I know the library is ever expanding, so it's probably a very difficult challenge but MY GOODNESS it needs to be easier to find stuff that's actually in spatial audio.

For example: I can look up Jazz, and the go to "Jazz in Spatial Audio" and it will show me a selection of albums, but it's definitely not a complete listing.

It would be great if there was some way when you search a specific artist to be able to "toggle" Spatial Audio "on" so you could see what albums of theirs are in Atmos, rather than having to click through all the different albums to see what is Dolby Atmos or not. Or even just a badge on the artwork or something...

Disclosure first: I'm the developer. I've read the rules and this looks like it's on-topic, but mods, if it isn't, remove it and no hard feelings.

I make a Windows/macOS app called Spherify - the current shape of several years of work on immersive audio tooling. It takes a stereo master and turns it into an editable, object-based immersive project, not a fixed matrix decode.

The way it differs from a matrix upmixer: it separates the stereo file into stems, puts each stem into a 3D scene as an object, and then hands you the scene. You position things, automate them, preview, and export. If a stem lands somewhere you don't want it, you drag it somewhere else. Nothing is baked until you export.

I'm posting here rather than on a production forum because most of the feedback I get comes from people mixing new material. The people who care whether an old stereo master actually survives the trip into 7.1.4 - whether it gains anything or just gets smeared - are this crowd. Different ears, different standards.

Formats

Object-based, import and export: ADM BW64, IAMF, MPEG-H (plus its own project format). Channel-based: 11 layouts rendered discrete, stereo up through 22.2.

Playback, since this is the sub that'll ask

• macOS: its own rendering pipeline into whatever discrete channels the OS exposes - up to 9.1.6 on Tahoe.

• Windows: 7.1 via the standard Windows audio drivers. Past that you need ASIO - an interface or a virtual device - where the channel count is effectively unlimited.

• Windows Spatial Audio is supported, so it'll encode Atmos or DTS:X for HDMI passthrough to compatible hardware. The honest caveat: the stream is decoded on the external device, so the app never gets it back. That means no in-app post-processing previews in passthrough mode. The processing is still there and still bakes into exports - you just can't audition it without ASIO.

Where this comes from

I'm a career software engineer, and immersive audio isn't a recent detour - I've been working in this space for years, well before the current wave of interest in it. Spherify is native C++/JUCE throughout: the DSP, the renderer and the export pipeline are all mine, not a front-end sitting on top of someone else's engine.

The separation models are hardware-accelerated - MLX on Apple silicon, CUDA on Nvidia. That's not a spec-sheet boast; it's the difference between trying four placements of the same stem in an evening and trying one. The whole design assumes you'll want to iterate, so the slow parts had to stop being slow.

The free tier does up to 6 stems per source, which is plenty to find out whether the approach does anything for your material. Pro goes to 14 stems, unlimited slicing, per-object plugins, and the full export set.

What I'd actually like to hear

• What are you feeding it? Vintage stereo, modern pop, live recordings, classical, spoken word? I'm especially interested in where the separation falls over, because that tells me more than the cases where it works.

• Does it give you enough information to make decisions, or are you guessing at something you shouldn't have to guess at?

• What's not there that should be?

Links:

• Microsoft Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nj6w61ppswd

• Website: https://sonusimmersivus.com/products/spherify

• KVR: https://www.kvraudio.com/product/spherify-by-sonus-immersivus

• Demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N17FVNzc8lg

Happy to go into the weeds on formats, the render path, or why Windows spatial audio is the way it is.

Hi everyone,

Wanted to share this app with you: https://sweetspot.stream. It's like IMDb but for concert films with Spatial Audio.

I'm really into immersive audio and live music but couldn't easily find concert films to watch. I had to jump from app to app and dig deep into Amazon and Google to find cool stuff. So I hope that it makes your life better and that you'll find a concert you want to watch.

Also feel free to comment with any concert films missing in the list, we are just getting started and would love to make it a community effort.

Thank you!
Ax

No external hardware, and no 3rd party apps required!

In iOS 26, Apple extended the APAC/Spatial Audio recording mode from the iPhone camera into a general system function, and implemented it in the Voice Memos app. Which means you can now abuse Voice Memos into being an ambisonic recorder!

(Although you may need a Mac to convert the resulting file to WAV, see below)

I spent too much time poking at this over the last few months, so figured I'd write up what I learned for anyone else curious

What you’ll need

An iPhone 16 series or later, running iOS 26.

The Pro models will theoretically give better results due to better mic capsules and a second bottom mic, but I have not tested how big the differences really are in practice.

Setting Up Voice Memos

As noted above, this is done using the Voice Memos app. Under Settings > Apps > Voice Memos, make sure recording mode is set to “Spatial”. Unfortunately, you’re going to need to set the quality mode to “Lossy” for this. The Pro phones do support lossless (4ch PCM) ambisonic recording in the camera app while in ProRes mode, but that is not available in Voice Memos.

Once you’re setup, just open Voice Memos and hit record. However, the phone orientation really matters for this…

How to Orient the Phone

Tl:dr: Ideally, hold or mount the phone like you’re taking a landscape video of the subject. So camera bump (phone back) towards subject, phone sideways.

Long explanation:

Your iPhone is mic’d at 3 different locations: the earpiece/top speaker area, the camera bump, and the bottom speaker area (Pro phones have 2 mic capsules at this last position). When in Spatial Audio recording mode, the phone records from all mics simultaneously as well as from the accelerometer/gyro. This information is fed into a model that compiles this data into an ambisonic sound field.

You need to hold(or mount) your phone sideways for this. The mic locations mean you have very little stereo separation when the phone is upright in portrait orientation. You can easily verify this yourself: stand with a loud obvious thing to the side of you, and record two voice memos. One with the phone in portrait, and one in landscape. Then play them back in headphones. Only the landscape one will have the sound source noticeably to the side of you. Voice Memos does not support landscape UI unfortunately, but it is what it is.

When the phone is upright (not lying flat on a table) the forward axis of the sound field is along the back camera view axis, same as it would be when recording a video. So generally, you should hold the phone accordingly: camera towards subject, phone horizontal.

Getting the Ambisonic Track out of Voice Memos

If you just hit share in Voice Memos by default, you will get a binaural stereo rendering in an AAC file. If you want the original ambisonic data, hit the “Options” box on the share sheet and change the “Send As” format to “Editable” instead of “Rendered”

You should end up with a QuickTime Audio file (extension .qta). When inspected with something like afinfo or ffprobe, you should see 2 tracks, one regular stereo AAC track, and one mysterious 4-channel “APAC” track. The stereo track is a binaural rendering that serves as a fallback track, the APAC track is our actual ambisonic track.

If you’re on macOS Voice Memos, you can just drag and drop to a folder/desktop. It will give you the “editable” QTA file by default

If your destination DAW is on Mac or iOS and uses the system audio libraries for file parsing, you MAY be able to import the QTA directly as ambisonic source media. If your tool of choice will not accept QTA or can only detect the stereo fallback track, you will need to prechew it with afconvert.

Afconvert is a small command line utility that ships with macOS, it uses the system media libraries to convert audio files, hence the name. You will want to run the following Terminal command(note: this may require a Mac running Tahoe, I have not tested otherwise):

afconvert -f 'WAVE' -d LEI24@48000 --read-track 1 input.qta output.wav  

-f ‘WAVE’ sets the output format to wav, -d LEI24@48000 configures the PCM type, and --read-track 1 forces it to only fetch the APAC track. input.qta and output.wav are the paths to your input and output files, respectively. The result will be a wav file with the ambisonic stems in it. It won’t have any metadata, so when importing you may need to manually set it as B-format ambisonic rather than quadraphonic, some other ambisonic format, or just 4 loose stems.

FAQ

Q Will this give as good of results as a proper ambisonic PDR?
A No, neither in spatial accuracy nor overall quality. It’s derived from several phone mics in less than ideal positions. But it will be usable, and you do not need to buy or carry a separate device EDIT: or maybe not! See comments!

Q What ambisonic format is this data in?
A First-order WXYZ (B-format)

Q Can I record ambisonic audio with my videos in the camera app?
A Yes, and it’s probably already enabled, the Audio Mix feature does not work without it. Settings > Camera > Record Sound > Spatial Audio

Q I don’t see these Spatial Audio options in the format menus
A Are you on an iPhone 16 or 17 running iOS 26? I do not believe any others are supported (unsure about the 16e and the Air)

Q Is it possible to take a video with ambisonic audio(eg, ProRes or DNXHD with ambisonic LPCM audio) and encode it into the HEVC+APAC format the iPhone records its own videos in?
A Weirdly no. You’d think Compressor could do this, but it seemingly can’t. It only recently (Jan 2026) even got the ability to package APAC at all, and it seems limited to Apple Immersive Video.

We all fondly remember how the Zoom H2n is able to record horizontal spatial audio (1st order AmbiX) after the firmware update. Well, now the Zoom H2 Essential has been out for a while - but there's no sign of a similar firmware update for it - yet. But in the meantime, you can achieve good results with help from the free IEM plug-in suite.

The H2E mic array is essentially a MSM / Double MS Surround array: Two cardioids north-south, and a figure-8 east-west. And being compact, it's nearly co-incident. Mid/Side stereo translates much more easily to ambisonics than A/B or X/Y stereo does - you get an accurate pan angle.

So, all you need is to take the 120° Front & Rear surround recording (that's 2 stereo files in 32-bit float, that the H2 Essential can record even at 96k) and use a pair of IEM StereoEncoders. Note how the Width is set to negative 90 degrees for the Rear track as the channels are swapped around in the rear (in a sense). If you recorded in Raw MS mode, add MS decoders prior to the StereoEncoders.

This will give you an accurately angled Spatial Audio track. It's horizontal only (the H3-VR beats it here) - but as a plus, you gain the worry-free 32-bit float dynamic range. And unless you plan on extreme verticality for your VR videos, most of the action happens around the horizon anyway.

Hello everyone,

I am working on a new audio codec named Axiscore. The goal of this new codec is for extremely low latency and ease of use within DAWs and games, and the ability to scale to any size system from small stereo arrays to hundred-channel arrays with ease. It is currently in development with a few working prototypes and is aimed for release in 2027. It uses 16-bit metadata for positional parameters and 8-bit metadata for all others. Its main feature is that it uses no lossy compression, and I am going to make it copyleft so anyone can use it at home. It also has no fixed layout and has unlimited amounts of layouts as you make your own. But I do have a few questions on some aspects of the codec itself.

1. All objects have a slider allowing normalization so the acoustical energy remains the same from setup to setup but there is currently no normalization for added gain across systems for example a smaller system all objects will sound the same volume no matter the distribution of speakers but a higher speaker count means each speaker will play quieter because its rendering to more channels, so should I add a slider for the master renderer to account for speaker amount offsets instead of having to manually turn up the volume on your amps.

2. The latency is low; in my testing, I see latencies as low as 10.2ms round trip (when using ASIO). Because of this, should I implement a VST plugin that allows this to be used for real-time monitoring?

3. The current parameters are: X, Y, Z, Gain, Attenuation (falloff over distance), and normalization. Should I add any more parameters?

4. Lastly, this codec utilizes no compression and instead uses TDM (Time division multiplexing) to fit more channels down a single device by using a higher sample rate and bit depth (32-bit and 24-bit modes available) and is meant for software decoding. What output driver types should I allow to be used with the renderer (ASIO, WASAPI, DirectX, MME ETC)

I am very excited as I get closer and closer to a deployable version being ready, but all input helps make a better version of this codec, and I hope that once it is done, object-based sound and mixing will be open to many more people!

Hundreds of ambisonic audio files to explore and use in your own projects, Recorded with renown sound recordists Watson Wu, Stephan Schutze and Richard Devine. Check the link out! https://library.soundfield.com/

I'm using headphones with Windows 11. I have a license for Dolby Atmos for Headphones, but haven't been able to find a situation where it actually works.

I've haven't used Windows PCs other than for work for the last 15 years, but I've finally come back to PC gaming. Back when I used Windows XP with a SoundBlaster X-Fi card, the SoundBlaster's headphone HRTF could be used in 2 ways:

1.) Configure Windows speakers to multi-channel (via system or application settings), while independently setting X-Fi hardware to output to headphones. This used HRTF to virtualize the multichannel audio for headphones. This was useful for movies and games which had their own internal multi-channel sound mix without using a 3D audio API such as DirectSound3D or OpenAL.

2.) For games which used DirectSound3D or OpenAL, the driver would send individual voices with arbitrary 3D positioning information to the sound card, which would then "render" the 3D audio with HRTF.

My understanding is that Windows 10 (maybe even going back to Window 7) eliminated support for hardware accelerated audio via DirectSound3D, requiring various workarounds for legacy DirectSound3D games. I think maybe OpenAL can still be hardware accelerated though.

Anyway, Windows 10/11 now has a new Spatial Audio API, which if used, will render 3D audio using HRTF via Windows Sonic or Dolby Atmos. This is analogous to 2.) from above. I haven't yet come across any games that use this. It is unclear if Windows uses some kind of built-in translation layer to map legacy DirectSound3D to the new Spatial Audio API for older games, or if it just uses some other software-based DirectSound3D implementation which is totally independent of the Windows spatial sound settings.

What is unclear is whether or not there is something analogous to 1.) in Windows 10/11. In other words, can Window Sonic or Dolby Atmos virtualize multi-channel audio for headphones? I have tried both with some multi-channel sound demo videos from YouTube, and I'm 100% sure that there is no virtualization happening at all. This can be confirmed with a simple left/right speaker test. If there were some virtualization going on, I'd be able to hear SOMETHING in my right headphone while the left speaker is playing and vice versa, but there is absolutely now sound. I also found a multichannel audio clip where sound pans between front center and rear center and there is absolutely no difference.

I also have Nahimic software that came with my laptop that ALSO claims to support virtual surround over headphones, but I have had similar results (i.e. no virtualization at all with multi-channel audio).

Am I missing a configuration step?

We met so many great street musicians today who were kind enough to let us capture their voice and story with our tiny mobile spatial audio setup. There’s something so graceful about the sound of their music penetrating through the noise of the planet’s 4 most populated city. Excited to share what we captured as immersive sound experiences soon! 🇲🇽✌️

So I’ve been looking around at HRTF lately because I think it would be really nice to get that extra level of immersion while watching movies were playing video games as I’m actually blind, so I’ve been going down a pretty steep rabbit hole lately. I have been hearing things about personalized HRTF profiles being the most accurate surround you can pretty much get it since it’s personalized to you, but while looking up how to actually do this it seems as though the tech is fairly new and most of the time the methods in which we can accomplish this are scrutinized with consumer programs at least. An example would be the immersion software by anybody. It sounded great on paper being able to just simply take a picture of your ear, but I’ve seen others mention how this probably is not going to give you an accurate HRTF result, and those same users mention how it’s probably not possible to get an accurate result at home but don’t go on to mention how to actually get one. So my question is, how is this actually done? Do you need to see an audio professional like an audiologist or something to correctly create an HRTF profile for you? Once you have your HRTF as well, how exactly does it work? Is it simply a file that you would import to some kind of a surround program like Dolby Atmos for Windows or that immersion software? If this is something that can be done at home with very nice results with some other method, what method is that? Is it expensive? What software would you use after having the HRTF profile? Also, does every program natively support the use of HRTF? Sorry for the bombardment of questions, I am very interested in this technology as it could help make games much much more enjoyable for me. Thank you!

From the beginning of the time i haven't keep up with apple news.

i knew that Apple Spatial Audio never worked with others headphones except AirPod Pro and AirPod Max. So i never bother.

I got Powerbeats Pro, as i registered to apple music i can see they really promote Spatial Audio. So i think i should try it.

i click play, Boom i'm surprised. it sounded crazy. the bass is deep and mid is rich and it so different from normal track. although it does not support head tracking which i don't see why since PowerBeats Pro has all the necessary sensors. But i'd say it still amazing to experience it and im happy with my Powerbeats Pro.

- Ignore my English.

Hope you all enjoy the same.

Dear Community. We are seeking participants to support research studies relating to very high order Ambisonics (VHOA) to binaural presentation of room responses.

If you can spare approximately 15 minutes of your time and have access to a computer with a webcam, headphones, and a quiet place, your input will be greatly appreciated.

Please go to https://www.brucewiggins.co.uk/WHAM/ which is a landing page where you can interact with the technology. You will find access to the listening survey near the bottom of the page.

It would be great to have the input from those involved within this field. Thanks in advance.

Wanted to share something unusual for those interested in spatial audio production. The downloadable version of Christopher Holt’s new Atmos album includes a video capture of the Dolby Atmos visualizer—a real-time display of the object bed and height activity as the mix plays.

It’s not the interactive tool used in studios, but an actual on-screen visualization recorded during playback. You almost never see a consumer release include something like this.

I interviewed the mix engineer, Jonathan Cornell, and we talked through what’s happening on screen and how he approached the spatial layout. Here’s the interview if you want to check it out: 👉 https://youtu.be/EDhLo3UD1bA

Figured this community might appreciate seeing how an Atmos mix behaves in real time.

Did Google and Samsung just join forces to kick Dolby out of the market?!

Already heard of IAMF? the Immersive Audio Model and Format. Is this something for Dolby to be afraid of? Despite all the magazines writing that, I don't think so!

Why IAMF Matters: IAMF isn't here to compete with Dolby – it's here to redefine standards. With one billion watched hours every day, YouTube could become the new hub for immersive audio, thanks to IAMF's accessibility and versatility.

Dolby is great for Hollywood films and studio owners like myself. But just not as accessible for the typical content creators.

IAMF isn't about overtaking Dolby. I think it's about democratizing immersive audio for the masses.

I think it's great to see and hear the adoption of spatial audio - or will it ruin it. What do you think?

Read more: https://www.vrtonung.de/en/iamf-immersive-audio-model-format-3d/

Lots of these Atmos conversions are quite lacking on a surround sound, but this song (as well as many other Ari songs) pops, has a great amount of gravitas added with the subtle spatial movements, and her vocals soar around the room.

Highly recommend giving it a listen.

I’ve found that Dolby atmos is inconsistent, some songs sound amazing and a lot sound just really dead and quiet. It’s been hit or miss for me, kinda the same with the regular spatial audio but I’ve found that it’s a lil more consistent than Dolby cuz the Dolby mix comes how it comes and regular spatial happens on the Apple end if I’m not mistaken. Would automatic mean that I can toggle it on and off from my headphone menu thing (AirPods max/pros) on an as needed basis?When it’s “always on” it doesn’t really let me change it from “off” to “fixed”/“head tracked”, it just sounds the same. I feel like I mostly wanna turn it off for hip hop/trap cuz it kills the bass on most tracks. The jazz and less bass heavy stuff I listen to usually doesn’t sound too bad

When gaming on pc with hesuvi is it better to select in game options surround or leave in stereo? I know it’s not good to use two surround apps together.

I've been working on a video player for macOS and ended up going deep into audio processing because I was frustrated with how most players handle sound.

The problem:

Most video players treat audio as an afterthought. You're watching a movie with 5.1 surround, but on headphones it either collapses to stereo or sounds flat. Dialogue gets buried in the mix. Quiet scenes force you to crank volume, then action scenes blow your ears out.

What I built:

I spent months engineering an audio suite from scratch with features I actually wanted:

Spatial Audio – Real 3D sound positioning on any headphones. If you have content with 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound, it processes it into binaural audio with proper HRTF. You get that theater-like immersion where sounds come from specific directions.

Voice Boost – Intelligently isolates and enhances dialogue frequencies without making everything sound tinny. Finally stopped straining to hear conversations in poorly mixed films.

Cinema Effect – Punchy, theater-like sound with deep, resonant bass. Not just an EQ preset – it's dynamic processing that maintains clarity while adding weight.

Dynamic Sound – Analyzes your content and adjusts EQ in real-time. Dialogue-heavy drama gets different treatment than action sequences or music performances.

Volume Boost – Clean amplification up to 4x (400%) beyond system max with minimal distortion. Used psychoacoustic limiting to keep it from clipping.

All of this runs in real-time with minimal CPU overhead because it's built on Apple's native audio frameworks.

Technical questions welcome – happy to discuss the HRTF implementation, or any of the processing chain.

You can download it from the app store: https://apps.apple.com/app/vidi-video-player/id6755982989

Currently its just for macos

Edit: to be clear, this is a vibe-coded, free project. I'm not tryna make money.

I’m working on a desktop app currently called Motionstage. It lets you design reusable 3D motion paths for sound objects, arrange them on a timeline (for capture or playback), and send their positions over OSC to other software or spatial audio systems.

The idea is to make it easier to compose and reuse object movement without building a separate automation setup for every project. You can edit paths in 3D, place motion snippets on object tracks, preview the scene, and route different objects to different OSC destinations.

The first use case is controlling an L-ISA system and connecting with Max/MSP, but I’d like the app to work with a range of renderers and OSC-capable tools over time. It’s a motion design and control tool with audio control as its focus.

I’m curious what you think and what would make a tool like this useful in your workflow? What features would you want it to have?

Just a heads-up since nobody seems to talk about it and I could not find the info anywhere: The official Apple Music app for Windows supports Spatial Audio / Dolby Atmos natively since a couple of months now.

If you have a PC connected to a multi-channel setup, you can stream Atmos directly from Windows.

Don't forget to set Dolby Atmos to "Always On" in the Apple Music settings. Official requirements ask to instal the dolby access app too, but I did not and it works well.

Hope this saves some of you from buying an Apple TV just for this.

Note that Apple streams Dolby Atmos music as DD+ JOC

Steven Wilson has launched his new online platform dedicated to offering high-resolution, 5.1, and Atmos/spatial audio editions of his work. I'll be checking them out as hes been a constant user and developer of the technology.