Requirements and recommendations

Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology / (ICST) Zurich University of the Arts

Requirements:

Plugin format
VST3 / AU / LV2
Mac OS X
OS X 10.9 +
Intel CPU (minimum 2 GHz recommended)
M1 / M2 compatibility (arm64)
Windows
Windows 7 through 11

Intel-compatible CPU with SSE2 instruction set (minimum 2GHz recommended)
DAW support
Reaper [1] / Ardour 8.4 [2]
(other DAW not tested)
Most VST3 / AU - compatible hosts running on a supported operating system 64-bit support only
Supported sample rates
44.1 / 48 / 88.2 / 96 / 176.4 / 192 kHz


Ambisonics HOA
First to seventh Order
AmbiX
adopts Apple's Core Audio Format or .caf. It scales to arbitrarily high orders and has no practically relevant limitation of file size. AmbiX files contain linear PCM data with word lengths of 16, 24, or 32 bit fixed point, or 32 or 64 bit float, at any sample rate valid for .caf. It uses ACN channel ordering with SN3D normalisation. [3]
ACN
WYZX | VTRSU | QOMKLNP
SN3D
stands for Schmidt semi-normalisation and is commonly used in geology and magnetics.



[1] Reaper.fm
[2] Ardour
[3] Ambisonic_data_exchange_formats#AmbiX


Three Party Plugins:

If you want to take your Ambisonics manipulations and transcoding to the next level, we recommend using third-party plug-ins. These plug-ins offer a wide range of features that can significantly improve your audio experience.

  • dearVR AMBI MICRO (free)

    • Mix, monitor, and render Ambisonics tracks right out of the box. Achieve the most accurate spatialization and sound reproduction together with Sennheiser AMBEO's VR mic.
  • AMBEO A-B Converter (free)
    • The IEM Plug-in Suite is a free and Open-Source audio plugin suite including Ambisonic plug-ins up to 7th order created by staff and students of the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics.
    • A collection of open-source VST/LV2 audio plug-ins for producing and reproducing spatial sound scenes.
    • Format™ (FuMa), B-Format™ (Ambix), Mono, Stereo, 5.1, 7.1, 5.1.2, 7.1.2, 5.1.4, 7.1.4
    • ZYLIA Ambisonics Converter (standalone application) converts the ZM-1 multi-channel recordings to Higher Order Ambisonics (HOA) and enables you to prepare 3D audio recordings for playback on the 'Facebook 360' and 'Youtube 360’ platform
    • cross-platform Ambisonic VST, LV2 plug-ins with variable order for use in Digital Audio Workstations like Reaper or Ardour or as Jack standalone applications. The plug-in suite use the ambiX (1) convention (ACN channel order, SN3D normalization, full periphony (3D)) except the sqrt(1/4pi) factor in equation 3. these plug-ins use a recursive implementation of the spherical harmonics, therefore the maximum Ambisonic order is defined at compile time.
    • mcfx is a suite of multichannel VST plug-ins for MacOS, Windows and Linux (mcfx_convolver, mcfx_delay, mcfx_filter, mcfx_gain_delay, mcfx_meter)

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