doesn't have, like bright, airy highs, are easier to hear.

Which frequencies get through

Each bar is one band of hearing. Bars that rise above the line are where you'd hear the heights.

heardcovered by the main mix

A common trick: copy the front heights into the rear heights, a little quieter and a little later, so the space feels bigger. A short delay blends in. Too long, and it turns into an echo.

Sound in the heights
at once80 ms
Compared with the main left and right speakers.
Compared with the front heights.
Listen
Try the shaker at 10 ms, then 50 ms, and listen for the echo.

What's playing

Your room from above. You're in the middle.

main mixfront heightsrear heights (delayed)

Blend or echo?

When the same sound comes from two places a few milliseconds apart, you hear one sound from the first place. Past about 35 ms, the second one starts to sound like its own echo.

Do the rear heights stick out?

Every 5 ms, how far the rear heights rise above everything else. Peaks above the line are moments you'd notice them on their own.

Go further

Learn to hear this in real mixes

The Atmos Mix Analysis Workbook walks you through listening to a finished Atmos mix speaker by speaker: what's in the heights, what gets covered, and why. It's a 20-page printable guide with a fully worked example.

Get the free workbook →

What's actually being played?

The main mix is steady noise in the left and right speakers, standing in for a dense song. The heights play the sound you pick. It's built to show the idea clearly, not to sound like music.

How does it decide?

It works out what reaches each of your ears, splits that into 40 bands like the inner ear does, and checks whether the heights are louder than what the main mix covers in any band.

How accurate is it?

Treat it as a guide. It's a simplified teaching model with a generic head, and it hasn't been tested against listeners yet. Real ears usually do a few dB better than it predicts.