Ambisonics

Use these pages when channel order, normalization, and host routing are part of the spatial signal model. Choose a section below according to whether you need to encode, process, inspect, or decode the field.

The supported target is REAPER on macOS. These plugins use ACN/SN3D ambisonics and fixed-width buses where predictable routing matters.

You can work with an ambisonic field using only two output channels. See Listening on a Stereo System for choosing Ambi Decoder Stereo for loudspeakers or Ambi Decoder Head for headphones and transaural playback.

Sections

• Interpreting Color: distinguishes shared AED color from grouping, activity, magnitude, and plugin-specific spatial palettes.
• Listener Mode: explains how selected ambisonic tools analyze their own field and return directional evidence to movement, synthesis, or field shaping.
• Parameter Surface: explains how supported instruments arrange preset cells and interpolate them with automatable X/Y performance controls.
• Encoders: turn ordinary audio into an ambisonic field or generate an encoded field directly.
• Decoders: render a field to speaker layouts, object and sub feeds, stereo, or headphones.
• Effects: transform complete encoded fields with order-adaptive pickup effects, displacement, convolution, rotation, depth, bus, and granular tools.
• Utilities: inspect orders and energy or work with the .s3gimprint and .s3gray interchange formats.

Processing Flow

audio-input encoder or ambisonic instrument
-> optional ambisonic effects
-> optional order and energy utilities
-> speaker, stereo, or head decoder

A complete order contains (order + 1)^2 channels. Set the REAPER track width before inserting a plugin, keep the order and ACN/SN3D convention consistent through the chain, and decode only when the field reaches its listening destination.

Direct speaker panners are documented under Direct Panning. They share layout language with the ambisonic tools, but they do not encode or decode an ambisonic stream.