> Thank you Michael and Richard. It's now beginning to make more practical > sense to me! > > 1. Just out of interest, when you "upsample" to Third Order Ambisonics, > does that mean simulating the missing information?
I suppose so, but there are people on this list who could give a better verb than 'simulate' ... > Is it possible to > record directly in TOA? > Various expt'l and less so (see (?sp)Eigenmic) methods, but the practical answer is "No it is not possible." > 2. Richard, you mention using the TOA Harpex VST plugin to create full 3D > 16 channel TOA. Excuse my ignorance, but does 16 channels equate to 16 > speakers? And does this equate to 16 different speaker positions? (e.g. > placed on the surfaces of a dodecahedron, but not on the nodes). > Ambisonic B-format has (2n+1) channels for pantophony (2D) and ((n+1)^2) channels for periphony (3D). Thus Third Order Ambisonics (TOA) has ((3+1)^2) = 4^2 = 16 channels. B-format (storage/distribution) is not D-format (speaker feeds). B-format --has the minimum number of channels (useful for storage/distribution) --can be decoded to 'any' speaker configuration (again 'useful') First order horizontal-only B-format has 3 channels. You will need at least a square rig (4 speakers) to reproduce it. Many would say it would be improved by using a hexagon (6). > 3. Do I require Jack if I am using a Blue Ripple Sound filter? > Leave that to Richard ... but I doubt it (not least as BR works on Windows;-)> > 4. Are AmbDec and Rapture 3D Advanced equivalent? > Totally ... holding breath for polite correction from Richard ;-)> Seriously, of course not ! > 5. Do the speakers feed directly into the Motu Traveler (or equivalent)? > In other words, if I hypothetically wanted to use 16 speakers (as in > question 2), would I need something capable of having more speakers > attached? > You need a soundcard with 16 'outs'. IIRC the Traveller has 8 normal analogue outs 2 headphone outs ('L&R') 2 EBU outs ('L&R') 8 ADAT outs The first ten are analogue, so easy. Decoding EBU, no idea. ADAT can be done with a ?150 / ?200 euro box. Other Motus, you'll have to do your own research. Ditto other multichannel soundcards. But _if_ your 'repertoire' is fixed then a couple of Waveplayers might be a lot cheaper ??? However TOA will need >>16 speakers ... (so if you are going down that path (do you need TOA?)) then you will be chaining Motus ( 1.5 to 2K budget?) or using some other soundcard (suspect at least as much) or cheating with 3 Waveplayers (c.700). (BTW, don't think anyone on here has chained Waveplayers, but that it is possible was the anglo-german consensus of reading the manuals ... the manufacturer does answer English emails ... ) Good luck, M > Thanks for clarifying things for me. > > PS Michael, thank you for your suggestion about getting in touch with > Eric. I will look up his posts later today. > > > On 9 Jun 2014, at 12:15, Richard Furse <rich...@muse440.com> wrote: > >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: Sursound [mailto:sursound-boun...@music.vt.edu] On Behalf Of >>> Michael Chapman >>> Sent: 08 June 2014 15:58 >>> To: Surround Sound discussion group >>> Subject: Re: [Sursound] Advice on Setting up a Listening Room >>> >>> [...] >>>> 4. I don't know whether I need to consider placing speakers above (and >>>> below) the horizontal plane for the purposes I described above. It >>>> would >>>> obviously be more realistic, but noticeably so? If so, how many? >>> If you want 3-D you will have to. >>> >>> Minimum for first order is 8 in a cube. >>> First order may not be precise enough for you. >>> On the other hand with a TetraMic you will only get first order. >>> However you can massage first order to higher order (?Harpex ... but >>> IIRC >>> only horizontal). >> >> There's now also the "TOA Harpex" VST plugin, which upsamples from first >> order B-Format to full 3D 16-channel TOA. >> >>>> 7. I was planning on recording listening situations using a TetraMic. >>>> From >>>> what I understand, I would use something like a Motu 4Pre to get the >>> sound >>>> into a MacBook Pro (although that all sounds not very portable), >>> ?Tascam DR-680 Eight Channel Portable Digital Audio Recorder >>> see the TetraMic site ... >>> >>>> then use >>>> software such as Reaper with ambisonics plugins (Blue Ripple Sound?) >>>> to >>>> create sound files with the correct encoding on. But then I'm stuck� >>>> do I >>>> play those sound files through special software, or do I play them >>>> through >>>> something like iTunes? >>> >>> You need to decode them to speaker feeds >>> IMHO on Mac, Fons' AmbDec is your friend. >>> >>> You can feed the output direct (via Jack) to your speakers ... or you >>> can >>> save it to a multi-channel file and play it back how you like. >>> [...] >> >> To give you some more options: with our (Blue Ripple Sound's) VST >> plugins you can produce (and play) speaker feeds using decoders inside >> Reaper. You'd need "Rapture3D Advanced" for a non-standard/irregular >> speaker layout - "TOA Decoding" targets standard layouts only. >> Alternatively, the Rapture3D Player can be used for stand-alone TOA >> playback. Currently you can't use iTunes to play ambisonics directly >> AFAIK. >> >> Best wishes, >> >> --Richard >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Sursound mailing list >> Sursound@music.vt.edu >> https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound - unsubscribe here, >> edit account, view archive > > _______________________________________________ > Sursound mailing list > Sursound@music.vt.edu > https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound - unsubscribe here, > edit account or options, view archives and so on. > _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list Sursound@music.vt.edu https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound - unsubscribe here, edit account or options, view archives and so on.