Free spatializer/binaural plugins

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joeyluck
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06 Aug 2017

Here are some free spatializer/binaural plugins.


Oculus Spatializer
https://developer.oculus.com/downloads/unity/ (download 'Oculus Spatializer DAW' Mac or Windows)

Oculus-Spatializer.png
Oculus-Spatializer.png (53.29 KiB) Viewed 119276 times


AMBEO Orbit
https://en-us.sennheiser.com/ambeo-blueprints-downloads

Image



Audio 360 / Facebook 360 from Facebook (Two Big Ears)
https://facebook360.fb.com/spatial-workstation/
Facebook acquired the company, Two Big Ears, making their Spatial Workstation free.

fb360.png
fb360.png (320.1 KiB) Viewed 119276 times

The Oculus one and Sennheiser Ambeo are single plugins and a little more straight forward. Whereas the Facebook ones are a bundle of plugins that work together (Spatializer, Control, and a few others).

Both were easy to download. Oculus also offers some free sounds under a Creative Commons license via that same link. From what I understand, Google VR/Jump uses AmbiX which I haven't checked out yet: http://www.matthiaskronlachner.com/?p=2015



IEM Plug-in Suite
https://plugins.iem.at/

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aeox
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06 Aug 2017

joeyluck wrote:
06 Aug 2017
Downside of the Oculus one is it appears you can't automate. You can however with FB360.
I got it to automate by clicking the automate button and then moving a parameter rather than clicking, which is what usually works.

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joeyluck
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06 Aug 2017

aeox wrote:
06 Aug 2017
joeyluck wrote:
06 Aug 2017
Downside of the Oculus one is it appears you can't automate. You can however with FB360.
I got it to automate by clicking the automate button and then moving a parameter rather than clicking, which is what usually works.
Ah ok. Good to know. Thanks. I missed trying that. I had first tried to assign CV with no luck [EDIT] (working now, not sure what was wrong before). And then tried to automate by recording my mouse actions on the XY pad which didn't work.

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demt
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06 Aug 2017

cool
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WongoTheSane
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06 Aug 2017

Thanks for sharing, Joey, I'm going to try the Oculus one tonight.

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joeyluck
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06 Aug 2017

WongoTheSane wrote:
06 Aug 2017
Thanks for sharing, Joey, I'm going to try the Oculus one tonight.
It's pretty cool :thumbs_up:

I just figured out that if I place one on each separate track, I can then control the placement of those tracks (the dots) from any one instance of the Oculus Spatializer (under configure you can label and change the colors of the dots). I had been trying to make it work using one instance of the Spatializer and the additional inputs on the back and wasn't having any luck.

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joeyluck
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06 Aug 2017

And head tracking with an Oculus Rift!

I may have to get one now...at some point :puf_smile:

@3:47




Clearly I'm a bit late to this. But of course, the ability to do this inside Reason is new to me.

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07 Aug 2017

Does the Oculus do Doppler-effect?
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Tayman
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11 Aug 2017

Loqeue wrote:
11 Aug 2017
I tried these amazing pre workouts but didnt got quite usefull results and the Ambix stuff seem to be complicated. Maybe someone can post a dump lie and example?
These are awesome, thanks Joey.
Last edited by Tayman on 30 Jul 2021, edited 6 times in total.

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Loque
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11 Aug 2017

I tried them, but didnt got quite usefull results and the Ambix stuff seem to be complicated. Maybe someone can post a dump lie and useful example?
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joeyluck
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11 Aug 2017

Loque wrote:
11 Aug 2017
I tried them, but didnt got quite usefull results and the Ambix stuff seem to be complicated. Maybe someone can post a dump lie and useful example?
I've been using them mostly for placing sound effects and creating motion. But mostly just testing and playing around. Keep in mind that it has a lot to do with your perception. For instance, you can hear the results better when you can imagine, or better yet, see where the sound is coming from. In the VR world, when a sound comes from somewhere, but has no visual assignment, they refer to it as a phantom source. When that sound can be assigned to an object, it has a better chance of being interpreted as being in different areas of that space. Even when looking at the XZ/Y pads, it can be difficult since they themselves aren't 3D (it's either a 2D view of the XZ axis or XY axis). Also, working with the reflection and reverb helps as well.

The Oculus plugin just requires the one spatializer plugin. And when you place an additional one on each track you can control the placement of each of those sounds from any one instance of the plugin, which is pretty great. The Oculus plugin only deals with placing mono sources or signals within a space. Most sources, such as a human voice comes from a mono source. It's the space that makes it 3D. But say want to recreate a stereo source within the space (like a stereo speaker setup), you can however assign a left channel to one instance of the plugin and the right channel to another instance of the plugin and move them independently around the space.

The FB360 plugin requires that you place a spacializer on a track, but also that you place the Control plugin after it, such as on the Master. With the FB360 plugin you can choose 'stereo' as the source and move the different left and right channels around freely to spread the sound. You can route more sources to a single instance of this plugin (up to 7).

Both can be automated. But I have better results from the FB360 one when using the pad. With the Oculus plugin, while I record my motions with the pad, the knobs move accordingly, but at playback it's quite different; slower and smaller increments. Not sure what's going on there. But I can automate the knobs just fine.

I don't have any examples saved to share. Just been playing around with it. It would be cool to get into 3D sound for VR! I design sound for theatre and escape rooms where I assign different sounds to come from actual different sources via QLab. I could at least see myself using this to get ideas for placement before I load into a theatre. There are some great examples on YouTube if you might find them helpful or inspirational.

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Loque
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11 Aug 2017

joeyluck wrote:
11 Aug 2017
Loque wrote:
11 Aug 2017
I tried them, but didnt got quite usefull results and the Ambix stuff seem to be complicated. Maybe someone can post a dump lie and useful example?
I've been using them mostly for placing sound effects and creating motion. But mostly just testing and playing around. Keep in mind that it has a lot to do with your perception. For instance, you can hear the results better when you can imagine, or better yet, see where the sound is coming from. In the VR world, when a sound comes from somewhere, but has no visual assignment, they refer to it as a phantom source. When that sound can be assigned to an object, it has a better chance of being interpreted as being in different areas of that space. Even when looking at the XZ/Y pads, it can be difficult since they themselves aren't 3D (it's either a 2D view of the XZ axis or XY axis). Also, working with the reflection and reverb helps as well.

The Oculus plugin just requires the one spatializer plugin. And when you place an additional one on each track you can control the placement of each of those sounds from any one instance of the plugin, which is pretty great. The Oculus plugin only deals with placing mono sources or signals within a space. Most sources, such as a human voice comes from a mono source. It's the space that makes it 3D. But say want to recreate a stereo source within the space (like a stereo speaker setup), you can however assign a left channel to one instance of the plugin and the right channel to another instance of the plugin and move them independently around the space.

The FB360 plugin requires that you place a spacializer on a track, but also that you place the Control plugin after it, such as on the Master. With the FB360 plugin you can choose 'stereo' as the source and move the different left and right channels around freely to spread the sound. You can route more sources to a single instance of this plugin (up to 7).

Both can be automated. But I have better results from the FB360 one when using the pad. With the Oculus plugin, while I record my motions with the pad, the knobs move accordingly, but at playback it's quite different; slower and smaller increments. Not sure what's going on there. But I can automate the knobs just fine.

I don't have any examples saved to share. Just been playing around with it. It would be cool to get into 3D sound for VR! I design sound for theatre and escape rooms where I assign different sounds to come from actual different sources via QLab. I could at least see myself using this to get ideas for placement before I load into a theatre. There are some great examples on YouTube if you might find them helpful or inspirational.
Thx for the hints. FB360 is VST 3 only or do i miss something?
Reason12, Win10

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joeyluck
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11 Aug 2017

Loque wrote:
11 Aug 2017
joeyluck wrote:
11 Aug 2017


I've been using them mostly for placing sound effects and creating motion. But mostly just testing and playing around. Keep in mind that it has a lot to do with your perception. For instance, you can hear the results better when you can imagine, or better yet, see where the sound is coming from. In the VR world, when a sound comes from somewhere, but has no visual assignment, they refer to it as a phantom source. When that sound can be assigned to an object, it has a better chance of being interpreted as being in different areas of that space. Even when looking at the XZ/Y pads, it can be difficult since they themselves aren't 3D (it's either a 2D view of the XZ axis or XY axis). Also, working with the reflection and reverb helps as well.

The Oculus plugin just requires the one spatializer plugin. And when you place an additional one on each track you can control the placement of each of those sounds from any one instance of the plugin, which is pretty great. The Oculus plugin only deals with placing mono sources or signals within a space. Most sources, such as a human voice comes from a mono source. It's the space that makes it 3D. But say want to recreate a stereo source within the space (like a stereo speaker setup), you can however assign a left channel to one instance of the plugin and the right channel to another instance of the plugin and move them independently around the space.

The FB360 plugin requires that you place a spacializer on a track, but also that you place the Control plugin after it, such as on the Master. With the FB360 plugin you can choose 'stereo' as the source and move the different left and right channels around freely to spread the sound. You can route more sources to a single instance of this plugin (up to 7).

Both can be automated. But I have better results from the FB360 one when using the pad. With the Oculus plugin, while I record my motions with the pad, the knobs move accordingly, but at playback it's quite different; slower and smaller increments. Not sure what's going on there. But I can automate the knobs just fine.

I don't have any examples saved to share. Just been playing around with it. It would be cool to get into 3D sound for VR! I design sound for theatre and escape rooms where I assign different sounds to come from actual different sources via QLab. I could at least see myself using this to get ideas for placement before I load into a theatre. There are some great examples on YouTube if you might find them helpful or inspirational.
Thx for the hints. FB360 is VST 3 only or do i miss something?
Unless the available formats are different on Windows? I'm using VST 2.4 on Mac with Reason.

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joeyluck
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11 Aug 2017

For those interested, I just heard back from Oculus about the automation issue and they said they are working on a fix :puf_smile:

Sorped
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13 Aug 2017

joeyluck wrote:
07 Aug 2017
Sorped wrote:
07 Aug 2017
Does the Oculus do Doppler-effect?
No, but the Facebook 360 one does
Thanks :thumbs_up:
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Loque
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13 Aug 2017

joeyluck wrote:
11 Aug 2017
Loque wrote:
11 Aug 2017

Thx for the hints. FB360 is VST 3 only or do i miss something?
Unless the available formats are different on Windows? I'm using VST 2.4 on Mac with Reason.
Well, maybe there is really only VST3 on Windows available. Can someone else confirm?
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selig
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15 Aug 2017

Not at all free, but has anyone checked out Fiedler Audio Stage yet:
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... f589b27721

Currently on sale for $99, and looks pretty cool!
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joeyluck
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16 Aug 2017

selig wrote:
15 Aug 2017
Not at all free, but has anyone checked out Fiedler Audio Stage yet:
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... f589b27721

Currently on sale for $99, and looks pretty cool!
Hadn't seen this one. Thanks for sharing. Although I personally am more interested in the '3D' spatializers. I have Panagement CM which is pretty good, but it too wasn't quite what I was looking for.

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cosignsessions
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18 Aug 2017

Thanks for the heads up on these. I was going to demo Stage...now I have something to shootout the plug and maybe keep money in my pocket!

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cosignsessions
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19 Aug 2017

The spatializer are very cool and helpful with placing sounds anywhere in the soundscape. Stage is a mix fattner/blur type of unit. Really dislike the colour section on Stage. Couldn't find anything it made sound better to my ears (which aren't that great to begin with!). The ability to push the effect in Stage off to the sides using the m/s function is pretty sweet and helps 'declutter' the middle even at modest amounts. Kinda cool to automate sounds that 'rush in' by setting it wide to the sides and ending towards the middle. Can use it to diffuse risers as well I suppose. I preferred the Oculus spatializer because it's one plug and doesn't require a fancy chain of encoder/decoder like FB360. Now back to using Oculus to make this guitar lead fade out like a jet flying overhead!

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raymondh
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12 Apr 2020

I've just discovered the AMBEO Orbit. Wow! Much better than the Revolution panner RE!


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joeyluck
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12 Apr 2020

Thanks for the heads up. I have Panagement CM, which turns out to have less available features than this...

Looks like v2 still doesn't offer 360 binaural panning (just sides and front). But worth a look! Thanks.

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