Ambisonics in Reaper

[@amdenis]

Great video- thanks. BTW, i used to think the same thing about Reaper users until two years ago when I started working with it. Also, you say the look is “no nonsense but gets the job done” in terms of interface looks and function. However, you need to review the freely available templates and SWS. Reaper can be made to look and even support a customized workflow emulating pretty much any other DAW- or taking it much further in terms of look, feel and functionality. Several major recording engineers who have seen my layout (complete with full multi-gestural touch faders and much more ) are so taken by the looks and function that several have moved to Reaper. I started with ProTools since the 80’s when it was Sound Designer / Sound Tools, and have used Logic and Live since the beginning. But our studio now uses Reaper almost exclusively due to the major time savings, stability, functional and other advantages- including its template driven look and feel.

[@jamsloud8103]

Hey Andrew. Your totally right! Reaper, I feel, has WAY MORE bells and whistles than any other DAW (and I was certified in Pro Tools and used to teach Logic for Apple(and used Live, but ehh)), PLUS the interface is completely customizable, allowing it look as stripped down or elaborate as one could want. Im curious to see what your interface looks like. Could you post a pic, or send directly to me? If you don't mind :)

[@miquelmarti6537]

I use reaper since early betas. I get what you say about its user base: lots of fanboys. They are right.

[@reaperlearninghslu7963]

Dear Michael Amazing Video! We teach Reaper at Lucerne University of Applied Science and Arts, Animation Department for a year now. We've had a full year of experience as a School, and the move from Pro Tools to Reaper has been a joy and pleasure at the same time, although a lot of work was involved. We've gained a lot of knowledge during that year, especially in 5.1 Surround Setups for Theatre, but also in Ambisonic Setups, mainly through the use of FB360/ Blue Ripple, but also Audio Ease 360, including a head-tracker, which works very well too. We've stayed in 3OA workflow, as the trackload got quite heavy. Reaper did a fantastic job on this particular project. As I did not hear from the IEM, Sparta and the SSA Plugins, i'm looking forward to use those too. Also, as of reaper V6.29, the new ReaSurroundPan, a newly added plugin, supports Dolby Atmos Workflows now. Best regards Thomas Gassmann (Sound Lecturer)

[@michaelgwagner]

Thanks! I agree, quality wise the 3OA plugins are ahead of the pack. Especially the Rapture3d custom decoder, and that particularly for imperfect speaker setups. They come with a noticeable price tag, though. Need to look at the new Atmos Workflow in Reaper. Thanks for the tip!

[@curly_]

Voll cool, Ableton ,Nuendo, Reaper sind genau die DAWs auf denen ich arbeit, Privat wi in der Arbeit.

[@jonva13]

Your videos are amazing. Thanks so much for making them.

[@GTSongwriter]

I was really hoping for a guide on video + audio for 360

[@michaelgwagner]

I could do a KZbinVR howto video. It’s very straightforward though.

[@GTSongwriter]

@@michaelgwagner if you could do that using Reaper? I'm on a budget and can't afford to buy anything else. I've heard you prefer Ablton Live? That's $99 for the intro and that's if the intro can do 360 audio with video?? Reaper is budget friendly for hobbyists because it's $60 for the full version compared to other DAWs being $500+ or more for the full version! Reaper does require commerical users whom make more than USD $20,000 gross yearly to pay $225, but that's still cheaper than all other DAWs! I dragged a 360 video into Reaper 6.80 and it loads it, I add the Video Processor FX component and select the 360 type of viewer (it's not named 360 I'm not on my PC ATM), set it to mouse mode 1, but I'm unable to drag the 360 viewer around. Any how, I got that far.. I'm still confused on what to do next? I could afford Plugin Alliance monthly subscription or Waves Audio monthly subscription for their 360 encoder software. I prefer to use encoders I can trust or if it's a JS Script for Reaper. I hate to use any software VST or VST3 that's freeware because VST doesn't prevent you from creating a virus or malware product. It maybe a dynamic link library, but you can still create a virus in it as far as windows goes. I can't believe people trust freeware developer plugins. I save up and buy my plugins. People whom sale you plugins want to keep making money, they do have a higher standard to not FU. Overall I could save up my money and just buy Cyberlink AudioDirector that can do it all. I could develop all my stems in my DAW then export them for AudioDirector and let it handle everything, but that's going to cost $100-$130 in it self depending if they have a sale or not. Do you know a way to do this in Reaper or a way to do this without breaking my bank while actually paying for the software or using open source? No VST open source as I'm not good at reading c++. I'm more like a scripting guy than a programmer. And yes. KZbin 360 videos is my end goal with music and video :) Much Thanks!

[@richardsisk1770]

Thank you. Excellent information well presented.

[@ImaplanetJupiteeeerr]

Hey Michael, thanks for the video! Has there been any developments on this field in the last years, what would you recommend these days? :) (I use Reaper and Bitwig)

[@michaelgwagner]

The Ambisonics space is fairly stable. A couple of plugins from Audio Brewers came out. And you can now also di Ambisonics in DaVinci Resolve.

[@axelbouffier348]

Very well explained, thank you for your effort.

[@michaelgwagner]

Glad it was helpful!

[@MatthiasBertsch]

Thank you. Love the info and explanations .. great job (but hated the instrument sound, … why ? There are so many nice sounds 🎺🎹

[@michaelgwagner]

Lol, thanks!

[@Not-Only-Reaper-Tutorials]

if you don't like the aestetic, and I can agree, just download a better Theme. Just double click it and not only Reaper opens with it, it's automatically installed and you can remove the downloaded file😉

[@Renzuki_kawaii]

Cool!

[@davidmesiha]

Thank you! superbly helpful and eloquently presented. Curious if you could do one about working with ambisonics recordings in Cubase, then exporting two versions one as X order ambisonics while another as binaural encoded ambisonics?

[@michaelgwagner]

Thanks for the suggestion! I‘ll add that to my list.

[@revup67]

First, thank you for your time and efforts in producing this video. Is there a reason the B360 Ambisonics wasn't included?

[@michaelgwagner]

No particular reason.

[@jamsloud8103]

Thanks for your video. Have you explored the ATK (Ambisonic TookKit for Reaper)? It feel's like a very extensive set of tools compared to the one that you showed, beside the fact that it is for lower order ambisonics...

[@michaelgwagner]

Afaik, the ATK has no head tracking support, which was the main point of this video. In terms of producing Ambisonics content, the ATK is certainly a good option. I personally prefer the IEM plugin suite, simply because it works in any DAW I am using.

[@lime2226]

I import a AmbiX-format recording, apply an 4channel EQ (IEM) and render that track as a stem... it cant be recognized as an ambix-formated file by other applicationsa anymore... Do you have any idea why?

[@michaelgwagner]

What other applications?

[@vincecomposer]

So the first 4 channels of a HOA signal correspond to a first order ambisonics signal?

[@michaelgwagner]

Correct

[@MarvelJAM]

It might be good to choose object files that are easier for the ear to locate location. Just an idea

[@michaelgwagner]

Yes, I know. Choice of example sounds are not ideal in this one. I’ll definitely keep that in mind.

[@hiteshchaurasia9860]

I discovered it rather late still thanks for the video,.

[@michaelgwagner]

You’re still welcome. 😊

[@oscarherrerar.3496]

thank you

[@Hinge45]

thanks. that's all I can say for now.

[@luizfernandohauck4000]

does the ambisonics make the sound clip? For some reason my tracks, that weren't clipping individually, are now clipping a lot (up to 9 dB). Why is that?

[@michaelgwagner]

It really depends on the encoder/decoder. In general, it does not preserve loudness.

[@harrycarlos3825]

Greetings from Peru, a query I want to remix a production made in Protools, this audio has to be exported from ProTools in WAV Stereo or has to be exported in another way to be binaural, and this audio I want to adhere to a normal KZbin video, you have to encode in a special way the audio and video for binaural? or add any metadata? Thank you for your reply.

[@solarion33]

I'm using Cubase 12 on windows 10 and it doesn't like ambisonics audio at all , especially when turning on or off inserts of ambisonics plugins it gets all confused , I think I'll be trying out ambisonics on Reaper where there are easy 64 channels per track and it just stays like that without any adaptive nonsense - its left to the ambisonics plugins to figure out what are the possible orders and the daw don't get in the way.

[@michaelgwagner]

Never had issues with Ambisonics in Cubase on Windows, but there is nothing wrong with using Reaper. It’s extremely popular with the Ambisonics crowd.

[@solarion33]

the native stuff work on Cubase but those academically developed plugins were not made to work in anything but reaper.(so it seems I could be wrong) haven't tried the commercial options yet. they are probably more streamlined on cubase.

[@cefahprod]

Hi there Mister Wagner. Love your videos, thanks for sharing all that knowledge. I have a question about ambisonics mixing with 360 video. I have to record audios for a videoclip who will be in 360 with different sounds for different location on the 360 video and I'm not sure which mic is the best for me to record, and then mix it. Can I use mono or stereo sources, or do I need an ambisonics recording. Also, how does the panning work for a video where listeners can move the camera around ?

[@michaelgwagner]

If your video includes field recordings, I would recommend capturing it with an Ambisonics mic. 360 vidro formats generally use 1st order Ambisonics, so any Ambisonics mic will do. The Zoom one is pretty goid and fairly inexpensive. You do not have to worry about panning if you use an Ambisonics source. This is rendered in real time while the viewer moves around.

[@cefahprod]

@@michaelgwagner Thanks a lot, I start to understand how this work. It is a video clip for music, so I will have a HeadLock Track stereo and the sound effect following the 360 video. I'm not quite sure on how to do it, but I understand the process a little bit more (Thanks to your videos). If I'm understanding it right, if I use a stereo or mono sound effect track, I can use Panner like the IEM suite and then export it in B-format 1st Order, and it will follow the good position within the 360 video.

[@michaelgwagner]

Basically, yes.

[@cefahprod]

@@michaelgwagner thanks a lot! Hope to see you in real life one day. And again amazing educative content. Your student are lucky have a good day

[@michaelgwagner]

Thanks for the nice words. Much appreciated!

[@Sonoquilibrium]

Does it work the Soundfield Rode Ambisonic Plugin in Reaper 6.0?

[@globalhealthify2043]

Thanks for the video -- I want to produce binaural beats -- gradually moving from beta - alpha - theta - delta over a 15 min time period. I want to start with a base tone of 200 and a parallel tone of 220 - and gradually move the top tone down to 203 -- don't know how to do that. Any suggestions on how to do that - in reaper.

[@diEgita]

super! danke vielmals! klingt weiters nach einem österreichischen Akzent:)

[@michaelgwagner]

Yup! The longer I am in the US the more the Austrian comes through in my German accent for some reason.

[@diEgita]

@@michaelgwagner :) super Video! schau mal bei mir rein, vielleicht gefällts dir! lg michi

[@aquariphonellc.1217]

Hi Michael! I'm getting a "Bus Too Small" error on the IEM Stereo Encoder and all the Ambisonic Order options in the dropdown are greyed out. I set both my instrument and master tracks to 64 channels. Do you know what might be happening? SO excited to start creating! Thanks for your time and amazing tutorials.

[@michaelgwagner]

Hm, interesting. Any chance you could hop over to the Discord and DM me your project file?

[@cheney7231]

Just use reaper！！！

[@michaelgwagner]

:)

[@GTSongwriter]

There's no videos on using Reaper with 360 music videos!

[@GherkmanProductions]

Do I need the NX plugin for exporting? Or can I simply use the encoder and export it as is? Will there still be headtracking for VR?

[@michaelgwagner]

NX is only used for monitoring. If you export through it you loose all 3d info.

[@GherkmanProductions]

@@michaelgwagner Thank you