[Skwaidu]

Skwai said: "...we recorded it with Atmos in mind..."

Would I be right in thinking that Atmos - like any other format - works best when the project is tracked with that release format in mind?

Sure, or even has production and arrangement decisions done with surround / immersive in mind. One cool trick is to monitor tracking in quad, to get an easily manageable glimpse of how spatial positioning of musical elements and/or ambiences would work in the mix (I actually monitored the jazz thing in 7.1.2 as it was tracked in my own room, which I rarely do with ensembles due to the modest size of our recording spaces).

The Atmos remixes are often done out of stereo stems printed from the original st mix session, so that limits many options already (actually panning mono elements discretely or using multichannel reverbs well is harder if the stems are wet etc).

Although interesting and non-shit remixes *are* possible and there are many really impressive and good examples, but quite a bit of the "fly shit around" mentality around as well. Mr Big's "To Be With You" is one of the shittiest; During the end chorus choir section the lead voc adlibs are what feels like +8dB and flying around the room. Incredibly sad.