Tools | Sounding Future

16 entries

Tools

Standalone Application

Generative Music

Sound Design

VR/AR

StarWaves

sonicPlanet

StarWaves is an audio-visual synthesiser for sonic-architecture and generative sound texture design. It places transmitter, particle, and beam objects in a non-gravitational 3D space whose kinetic interactions trigger granular-level sonic events, with scene capture, animated transitions, MIDI/OSC control, and a parallel VR version, used in sound design, generative music, and immersive composition.

Standalone Application

3D Audio

VR/AR

Ambisonics

Unity Audio Spatializer SDK

Unity Technologies

The Unity Audio Spatializer SDK is the free, built-in plug-in framework inside Unity that allows third-party 3D-audio SDKs to spatialise audio sources on a per-AudioSource basis. Unity itself does not ship a built-in spatialiser plug-in, but exposes the spatialiser-plug-in API and an Ambisonic-decoder-plug-in API; spatialiser plug-ins are then provided by third parties (Meta XR Audio SDK, Steam Audio, Resonance Audio, VIVE 3DSP, Microsoft Spatializer, etc.) and selected per project in Project Se

Standalone Application

3D Audio

Ambisonics

VR/AR

Steam Audio

Valve Corporation

Steam Audio is a free, open-source cross-platform spatial-audio toolkit developed by Valve. It provides HRTF-based 3D positional audio (with custom-SOFA-file support), Ambisonic spatialisation, physics-based sound propagation modelling occlusion / transmission / reflections / pathing, automated reverb baking based on scene geometry, hybrid reverb for large spaces, and dynamic geometry support. Distributed as integrations for Unity (2017.3+), Unreal Engine (4.27+), FMOD Studio (2.0+), Wwise (2023

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.

SoundField by RØDE Plug-in

RØDE Microphones

The SoundField by RØDE Plug-in is a free Ambisonic processor for converting A-format recordings (from tetrahedral microphone arrays) and B-format recordings into virtual microphone patterns and standard surround formats up to 7.1.4. It uses frequency-domain processing rather than the matrix-based approach of earlier Ambisonic decoders, used in post-production, broadcast, and VR audio workflows in DAWs such as Pro Tools, Nuendo, Cubase, Reaper, and Logic Pro.

Plugin

3D Audio

VR/AR

Sennheiser AMBEO Orbit

Sennheiser

AMBEO Orbit is a free binaural panner plug-in originally released by Sennheiser in 2018 as part of the AMBEO 3D recording / VR ecosystem, intended to position mono and stereo sources in a 3D headphone mix using HRTFs based on the Neumann KU100 dummy head. It included a 'Clarity' parameter for controlling the amount of binaural colouration and a simple early-reflection / room-reverb module for five wall-material types.

Resonance Audio

Resonance Audio steering committee

Resonance Audio is an open-source spatial-audio SDK originally developed by Google and released as open source in March 2018. It provides high-fidelity Ambisonic-based spatial audio rendering optimised for mobile and desktop CPUs, including encoding and decoding of Ambisonics (AmbiX ACN/SN3D, compatible with the YouTube spatial-audio decoder), HRTF-based binaural rendering, sound-source directivity, near-field rendering, occlusion, and a Spectral Reverb effect. Distributed as native libraries pl

Standalone Application

3D Audio

Ambisonics

VR/AR

OpenAL Soft

Chris Robinson (kcat)

OpenAL Soft is a free, open-source software implementation of the OpenAL 3D-audio API. Provides distance attenuation, Doppler shift, directional sound emitters, environmental reverb (EFX extension), occlusion / obstruction, air absorption, multi-channel buffers, and audio capture. Output formats include mono, stereo, quad, 5.1, 7.1, HRTF binaural, UHJ, and B-Format Ambisonics. Backend support spans most native audio APIs: WASAPI, DirectSound, CoreAudio, PulseAudio, ALSA, JACK, OSS, OpenSL, PortA

Noise Makers Ambi Bundle HD

Noise Makers

Ambi Bundle HD is a plug-in suite for Higher Order Ambisonic production up to order 7. It comprises Ambi Pan HD (3D panner), Ambi Limiter HD (peak limiter for Ambisonic signals), Ambi Verb HD (Ambisonic convolution reverb), and Ambi Head HD (HOA-to-binaural decoder with HRTF support), used in immersive music, 360 video, and VR audio production.

Harpex-X

Harpex Ltd

Harpex-X is a commercial plug-in implementing the Harpex parametric upmixing algorithm, which uses time-frequency analysis to estimate the directions of sound components in first-order Ambisonic and tetrahedral microphone-array recordings and resynthesises them as higher-order Ambisonic, surround, binaural, or stereo output. It is used for spatial enhancement of B-format and AmbiX recordings in post-production, VR/AR, and 360-degree video workflows.

Standalone Application

3D Audio

VR/AR

FMOD

Firelight Technologies

FMOD is a commercial end-to-end audio middleware solution for games and interactive applications. It comprises FMOD Studio — a content-authoring application with a familiar pro-audio interface for designing adaptive audio events, multitrack music systems, snapshot mixing, profiling, and live update — and the FMOD Engine, a runtime API (C / C++ / C#) that plays back the authored content in-game. Includes built-in 3D-positional audio with distance attenuation, Doppler, occlusion, and integrates wi

Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation

dearVR

Dear Reality

dearVR is a suite of spatial-audio plug-ins from Dear Reality (a Sennheiser company) for binaural, Ambisonic, and multi-channel immersive audio production up to 9.1.6 and 3rd-order Ambisonics. The flagship dearVR PRO 2 is a 360° object-based spatializer with early-reflection / late-reverb engine, 46+ virtual acoustic environments, and head-tracking support; the family also includes dearVR MICRO (free binaural panner, successor to Sennheiser AMBEO Orbit), dearVR MUSIC, dearVR MIX, dearVR MONITOR,

Blue Ripple Sound O3A

Blue Ripple Sound

Blue Ripple Sound O3A is a commercial suite of plug-in libraries for third-order Ambisonic (16-channel SN3D) production, comprising panners, decoders, manipulators, reverbs, upmixers, music tools, and view/VR integration. It is used in immersive music, film post-production, VR/360 video, and game audio workflows in DAWs that support 16+ channel tracks such as Reaper and Pro Tools Ultimate.

Audio Ease 360pan Suite

Audio Ease

360pan Suite is a commercial plug-in suite for Reaper, Nuendo, and Pro Tools HD/Ultimate (macOS only for Pro Tools) that produces up to 3rd-order Ambisonic mixes (4, 9 or 16 channels in AmbiX b-format) for 360° / VR / spherical video soundtracks. The suite includes 360pan (panner with on-screen video-window pucks), 360monitor (binaural preview with head-tracking), 360reverb (omnidirectional convolution reverb), 360limiter (true Ambisonic limiter), 360radar, 360turner, and FuMa↔AmbiX converters.

atmoky trueSpatial

atmoky

atmoky trueSpatial is a plug-in suite for binaural and spatial audio rendering in game engines and audio middleware. It provides a perceptually-optimised spatialiser, externalisation, source occlusion and directivity, near-field effects, and Ambisonic rendering up to higher orders, used in game audio, VR, and XR production.