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Tools
Zirkonium
ZKM | Hertz-Lab
Zirkonium is a free macOS toolkit for spatial-audio composition and performance, developed at ZKM | Hertz-Lab Karlsruhe to drive the Klangdom — a 47-loudspeaker dome at the ZKM Kubus. Current version Zirkonium MK3 (since 2015) provides parametric trajectory creation over time, automatic interpolation, event filtering, and real-time rendering on arbitrary 2D or 3D loudspeaker setups. The DSP server is built on Pure Data (libpd) and uses VBAP, Higher-Order Ambisonics (HOA library, CICM), and binau
Waves Nx
Waves Audio
Waves Nx is a commercial monitoring plug-in that simulates a high-end mixing room over headphones via binaural processing and modelled early reflections. It supports stereo, 5.0/5.1/7.1 surround, and Ambisonic B-format monitoring (Nx Ambisonics component) for 360° and VR work. Real-time head tracking is supported via webcam or the dedicated Nx Head Tracker hardware; the plug-in includes EQ correction profiles for 270+ headphone models based on the Harman Headphone Target Curve.
Unity Audio Spatializer SDK
Unity Technologies
The Unity Audio Spatializer SDK is the free, built-in plug-in framework inside Unity that allows third-party 3D-audio SDKs to spatialise audio sources on a per-AudioSource basis. Unity itself does not ship a built-in spatialiser plug-in, but exposes the spatialiser-plug-in API and an Ambisonic-decoder-plug-in API; spatialiser plug-ins are then provided by third parties (Meta XR Audio SDK, Steam Audio, Resonance Audio, VIVE 3DSP, Microsoft Spatializer, etc.) and selected per project in Project Se
Steam Audio
Valve Corporation
Steam Audio is a free, open-source cross-platform spatial-audio toolkit developed by Valve. It provides HRTF-based 3D positional audio (with custom-SOFA-file support), Ambisonic spatialisation, physics-based sound propagation modelling occlusion / transmission / reflections / pathing, automated reverb baking based on scene geometry, hybrid reverb for large spaces, and dynamic geometry support. Distributed as integrations for Unity (2017.3+), Unreal Engine (4.27+), FMOD Studio (2.0+), Wwise (2023
SpatGRIS
Groupe de Recherche en Immersion Spatiale (GRIS), Université de Montréal
SpatGRIS is a free, open-source multichannel spatialisation server developed at Université de Montréal that supports up to 256 inputs and 256 outputs in five spatialisation modes: DOME (VBAP for speaker domes), CUBE (MBAP for non-dome layouts), HYBRID (mixed DOME / CUBE per source), BINAURAL (HRTF-based headphone monitoring), and STEREO. Distributed together with ControlGRIS — a companion plug-in (AAX / AU / VST3) that builds spatial trajectories inside the user's DAW and sends them to SpatGRIS
SPARTA
Aalto University
SPARTA (Spatial Audio Real-Time Applications) is an open-source collection of audio plug-ins for the production and playback of spatial sound scenes, supporting Ambisonics up to 10th order. It provides Ambisonic encoders, loudspeaker and binaural decoders, rotators, beamformers, microphone-array encoders, room simulators, and sound-field visualizers, used in spatial audio research, production, and immersive playback contexts.
SoundScape Renderer (SSR)
SoundScape Renderer community
The SoundScape Renderer (SSR) is a tool for real-time spatial audio reproduction supporting multiple rendering algorithms within a unified framework: Wave Field Synthesis, Higher Order Ambisonics, Vector Base Amplitude Panning, Distance-Coded Ambisonics, Binaural Room Synthesis, and binaural rendering with SOFA support, used in research, teaching, and spatial audio production.
SoundField by RØDE Plug-in
RØDE Microphones
The SoundField by RØDE Plug-in is a free Ambisonic processor for converting A-format recordings (from tetrahedral microphone arrays) and B-format recordings into virtual microphone patterns and standard surround formats up to 7.1.4. It uses frequency-domain processing rather than the matrix-based approach of earlier Ambisonic decoders, used in post-production, broadcast, and VR audio workflows in DAWs such as Pro Tools, Nuendo, Cubase, Reaper, and Logic Pro.
Sound Particles
Sound Particles
Sound Particles is a commercial standalone immersive audio workstation built around a 3D engine and a particle system — conceptually a CGI engine for sound. It generates large numbers of sound instances from a single sample, animates them in 3D space, and captures them with virtual microphones to render in stereo, binaural, surround, Ambisonics (up to 6th order), or Dolby Atmos ADM. Used widely in film, TV, game-audio, and immersive music for crowds, weather, atmospheres, and large-scale sound d
SkyDust 3D
Sound Particles
SkyDust 3D is a commercial polyphonic spatial synthesizer plug-in by Sound Particles — described as the world's first synthesizer with full 3D-audio support per voice. Up to 8 oscillators per voice (subtractive, FM, or hybrid synthesis), 256-voice polyphony, polyphonic step sequencer, MPE support, and per-oscillator spatial movement controlled by envelopes, LFOs, and movement modifiers. Outputs in over 30 formats including stereo, 5.1, 7.1, 7.1.2, 9.1.6 (Dolby Atmos), Ambisonics up to 6th order,
Resonance Audio
Resonance Audio steering committee
Resonance Audio is an open-source spatial-audio SDK originally developed by Google and released as open source in March 2018. It provides high-fidelity Ambisonic-based spatial audio rendering optimised for mobile and desktop CPUs, including encoding and decoding of Ambisonics (AmbiX ACN/SN3D, compatible with the YouTube spatial-audio decoder), HRTF-based binaural rendering, sound-source directivity, near-field rendering, occlusion, and a Spectral Reverb effect. Distributed as native libraries pl
Pro Tools Ultimate
Avid Technology
Pro Tools Ultimate is the flagship edition of Avid's commercial DAW for music recording, post-production, and immersive mixing. It supports up to 2,048 audio tracks, 192 channels of HDX I/O, and Pro Tools | HDX hardware acceleration; integrated Dolby Atmos renderer (since v2023.12) with 9.1.6 support; Ambisonics mixing; native Sony 360 Reality Audio integration via the WalkMix Panner / Renderer (since v2025.10); ADM BWF master export. Used as the industry-standard tool at major film, television,