[Sursound] Ambisonics and Binaural in Reaper

Discussion:

James Anthony Enda Bates

2015-05-27 20:49:41 UTC

Hi Jake/Martin, here are those videos I mentioned.

They're somewhat rough and ready, but they should give you the basic idea
of how to setup ambisonics encoding and decoding to binaural in Reaper.
The AmbiX suite have a number of really useful plugins (thanks Matthias!)
including a binaural decoder. There's also a very handy converter plugin to
shift between different formulations of ambisonics (Furse-Malham, SN3, etc)
and the video shows how you can use this to mix and match different
encoders and decoders (the Wigware and Ambi-X plugins are used in the
video).

So, if you have a piece encoded using the WigWare plugins, you don't need
to replace all of the encoders with the AmbiX plugins (or do some math!) in
order to use the AmbiX decoder.

The second video shows how to decode a soundfield mic recording
specifically, and if I get a chance, I'll try to put together some template
Reaper projects too.
All the best,
Enda

- www.endabates.net
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Martin Richards

2015-05-27 20:57:47 UTC

Permalink

Many thanks - look forward to trying at the weekend. Martin

Sent from my iPhone

Post by James Anthony Enda Bates
Hi Jake/Martin, here are those videos I mentioned.
http://youtu.be/FZ5sdldXo-Y
http://youtu.be/2cDAVFWMiEw
They're somewhat rough and ready, but they should give you the basic idea
of how to setup ambisonics encoding and decoding to binaural in Reaper.
The AmbiX suite have a number of really useful plugins (thanks Matthias!)
including a binaural decoder. There's also a very handy converter plugin to
shift between different formulations of ambisonics (Furse-Malham, SN3, etc)
and the video shows how you can use this to mix and match different
encoders and decoders (the Wigware and Ambi-X plugins are used in the
video).
So, if you have a piece encoded using the WigWare plugins, you don't need
to replace all of the encoders with the AmbiX plugins (or do some math!) in
order to use the AmbiX decoder.
The second video shows how to decode a soundfield mic recording
specifically, and if I get a chance, I'll try to put together some template
Reaper projects too.
All the best,
Enda
- www.endabates.net
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Matthias Kronlachner

2015-05-28 05:32:59 UTC

Permalink

Hi Enda,

thanks for the nice tutorial videos! I wanted to do something like this for
a long time...

Some comments:

Reaper general:
Reaper allows to send an arbitrary number of channels to another track
and/or soundcard. You don't need to use several stereo send ports. This is
a main feature for Ambisonics in Reaper and will save you a lot of clicking
if you use higher orders (and also for 1st order)!
Therefore, investigate the feature "Multichannel source" while adding a new
send and select a range of channels (eg. 1-4 for 1st order, or 1-36 for 5th
order).

Decoder:
If you have the presets in the appropriate folder on the harddrive (look at
the README) they will appear in the menu and you don't have to load the
presets from the file dialog.

Decoder Presets:
You are using decoder presets (ring24, iem-cube) which are intended for
higher orders. Unfortunately you will not get an error message but the
results will not be that great.
Therefore you are playing back 1st order signals, truncating all higher
order components, and too many loudspeakers which results in most
loudspeakers playing the same signal and a blurry result.
I just realized that the 1st order decoder does not tell you that the
loaded preset actually does have a much larger matrix with an Ambisonic
input channel count >4.
I know the presets are not well documented, therefore this one is on me.....

Thanks for the work!
Maybe next time contact me beforehand you do a tutorial about ambiX so we
can talk things through.

Matthias

Post by James Anthony Enda Bates
Hi Jake/Martin, here are those videos I mentioned.
http://youtu.be/FZ5sdldXo-Y
http://youtu.be/2cDAVFWMiEw
They're somewhat rough and ready, but they should give you the basic idea
of how to setup ambisonics encoding and decoding to binaural in Reaper.
The AmbiX suite have a number of really useful plugins (thanks Matthias!)
including a binaural decoder. There's also a very handy converter plugin to
shift between different formulations of ambisonics (Furse-Malham, SN3, etc)
and the video shows how you can use this to mix and match different
encoders and decoders (the Wigware and Ambi-X plugins are used in the
video).
So, if you have a piece encoded using the WigWare plugins, you don't need
to replace all of the encoders with the AmbiX plugins (or do some math!) in
order to use the AmbiX decoder.
The second video shows how to decode a soundfield mic recording
specifically, and if I get a chance, I'll try to put together some template
Reaper projects too.
All the best,
Enda
- www.endabates.net
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James Anthony Enda Bates

2015-05-28 16:18:09 UTC

Permalink

Hi Matthias,
yeah there are a number of things I want to improve in those videos,
some of which you've pointed out, and that's the main reason why the videos
are still unlisted on YouTube. I wasnt actually planning on showing them to
anyone yet, but a few people on the list were asking about how to do this
so I thought I'd just share them to the list now (but not to the public at
large yet!).
I do indeed plan on redoing these before I make them fully available to the
pubic though so I'll certainly run it by you first before I do that.

- I did actually spot the multichannel send however there's a small bug in
Reaper which threw me a little (basically the multichannel option on the
receiving end doesn't appear as an option until you close the i/o window
and reopen it, which I just realized). That is definitely a far more
efficient way of doing it though.
- I have the presets setup correctly on my PC but I only realized that
wasn't the case on my Mac while I was in the middle of recording the
video! :)
- Yeah a definite indication of the intended order of all the presets would
be good, as of course you could decode b-format to a ring of 24, although
that's not whats implemented here.

Will be in touch once I redo these anyway.
Thanks,
e

--
- www.endabates.net
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Jake Williams

2015-06-10 20:16:03 UTC

Permalink

thanks enda - just seen this will check them out !

Jake Williams

+44 7932 645145
http://www.jakeone.co.uk
http://www.fliesandflies.com

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