[LAU] which packages are needed for ambisonics

[Jörn Nettingsmeier]

On 07/31/2011 01:05 PM, rosea grammostola wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Which packages are needed for ambisonics? In other words, which packages
> should be in a distro, to provide people the right tools for working
> with ambisonics?
>
> I did a little research and found:
> ambdec

absolutely essential.

> amb-plugins
> ardour

essential for production, but not for listening.

> japa

not related to ambisonics. but dead useful.

> jconvolver

not essential either. but very much recommended, as it contains 
configurations to encode ambi into uhj stereo and back. for ambi use, 
you want to include fons' separate "reverbs" package, which contains 
some very nice b-format IR reverbs.

> drc

unrelated. it only does room and speaker correction.
it's probably my fault it got included in the list, since i once 
described how to set up a diy ambi rig that includes drc. but that's 
optional.

> aliki

not strictly related, although helpful if you want to create your own IR 
reverbs for jconvolver (or any other convolver), or if you want to 
measure your room and/or speakers to perform DRC.

> zita-rev1

very helpful.

> probably: non-mixer

or any other lightweight alternative to ardour, if it's just about 
signal routing.

if the question is "what do i include in my distro", then by all means 
add all the software you mentioned. if the question is "what is the 
minimum software stack i need to play around with ambisonics, then keep 
it simple. in any case, you may want to include mplayer, as it's one of 
the few players that does multichannel correctly (at least up to 8 
channels) and will let you enjoy those soundfield recordings out on the 
web without having to import them into an ardour session.