Ambi Encoder Wind

s3g Ambi Encoder Wind is a zero-input filtered-noise instrument that creates a moving field of as many as 64 voices. Gusts, turbulent modulation, resonant materials, microweather motion, and an environment field are encoded directly to first-through-seventh-order ACN/SN3D.

Filtered-noise synthesis starts with broadband noise, then uses moving filters and amplitude envelopes to create changes in pressure and air speed. Resonators add the tonal response of leaves, wire, metal, reeds, and other materials without using recorded wind samples.

Workflow

1. Insert the plugin on a 64-channel REAPER track, choose a factory preset, and select the ambisonic ORDER.
2. Follow it with an ambisonic decoder.
3. Set VOICES for the desired field density.
4. Balance the continuous wind layer, gust shape, and material response.
5. Shape microweather motion and place the field with direction, elevation, range, and inertia.

Wind, Gust, and Material

• WIND sets the continuous noise body. GUST RATE, GUST DEPTH, GUST SHAPE, and GUST EDGE control the pressure envelopes layered over it.
• TURBULENCE, FLUTTER, and VECTOR LFO add irregular modulation at different time scales.
• MATERIAL TYPE chooses OPEN, LEAF, HOLLOW, WIRE, METAL, CHIMES, BLOCKS, HARP, REEDS, or FABRIC. MATERIAL sets how strongly that resonant or impact layer participates.
• CENTER, SWEEP, Q, SHRILL, BODY, BREATH, GRIT, AIR, and HISS shape the filtered spectrum and nonlinear surface detail.

Microweather Motion

FIELD RATE, FLOW PUSH, SHEAR, CURL, and UPDRAFT move voice parcels through the field. DEPTH PUSH expands their radial motion. DIRECTION, ELEVATION, and RANGE set the macro vector; INERTIA controls how smoothly the encoded positions follow it.

Environment Field

PLACE selects OPEN, CANOPY, PORCH, ROOM, HANGAR, CANYON, or TUNNEL. ENV RETURN, ENV SIZE, ENV DECAY, and ENV DAMPING mix and shape the corresponding encoded environment response.

LISTEN closes a directional loop around the generated environment. Eight virtual pickups decode the combined direct wind field and Environment Field return ambisonically, tracking fast and slow energy, novelty, roughness, spectral tilt, habituation, charge, and directional gradients. FOLLOW attracts the macro flow and active gust parcels to heard energy, COUNTER seeks its antipode, and BALANCE favors underexposed directions. LISTEN AMOUNT continuously scales this influence. LEGACY applies turbulence and gust-renewal response; CHARGE converts novel pressure changes into faster, brighter gust activity; SETTLE lets sustained pressure slow and broaden into body; and RESONATE transfers heard roughness and spectral balance into material, filter center, sweep, Q, air, hiss, and body. Steering is continuously interpolated; it does not teleport among pickup lobes. OFF—the factory-preset default—uses open-loop behavior while listener memory continues to update.

Presets

PARTICLES introduces fine airborne impacts, VORTEX explicitly drives rotating column motion, and PRESSURE strengthens slow low-frequency pressure breathing. Material responses include SAND, DEBRIS, and STRUCTURE for cinematic weather and destruction beds.

The field viewport’s SURF page stores complete presets or captured states as cells on a two-dimensional interpolation surface. The automatable Surface X/Surface Y cursor blends continuous parameters while discrete modes use the nearest cell. CURVE, FOCUS, and GLIDE control interpolation character and settling time; the surface is retained in project state.

The 22 factory presets range from the restrained PAIA Bench Wind reference patch to tree-line, architectural, storm, material, and aeolian scenes. SAVE and LOAD write portable .s3gwind presets, including listener mode, amount, and response, with the default folder at ~/Music/s3g/Presets/Ambi Wind Encoder/. RANDOM also chooses a complete listener configuration, so a randomized scene may immediately become self-steering and adaptive.

Parameter Surface

SURF arranges as many as 24 captured or factory states in a two-dimensional performance space. CURVE and FOCUS shape the spatial blend. GLIDE makes the active crosshair and participating toolbox controls move toward the target diamond over time, rather than switching at the dragged or automated cursor position. When the nearest cell changes, the material field crossfades through the selected glide time, so its resonant topology and spatial response do not jump even though the menu name changes decisively. Although VOICES remains an integer readout, surplus wind lanes fade continuously in synthesis and in the field view as cell influence changes. POP opens the synchronized surface in an attached utility panel. OUT, ORDER, and the cursor remain live outside the surface. See Parameter Surface for the shared editing and automation rules.

Order and Routing

The output bus remains 64 channels wide. ORDER activates the corresponding ACN channels and clears the rest.