Frequently Asked Questions

What is Ambisonics?

Ambisonics is a spherical surround format developed in the UK in the 1970s. Unlike stereo and other recording formats, the microphones don’t carry speaker signals, but a representation of a three-dimensional sound field. This allows artists to think of sound as source directions rather than speaker positions, allowing them to easily decode the signal to any speaker-array configuration used for playback.

Will your products work in Stereo?

All our products are compatible with Stereo.

All our plugins work under the hood in Ambisonics but are also compatible with Mono and Stereo signals.

All our Sample Libraries come mixed both in Ambisonics and in Stereo.

I work in Stereo, how does Ambisonics benefit me?

If you work in Stereo, Ambisonics benefit you because you can control the spatialisation of the sound - since they carry a three-dimensional signal, even if you have 2 Speakers, you can translate the Ambisonics signals to a plethora of configurations - you’ll be able to manipulate the width of the image, its depth, to rotate it keeping its real characteristics as opposed to being hard panned (see True Panning), and even to decode the signals to Binaural for hyper-realism. All the above happens without emulation, the results are the real thing!

Finally, with the dawn of Dolby Atmos and new approaches in music, our products will keep you future-proof, as they process the sound three-dimensionally, you will always be able to convert their signal to ANY speaker array desirable, always.

What is True Panning?

You know in stereo when you pan to the Left/Right, that the whole signal just moves to either ear? The results are unnatural and unrealistic, a real instrument doesn’t just squeeze to your left/right. Thanks to Ambisonics, you can rotate the signal around you whilst keeping all its three-dimensional characteristics, meaning you can ‘pan’ an instrument and it will rotate exactly the way it would in real life. Check at video below to understand better:

Is it compatible with any speaker configuration?

Because Ambisonics recordings don’t contain baked listening positions but rather a three-dimensional soundfield, they are compatible with any speaker configuration. From Mono and Stereo, all the way to multi-channel surround speaker arrays including but not limited to 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos beds, Binaural, VR applications and even multi-speaker installations, Ambisonics can be natively decoded to Speaker Layout.

How do I decode the signal?

Our ‘ab Decoder Light’ is available for free to decode Ambisonics Signals to Stereo and Headphones Stereo as well as transform the rotation of the signal (True Panning). For a wider range of decoding options (from Stereo to Surround and Immersive formats) and further transformation and dominance control, our ‘ab Decoder Suite’ will suit you perfectly! If you want Higher Order support, our ‘ab Decoder HOA’ will do the trick up to 3rd Order Ambisonics!

1OA? 3OA? 7OA? HOA? What is that? What do I need?

To make it as short as possible:

A 1st Order Ambisonics (1OA) should be enough for you if you work in Stereo, Binaural, or any other 2-speaker mix.

If you work with larger arrays (5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos, and above), we highly recommend you use Higher-Order Ambisonics (HOA) signals for better resolution.

A 3rd-order Ambisonics (3OA) signal should be the minimum required for a Dolby Atmos mix.

A 7th-order Ambisonics (7OA) will give the best quality possible.

Continue reading below for a deeper explanation…

1OA? 3OA? 7OA? HOA? What is that? What do I need (long explanation)?

Ambisonics is a mathematical representation of a Soundfield in orders that work in an additive manner. The higher the order, the better the spatial resolution when decoding to multiple speakers (this sentence should be used with caution, keep reading to learn more!).

Let’s start by clarifying the terms:

  • 1OA = 1st Order Ambisonics

  • HOA = Higher Order Ambisonics (whatever is above 1st Order).

  • 2OA … 7OA = 2nd-order Ambisonics all the way to 7th-order Ambisonics (can go much higher, but 7th-order is considered a limit due to its resolution, keep reading to learn more)

  • TOA = Sometimes, 3rd-order Ambisonics (3OA) is referred to as TOA. 3rd-order Ambisonics signals are very popular because they are highly recommended when working in Dolby Atmos (keep reading to learn more).

Additive?

Yes, this means that a higher order contains all the previous orders plus extra channels to define the resolution further:

  • A 1st-Order Ambisonics signal (1OA) contains 4 channels.

  • A 2nd-Order Ambisonics signal (2OA) contains 9 channels (4 of 1OA + 5 more)

  • A 3rd-Order Ambisonics signal (3OA) contains 16 channels (4 of 1OA + 5 of 2OA + 7 more)

  • A 7th-Order Ambisonics signal (7OA) contains 64 channels (4 of 1OA + 5 of 2OA + 7 of 3OA + 9 of 4OA + 11 of 5OA + 13 of 6OA + 15 more)

The above means that a Higher-order Ambisonics signal (HOA), can be truncated to a lower order, so if you work in 7OA and you need to distribute a 1OA signal, all you have to do is render the first 4 channels of your 7OA signal! This is why we always recommend working in the highest order possible, that way, you will always have control over your final renders whilst working in the highest-possible quality.

So, which order should I use?

In general terms, the higher the order, the better the spatial resolution, but also the need for more channels (i.e. disk space required) as well as higher CPU consumption.

There’s a great and quick way to find the sweet spot that adjusts to your needs:

The number of channels you wish to decode should be equal to or less than the number of channels in the order.

With the above suggestion in mind, we can conclude that:

  • If you work in stereo (2 channels), you could do perfectly fine with a 1OA signal (4 channels).

  • If you work in Dolby Atmos (12 channels for 7.1.4), a 3OA signal should suffice (16 channels).

  • A 7OA signal has enough resolution to decode to 64 speakers!

The graphic below should be of great help:

What if I use a lower order than suggested?

In the event your available order is below the suggested for your speaker array (for example, if you have a 1OA signal, and want to decode to Dolby Atmos), decoding can absolutely happen! And the sound quality will be great! However, the spatial definition of a sound will be a bit ‘blurry’. This means that if you have two sounds happening very close to one another, it will be more difficult to differentiate which is more “to the left” or “to the right” than the other.

What if I use a higher order than suggested?

In the event your available order is above the suggested for your speaker array (for example, if you have a 7OA signal, and want to decode to Stereo), again, decoding can absolutely happen, and sound quality will be great! However, two things might arise:

System Requirements: Think that a 7OA signal has 64 channels! That means a lot of Megabytes to read/write to/from your drive as well as plenty of CPU requirements to decode the signals. So, if you are working with a couple of 7OA tracks, you might not notice a big impact in your system, but if you were to use dozens or hundreds of 7OA tracks, you better make sure you system can handle it!

Acoustic Holes: Acoustic holes MIGHT happen if a sound is extremely directional and its position is outside of an area covered by a speaker.

So for example, if your Ambisonics signal has two sounds with the same loudness, where sound A happens at 15 degrees, and sound B happens at 30 degrees, and you are decoding to 5.1, where LCR are -30 degrees, 0 degrees, and +30 degrees, you might hear sound A with lower volume than sound B, as sound A will be split between C and R while sound B will happen completely focused at R.

So as the resolution increases, sounds that are outside the area of a speaker, might lose loudness.

So, what do you recommend?

Well, with all the above info in mind, at Audio Brewers we ALWAYS recommend the following:

1. Always work with the Highest Order available in your DAW, for example, 7OA. This will give you 2 advantages:

  1. A highest-order signal will contain ALL the others below.

  2. If your signal is not the highest order possible, the first thing you should always do is to UPSCALE IT.

  3. All your sound processing and effects will happen in the highest order possible, ensuring your mix is future-proof.

2. Decode the signal using the Order suggested in the graphic above. This means that for example if you are working in 7OA but in a Dolby Atmos array, set your decoder to work in 3OA, this way, all your processing and your effects will be working in 7OA, but your decoder will be working in 3OA, giving you the best conversion quality available.

If by any chance you want to listen with headphones, simply set your Decoder to work in 1OA, and like that, while your signal will always be 7OA, you will be switching back and forth between orders, comparing resolutions.

Mind that the above is simply a recommendation and it’s the way we work at Audio Brewers - in the end, it’s all about taste, if you work in the highest-order available you are future-proof, you can decode from any order, to whatever your ears hear best!