Harmony Codex Immersive Previews - Good or Bad?

Growing up, we called them "concerts" ;-)

Otherwise, hard pass. Seems like a money-grab. Just my 2¢.

When reading your OP I first thought that your "sitting on the fence" is rather active and that this thread is only contributing to/amplifying the hype of this (if it is one). So, my first reaction would have been: I'll wait to listen to it when it's available and don't care much if it would be in two, six or twelve months...

Then I watched Jim Newstead's video and I understand a bit better what it is about and why you ask this question, although I wouldn't bring this into a good/bad dichotomy.

This "immersive listening" experience makes me think of the acousmatic "concerts" I've attended and they were generally very interesting experiences: not a live concert, but at best someone who "live" mixes the sounds through the dozens and dozens of loudspeakers that were set up in the concert room. These multi-channel sound/music experiences can be really good and are interesting because of the way the musician/artist uses the multi-dimensionality of the sound-stage.

What I understand is that Steven Wilson tries to create this kind of experience for his own music, which doesn't surprise me: he is very good in mixing (for others and in creating his own "original" music). I think the experience to attend to one of those "immersive" listening sessions would be great and I couldn't care less if it was part of a marketing scheme or part of an experiment to make an audience listen to music in those specific conditions. From SW's side, I don't think it is only a marketing thing: I think he is genuinely interested in exploring these acousmatic set-ups and possibilities of rendering sound and music (maybe even more than playing it live). That he found sponsors to do these kind of sessions shows that there is also an interest on the market side; probably more for the experimental side of it than for the commercial side of it, although it can move things forward on both sides.

It can only be good I think (for the experimentation, for the music, for SW, for the sponsors...), even if it is only the happy few who could attend. The main question that remains, for me - and Jim Newstead: will the album be interesting enough if/when it is listened to in a "simple" stereo set-up?

Very good thoughts. I think the OP is feeling like this is 100% a SW snobery kind of event, which it clearly is not. It's been done for decades, having listening events for new albums especially those that are created with an ear towards a very high fidelity perspective, which has always been a part of SW background.

In the audio world, he is considered an excellent mixing/remastering engineer.

This whole Atmos/Immersion thing is new, so Dolby has a vested interest in probably (I'm not sure) sponsoring these kinds of events. Mixing in Dolby Atmos is the new thing for home audio, it does require a pretty expensive investment with all the speakers required but it is focused on the home theater crowd, not really the 2-channel audio crowd. I'll never invest in such a system so does not matter to me but I would enjoy going to one of these events.

I have zero issue with how SW is marketing his new album with this new media format, it is a way to expose more people to his music, which is a main goal of all artists. Clearly marketing new music on websites or music forums like this is almost passé, so artists need to stay in front of change.

If it bothers you, why even click on the YouTube videos?? 

I actually don't mind these events themselves or SW doing them - that's all fine. It's the way some of the participants act which I find annoying. But who knows what I would do if I had been given the opportunity 

Ok so then I don't understand your issue.......You can have the same attitude and gripe of people who have seen Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin or even the Beatles live in concert in the late 60s early 70s, and the droves of people who never did and never will.....

For £80 you can go experience the Tesseract album in DolbyAtmos......... 

It wasn't passé during COVID. Just sayin' - I'm not even sure if that means anything. But Wilson was doing loads of interviews on YouTube then. If these immersive listenings require Apple equipment, does Apple know Wilson used to smash Ipods? 

In summary though, I think all the hype about HC is manufactured on purpose by Wilson because he's been projecting his annoyance of the music industry for some time now.