Tools | Sounding Future

16 entries

Tools

Standalone Application

Ambisonics

Sound Installation

3D Audio

Zirkonium

ZKM | Hertz-Lab

Zirkonium is a free macOS toolkit for spatial-audio composition and performance, developed at ZKM | Hertz-Lab Karlsruhe to drive the Klangdom — a 47-loudspeaker dome at the ZKM Kubus. Current version Zirkonium MK3 (since 2015) provides parametric trajectory creation over time, automatic interpolation, event filtering, and real-time rendering on arbitrary 2D or 3D loudspeaker setups. The DSP server is built on Pure Data (libpd) and uses VBAP, Higher-Order Ambisonics (HOA library, CICM), and binau

WFSCollider

Game Of Life Foundation

WFSCollider is a SuperCollider class library for Wave Field Synthesis spatialisation with a graphical timeline, trajectory editor, and modular Unit Library audio plug-in system. It supports point sources, plane waves, and per-speaker indexing, with sample-accurate scheduling across distributed servers, used in WFS composition and large-scale loudspeaker array performance.

Standalone Application

3D Audio

Sound Installation

Audiohardware

TiMax SoundHub

Outboard

TiMax SoundHub is a commercial 2U hardware spatial audio processor with proprietary FPGA DSP for object-based, dynamic delay-matrix processing. It manages 32×32 or 64×64 channels with Dante or MADI I/O and runs shows autonomously without an attached computer; companion macOS/Windows software (PanSpace, Timeline, Mixer) provides spatial mapping, cue authoring, and show control. Used in theatre, opera, concerts, museums, theme parks, planetariums, and worship venues.

Plugin

3D Audio

Sound Installation

Spatial Audio Designer

New Audio Technology

The Spatial Audio Designer (SAD) is a commercial plug-in suite for mixing and monitoring of 2D surround and 3D immersive audio formats (5.1 through 22.2, Dolby Atmos, Auro-3D, MPEG-H, IMAX 3D, DTS:X) in any DAW. It uses a virtual bus system independent of the host's channel limits and includes a Headphone Surround 3D speaker virtualisation for binaural monitoring, used in film, music, game audio, planetariums, and dome-projection contexts.

Standalone Application

Ambisonics

3D Audio

Sound Installation

SpatGRIS

Groupe de Recherche en Immersion Spatiale (GRIS), Université de Montréal

SpatGRIS is a free, open-source multichannel spatialisation server developed at Université de Montréal that supports up to 256 inputs and 256 outputs in five spatialisation modes: DOME (VBAP for speaker domes), CUBE (MBAP for non-dome layouts), HYBRID (mixed DOME / CUBE per source), BINAURAL (HRTF-based headphone monitoring), and STEREO. Distributed together with ControlGRIS — a companion plug-in (AAX / AU / VST3) that builds spatial trajectories inside the user's DAW and sends them to SpatGRIS

Standalone Application

3D Audio

Sound Installation

VR/AR

SPAT Revolution

FLUX:: Immersive

SPAT Revolution is a commercial real-time spatialisation engine for object-based and channel-based immersive audio production, supporting binaural, surround, Atmos-compatible, Ambisonic, VBAP, and Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) panning. It runs as a standalone application alongside any DAW via send/return/room plug-ins and OSC, used in studio post-production, live touring, theatre, museum and dome installations, and immersive research contexts.

Standalone Application

3D Audio

Ambisonics

Sound Installation

Sound Particles

Sound Particles is a commercial standalone immersive audio workstation built around a 3D engine and a particle system — conceptually a CGI engine for sound. It generates large numbers of sound instances from a single sample, animates them in 3D space, and captures them with virtual microphones to render in stereo, binaural, surround, Ambisonics (up to 6th order), or Dolby Atmos ADM. Used widely in film, TV, game-audio, and immersive music for crowds, weather, atmospheres, and large-scale sound d

Standalone Application

Audiosoftware

3D Audio

Sound Installation

Pure Data

Pure Data community

Pure Data (Pd) is an open-source visual data-flow programming environment for real-time audio, video, and graphics. Patches are built by connecting object boxes; the standard Pd-vanilla distribution provides core audio and MIDI processing, with extensions (cyclone, ELSE, GEM, IEM ambisonics) adding higher-level functionality. Widely used in academic research, sound installation, and live electroacoustic composition.

Standalone Application

Audiosoftware

3D Audio

Sound Installation

Max

Cycling '74

Max is a commercial visual programming environment for music, sound, graphics, and interactivity. Patches are built by connecting graphical objects on a canvas; the MSP layer provides real-time DSP, Jitter handles video and 3D graphics, and Gen enables low-level signal-rate code generation. Used widely in interactive sound installation, electroacoustic composition, and real-time spatial audio (often as host for the ICST Ambisonics Tools and similar externals).

Standalone Application

3D Audio

Sound Installation

L-ISA Studio

L-Acoustics

L-ISA Studio is a desktop spatialisation application for object-based immersive audio mixing, comprising the L-ISA Controller (touch-friendly UI), the L-ISA Processor Desktop (spatial and room engine), and the L-ISA Audio Bridge (virtual sound card). It supports up to 96 audio objects routed to up to 16 outputs in formats from 5.1 through 9.1.6 and 16.0, plus binaural with head-tracking, used in live touring, theatre, music production, and installation contexts compatible with the L-Acoustics L-

ICST Ambisonics Plugins

ICST, Zurich University of the Arts

The ICST Ambisonics Plugins are a free open-source plug-in suite for higher-order Ambisonic production up to 7th order in REAPER, comprising encoder, decoder, multi-decoder, monitor, and animator. They support up to 64 audio sources and 64 loudspeakers with an interactive radar view, source grouping, distance encoding with Doppler effect, and OSC-based control with optional JavaScript pre-processing, used in spatial composition, multichannel sound installation, and acousmatic concert contexts.

Standalone Application

Sound Installation

3D Audio

Ambisonics

Holophonix

Amadeus

Holophonix is an immersive sound processor for live spatialisation, available as a hardware processor (up to 512 I/O on the Ultra model) and as Holophonix Native for macOS. It implements 13 spatialisation algorithms including Higher Order Ambisonics, Wave Field Synthesis, VBAP, VBIP, k-Nearest Neighbor, and Binaural, used in theatre, concert, museum, and broadcast contexts.

Envelop for Live

Envelop

Envelop for Live (E4L) is an open-source toolkit of free Max-for-Live devices for 3rd-order Ambisonic spatial-audio composition and performance inside Ableton Live. Includes the E4L Master Bus (decoder), E4L Source Panner (encoder), AuraVerb, and a custom-decoder system, plus integration with EnvelopLX for synchronised LED-lighting via ADM-OSC. Built on the ICST Ambisonics Tools, HISSTools Impulse Response Toolbox, and CNMAT odot externals.

Standalone Application

3D Audio

Sound Design

Sound Installation

Audiocube

Audiocube is a standalone 3D digital audio workstation for spatial audio design and experimental composition. It places samplers, emitters, tickers, soundwalls, effect zones, LogicBoxes, and ambience devices in a virtual 3D scene with binaural HRTF rendering, acoustic simulation of reflections and occlusion, MIDI sequencing, and spatial automation, used in immersive music production, sound installation, and experimental sound design.

Ableton Live Tools for SPAT Revolution

FLUX:: Immersive

Ableton Live Tools for SPAT Revolution is a free workflow add-on by FLUX:: Immersive consisting of custom-built Ableton Live Devices, project templates, macOS shortcuts, and a user guide that streamline integration of SPAT Revolution as a spatial-audio renderer with Ableton Live. The Devices wrap the SPAT Send and SPAT Return plug-ins (AAX / AU / VST3) and route audio and OSC automation between Live and the SPAT Revolution standalone engine via Local Audio Path.

IRCAM Spat

IRCAM

IRCAM Spat is a real-time spatial audio library for the Max environment, providing more than 300 modules for source localization, multichannel panning, Ambisonic encoding and decoding, binaural rendering, and artificial reverberation. It is used in concerts, post-production, virtual and augmented reality, sound installations, and acoustic research contexts.