Playback Software

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The following ambisonic players will allow playback of B-Format Ambisonic files over a home surround sound system from your computer.

Note: if you have downloaded one of the DTS files from Ambisonia, you dont need any of this software. The DTS files contain Ambisonic content that has already been prepared for delivery over a 5.1 system. For help on playing DTS files please consult Playing DTS files on 5.1 Home Theatre systems.

If you would like to use DSP platforms like MaxMSP or bidule (to play ambisonic files), see Object-Patcher_plugins, for VST plugins see VST_plugins, and for AU plugins see AU_plugins

Note: For the software gurus, Richard Lee has published a lot of technical information on creating good ambisonic decode software.

Contents

[edit] Wigware Ambisonic Decoder

Bruce Wiggins' Wigware ambisonic decoder (WAD) (note: scroll down that page to find it) is a Direct Show Filter which allows any Direct Show capable audio player software (such as Windows Media Player) the ability to read and decode B-format wave files.

If you are on windows, this is probably the easiest free way to play back ambisonic files.

The Wigware Ambisonic Decoder gives you a choice of playback speaker layouts like SQUARE, ITU, Hexagon and Octagon. Use the 'Cube' setting (if you have access to 8 speakers) to include height.

The WAD is also available as a VST plugin which can also be used with a multi-channel audio application to deliver speaker feeds.

[edit] VVMic

David McGriffy's VVMic standalone program. This will accept a 3-channel (horizontal only) or 4-channel (including height) ambisonic file, and play it using any speaker setup whose details you provide it. At present, the program doesn't recognise the .AMB file type for listing in the Open dialogue, but if the file name is typed in it will be opened and handled correctly - this will be updated in the next release.

There is also a VST plugin version of VVmic (and this version can also run on OSX).

VVmic is a bit more complicated to use than the Wigware, but also offers lots more options to play around with.

If you haven't got a surround rig yet, VVMic allows you to simulate any type of microphone pair in stereo and point them in any direction. Explore the soundfield in stereo and even use zoom to create an effect like moving the microphone.

There is a special version of VVMic called "VVMic for TetraMic" that is supplied with each Core Sound TetraMic. In addition to the usual VVMic functions, it also does A- to B-format conversion using the TetraMic calibration data.

[edit] Ambdec

Fons Adriaensen has created an ambisonic decoder for linux and OSX (scroll down to the middle of the page.) It requires JACK, which is why it'll only run on Linux and Mac OS X. It has some very interesting features like built-in nearfield and distance compensation, and it will also do 2nd order.

A full featured decoder, this is the one you want if you are on OSX or Linux.

[edit] Nuances on OS X

  1. Put the Mac OS X Install DVD, or Install Disc 2 in. Double click Optional Installs, XCodeTools, then XCodeTools.mpkg and wait ten minutes. You now have 'make' installed.
  2. Install JackOSX [1]
  3. Download the latest source code for ambdec, clthreads, and clxclient from [2]
  4. If you are using safari, safari might wrongly add a .tar extension to the files making them .tar.bz2.tar . If this happens remove the last .tar extension from the name. Double click the files to decompress.
  5. Open the Terminal (Applications->-Utilities->-Terminal).
  6. To install ambdec you need administrator privileges. If your account is an administrator account (most aften it is) then you're good to go. If you have a standard user account, but you have access to an administrator account, type "su - adminaccount", hit enter and introduce the administrator password. More details on this at [3]
  7. Type "cd " and drag the clthreads-x.x.0 folder to the terminal, press enter.
    1. Type "make -f Makefile-osx"
    2. Type "sudo make -f Makefile-osx install". Enter your password.
  8. Type "cd " in the terminal and drag the clxclient-x.x.1 folder to the terminal, press enter.
    1. Type "make -f Makefile-osx"
    2. Type "sudo make -f Makefile-osx install". Enter your password.
  9. Type cd in the terminal and drag the "source" folder inside the "ambdec-0.2.0" folder to the terminal, press enter.
    1. Type "make -f Makefile-osx"
    2. Type "sudo make -f Makefile-osx install". Enter your password.
    3. Note (2009-09-27). Using ambdec-0.4.1, I wasn't able to find a Makefile-osx, so I tried "make; sudo make install" (i.e. without the Makefile-osx). This gave an error: "ld: library not found for -lrt". I looked for a librt for OSX, but didn't find one, and found that some other projects were buildable without librt. Then I edited the Makefile and removed two instances of "-lrt", then tried rebuilding. This was successful, and I was able to run ambdec using the next step in these instructions. Audio and all else seems to work correctly.
  10. You're done. To run it first open JackPilot and start the jack server, then type in the terminal "ambdec". It should automatically start the x11 server, if not start it yourself.

[edit] InguzDSP

The Inguz DSP plugin for SlimServer can play back first-order B-Format (.amb) files in a stereo (not surround) system, by decoding to UHJ. This feature is at a very early stage of development.

[edit] Rapture3D Player

The Rapture3D Player from Blue Ripple Sound is a commercial software decoder for Windows. It supports playback of FuMa files in a variety of soundfile formats at up to third order and visualises the soundfield in real time.

Decoding options include:

  • The standard Windows layouts (e.g. 5.1 and 7.1) are supported, along with some variants (e.g. 3D7.1).
  • HRTF-based headphone decoding.
  • Crosstalk cancelled stereo.
  • Various surround stereo formats (e.g. compatible with Dolby Pro Logic).
  • The "Advanced" version supports custom layouts and ASIO for access to more channels.

In addition to the Rapture3D Player, Rapture3D also includes an OpenAL Game Engine which can be used with a number of computer games. This OpenAL driver uses up to fourth-order Ambisonics internally.

[edit] Other Ambisonic Players

Please note that there are many VST (and other) plugins which can decode and playback Ambisonic files. For details on those please refer to the 'Software Authoring/Editing in Ambisonics' section on the Main Page.

[edit] Playback as Binaural ('stereo')

For software that plays ambisonic files as binaural / stereo / two-channel, see Conversion to Binaural on this Wiki.

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