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Ambisonic Playback and binaural folddown

Spat
#1

Hi! I am new to Spat and haven’t used Max in a long while so feeling my way back around it again!
I am trying to find a way of playing back B-format ambisonic recordings and converting to a higher order while also introducing mono and stereo sources into the same sound field and eventually a live feed as well.

My first basic patch has been exploring Bformat to HOA and then folding down to Binaural so I can monitor on headphones but I think I’m missing a step as the image doesn’t sound right to me when compared to a similar system made in Reaper using plug ins. Would love to know if anyone could shed some light on this for me or point me to somewhere I could learn a little more about it (other than the Spat5 tutorial patches as I have been through all of them)

Many thanks,
Seah :slight_smile:

#2

Hi Seah,

Welcome to the Spat discussion forum.

  1. I recommend you have a look at the Ambisonics tutorials, in particular :
    spat5.tuto-bformat.maxpat or spat5.tuto-hoa-1.maxpat
    Spat uses a convention that is not straightforwardly compatible with other tools.

  2. Can you detail “the image doesn’t sound right to me when compared to a similar system made in Reaper using plug ins” ?

  3. If you feel really stuck, please send a minimum working patcher that demonstrates your issues, and I’ll have a look at it.

Best,
T.

#3

Hi T,

Many thanks for your response. I think I am just trying to run before I can walk with this and need to go right back to basics. Is there anywhere where I could find tutorials or courses on Spat5 in particular? All that I’ve looked at look at Max as a whole and that’s not what I’m looking for as a lot of what is being discussed is not relevant for me right now.
I suppose what I’m really needed is private tuition but I cannot find much information about anyone offering this either.

Thanks again,

Seah :slight_smile:

#4

Hi Seah,

You’ll find a couple of rudimentary tutorials in the examples folder of the spat5 package.

Intensive training courses are organized (once or twice a year) by our pedagogic team :

We occasionally deliver workshops here and there; they are usually advertised on forum.ircam.fr

Short workshops are also frequently organized during the Ircam Forum annual meetings :
https://forum.ircam.fr/agenda/save-the-date-ateliers-du-forum-paris-23-25-mars-2022/detail/

Finally, you might find a few tutorial/workshop videos online (e.g. on youtube).

Hope this helps,
T.