Ambisonic Toolkit for Reaper

[junh1024]

Originally Posted by musicbynumbers

Side note.. Any advice on on decoding ambisonics without buying the official dolby decoder. Looking for a digital solution to go with my speakers.

The height speakers will also be nice for ambisonics too!

Not sure dolby has ambi decoders.

ATK has decoders. Also https://www.york.ac.uk/sadie-project/ambidec.html to be used with http://www.matthiaskronlachner.com/?p=2015

[jm duchenne]

Considering the microphones, you could take a look at the Zylia :
http://www.zylia.co/

I have one, together with an Ambeo and a Brahma (I had a Tetramic too but it was too noisy), and the 3rd order decoding makes a real improvement, even if the mic quality itself is behind the Ambeo (but the price too !).

Being able to do the recording with a lightweight tablet is also a nice alternative to an expensive recorder...

[Dannii]

Originally Posted by musicbynumbers

Just to say. I've got a guy in the UK who is making his first 2nd order mic (but he makes other custom mics for sale too so he knows his stuff!)

He should be done with calibration and decoding software etc on it in the next few weeks.

I'll let you guys know how it went (when I have it in my hands) and if he's up for making more then I'll pass on his details I can't say price yet as this was a bit cheaper than he might sell them for normally but will say that the zoom f8 and the mic was definitely worth getting over say the sennheiser mic!

Got a zoom f8 to go with it as the sound devices only had 4 ins and the zoom can Gang all 8 ins. It's also as quiet as the sound devices we have so win win!

Will do a review once I have it.

Side note.. Any advice on on decoding ambisonics without buying the official dolby decoder. Looking for a digital solution to go with my speakers.

The height speakers will also be nice for ambisonics too!

I'm definitely interested in keeping up with the progress of this mic.

Regarding Ambi decoding, along with the ATK decoders, there's also the free ones in the Blue Ripple Core suite (although they are horizontal only and don't decode height).
Google the Bruce Wiggins decoders too. He has a variety of different decoders for free which are quite good.

[Dannii]

Originally Posted by jm duchenne

Considering the microphones, you could take a look at the Zylia :
http://www.zylia.co/

I have one, together with an Ambeo and a Brahma (I had a Tetramic too but it was too noisy), and the 3rd order decoding makes a real improvement, even if the mic quality itself is behind the Ambeo (but the price too !).

Being able to do the recording with a lightweight tablet is also a nice alternative to an expensive recorder...

I've been keeping up with the progress of this since their early crowd funding days. I've been in touch with their team too.
The thing holding me back is the necessity of a computer of some sort for recording. A fair part of my Ambi recording is location work and I'm after something that will work with my 744T recorder.

Your experience with the noise of the Tetramic is one of the things that held me back from purchasing one.

[musicbynumbers]

Sorry guys, I meant to say "atmos" decoding rather than Ambisonics. Got Ambisonics stuff sorted (thanks to this thread!) but the dolby atmos stuff is a pain for sure.

Will probably leave atmos decoding till a company needs it and then I'll buy the proper decoder (sigh, hate giving money to dolby!)

ReaDave.. Will let you know how the mic goes.

[Dannii]

Originally Posted by musicbynumbers

Sorry guys, I meant to say "atmos" decoding rather than Ambiesonics. Got Ambisonics stuff sorted (thanks to this thread!) but the dolby atmos stuff is a pain for sure.

Will probably leave atmos decoding till a company needs it and then I'll buy the proper decoder (sigh, hate giving money to dolby!)

ReaDave.. Will let you know how the mic goes.

Thanks regarding the mic.

Regarding Atmos, the Blue Ripple Decoder suite contains a decoder for creating Atmos beds from third order Ambisonics but I don't know of any decoders for full Atmos aside from what Dolby themselves offer.

Edit - the Blue Ripple Upmixer suite also contains Atmos bed upmixers to insert Atmos beds into Ambisonic mixes. I have both of these suite and, while not cheap, they are by far the best Ambisonic tools I have.

More details here.... http://www.blueripplesound.com/story/new-712-support

[junh1024]

@m consumer & @m pro are 2 separate codecs (inb4 it's not a codec)

If you don't mind only 7.1 for @tmos c, eac3to can do that for free. For full 3D decoding, mightaswell but a 3D AVR & record that. There may be some dev-only or non-public tools for disassembly of @c streams.

@m pro: Not sure if any Dolby suites have pro decoders, but it's not meant to be disassembled/decoded. Not sure if it has bitstream tools (DTS:X ES does). Again, you can buy pro theatre decoders but those are very expensive.

[musicbynumbers]

Thanks guys for the info!

I think it's the "object" part of atmos that is the pain in the ass.

I've got it on good authority that quite a lot of mixers still treat atmos as just 7.1 with the overheads (so just as an atmos "bed") and don't bother with objects.

That suites me just fine

[cyrano]

There are ambi mics popping up allover the place. The absolute low budget winner is the Twirling 720 Microphone, around 160$. It has a peculiar stereo looking output. 2 channels @96 kHz, but the 4 channel info @ 48 kHz is present, interleaved, so it needs it's own software decoder.

http://yun.twirlingvr.com/index.php/...e/lite-en.html

There's also the Oktava MK4012 classic first order 4 channel mic. 799 €. Limited edition.

http://www.oktava-shop.com/Small-and...012-01-12.html

And no, I don't own one

Yet.

Thinking of building a simple electret one. If I can find the time

[junh1024]

Originally Posted by musicbynumbers

Thanks guys for the info!

I think it's the "object" part of atmos that is the pain in the ass.

Only if u don;t have an @m obj panner (aka Nuendo/PT)

)[/QUOTE]

I've got it on good authority that quite a lot of mixers still treat atmos as just 7.1 with the overheads (so just as an atmos "bed") and don't bother with objects.

That suites me just fine

There's 2 types of @M tracks: base & obj. BTW, speakers are objs too (they consume 10o of the 128o limit)

[GerardLardner]

Originally Posted by cyrano

There's also the Oktava MK4012 classic first order 4 channel mic. 799 €. Limited edition.

I think that price is without capsules. Budget nearly another €500 for capsules!

I do have an Oktava Ambisonic mic, the old MK-012 4D version. I got it relatively cheap on eBay about 8 or 10 years ago from someone who couldn't use it. The sphere encompassing the capsules is about 98 mm diameter, which makes for poor directional resolution even down to relatively 'mid' frequencies. I have not seen how big the current model is; it might be better (smaller) - can't easily tell from photos on the website; it can't be very small, given the fairly large size of MK-012 capsules.

An issue with the early MK-012 4D is that it uses a non standard Ambisonic layout - effectively turned 90 degrees; I think the DPA Amnisonic mic is the same. Also, it /really/ benefits from being properly calibrated, to compensate a little for the large array size.

All that said, the sound from the Oktava capsules is lovely for classical music, whether choral or orchestral. I still occasionally use it , when directional cues are not so important. But mostly I use a Brahma, for it's better directional resolving power.

[shady]

Wow that first order ?usb mic is cheap. I believe there are first order mic plans out there.. I will dig deeper when not on the phone..

But really from what Ive heard on headphones, it seems like 1st order mics are just good for ambiance.. while the 3rd and higher can give great resolution. I wish I could build my own Eigenmike. The plan is to find a university that has them for use..

[lossius]

We have just released ATK for Reaper 1.0.0.b11. This is mostly a maintenance release, the most important being to ensure that all plugins stay compatible with Reaper v. 6.38.

https://www.ambisonictoolkit.net/download/reaper/

Change log:

- Pantophonic2D and Periphonic3D decoders now work with Reaper v.6.38 - #75
- Fixed typo in PsychoShelf filter, but the filter remains unstable - #78
- Speed of sound corrected from 333 to 343 m/s in Proximity and Near Field transforms - #76

Under the hood updates:

- macOS installer disk image built using more recent version of create-dmg (1.0.9)
- Updated atk-matrices to v. 1.0.0
- Updated cookdsp library to v. 0.5 - #74

Thanks to Justin Frankel for notifying us that some tweeks were required in preparation for Reaper v.6.38.

[jm duchenne]

Nice!

But... still no hope for a HOA update?

[lossius]

Originally Posted by jm duchenne

But... still no hope for a HOA update?

It is not feasible to develop HOA plguins using JSFX due to the lack of efficient math libraries for matrix operations in JSFX, it has to be done as VST / AU plugins instead. I have looked into it, but have not yet had the time to start a proper effort in this direciton. There is a lot I need to learn to pull it off, and it also require more time than I have had available for the past severla years.

[X-Raym]

Promoted on ReaLinks.net:

• ATK – Ambisonic ToolKit in JSFX

Let me know if I've said any factual error ^^


Cheers!