Spatial Audio Rendering

Apple spent years promoting Dolby Atmos – and now they’re backstabbing it with their own format. Brutal! For years, Atmos was a big part of its spatial audio strategy. Apple made it mainstream: on Apple Music, for AirPods, and on the Vision Pro. But honestly, I was always sceptical because for spatial computing - Dolby Atmos is not ideal (no 6DoF objects, no head-locked audio, no Ambisonics). Looks like Apple agrees since they just dropped their own formats: 🎧 ASAF – Apple Spatial Audio Format 🔊 APAC – Apple Positional Audio Codec No press release. No bold keynote. Just a silent power move that rewrites the rules in the background. 🎧 What’s ASAF? - Not just a format – a full rendering engine: - Dynamic object-based rendering with real-time head & object tracking - Uses metadata + PCM for personalized playback Supports ambisonics, binaural, interactivity (perfect for visionOS) It’s designed by Apple, for Apple. 🔊 What’s APAC? A new codec to stream immersive content: - 64–768 kbps - Handles Dolby Atmos and ASAF - Required for Immersive Video on Vision Pro Production tools? Already supported in DaVinci Resolve + Pro Tools. Gotta check them out! So... is Apple betraying Dolby? Not directly. But they’re building a future without it. Atmos helped establish spatial habits Apple learned what worked (and what didn’t) Now it looks like they’re cutting out the middleman. This is Apple taking control — of the entire spatial audio pipeline. Apple wants to: - Fully own spatial audio: production → playback - Build native experiences for immersive video, spatial computing apps - Escape licensing limits (probably because money?!) 💬 What do you think? Is this a win for creators — or just another shiny walled garden?

Most people think spatial audio is about making sound '3D.' I honestly used to think that too. That all that matters is that a sound is positioned in space, and when you're working in XR - everything must be positioned in space. Over the years I realized that's simply not enough. Its like saying color is about making things not black and white, or 3D models are required 100% of the time to create immersion. Spatial audio is about context. It has more to do with psychoacoustics than with fancy algorithms. It's about understanding how humans actually listen — how we use subtle cues like startle response, habituation, spectral shifts, and even silence to build a mental model for the listener. The best spatial audio design isn't about placing every sound in 3D space. It's about knowing when spatialization serves the experience — and when it doesn't. Sometimes a head-locked UI tone is exactly what the user needs. Sometimes a stereo music bed grounds the entire scene better than a spatialized source ever could. I had to learn it the hard way when I realized Id rather put simple stereo headphones when Im cooking. I don't want spatiality, I want full power stereo that doesnt track my movement. The real skill for spatial audio design isn't technical. It's perceptual. It's asking: what does this sound need the listener to feel, and what's the simplest path to get there I wish there was more talk about content and context and less new algorithms for putting your sound in space. The tech is there, the use cases are still limited. #spatial_audio

Oculus has always cared about Spatial Audio. Not Facebook, not Meta, but Oculus. I've been aware of Oculus' audio work since 2014. the work has always been open and impressive. Oculus for 10 years now has cared about realistic 3D audio. ----- UploadVR: "Meta Quest Audio Spatialization Will Get More Realistic With 'Universal HRTF' Upgrade Meta is making audio spatialization on Quest more realistic by upgrading the HRTF model. Spatial audio works by using a Head-Related Transfer Function (HRTF), a mathematical function that calculates the filter to apply to the audio for each ear to make it sound like it was emitted from a precise point in 3D space relative to your head. It's completely different to the basic audio panning used in most non-VR games. Oculus launched an Audio SDK in 2015 using a HRTF, and over the years it saw several improvements including near-field HRTF, volumetric sources, dynamic room modeling, and even geometry-based sound propagation. arlier this year Meta deprecated the Oculus Audio SDK and replaced it with Meta XR Audio SDK. It's based on the same core technology though, and was essentially just a rebrand, but it's now diverging with a major upgrade. HRTFs vary between individuals based on the shape of your ears and the distance between them. Apple actually lets its users generate a custom HRTF using an iPhone TrueDepth face scan, which newer AirPods and Vision Pro can leverage. Meta doesn't have a way to measure your face and ears, so it uses a HRTF intended to be an average of the general population. The current HRTF is based on publicly-available data, but Meta claims it has been making a "substantial investment in audio research", and in the past few years its researchers have captured a larger and more precise dataset of the HRTFs for over 150 people. Meta calls the new model based on this new dataset Universal HRTF. The company claims it gives improved localization and frequency accuracy. The improved localization means the audio will sound more like it's coming from the virtual audio source, "particularly when judging the elevation", according to Meta, while the improved frequency accuracy means the audio will sound more natural, with "less coloration and filtering". Meta says it conducted a user test of Universal HRTF with over 100 people, with the average "subjective user preference score" increasing from 37 to 52 points and elevation detection accuracy improving by 81%. https://lnkd.in/gBtcNkSm #oculus #audio #3daudio #spatialaudio #spatialcomputing #xr #extendedreality

I just published a new video taking a deep look at DeepStereo Monitor by Leson, a binaural renderer for Dolby Atmos and immersive audio that traces its roots back to IRCAM, one of the most respected acoustic research institutions in the world. In the video I walk through the full setup in Reaper, explore the plugin's modes, contour settings, and head tracking integration, and compare it with APL Virtuoso. Both plugins are grounded in serious academic research, but they take fundamentally different design approaches. Virtuoso recreates a physical room on your headphones, while DeepStereo strips the room away entirely in favor of acoustic neutrality. I'd love to hear your thoughts — have you tried either of these renderers? https://lnkd.in/eaHc4kjP #DolbyAtmos #ImmersiveAudio #SpatialAudio #MusicProduction #AudioEngineering