Apple Music 7.1.4 Monterey 12.3.1

Some Dolby Atmos studios are having luck congiguring 7.1.4 output through DANTE Virtual Soundcard in order to route 7.1.4 to their speakers without needing a Dolby Atmos receiver/hdmi. It seems Apple have opened up this possibility in 12.3.1 only. It means e.g. you can play Apple Music Dolby Atmos without any hardware to your 7.1.4 speakers. Some have commented you need to empty Apply Music cache and it's a bit random when it works as 7.1.4 and when you just get 5.1/7.1 surround like before 12.3.1

Hi mates, I am running Mac Os 12.4 which seems to support 7.1.4 configurations.

I configured 7.1.4 from the audio/midi setup (pic attached) but I can just listen 5.1 from Apple Music. Really weird... Any suggestion?

Thanks in advance. Cheers!

Yes things are hotting up! I just managed to put Monterey on an old Mac Pro 2010 lol. I have been writing a couple of albums for 7.1.4. I too am able to get 5.1 natively on some tracks on Apple Music.

Is it true some people have managed a 7.1.4 stream?

I also have this problem, Apple Music only plays in 5.1, I have a correct 7.1.4 configuration running on Dolby Renderer. Has anyone found a solution to this problem? Thanks

Hi there,

You might have better luck asking this question over in Apple Support Communities run by Apple Support.

It's quite certain you can play Apple Music Atmos in 7.1.4 format. I've been using this way to listen to Apple Music with physical multichannel DAC -> 12 active speakers more than a year...

I had the same issue. I fixed it by trying the troubleshoot from Pro Tools Expert here: https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/production-expert-1/how-to-listen-to-dolby-atmos-without-costly-hardware

I ended up using the Blackhole 16ch virtual audio bridge: https://existential.audio/blackhole/

If blackhole doesn't work, try other methods listed in the Pro Tools Expert article.

Hope this helps

can confirm apple music plays 7.1.4. Set to "Automatic", then create a Dante Virtual Soundcard for 16ch. to send to your Dante interface and out to your speakers. with 13 they added 9.1.6 but apple music still only plays 7.1.4

Trolomite, if you're still there, can you explain how you configured Blackhole / AudioMidi etc.? I can't get it to work! Thanks