Getting Started With Ambisonics (Tutorial)
To start creating your Ambisonics sound scenes you’ll need a panner (encoder) and a decoder. You will also need a DAW capable of handling enough channels on each track to match the order you’re working with. I recommend Reaper because it handles up to 128 channels, allowing you to work in tenth-order Ambisonics. It’s also very reasonably priced!
If you are completely new to Ambisonics you’ll need a panner. I have made a free first order Ambisonics panner to get you started: a1Panner . If you are looking for something that will give you even higher quality spatial audio you can go for the a3Panner and aXPanner for a maximum of third and tenth order respectively.
Once you have your encoder/panner you’ll need a decoder that is at least the same order as your encoder, otherwise you won’t benefit from the spatial resolution available.
If you are decoding to headphones then you can use the a1Monitor , a3Monitor or aXMonitor , depending on what order you are working with. There is no point in having a higher order decoder than you plan on doing most of your work with, unless you know you will be moving to higher orders later on.
Here I will take you through everything you need to do to get a minimal Ambisonics project up and running with Reaper. I are assuming you are using the aX Plugins but the same steps should work for most Ambisonics plugins.
Note: Different Ambisonics plugins can use different Ambisonics formats. The aX Plugins all use the AmbiX (SN3D/ACN) format used by Google for YouTube360. If you’re mixing and matching panners and encoders from different companies just be sure that the formats match or use an appropriate converter.
If you prefer, you can go to YouTube and watch a video that takes you through the steps required to set up a project in Reaper (starting from Step 6 above).